A Personal Video Game Retrospective (1986-2015) 2006

Welcome back to a time when I first started to care about keeping up with what was going on in the video game industry. For the first time it was easy to tune in to watch a E3 press conference live. I remember being easily impressed at the time but in hindsight it was kinda boring compared to the show they put on now. No way could I have known the Wii wouldn’t be something I could buy for years till they eventually became widely available. However the PS3 wasn’t hard to find thanks to the price point although I did end up buying the last one at my local Circuit City. That makes 2 devices that were meant for a HDTV yet I still only had a old tube tv. Meanwhile Microsoft is looking really good with new franchises like Gears Of War and Crackdown. Both of those along with third party games like Dead Rising were improving their standing in this industry.

Wii

The narrative of the Wii being anti Nintendo fan really got to me. Sometimes it isn’t a good idea to let the internet infect your line of thought. I missed out on some good games that’ll eventually show up later on in the Wii U Virtual Console. Of course I did buy a Wii, I just didn’t buy that many games for it. Could be related to the fact that Nintendo never really convinced me motion controls were worth experiencing other than Wii Sports. Most of the time they felt tacked on like adding a spin jump to Super Mario Galaxy. The few times they did work like in TLOZ Skyward Sword they just got annoying to deal with the deeper I got into the game. Motion controls work much better in short bursts but then the game usually doesn’t have any substance. Still a good control scheme to use if the developers know its limitations.

PS3

$599 US dollars wasn’t stopping me from buying my very own grill. To bad my original PS3 eventually broke while playing a Assassin’s Creed game. Would have been nice to have another way to play PS2 games for this retrospective. Playstation in general is where I’ve been primary buying games for a while now. That wasn’t thanks to the gimmicks like the sixaxis which might win the award for most pointless addition to a gamepad ever. The fact that I owned a blu ray player early didn’t mean much to me either. As always the type of games coming out for the PS3 fit into what I was interested in. For early on in a console that primary meant I liked playing first person shooters. Eventually Japan comes in to make it all worth it with MGS4 and the many JRPG’s I will continue to buy. Overall I’m amazed that Sony managed to fix the arrogance they were showing throughout the early years of the PS3. Getting put into 3rd place must have really changed their viewpoint on what they thought they could do.

2006

Yeah I figured my brain is pretty worn out right now. According to Brain Age it is 68 years old compared to the 36 I was at the last time I played this. No wonder I’m so bad at puzzle games right now. Just a good way to show me that it would be worth playing this more. From a default state the main training you’ll be able to do is simple math problems or saying a word out loud. That second one seemed kinda tough to do on a 3DS. It couldn’t hear me at all but my environment I’m in is not quiet currently so that could have been the issue. Sudoku was the part that got a bunch of gameplay especially from my Mom who competed all the puzzles compared to my poor attempt at only 16% As an educational tool this game is valuable no matter when you play it. Who wouldn’t want a better brain?

In general this series has always been about cool looking set piece moments. The first mission of CoD3 shows that off with it beginning rather slow and then quickly turning on the heat with a battle with the Nazi’s near Saint-Lo. Getting stuck in a area and having to hold the line was something the older CoD did more than the new ones and that is shown off at the end of the first mission. Because this came out early on the PS3 it has some silly sixaxis mini games. Requiring the player to shake the pad to fight off an enemy. Basically just a QTE segment. This even has a mini turret sequence where you spot for a tank instead of shooting a machine gun. This was Treyarch first chance to prove they could make a mainline CoD and they did a fine job with this release. Which is a good thing for them but times were about to change as Infinity Ward prepared their next game.

The first thing I noticed was the surprising amount of extra modes. Usually it just has one but instead it is possible to play through this game with Richter/Maria, the vampire sisters or as the old ax armor. With the main mode being about Jonathan and Charlotte's raid on Dracula’s castle. Jonathan isn’t a Belmont so even though he wields the vampire hunter whip he can not use its power. I’m sure that fact will come up more along with the mysterious ghost Wind they meet soon after entering the castle. Because Bauner the lord of this castle happens to be a master painter it is protected by them. So the player characters must make their way through each of these paintings and the castle itself. Giving the game a crazy amount of variety with each painting having a unique environment to explore. In general this game seems to be made to give the player many different ways to play it. Looking at it again makes me wonder why I don’t remember it as fondly since it seems really well made. Definity worth checking out again later if I have time for it.

