A Personal Video Game (Giant Bomb?!) Retrospective (1986-2015) 2009

Another week goes by as I continue my quest to play every physical game I own one more time. Including a few digital games too but I’m choosing which ones to play in that case. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before but the real reason I started this series of blogs was just to give me an excuse to at least play a bit of all these games again. After all I honestly don’t have the time to go back to the old stuff very often. Instead of my usual here is what was going on in the industry this year I’m going to talk about another topic that everyone loves and that is Giant Bomb.

What was going on when I ended up joining this dumb site about video games? Well Ryan was playing one of his favorite silly Japanese games in a Quick Look Throwback: Incredible Crisis while also reviewing Uwe Boll’s House Of The Dead. Jeff and Vinny were wooing all the girls in part 129 of the Persona 4 Endurance Run. Not to be left out of the fun Brad was interviewing Tim Schafer about Brutal Legend’s multiplayer. A solid list of videos for just one of the many years GB has been around.

Over the years Giant Bomb has been my comfort food. Watching the bomb crew and their shenanigans has been a delight for over 7 years now. Interacting with the community in the form of these blog posts or the many live streams has been great too. Or even that time when I went to Pax East 2013 got to meet everyone in person. I hope we get to experience many more years of this dumb site that is occasionally about video games. Boy this is about as on topic as one of the Bombcasts. Back to talking about all the video games that came out in the year...

2009

The first thing I have to mention is that this game has a hug button. That is the only thing you need to know. Okay maybe I should mention that this is a puzzle game. With the help of a Blob the boy travels through many lands to defeat an evil blob emperor. To do that Blob will need to transform into bowling ball and many other forms to solve different platforming challenges. From what I remember this goes on a bit too long but it continues to have a certain charm to it.

It took a while for someone to make a good Batman video game and boy did they go all out on making a fun video game to play. The metroidvania aspects have been noted before and the combo focused combat is certainly another piece to the puzzle of why this game works so well.I even think this sets up the world of Batman better than most. If you knew nothing of comics this does a great job of setting up the heroes and villains. Plus it doesn’t hurt that every boss battle is memorable.

I’m glad this was a psplus game since I feel like it was a overlooked game. Possibly one of Arc System Works first attempts at making a 3D fighter. They decided to go back to the basics and I’m ok with that. Half the time I never use all the tools at my disposal in a Guilty Gear game anyway. I’ll mash out hadokens and double quarter circle supers all day long. The classical (with cat girls) fantasy setting is unique for a fighting game. The colorful nature of all the characters is still in effect too. If you’ve never played it before you should check it out.

Borderlands did a lot to set up a fun world to shoot things in and watch numbers pop off of enemies. Some primal instinct is within us all and that instinct is the glee just about anyone can get from seeing numbers continue to go up as the player obtains better weapons. Unlike what they do later the limited amount of unique weapons does make them stand out more here. For example it is really satisfying to use the first purple weapon that fires two bullets. It's a good thing shooting things and using each character's special ability feels awesome. Thanks to the fact most quests and bosses feel like they were dropped out of a MMO.

In hindsight who thought requiring the player to have special controllers was a good idea for a quiz game? Sure it is like hitting a real buzzer but it doesn’t really add anything that special to the gameplay. This is a quiz game with a heavy focus on what is going on in Europe.Whenever I play a trivia game it always reminds me that I don’t actually keep up with much of anything not going on in video games. Plus it automatically dates itself if you decide to go back to it 7 years later. Just to many questions that were related to when this game came out.

Capybara games became a company I started to watch after they released this game. This is a standard match 3 game and it has quite a few new elements that make it more interesting than most. Using bombs to clear out a few critters is one of the power ups that make popping all the them much easier. With the vibrant cartoon art style and silly tone of the narrative make this a memorable puzzle game.

