Cam's Eye View: A Boy and his Blob for the Wii review

Many people my age remember a lot of retro games that are, well…not that good, but remembered fondly for some reason. When I was taking game industry classes, some people talked about the somewhat cult classic/bad game, A Boy and his Blob for the NES. What I remember hearing is that the concept is bizarre, and it’s very unforgiving in difficulty. Nowadays, people are always trying to bring back old classic games with varying results. The Blaster Master reboot was bad and the remake for Splatterhouse was pretty good. Nothing about these remakes has really blown my mind, until I picked up a specific game. What is this game I am talking about? Is it some whimsical underrated gem that is a remake…okay, the punchline is the remake of A Boy and his Blob. This game was a change of pace out of all the 2D style Wii games that are usually garbage. This game actually took some careful execution and actually results in it being one of the better Wii games. Now, from the look of it, I can see how you would need to take a second look to make sure it is a good game, but trust me, it’s one of the better Wii games out on the market.

The story is very light as well, there isn’t much to it. This game is more about immersing you into its world. The only story I could tell is that an alien-like thing fell from the sky and a little boy finds it. The thing turns out to be a little white blob. It is also shown that there is an evil blob that is trying to take over the world, and it is up to you and your jellybean-loving blob to save the world! It’s a simple story since this is a re-imagining of an NES game, so the story is very light. I will say, though, that it’s a cute story

The gameplay is like the recently released game, Stacking, where it’s a mix of adventure, platforming, and mostly puzzle solving. The main goal in this game in each of the four worlds is to get from point A to point B with your blob. Throughout the 10 levels in each of the worlds, you are equipped with a certain variety of jellybeans that can make your blob transform into multiple things to get you through the level. The blob can turn into stuff like a ladder, a trampoline, a robot, a protected ball, parachute, a jack, an anvil, and many other things to help you take down all 4 of the bosses and get around the monsters in the levels, since the blob is the only thing you can use to destroy the enemies. If you get hit ONCE, you are dead. This results in the game being very difficult at times, and somewhat punishing. There are also a couple of treasure chests throughout the levels and will give you extra stuff for your hideouts. This game does give you a good amount of stuff to do since you will get done with this game in around 10 hours or so. Oh, and by the way, there is a hug command to where you can give your blob a hug. It has no purpose but to look cute, and to calm the nerves after a tedious boss fight.

The graphics are beautiful for a 2D game. I mean, they aren’t as good as Muramasa or Odin Sphere, but if you have played games like Wario Land Shake it! or the upcoming Rayman Origins, then you won’t be disappointed by the visuals. It has a very soft warm look to it and somewhat reminds me of art styles like the Studio Ghibli films. The music is also very whimsical. It isn’t like Final Fantasy 9 or anything, but it’s very calming, like in Flower. The whole game definitely has a charm to it, and it pulls you into its cartoon-like world.

Even with its charm, it does have some flaws. The game has very little reason to replay through it. I mean it has a good challenge and there are some challenges to complete, but I never found a reason to play through it again. The game, like I said, can be rather difficult since you can’t attack. It’s like in Chip and Dale’s Rescue Rangers on the NES where you have to use boxes to hit every enemy. You can say that this game is more platforming oriented, but if you have enemies, at least have one transformation, like a vacuum cannon or something like in Ratchet and Clank. Since this is the case, you will die often. This game also has the old time formula of you dying if you jump off a high cliff. I also found the boss fights interesting, BUT they are tedious to find out what you need to do.

All and all, this game won’t make you want to get a Wii, but it is a small-underrated gem that is worth renting from Gamefly. You can also get this game on the cheap side by now, and is worthwhile if you are into platforming puzzle games. I know a lot of people are not fans of the original game, but this one is definitely worth your time if you’re into great animation and cute-looking settings. Maybe, some day, we can all have a little white blob to love and feed jellybeans to.