I do like picking up game compilations. Especially from Capcom it seems since they seem to show up the most. This one is all about arcade games. I had my very own endurance run with Son Son. Which seems to be based on the monkey king tale. I’m just going to assume he had to shoot his way through hundreds of ninjas to reclaim the scroll from buddha at the end of the road. Even though in the intro it looked like I was trying to save his friends and that never happened. I also checked out Knights of the Round which looked to be proto version of the Dungeons and Dragons arcade game. The leveling system is present but it isn’t possible to divert paths as Arthur must lay waste to his enemies to reclaim the crown. After getting a game over in both of these games it tallied up my scores and gave me coins. Those coins can be used in a slot machine to unlock art/music/cheats for all the games. Not sure why they had to make it so random if I’ll unlock everything since a simple list of all the items with different values would have worked. Overall a nice collection of arcade games although I don’t think I needed 3 versions of SF2.

*Insert joke about country music here.* I grew up in a home which either had county on or Elvis Presley so it isn’t that crazy to think some of it rubbed off on me. Also I bought this just to play with my family so yeah everything makes sense. Why did I start off with this tangent? Well this is a Karaoke game with nothing for me to talk about. Sing songs well is the goal. I did notice that all the songs were covers. Not sure if I paid attention to that fact when I played it originally.

I think Daxter is a good middle ground between the first and 2nd Jak game literally and gameplay wise too. The story has Daxter exterminating bugs for a while as he tries to find Jak who has been captured by the Krimzon guard. Jumping around squashing bugs is similar to what the first game was all about. Which was collecting a bunch of items while platforming around each area. Which is exactly what you’ll be doing for most of the levels in this game. Occasionally Daxter will need to run through an open area but compared to what Naughty Dog did in Jak II this version is not even close to being called a open world. At best it is a hub that is placed to waste the player's time as they run from one building to the next. Overall this game was enjoyable when it was first released. Not sure if that remains as true now but that still requires the player to like the characterization of Daxter who isn’t always the most likable guy.

The Final Fantasy 7 side projects start here with Dirge Of Cerberus. I do think a third person shooter with Vincent as the protagonist could have worked better than this. Nothing wrong with what is here it is just exceedly average. It didn’t help that I remembered nothing about Vincent but I think it is obvious that he has a tragic past. Now he must shoot evil guys that want to take pure mako energy from the populous of Kalm. Shooting guys works like you would think but you can also cast fire bullets at enemies. After shooting a bunch of dudes a boss shows up and then you fight him. Continue that till the end of the game with some well done CG interspaced into the narrative.

Disgaea 2 didn’t really impress me in any way. Watching the intro again makes me wonder why I didn’t play this more than I did. The characters are likable as well with most of the cast being new with a few old favorites showing up again as the narrative continues. The story is quite simple with Adell going on a journey to defeat a evil overlord named Zenon. At the start his family tries to summon him but they ended up summoning his daughter Rozalin instead. She ends up aiding Adell in his quest and eventually falling in love with him going by the animated cut scene. I didn’t really see any new mechanics in the first few tutorial levels I checked out. Going by the back of the box it is possible to stack attack enemies now. The Dark Court system was added as well and seems to be about being evil and getting rewarded for your deeds. Overall revisiting this game left me with a positive impression of it.

I already knew doom held up before booting this up again on my Xbox One. I never played doom until this release for the XBLA. Proves that even the simplest of shooters can still work today. Goes to show that a good soundtrack can go a long way to make a game memorable. Every grunt and sound just adds to the experience. Plus shooting demons is still fun. It does get a bit confusing later on when the levels start getting more and more maze like. Yet the guns are effective and who doesn’t like welding the BFG to blast everything in a room.

Ahhh I’m so bummed this didn’t sell enough to at least get one sequel. A touch screen is perfect for hitting a note along with a song. The humor of what is going on while trying to keep up with the beat just makes it even better. For once a translation kept the lighthearted craziness of the original game. Although this is more like a total conversion of Oudian with the only thing they kept was how the game was played. Touching and holding notes on the screen is what you’ll be doing the entire time. Occasionally spinning in a circle for the finale of every song. The Elite Beat Agents are all about helping anyone who is in trouble. No matter if they have to travel through time they will improve everyone's mood. Thus ensuring positive things will happen if the player doesn’t mess up all the notes leading to a failure. I always like that EBA requires a lot of skill from the player to succeed. If you’ve never played this before it still works today with a lot of the music being from different eras so it isn’t like all of the songs are from the 2000’s.