Well this is the start of me buying quite a few of Compile Heart's JRPG’s. All it took was a crossover game to get me interested in what they put out. Even though I know they aren’t the best games I still kinda like them. As for Cross Edge it is an odd combo. Mainly because the one Capcom franchise that is represented is just Darkstalkers. The gameplay is a fairly standard turn based RPG with some combo potential. Basically you chain together a certain number of attacks and end up doing a flashy special move at the end. Most of the game is spent running around generic looking floating islands. Overall this is a bad game and I have to wonder how to convinced me to buy more of their projects.

I would call Dino Crisis more of a survival game because I don’t really think of Dinosaurs as being scary. Doesn’t mean the game doesn’t make great use of them. Roaming around the different installations without getting took out by raptors is no easy task. Good use of the T Rex in different situations helps set the tone too. Thanks to the tank controls this does feel dated and I know how much people don’t like this kind of control scheme. Even I didn’t play through this all the way back when I bought this on PSN.

Ah I still remember pretty much everything about Demon's Souls. I spent a bit too much time trying to get the platinum which wasn’t that hard it just takes multiple playthroughs to get all the crafting gear to succeed. My skills have rusted over time though since the tutorial demon managed to beat me. Oh well it does fit the motto of the souls series which is all about dying a lot. While learning the right way to dodge attacks from bosses and how to defeat every new enemy you face. It is a compelling loop that seems to continue to work by the fact From Software keeps making these games.

Western RPG’s don’t show up often in this retrospective but I’m always up for a Bioware made adventure. Having 6 different origin stories depending on the kind of character made is something that hasn’t been tried very often. To bad I doubt most players actually saw all those unique scenarios since I’m guessing most players only started the game once. With this also being more of a classic PC RPG it was rather unique around this time. I can see why this game left a big impression on a lot of gamers.

This may just be more DW Gundam yet a few changes make this one worst than the first one. Dashes were changed from being able to do them anytime to only after doing a triangle attack. A small change but I much prefer to get out of the way of attacks. The way they tell the story more half assed too. Most battles don’t even have a cutscene instead they leave it up to some still images to tell a story more than before. The big new addition of giant sized enemies just makes fights go on for way too long too. Quick and to the point is why this series continues to be fun. In the end I think they rushed this out after the first game was well received.

Gravity Crash combines a lot of different games together into a fun package. Lunar Lander like gravity sets up the controls although it also has normal dual stick controls if you enjoy that better. The art style is similar to Geometry Wars but everything isn’t made out of shapes. At one point I even had the number one spot on the leaderboards. That was mostly thanks to me being the first person to beat the game fully. It is pretty challenging later on so I could see why quite a few players would give up halfway in.

I’m glad we got one big budget Ghostbusters game. This may just be a linear third person shooter yet it does hit all the right notes. Catching ghosts has a fishing like mechanic where you must pull them in opposite direction of where they are going. Atari got just about anyone you would want actor wise to reprise their role for this game. The greatest hits of all the movies are represented like having to take on the stay puft marshmallow man. All of this adds up to the best representation of the Ghostbusters in video game form. Even if the game is kinda ehhh.

Other than Bangai-O I had never played another treasure game. Going by how much everyone seems to love most of their catalog I started to check out some of their work that ended up getting released again on PSN. Gunstar Heroes is one of those games. It is a run and gun shooter with a focus on dodging attacks.It is well made and I can see why everyone likes it.

Origin stories might just be the toughest kind of superhero story to tell. They’ve been done so many times it isn’t easy to come up with something uninspired. Infamous does a good job of giving Cole a worthy storyline while making the gameplay fun. Having different electric powers is great but climbing up buildings by hitting X a bunch doesn’t quite work as well now after the improvements in the sequel. I even still like the regid good vs evil system too. Mostly because we don’t quite see it very much anymore. I’m all for more grey options in video games but I don’t think anything is wrong with this kind of karma system.

Who knew going inside Bowser would make the most hilarious RPG adventure yet. Going from one battle to the next by sucking in enemies is a neat idea that is used well in a few bosses. Switching over to touch mode only for giant Bowser boss battles was cool and not overused. Plus knowing when to end a game is vital and for this style of game 10ish hours is a good stopping point. Overall this is easily the best game in the Alpha Dream catalog of Mario RPG’s.