This game gets a 7 out of 10

Cam's Eye View: 150th review special: Psychonauts for the PS2 and Xbox review

Just like the Tomba games, it’s a shame when a great game that was produced or designed by someone famous doesn’t do so well. Let’s take famous game designer, Tim Schafer. He is famous for his unique games like the PC cult classic, Grim Fandango and a recent favorite of mine, Brutal Legend. However, there was a game in-between these two that had a lot of great reviews and is considered one of the best games of all time. Sadly, it didn’t do so well in the sales department and caused the publisher, Majesco some financial difficulties, though it is still considered a great game and an underrated gem. The game I am talking about is Psychonauts for the PS2, Xbox, and PC. It’s been 5 years since this game came out and I remember very little advertising for it, but what I saw looked really cool. Too be honest though, the reason I am playing this game now is that well…how do I put it…I forgot it existed. It’s not that I lost interest, but with how little advertising there was for the game, I just forgot about it as bigger games were put on display. This game, along with Ico and Beyond Good and Evil, were sadly overlooked. Now, you all can hate me and send comments like “ YOU HAVENT PLAYED THIS?!” or “ Fail”, but like I said, I forgot it was around until people in my game classes talked about it and the small memory I had about the game came back, and I just had to play it. So let’s dive right in and see why many people call this one of the best games of all time.

The story takes place in a summer camp called Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, which is actually a government-funded training facility that is disguised as a summer camp. Coach Morceau Oleander voiced by Nick Jameson is briefing the new recruits about the human mind, and their ability to become Psychonauts or they can just die. However, it results in scaring the living daylights of the recruits who end up being kids. If I were scared to death by an army general at a summer camp for kids, I would sue. While debriefing though, they hear rustling in the trees as something falls from them, scaring the kids thinking that it was a lake monster. The two other teachers of the camp, Mr. Sasha Nein, voiced by Stephen Stanton, and Mrs. Milla Vodello, voiced by Alexis Lezin, using their psychic abilities, help General Oleander to bring forth what caused the chaos. They find out that it was a young boy with a pair of red goggles. The name of the boy is Razputin or as he calls himself Raz. He ended up running away from the circus to join the camp so he can become a powerful Psychonaut. While on his stay at the camp, Raz observes that something rather odd is happening to all the students, but seeing how odd the other campers are I can’t see how much weirder it can get. He then decides to train himself and find out what is going on and save the camp from whoever is causing the ruckus. I like the setting because what’s scarier than a summer camp? A summer camp filled with campers and adults who are insanely crazy with psychic powers.

Let’s talk a little about the history of Psychonauts. Psychonauts was designed and created by Tim Schaeffer. I LOVE this guy. He is like the Gennedy Tartakovsky of video games in my opinion. The idea started as a scene from one of his games, Full Throttle, where the main character goes through a psychedelic trance brought up by a cactus known as peyote. Originally, it was only going to be released on Windows and the Xbox, but Microsoft pulled out of the deal. Later, Tim Schaeffer and his company, Double Fine teamed up with Majesco to release it on the Xbox and Windows. In 2004, it was announced it would be released on the Playstation 2 also, which is good for me, since I don’t really need to get an Xbox right now, unless they make a second Conker’s Bad Furday. It was released in 2005 in April for the Xbox and Windows and June for the PS2 version. Sadly, it didn’t do well, only selling 400,000 as of 2007. As a result, this caused Majesco some financial difficulties, but it wasn’t all Psychonauts’ fault that they had a net loss of 18 million dollars that year. Another game they published called Advent Rising was over hyped, and was then panned by critics for being bug-filled and not well made. As a game tester, that is just annoying to me. However, Psychonauts was critically acclaimed and has been nominated for a multitude of awards from best story, best original game, best writing, to game of the year. People have been interested in seeing a sequel for this game, and Tim Schaeffer has shown interest in making one.