Final Fantasy XII has a message to get across with its lengthy intro sequence that is tangentially related to Vaan the main protagonist. War sucks and the kingdom of Dalmasca is in a war they can’t win. Things go horribly wrong and the King along with his family end up dying either by the enemy or from within. Which also includes the protagonist's brother just to somehow tie it into the plot since it picks up 2 years later with Vaan killing rats. Just like any good MMO hero he is killing rats as his first enemy.Even though this isn’t a MMO the combat from one is on display here. Each character must choose to enact some type of action then the player must then wait on them to attack. This type of combat just seemed silly in a single player RPG from my point of view at the time. Fortunity that has changed and it would be nice to see a bit more of this game at a later date.

Complex games seem to go hand in hand with the PSP. This one happens to be a kingdom management sim mixed with real time battles. Looks like I should have read up on what I need to do during the management simulation since this doesn’t have any tutorial. Was not expecting that so I randomly rushed my troops at the enemy. A few battles later I lost one of my generals which gave me a automatic game over. Yeah not that interested in checking out this game anymore. I’m sure if I knew what I should be doing this is a mediocre strategy sim. The action army battles is mostly watching a cutscene while occasionally activating a skill. If you have an advantage over the enemy you’ll win. Oh well I got a chance to check out a new type of game that just didn’t click with me just like Monster Hunter.

If someone were to come into contact with this game without knowing anything about it the introduction really makes this look like it is about flying planes around. They really hammer home how much Yuki wants to fly a plane and be the second person ever to cross the ocean. His dreams get interrupted by a chance meeting with a mysterious girl named Alfina. I didn’t see anything from this point because the game was very cutscene heavy starting off so it didn’t take long to reach a hours worth of game time. I did see a few fights that appeared to be exactly like the last game. Different moves can chain into other ones like having one party member crit an enemy in the air while the other one attacks normally will start a aerial rave attack for some extra damage. Magic and other special skills round out everyone's abilities. The combat is good but the story seems like what I would want to see more of.

Killzone Liberation was the first time Guerrilla tried to make a portable game based on this series. Thanks to PSplus I happen to “own” it and thus get to play a bad dual stick shooter. The PSP only had one stick so shooting things is kinda annoying. Even the level design seemed lazy with the first two levels being the same with the 2nd one requiring you to track back to where you started in the first mission. It’s possible this game just has a bad first impression and it gets better later. I just didn’t see that with my time with it.

Kingdom Hearts II has a slow opening. With so many vague allusions to Sora and why you happen to be playing as Roxas it is easy to see why new players might think this series is convoluted. It is almost like Square Enix expected players to play Chain Of Memories before jumping into this one. Other than some minor combat and some mini games I didn’t see much other than deepening the mystery of why Roxas is the protagonist. It also introduces a new threat in the form of the nobodies. A chaotic neutral force that is in between the light and dark.The action based combat is the same as before with some improvements. Can’t remember what those are and I didn’t see it during this session.

Megaman X is my favorite game from this series. With Capcom deciding to remake it I just couldn’t resist buying it again. This is much more of a revision that it might appear at first. Bosses have been redesigned and additional story beats have been added. Including quite a bit of animated cut scenes and even a 30 minute prequel animated short that tries to explain why Sigma went crazy. The gameplay remains the same although this includes Vile as a new playable character. I would say this game tries give him more of a personality although he mainly just seems to be a jerk who is kinda a anti hero. Meanwhile the layouts of each level have been changed and all the power ups are now in new spots. I forgot that fact thus ending up going to Chill Penguin's stage when in reality the leg parts aren’t in that stage anymore. In general on normal this seems like a much easier game with bosses getting stunned by buster shots. Yet still a fun game to play through again.

This is a collection of the first six Mega Man X games. For some reason it also includes Mega Man Battle & Chase. Don’t think it is related to X in any way but it is a ok kart racer The package in general was well worth buying when it was released. Pretty much any X game you should play is all here. I tried out X2 for this release since it is the one I know the least about. Turns out it isn’t as hard as my memories told me. Looks like they didn’t add in dashing from the start till X3 and I have no clue where the leg armor is in this one. So I went to Flame Stag’s level and promptly died 3 times while trying to get a obvious heart container. Not my finest hour but I really thought I could get it without the flame wall catching up to me. Guess I’m just not fast enough. I wonder how long it’ll take before Capcom puts out a new X collection.