Whenever someone brings up adventure games Monkey Island seems to come up a lot. With Lucasarts deciding to remaster it I had to see what I missed. Turns out the extra production value they put into this release and the humor held up well. The new artwork is a great upgrade and a accurate repetition of what the sprites looked like before. Similar to R-Type this lets you switch between the old pixelated look and the new one. Making it real easy to see how much it has improved. Meanwhile the puzzles are just as complex as they were before but with an extra hint system it is possible to get some help on figuring out some of the tougher ones.

I didn’t know that PixelJunk Shooter would be a 2 part game. They did put their best foot forward in my opinion. The simple mechanics of using water to solidify lave can make some cool puzzles. To bad the more complex they become the less I was interested in playing it. Collecting diamonds and scientists in peril is the goal of each level. Lava and a assortment of enemies stand in your way. Success is measured by the fact you didn’t die and made sure to bring back every scientist. Simple and effective even if it doesn’t have much staying power.

Prinny gets his very own platformer series. He has the skills of any other pixelated hero. A standard slash attack with a aerial ranged move happen to be his main offensive abilities With a ground pound being the main way he manages to stun big enemies and bosses. All of this works well together because if it didn't the 1000 lives you get could be squandered fairly quickly the more levels you compete. The more you compete the tougher they get even though you could attempt to beat them in any order. They just keep getting more and more crowded with spikes and enemies plus a larger life bar for the boss. Making it to the end without running out of time or lives is no easy task.

Layton never rests and is now trying to solve a mystery about a giant specter that likes to a certain town. With this being set before Luke became his partner a woman named Emmy will be tagging along during this adventure. As for the game it is once again about solving a bunch of brainteasers. Layton Life is another big part of this package. Best way to explain that part is that it is kinda like Animal Crossing. You can decorate your apartment while helping out the many different people that all have some sort of fetch quest for you to do. Visually everything looks like a 16 bit sprite instead of the hand drawn style of the main game. A neat addition that made me curious enough to pick it up recently.

Resident Evil has embraced the action game genre fully at this point. Surviving horrible parasite monsters is still part of the game. Which is really shown off in the first level where Chris and Sheva must survive a never ending onslaught of enemies till someone else blows up a door to save them. Even conserving ammo is still quite important too as noted by the fact I ran out of it during the first level. Overall as a coop game RE5 was a fun time back when I played through it.

Someone at Wanako games must have loved Double Dragon cause they made a clone of it in 2009. It is a respectable beat em up with weapons to pick up to make fights easier. A dodge move was added to allow you to avoid some damage. This was also the first game I wrote up a review of on giant bomb.

R-Type was a tough as nails shooter that I skipped because it was so tough. I’ve never really liked side scrolling shooters that reset the player back to the start after they die. Now that I played it again it isn’t actually that bad. It doesn’t hurt that this version has a infinite live mode yet even on classic mode I managed to beat the first few levels. The cool thing Dimensions does is that it lets you switch between the new 3d graphics and the old ones. I bet it wasn’t easy to synch them up like that. Overall as a remake this has the best of both worlds. The rapid fire pace of the combat is still fun and is all about managing your upgrades without dying.

Wow it isn’t easy to keep up with the rhythm. I ended up failing the race track photo snap mini game. I couldn’t quite understand the timing. This was also where I ended up stopping the last time. The thing about these mini games is that they should be easily replayable. Short and to the point. Apparently that didn’t work for me but I can appreciate what they were going for. I’m curious to see if it was just the controls whenever the RH Megamix comes out later this year.

I don’t think it is possible to appreciate this game the same way it could have effected me if I played it back when it was new. The setting and tone are still creepy but the graphics make it somewhat hard to have the same atmosphere as the later games. I mostly notice the little touches that show the craft that Konami put into the game. The soundtrack is great and even how they use the camera is still quite effective at building some tension. Although they may be bad camera angles the first playable section gives off a vibe of it being a dream thanks to the way it is portrayed. Overall this most likely doesn’t hold up well but I can look past the issues to still enjoy it now.

