Mechwarrior

Good Times

Mechwarrior was incredibly fun. Bloody simple fun too. You get 100 some tons of armor and guns, then blow shit up. With rockets, lasers, autocannons, pretty much anything that can leave a dent in a ton of steel. If there is a simpler recipe for fun it probably involves short circuiting your spinal cord while directly injecting dopamines into your brain.

Needs to include: The same basic system that Mechwarrior 4 had with a bit more customization.
Needs to exclude: Mechassault. Simplifying Mechwarrior down fails, because the fun of the game was in loading up your custom mech with the weapons you wanted.

Note: Fans of Mechwarrior may yet get their fix. A Crysis mod by the name of Mechwarrior: Living Legends has sprung up and is producing amazing work. Though the mod is not yet playable, if you bought crysis check it out.

Descent: Freespace

Yeah, That's Awesome

Freespace was an awesome game that nobodies ever heard of. The game is a space shooter, in the style of TIE Fighter. The sense of scale was unprecedented in 1998. The ships you encounter in Freespace 2 are as long as 6 kilometers and armed to the teeth. Watching battles play out with massive warships ripping each other to pieces with beams capable of instantly vaporising your fighter without any effort at all. The icing on the cake is the Freespace modding community. Freespace still has an incredibly active modding community who are producing mods for just about every universe imagined. Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars (Lucas shut it down; say goodbye to your dreams of anything like a TIE Fighter sequel).
Needs to include: Even more massive ships and new storyline, and maybe some more customization.
Needs to exclude: Goddamn escort missions. I want to blow up alien space craft, not babysit a destroyer through an asteroid field (actual mission) or keep a bunch of tiny escape pods alive in the middle of a massive alien interceptor rush.

Alien Vs Predator

Concept Art

Some of the most awesome games ever. Who doesn’t have memories of running along the walls as a sneaky alien, before dropping silently behind an unsuspecting human and eating his skull? How about cloaking as the predator then pinning people with the speargun. And no one can deny that the selection of weapons that the humans have was anything less than awesome. Homing bullets? Awesome. Even though this series has had several sequels, none have been worthy of the AvP Title. Give us another AvP 2.
Needs to include: Aliens. Predator. Humans. Guns. Done.
Needs to exclude: Suck and fail.

Bushido Blade

Sparks? Or blood?

Bushido Blade was a game for the original Playstation, it was a one on one armed fighting game featuring Japanese weaponry and fighting styles. The reason this game was so facking oresum was because of how realistic it was. I am a huge advocate of realistic damage in games no matter how frustrating or difficult it is and this game had it all. It was a fighting game with no health bar or time gauge, you could cripple, disable limbs of or even kill your opponent in a single strike. Your throws? literally just grapples on the ground and what not. We need a next gen version of this game because as frustrated as most children would get with the realism, it just adds a sense of believability and tension to a fight where one slash to your chest from a katana is game over. The game forces you to block and parry and dodge and play like every move is your last, now that is exciting shit and it makes each kill so satisfying because of how important just that one blow was. The original Bushido blade even had a revolutionary level design system whereby it wasn’t the standard side scrolling tiny arena most fighting games have, you were free to run, climb and jump around huge 3d environments to your hearts content. Free roaming is always a good idea. This next gen version could provide dismemberment instead of just limb disabling and some beautiful next gen graphics and online play. I would buy it in a heartbeat.
Needs to include: Hyper realistic damage simulation, updated graphics, Free roaming levels, deep weapon-character relation
Needs to exclude: Being released only on a Playstation system

Jet Force Gemini

Headshot

Jet Force Gemini was a 3rd person shooter created for the nintendo 64 by Rareware, and by the current standards of the time you couldn’t call JFG anything less than totally fantastic. This game just knew how to make gun battles with giant insects gory and exciting and even included a cooperative mode by way of a floating robot companion named Floyd. This game had great graphics for it’s time but was really so good because it was incredible violent and made it very satisfying to slaughter ants, you could even collect ant heads for rewards and unlockables. Rare really made some fantastic shooters for the N64; Jet force gemini, Perfect dark and Golden eye. Lets just hope that a JFG remake doesn’t flop like Perfect Dark Zero (ugh).
Needs to include: Fun level exploration, Great gore, Awesome weapons, Co-op
Needs to exclude: Original final boss, Necessity to unlock co-op mode