Subsistence adds so much extra content that the original release is obsolete. Being able to play the original Metal Gear 1 & 2 via a MSX emulator was cool. In general it is neat to see how much this series has remained the same over time. Snake Vs Monkey is a dumb idea that works better than expected. Metal Gear Online isn’t playable anymore but it wasn’t a mode I could have checked out anyway. Extra modes are great but the addition of a 3rd person camera angle makes MGS3 insanely more playable than before. The overhead camera works great in small areas but the open maps make this game are tougher to control from that angle. As for the plot I won’t go into great detail since it is one of the better realized stories about betrayal and how loyal a person can be to their country. With a light dose of Kojima wackyness to top it off. Out of all the Metal Gear games this is easily one of my favorites just because it hits all the right notes. Compelling story, gameplay has improved and the overall setting is just ripe for so much intrige.

MGS Portable Ops was what a lot of players were hoping to see on the PSP. A MGS game that actually played like one instead of a card game. Time has changed my view on this game but I do remember liking it when it was released. The main new addition for this game is related to the narrative. Which is told via comic cutscenes or codec calls. From the very beginning Big Boss must gather an army together to take down the rouge Fox unit to prove that he is innocent. Since the Fox unit has blamed him for this rebellion. With the help of soon to be Colonel Campbell and Paramedic he sneaks his way to victory. Putting together that army I mention actually requires the player to knock out guards and then throw them on the back of a truck. That somehow convinces them that it is worthwhile to help out Big Boss. They can then be used as back up in missions or put on tasks to develop better equipment. As I’ve mentioned this was great when it was released but Peace Walker makes this game look obsolete in comparison. I don’t even like PW it just has so many gameplay upgrades that make it a more enjoyable game to play through. While this one just seems a bit too slow with what I’ve seen of it again.

Boy the first Monster Hunter is a horrible introduction to this series. Going solo is not the way to play this game. Or maybe the game just feels incredible overwhelming from the start. Gather stuff, kill things and craft items are all the elements that make up this game. Gathering and killing things gives you items to craft better armor/weapons. The better you get the tougher the quests you can take from the local hunters guild. I thought starting off with a kill quest would let me see some combat but it just reminded me how long it took to kill monsters alone. Sure maybe I needed to craft some better equipment but it was a 1 star mission which shouldn’t be that hard. Yet it felt like it took forever to take down one raptor. Not a great first impression 10 years later. I know this series has gotten better over time and maybe one day I’ll attempt to get into it again.

Outrun 2006 has quite a few options for a arcade racing game. One half is a faithful port of Outrun 2 SP with all the levels from this release. Not much to say here since it is all about racing to the end without running out of time. I will say the drifting controls are real easy to understand and it didn’t take long for me to drift around corners like a pro. The other half is Coast To Coast mode which is more of a set of increasing challenges that the player must compete to continue up the ranks. They are varied with some being about testing your drifting skills while others ask you to impress your girlfriend by being a better driver than your rival. Plenty of stuff to unlock gives players a reason to get better at the game. Overall this proved that arcade racers could still be fun.

Possibly the kindest Pokemon game ever. Being a Ranger has nothing to do with fighting pokemon and is all about preventing any issues that come up. The device that fixes it all is the capture styler. Spinning circles around any Pokemon somehow allows a ranger to capture them for a little while. The difficulty comes from watching out for attacks and making sure the Pokemon doesn’t run into the line. The fact that this is the entire game makes it a bit repetitive. It doesn’t overstay its welcome though with the game only being about 7 hours going by my previous save. The temporary captured pokemon can assist you in other captures but I didn’t get to see it. A lot like the traditional games in this series it is all about going from a rookie to a pro by the end of the adventure. As a stand alone game this holds up fairly well.

Even I’m beginning to wonder why Rampage was still a thing being released in 2006. Midway’s half hearted attempt at being Rampage into 3D made it look even worse than before. I guess this would be a considered a reboot. Once again scumm labs have created a drink that turns people into monsters. They tried to hide this fact from the public but soon a ramage starts from one of the 30 monsters you can choose from. Mashing down buildings is the same as before but now you can get in front of them. AMAZING! Actually no it is a dumb idea that just slows down building destruction even more. Sure power ups are now obtainable when they would have gone to waste in the previous game but that doesn’t seem to matter. Everything just seems slower and in turn more boring than before. A sign that this type of game just doesn’t work anymore.