The game play featured in Psychonauts is of a free-roaming action adventure game with plat-forming elements. The main gimmick of the game is, of course, the psychic abilities you can learn by getting merit badges. There are multiple abilities that Raz can use. They are pyrokinesis, telekinesis, invisibility, levitation, clairvoyance, psi shield, psi blast, and confusion. The whole campsite is open to exploration and there is a lot to find in the game. There are arrowheads that are the game’s currency, psi cards to form psi challenge markers, and scavenger hunt items that help you level up. The way you level up in the game is to collect a few things. One way to level up is to collect psi challenge markers, which make you go up a rank. The other way is to collect things called figments as different sizes gives you different points. If the points reach 100, you go up a rank. You usually have to go up 10 ranks to gain a new psychic ability, but sometimes, you can gain them by completing different tasks, like getting to Mrs. Vodello in her funkadelic 70’s mind or helping Mr. Nein block out all the censor enemies in his mind. However, you mostly just want to level up to gain more psychic powers. There are multiple different scenarios like where Raz is a giant monster and has to fight what seems to be a parody of Ultraman, having to help put on a play, buying paintings, and wrestling Mexican wrestlers and a huge pink bull. Don’t ask why the bull is pink, you need to find out for yourself. Overall, this game gives you a lot to do.

The graphics in the game are outstanding. It helps that the unique art and character designs are by artist, Scott Campbell, who did artwork for Brutal Legend. The whole world is just mind-bendingly twisted, but not scary twisted like Silent Hill. The whole world is like if Tim Burton founded a summer school and took some form of acidic drug or just bit into a peyote. The music is very chill and calm, kind of like if Neverhood mixed with Mushroom Men and added a bit of ambiance camp sounds. This is helped by composer, Peter McConnell. This music composer is known for other games like Brutal Legend, The Bard’s Tale, Escape from Monkey Island, Herc’s Adventure, Full Throttle, Afterlife, and a lot of Star Wars games. It really fits, and I think it works for the game. It’s like Brutal Legend having a whole list of metal songs. The humor is actually really well done. It is kind of like the humor you find in King of the Hill, very subtle, but funny. There are even some jokes that seem a little odd for kids to say. Let’s talk about the kids one more time. These kids are not normal. Not because they have psychic abilities, but just how odd they are. It is like they ate a big bowl of peyote, which is a certain kind of cactus that can cause some hallucinogenic moments if you bite into it. The voice work, while not as good as Brutal Legend, is very good. You get the talents of Richard Steven Horovitz who did the voice for Zim from the cult classic cartoon, Invader Zim and Orthopox 13 from Destroy All Humans. You also get the voices of Stephen Stanton, Alexis Lezin, Nick Jameson, David Kaye, Steve Blum, David Boat, and probably my favorite female voice actor, Tara Strong. She only plays a minor role in this game, but she is very famous for her talents on shows like Powerpuff Girls and Drawn Together. Overall though, you have a good package of talent in this game.

Sadly, there are a few things that hold this game back. I remember in my game design class, people saying that the game moved slowly. Since I hadn’t been able to play it at the time, I didn’t know what to think. After playing it though, it isn’t sluggish, but it’s slow since you have to walk to everywhere, and each level can take some time to beat. Sometimes, the game gets a little repetitious during some areas like the Mexican art-themed world where you fight four wrestlers who are basically the same besides some different masks and moves, but overall they are the same. The technical issues I mentioned were not defects, but I got a defective disc that crashed on me and I couldn’t get it to run again. I wonder why some versions of games do this and some don’t. It just boggles the mind that of the 400,000 versions of this game that were sold, I got the one that crashed and had to be returned the next day. However, that is just a small gripe.

There is no excuse to not play this game. You can get it on the ps2, Xbox, and Windows, but it’s better if you get either the PS2 version or Xbox version since you don’t have to worry about lagging. This is definitely a well-made game. This game has more heart and soul than most games. I would think it has more heart and hard work put into it than most games. Let’s all hope for a sequel. It is definitely time for one since it has been 5 years. They could do a lot with this game, and I hope Tim Schaeffer does with this great title.

This game gets a 9.6 out of 10



Cam's Eye View: Import Surprise part 1: Star Parodier

Recently, I have been watching videos of Japanese-only games, like Ganbare Goemon 2 and a video series on thatguywiththeglasses.com that is all about Japanese import games that American gamers can easily play and obtain. The real reason I got interested was because of a guy named JewWario, who hosts the “You Can Play This” series on the site. I got inspired and decided to go get a few Virtual Console cards, and downloaded a couple of games. I decided to have my own little import review series known as Import Surprise! For the first import review, I wanted it to be special, so I decided to pick a game called Star Parodier for the PC Engine, which is an add-on for the Turbografx-16. I decided to choose this game because it’s good, and it’s simple and easy to pick up, though you will have to read this review to see what I think of it.