I’m more impressed by the fact everything I did before in Shadow Complex was saved even after downloading it on a new console. I don’t even think cloud saves were a thing the last time I played this either. Another nice little nod I forgot about was that they show the player all the upgrades at the start. So you have something to look forward to later on. After all this is all about collecting upgrades to better explore a secret hidden base that a pair of mountain climbers “accidently” found. Other than that I don’t remember much about the plot because running around finding upgrades was the part I enjoyed most.

Sonic may get his name in the title of the collection yet this has a lot of good Genesis games I didn’t get to experience back when they were new. Bonanza Bros was a stealth action game about stealing loot from different houses. I’m not very good at the stealth part but that unique mechanic wasn’t something that showed up a lot on the Genesis. E Swat looks like a action game about being a super cop. Didn’t get to see the armor in action thanks to my poor play. Other games like Dynamite Headdy reminds me why certain games can still play great today. A great collection overall for anyone that might want to have access to a lot of good Genesis games.

As I’ve mentioned before I do love what if stories where the narrative changes from what we expect the story to be. That is what the dlc for the force unleashed does. Beating up Boba Fett or turning Luke to the dark side is just a nice little bonus that made this more appealing for me to pick up back when it was released. The odd thing is that the psp version still might be the best one thanks to the fact it has a stable frame rate. It is quite noticeable in this version whenever you throw a bunch of stuff around. Either that or the tatooine dlc just isn’t balanced that well unlike the main game.

Uncharted 2 refined what Naughty Dog was trying to do with the first one. The fact that it looked amazing just made it even more impressive whenever Drake had to do something crazy like climb up the side of the dangling train. With me playing U4 alongside of looking at this one again it is easy to notice some similarities. They both start with the adventure already going very wrong and then something happens to cause a series of flashbacks. Must be the key to telling a successful story. Anyway this is still seems to be a good adventure story that is still really effective now.

This looks like a game that got a better budget after the first one ending up doing well. The battles now seem more well animated and the chibi look has been disregarded. They kept the multiple playable characters angle from the first game and the western fantasy elements too. I randomly noticed that the battle theme sounded a lot like Attack On Titan’s title theme. Not that it really matters other than it being a really good sounding song for a battle. Which is a good thing since I’m pretty sure it might get old after 40 hours. In general this seems to hold up much better than the first game.

From the very first mission Wheelman lets you know what it is all about. Leaving the police in your rear view mirror as you mash your way through most of the police force. Occasionally doing some dumb stunt like jumping through a window. Having a ramming mechanic with the right stick may make no sense but I do like how it makes taking out rival vehicles easier compared to just about every other car based game. Vin Diesel seems like he is doing his best silent protagonist impression at first and it makes me wonder if they only got him to do lines for the cut scenes. This is also a open world game that seems like it could be full of exciting car chases by the time the player gets to the end.

Like Doom Wolfenstein 3D must hold up somewhat or I wouldn’t have took the time to play through it for the first time on a PS3. Except it is inferior to Doom in every way other than one of the best uses of Hitler in a video game. Lack of weapon variety and enemy variety can lead to most players getting bored quickly. The midi music has a certain charm to it except it also has very few different tracks as well. In no way is this still not a good game for the time it came out it just doesn’t hold up that well.

Conclusion

That was some video games huh. Yup pretty amazing list right? Yeah my ideas for how to end these blog posts is running on empty right about now. So instead I’ll go back to what I was talking about in the introduction. Thank you Giant Bomb for being the site that has gotten me through all the good and bad times. Without you I don’t think I would have even wrote up this crazy long retrospective lists. Keep doing what you're doing and everything will turn out alright. That goes for the community too. Keep it up duders you do awesome videos/blog/artwork every week that I always enjoy seeing.