Die by the Sword

Weed Wacker

Nothing good can really be said about DBTS‘s horrible graphics, story or dialogue but what has to said is that this game had a revolutionary control scheme where one would swing the mouse to simulate swinging of a sword. Very very tricky to get used to at first but in the end that method of control would prove to make this game incredibly fun especially when the full dismemberment of the battles was to be considered. Sword fights become especially epic when real skill comes into place because of your total control of the swords movement, and the game becomes even greater when limbs can be removed (it was always a great laugh to see a one legged knight hopping around). This game needs to, more than ANYTHING be remade on the Wii, not with this bullshit “swing in eight directions” game play (see: Red Steel) but with FULL range of motion, because you and I both know, Nintendo, that the Wii mote is capable of that function. So fucking use it already.
Needs to include: Full range of motion controls, Dismemberment, Arena battle mode
Needs to exclude: Voice acting, Story, Incredibly aimless wandering through missions that give you no clear goal whatsoever

1. It is a 4-player cooperative game.

Everyone in their right mind, or anyone with real-life friends, knows that there can never be too many games with 4-player co-op. I hold in firm belief that EVERY game should attempt to incorporate co-operative into it’s campaign mode and when a game gives four people the chance to all kick ass together? Well, that’s just fantastic of them. n+ being the most prime example of epic 4-player action on the XBLA so far. There is nothing default in the human psyche that dislikes comradery and hence slaughtering barbarian hordes with 3 knightly friends has no inherent problem, but is in fact quite awesome.

2. It is made by The Behemoth, producers of glorious win such as Alien Hominid.

Anyone who has not played Alien Hominid, in it’s roots as a flash game on newgrounds or in it’s last-gen console version or even in it’s beautiful HD re imagining on the XBLA should be playing it right now. Alien Hominid is the closest thing I’ve ever had to a favourite game, it had everything going for it: fun, addicting gameplay, humour, co-op and a phenomenal art style. You know that because these are the same people behind Alien Hominid that the game is going to have just the right feel; and the developers know how to make killing lots of dudes with a relatively simple combat system incredibly addicting and stylish as fuck. Even though controlling 4 element-wielding knights with swords would be fun enough as is, this game boasts over 20 characters and a fucking slew of awesome weapons (40 weapons), also, helper animal orbs ranging from adorable to terrifying. Alien Hominid had only one playable character, only six or so upgrades to your gun and only one kind of melee attack and because of how well it worked, it still never got old. Just imagine how well this will turn out given the content.

3. The art style is phenomenal hand drawn work. And will look fantastic in HD

Here are links to some choice pieces of artwork. Not only is the art style colourful and very cool looking, it is often hilarious. Alien Hominid was a very funny game and manage to slide something “lulz-worthy” into just about every element of scenery or animation it provided to the player, and the screen shot gallery for Castle Crashers proves that we can expect the same level of cleverness hidden in every nook and cranny of the game’s design.

4. The videos and trailers make it look just as good as you would expect.

The developers provide a plentiful development blog to keep everyone’s interest and in doing so, numerous videos have been released regarding the game. Here is a link to some very interesting videos showing the creation process that goes into the game. Below I have put up the two trailers available with actual gameplay footage.

This is the old trailer, really old actually and technically the only trailer.

Castle Crashers Trailer (Old) from The Behemoth on Vimeo.

This is a short trailer of “Beefy mode” a high-damage form you can achieve with a sandwich.

Castle Crashers – Beefy Mode from The Behemoth on Vimeo.

5. It has been in production for at least two years and honestly, The Behemoth cannot afford to botch this release considering it is only their second game.

Castle Crashers has been in production from at least 2006 when it was announced and likely even before that.The Behemoth so far has a spotless record (having released only one game prior) and it would be in bad taste to proudly release and hype a game that they knew was terrible. Given the quality of Alien Hominid and the necessity of this release being all that it looks to be, we can give The Behemoth excitement purely on faith even if one were to ignore all the conclusive evidence that it will surely kick ass.