Even though in games like this you don’t really care about the story, I’m going to tell it to you anyway, since, well, I want to. However, I thought at first I wasn’t going to since the story is in Japanese, but I will sum it up to all you gamers who haven’t played this. Basically, a ship was flying around and saw something flying through space. Sadly, that thing was evil! It hit a planet and started to attack the planet. The planet then called out to the Bomberman planet, and the people of the Bomberman planet made a ship from Star Soldier, a giant Bomberman, and a giant PC-Engine robot thing to go out and fight the evil that has taken over the land. Yeah, I don’t know why they would make a giant PC-Engine robot to fight crime when the world has stuff like Gundam and other giant robots, but this is a video game and such, so I won’t question its logic.

The game play in Star Parodier is of a top-down 2D shooter like 1943 and Raiden 3. Like I said above, you have three different ships to control as you go through multiple levels, shooting down enemies, facing a boss in the middle of the level, and then another boss at the end of the level. There are different kinds of power-ups that are different for each character. That is something that is good in my opinion. In other games like Raiden, where no matter what ship you are, you have basically the same attacks. Star Parodier has different attacks depending on what character you are. For example, the Bomberman ship can shoot a wave of bombs, the ship shoots sonic booms all across the screen, and the giant PC Engine robot ship thing shoots CDs at the enemies. When you beat the game you can go do 2 and 5 minute challenges and see how many points you can get in those challenges.

The graphics are very bright and colorful. Not meaning that other shooters are not as bright, I mean, look at R-Types, R-Type Delta, and the Raiden games. They are fully colorful. However, Star Parodier has very colorful graphics that you would find in games that Treasure makes. The whole feel of the game is kind of out of an anime that is a satire of shooters. I think some of my favorite parts of the game are the boss fights. They are all so creative, like fighting two crabs that talk, a snake charmer, a walrus shooting a giant laser beam, and even a giant Bomberman, which is just so cool. The music is also very colorful and cheerful to listen to. Then again, a lot of games made by Hudson Soft, like on the NES and SNES, have really good, cheerful music. I also like the humor in the game. When you shoot some enemies, they wave white flags, which is just silly. It’s interesting to note that Star Parodier is actually a parody of Hudson’s shooter franchise, Star Soldier. The “paro” in the name means parody. The difficulty is rather easy, but I enjoyed playing through it. It is definitely one of those shooters, like Mobile Light Force, to get started on if you’re new to the series. I know it does get harder as you play through the game, but you can do it rather easily through a good chunk of the levels.

Now, let’s get to the bad parts of this Japanese-only game. There isn’t really much wrong with this game. The bad parts that are part of this game do come from the fact that it plays like an arcade shooter. Each time you die, you lose all your power-ups, and once you get up to this Egypt-like level, it is REQUIRED to have some power-ups. Don’t get me wrong, this game does have unlimited continues and you can change your ship, but I guess it is just a minor gripe. Other issues only come from the game being Japanese-only. Some of the power-ups actually power you down, so I guess they should be called power-downs or something. What I am trying to say is that if you don’t know which ones will power you down, then you won’t notice until you’ve realized your powere-up ship is now powered-down. I also wish there was a health bar instead of the whole one-hit death. It just gets annoying.

Overall though, as one of the first import games I have ever played in my life as a gamer, I think it’s very fun. I think it should be on everyone’s list of games to download from the Virtual Console. Now, to new people who are on the VC, import games are a little more expensive only by like 100 or 200 points (a.k.a 1 or 2 dollars). I would say get the VC version since tracking down this game along with a TurboGrafx-16 and a PC Engine would get very expensive, and being a gamer means you go by a budget, or you get some gift cards or something. Either way, this was a great game to review and I hope you all liked it.

This game gets a solid 9 out of 10



Game Review: Alleyway

Game Review: Alleyway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmu5wEYUjUk

Another review, a short one. Hope you enjoy the review. Thanks for watching!