From this point forward it feels like every console has to begin with me buying some type of FPS. From the very limited launch window for each console it always felt like the FPS was the only one that interested me. World War II was getting rather stale as a setting so Insomniac decided to throw in aliens as the main opposing force instead of the Nazis. It follows the exploits of one man named Nathan Hale. He has a quirk that let him fight the crimean virus unlike everyone else. They never really go deep into why he is the only one instead it focuses mainly on trying to stop the spread of the Chimera. Yet the gameplay is rather similar to other FPS. With the additional fact that this is alternate WW2 so all the weapons can be cooler than their real life counterparts. Like having a grenade launcher on a assault rifle or a rocket launcher than can fire more than once. Another plus is having access to every weapon at once even if it makes it hard to switch to them instead of the 2 weapon standard we have these days. Going back to a game that requires players to pick up health kits is kinda annoying after getting used to full regen. Instead of the half step where you regen part of your health. Sure it was put in just to force players to hide behind cover but in a FPS without a cover system that seems kinda lame. Overall as a launch title it did it’s job even if I wasn’t interested enough to buy another Resistance game from this point forward.

This game earns the additional title of MAX. So much stuff in one fighting game. World Tour is one mode worth mentioning thanks to the fact very few fighters mix in RPG mechanics other than Guilty Gear. You will pick a character and then punch your way through a bunch of fighters gaining xp that then level up your skills. Hard for me to notice the difference but I can tell that my opponent gets hurt more after I level up. The roster has every fighter you could want to play from SF Alpha. Even the extra characters they made for the GBA version. Other modes include Dramatic Battle where you can overwhelm the cpu with 2 fighters or let the cpu get the edge in the reversed version. Plus the regular old arcade ladder is represented with endings for every character. Overall a great package for anyone that likes Street Fighter Alpha.

Suikoden V begins like a story has already played out in the past and the player wasn’t there to see it. A prince and his cohorts are returning home from a mission. After they meet the king and queen the game goes into flashback mode. A unusual way to start but it works I guess. Once I got to the combat it worked just like the older Suikoden games. Turn based combat with up to 6 party members at once. As always I’m a fan of a game using cel shading which Konami decided to go with this time. In the end it seems like a well made RPG that I never put too much time into.

Huh compared to Symphonia this game plays a lot like classic Tales instead of the modern version. One 2D plain to fight on instead of a circular arena. One on one fights are more dramatic this way but big muti enemy fights can be annoying to deal with. At least that is me assuming that fact since the most I ever saw was 3 enemies attacking me at once. This story seems like it could go somewhere. Senel and Shirley conveniently crash land on giant ancient ship. Unfortunately for Shirley she happens to have a case of glory hair whenever she is in fresh water. That just so happens to make everyone think she is the Merines. Basicly they think that she can control the giant ship are they are all on. So yeah it could go somewhere or just be the super obvious plot it appears to be at the moment.

The one Tetris game to rule them all. Like any good puzzle game it has a ton of modes. Regular old Tetris where you match tetromino pieces till you form a line. Puzzle mode where you must puzzle out the correct way to line up the pieces Mario gives you at the start of each level. Touch tetris which is the most varied of the bunch by making you play Jenga but with tetris blocks. All of these modes are aided with Nintendo characters like watching Mario beat a level up top while you play tetris below. Or recalling Yoshi’s cookie in the puzzle mode. Plenty of references to notice in most of these game modes if you're a Nintendo fan. Overall a great Tetris game and I never needed to buy another one. Although I was tempted by Puyo Tetris.

One of the few games that justified the Wii motion controls and it came packed it with it. The fact that it was so simple and easy to understand made it the hit it was destined to be. Even at my house I was able to get my family interested in playing a few rounds of bowling. After all you just have to swing your arm like you're actually throwing a bowling ball in a alley. The same can be said about the rest of the mini games. They show off how cool it is to use the wiimote to do a close examination of a real sport.

Yakuza follows the tale of Kazuma Kiryu and the many issues he deal with thanks to his profession. He takes the blame for his friend killing their boss and 10 years later after he gets out of jail he searches for Yumi who disappeared around the same time. The mystery deepens as the story continues with new characters introduced as everything comes to a dramatic climax at the end. Sega went all out on the localization getting quite a few notable actors, if only the performances weren’t so bad. Whenever you're not watching someone talk Kazuma is beating their face in with a bicycle or his ever trusty fists. It has a standard beat em up trappings with the added benefit of leveling up after getting enough xp. Checking out the world in general was neat too since it isn’t like very many games were based on a real location in Japan. Although that becomes even more apparent as the series continues along. It wasn’t that long ago that a did a full playthrough of this. So it can still be fun to play though.

Conclusion

Not much for me to recap this time. These are the games that’ll continue to show up again and again. With new game franchises popping up occasionally as this retrospective starts to get ever closer to its conclusion. In the end this is just another great year for video games. Tune in next time to learn the ways of the social link. We will also be experiencing modern warfare for the first time too.