6. The merchandise is incredible. (Not really a reason to buy the game but it’s really quite cool.)

Awesome shirts, awesome hats and possibly the best thing of all; figurines! Every game should have figurines! I personally already own an Alien Hominid shirt and a set of AH figurines but I am physically restraining myself (well, my wallet is) from ordering Castle Crashers figurines! God-damn those things are cool.

I hope this list has enlightened you to the release of a game that really does not deserve to be over-looked. And if you already knew it existed then I hope this article helps you decide to buy it, I really think these guys deserve the money. So that they can make some more games. Castle Crashers releases August the 27th 2008, if you have Alien Hominid HD already downloaded you unlock Alien Hominid as a character in the game, it’s The Behemoth’s little way of thanking the fans.

Castle Crashers at IGN

Sure it looks like a “collectiony-two-in-one-thing” much like crystal and yellow versions… but still! It’s Pokemon! Common sense and manliness? FUCK THAT, I want a new pokemon game! WOO.

The only issue I can see with the port is that when Dead Rising was announced, Capcom decided it would show off how many zombies they could fit on screen with their fancy next-gen teknologie. They bragged upwards of 1000 zombies at a time, and to be honest some places in the game there probably could have been close to 1000 zombies and the game never hitched up; it was a hell of an achievement. The obvious hardware deficiency in the Wii could hamper the awesome that was having 1000 zombies bounce off the hood of your car in the underground maintenance tunnels, but the developers goal is apparently to have somewhere around 100 zombies on the Wii. Which, if the game is ported properly, should not be a noticeable detriment.

Spider-man games to date have been mediocre at best, netting pretty low review scores. I personally fell in love with spider-mans 2 and 3 but I will at least admit that the first game was about as fun to play as being force-fed boiling hot porridge. So spider man games tried to break this trend with a crap-tastic kids game, spider-man: friend or foe. As you can tell by the description “crap-tastic”, it was fucking terrible. So here we are presented by a spider-man game that isn’t a movie game or a shitty kids game, it’s originally titled and the story is totally new. Promising? I think so. I was not paying much attention to the new game until this trailer from the san-diego comic-con. And now I will carefully track it’s every move… this game looks so terribly glorious I just cannot put it into words.
Keep an eye out for a symbiote-infected Wolverine right at the end, It’s fucking awesome.
I recommend following the link and watching it in HD over at gametrailers.com, it’s a very very pretty trailer.

I’m sure when this game was announced nobody knew what to expect, and that’s why I posted this video. It gives us a handy explanation of how this insane mash-up is going to play out. Gotta say, I’m not excited. Probably because I really dislike DC.

July 10 (Bloomberg) — Konami Corp., the Japanese creator of the “Dance Dance Revolution” music video game, sued Viacom Inc.‘s Harmonix studio, claiming its “Rock Band” game violates patents.

The Konami patents, issued in 2002 and 2003, relate to simulated musical instruments, a music-game system and a “musical-rhythm matching game.” Konami also makes the “Karaoke Revolution” music game with microphones, as well as the “Metal Gear Solid” espionage game.

“Rock Band,” the game in which players emulate rock and rollers with toy instruments, drove a 16 percent increase in first-quarter revenue at New York-based Viacom’s media networks business. Konami’s Digital Entertainment unit said in May it plans to begin selling its own rock band game, called “Rock Revolution,” later this year.

Konami is demanding cash compensation, plus an order that would block Viacom and Harmonix from using the inventions, according to the complaint, filed yesterday in federal court in Marshall, Texas. The suit names Harmonix Music Systems, Viacom, and Viacom’s MTV Networks Co., which owns Harmonix…..

Via: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aHQODoKwFYrA

Currently a Demo version is available. In the demo version you can play 2 main characters, quest in 4 unique zones, interact with over 15 NPCs, and advance to level 10-ish… but be patient, it’s ~5.8 MB file that needs to load. The core functionality and game mechanics are present, but only a tiny sampling of the content. And maybe that’s a good thing…

Via: Play This Thing! and Aoedipus