Who knew; who guessed, who could tell; I play visual novels.
What of it? I've mentioned so many times that I adore good writing in games. Visual Novels are kinda the top peak of these, while retaining some form of 'gameplay' to them. They live and die on the quality of their writing, because other than the art and music, there ain't much else to keep you going.
I feel like gushing on good writing.
I have a distant memory of my older brother and a cousin-of-similar-age-to-my-brother looking through a thick book. It said 'Rulebook' on the front, but had very interesting cover art. The two of them seemed to think it was the coolest thing ever. I asked if I could read it, but of course, being the little brother, I wasn't allowed to. I wasn't cool enough, apparently. (how can someone tell if someone else is cool enough? Is there a unit of measurement...?)
I love it when game developers think creatively.
For example; how the heck would a developer have pitched the concept of a platformer/city building crossbreed game to a publisher? Not only that, but when the devteam has only one game under their belt previously? AND, to release it as one of the first games on a new Nintendo console?
Let's see here.
I've played and beaten the first Contra.
I've played and beaten Super C.
I've played and beaten all the endings in Contra Hardcorps. (that took a while, lemme tell ya)
I've played the hell out of and BARELY beaten Contra 4.
And then I've played and beaten Contra III about fifty damn times.
I would like to induldge in a little personal history a moment.
See, I've always been a skinny guy. As a toddler, to elementary school, throughout high school, I never had much meat to me.
Oh yes! I was made fun of. Not an enjoyable youth. But let's not get into that. I still thought myself a fast person, able to run quickly and move quickly, but never for very long. Endurance was always my weakness. Years after graduating high school and working in the real world, I was still
Sometimes, things work out just right.
You can slave away on a project for months, and it'll only come out 'merely okay'. Pour your heart and soul into it, and it'll be recieved as strictly normal. That's always a possibility of the world. Just how it goes.
But then sometimes, it all just works perfect. The right people working on the right things at the right times with the right help. It all comes together into something amazing.
Such is what I like to think is the c
(This RotW was originally posted on EchoNET, as of this being posted, all previous EchoNET posts are now accounted for)
Where do you even start with Streets of Rage 2, where!? I guess I'll start at the most logical place: The story.
Basically, your friend Adam from the first game has been kidnapped by the crime lord (or whatever you'd call him) Mister X. You playing as Axel, a girl named Blaze, Adam's brother Skate, or Axel's wrestler friend Max, must re-defeat the crime syndicate lead by Mr. X that has returned and kidnapped Adam. It's a pretty basic plot, but c'mon, this is a Genesis/Mega Drive game from 1992. Imagine if Sonic 2 had a huge story! So basically... the story is not important. What is important is: you have an excuse for beating some ass.
I typically like to write about older games. Games that were made in the heyday of the medium, before it became a cashcow that had decisions being made by bearucratic publishers rather than by trained game developers. (not to cast too negative a light on the state of modern gaming) I feel that there's usually more.... Soul. More love, more passion, more tiny details put into the games of old. Little things that don't really contribute to the gameplay at all, but are there just because someone cared about the game enough to throw in a little something extra.
The game we're featuring today, however, is from this century. More notably, this decade! (at time of writing) Even MORE heinous than that, it was released late 2011! (November 1 2011, if I must be precise.)
But you know how it is with these retro-themed games. Some of them manage to capture that ol' classic gaming spirit so well that they could easily go alongside anything made for the SNES, Genesis, DOS or NES or whatever fancy dangle you kids play these days.
So here I am talking about something that's probably even newer than your last haircut. Today's focus is; To The Moon.
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