Go! Go! Hypergrind (Review)

(Written in late June on a PC with no internet connection. Figured I'd post it here finally.

Back in the late 1990s, skateboarding took off (both figuratively and literally) as a viable source of video game entertainment. Thanks to the long reach of the immaculate Tony Hawk, many (read: most) developers couldn’t resist the other, equally long reach, of almost certain cashflow. Somehow, along with those typical publishers, expected to fall into a certain trend, fell Japanese RPG giant: Atlus.

Go! Go! Hypergrind stands as Atlus’ first and only venture into the skateboard genre. Though the game’s foundation bases itself in skating, the settings and design differs heavily from anything like the typical Tony Hawk archetype. However, in terms of core mechanics, Hypergrind plays very similarly. Jumping, movement, and tricks work nearly the same way. The only real difference between the controls of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and Hypergrind comes with flip tricks, as they are completely nonexistent in Hypergrind.

Along with the standard tricks, Hypergrind includes a variety of “appeals,” which come from various different stage obstacles, including decapitations, being covered in paint, and flattenings from obstacles as typical as construction machines to absurdities, like dinosaurs and alligators. Appeals add a new element to skating, unseen in any other game that I’ve played.

Unlike many skating games, Hypergrind’s story actually matters. Eleven cartoon characters have been chosen to restore interest in hand-drawn animation (accentuated by excellent cel-shaded graphics). The way that this happens apparently revolves around skateboarding or something. Every level operates under a series of competitions, ranging from simply scoring the most points, to a head to head race to gather the most points. Score carries from level to level, so competition is constant and remains suspenseful throughout all eight locations.

While I’m very experienced when it comes to skateboarding games, Hypergrind manages to stand out from the pack. While the quality does not stand up to that of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 or 4, and the stages are basically subpar, the art style and general gameplay mechanics make Hypergrind unique at the very least. Which is more than can be said for Grind Session, Transworld Skateboarding, MTV’s Skateboarding featuring Andy MacDonald, or most of the Tony Hawk games past Underground.

3DS Outpost: Niche game alert

Has anyone heard of this new game? It's called "Crossing Mammals" or something like that. "Animals Walking."

Danimals Talking or something like that

I don't really know. I guess it's about some guy talking with some little creatures who can talk. You gotta take this guy (or girl) and dig holes and catch fish so you can make some raccoon guy happy (with your money) (named after a musical instrument). Except this new one on the 3DS also has some girl sheep that you gotta make happy. While still paying the raccoon guy.

Of course this new sheep girl doesn't want your money. She wants you to be nice and plant trees or something until everybody thinks you're nice and they like you. Also you're the chieftan or something. That probably could have been said earlier. Governor. Mayor. One of those. I wouldn't have voted for me. 

So you act as a diplomat and you cross animals for like six hours per day and you don't do anything else with your actual life. You now live with small animal people and you owe your soul and your finances to a fucking raccoon in an apron. Really fun. I recommend this to anyone and everyone who can find a copy. You'll spend days planting trees and hanging up fish and sympathizing with clothes porcupines, just so you can become the best mayor ever. Then population grows. It's a wild world. 

With these city folks.

new

leaf

3DS Outpost: Desperate Times Call for Ice Climber Multi-player

Background: I work at a summer camp. Sometimes it rains at a summer camp. One of those instances, and a particularly dangerous one, happened at 4:30 AM on Friday, May 30th, 2013.

And so, when you and a fellow staffer (doba) are sitting in the dining hall for like 2 hours in the early morning, having already beaten WarioWare and being just kind of tired of everything, you take a desperate route:

Ice Climber download multi-player mode.

Ice Climber became available to 3DS owners in 2011 with the 3DS Ambassador program. Of these twenty titles, Ice Climberstands out as one of the most questionable releases. While many players, mainly those from the 1980s but not limited to them, remember Ice Climber fairly well, many current players stay away from it due to the slippery controls and narrow jump arc. I fall in the latter category.

Single player in Ice Climber works like this: Run left and right, then jump to clear a hole in the icy ceiling above, then jump again to go through said hole. If any animals come, show no mercy and hit them in the head with a hammer. If you fall through your own hole, then you're dead. Do that three times and Game Over. Though I never played Ice Climber while growing up, all of my experiences with it could have been worse.

Multi-player in Ice Climber works... exactly the same way. There's another one, though. It's sorta like a race between the blue one (Popo) and the pink one (Nana). Though vertical scrolling typically kills the player in single player, one player's speedy ascent cannot lead to another's lost life as long as the player on the bottom doesn't fall into a hole. That's nice, as it keeps the competition going between both players, as well as doing a part not to make the multi-player unplayably hard. 

Via the 3DS' download play, Ice Climber's multi-player works fairly well. Not bad, not great, but certainly lasting.

The 3DS Outpost: First, a few confessions

I like to title things. That's my first confession. I like having columns with titles. I also like the 3DS. In this "Column," as it could loosely be titled, I'll talk about the 3DS.  Now for some 3DS-related confessions:

1. I haven't played with the 3D on for months
It gives me a headache. That sucks because I like the 3D effect but I don't so much like physical pain. Granted, even before the system launched, I thought that I would never use the 3D because I assumed that there would be problems with the technology. Thankfully, there were none, but I still don't use the 3D technology.

2. There are a few MP3s on my SD Card
I'm willing to bet that most people don't know that the 3DS has the capability to play MP3s. Well, it can. I've written about this feature before, (Mainly about the laughable attempts at auto-chiptune creation) but still, I have yet to meet anyone who actually uses the 3DS' music player capabilities. I knew a few people back in the sixth grade who used the MP3 player on the PSP, but other than that, these tacked-on music players on gaming devices seem to be mostly obsolete. I wonder when they'll stop trying.

3. I haven't used SwapNote in months
Others have probably done the same. I haven't checked it, even though I could. Really. My 3DS is right next to me and I don't even care enough to look. Sorry if you have sent me anything in the past few months, either of you.

4. My collection does not contain any sports games
Weird, considering the fact that I basically play sports games and nothing else if the stuff that I upload online is any measure. Is that weird? I hope not. At this point, I've only seen a handful of sports games available for purchase. There's a Madden game, Mario Tennis, and a few FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer games. I like the idea that both FIFA and PES are available on the system, as that seems to be the only real competition in sports games currently going (unless you want to count the competition between the arcade style NBA Jam and the sim NBA 2K series) I'll probably buy PES 2013 sometime soon.

5. The 3DS is home to my favorite game
My favorite game of all time (at this point, at least) is Mario Kart 7. MK7 currently sits atop my 3DS' rankings in terms of both hours played and times played, mainly because in early 2012, it became a distraction from insomnia. There's nothing better than being unable to sleep at 1 AM and racing against a group of Japanese people. (Correction: Losing against a group of Japanese people). I still consider MK7 to be the best Mario Kart and the most fun game on the 3DS, as well as probably the best game of all time up to this point.

So those are a few confessions. Feel free to comment yours as well!

Post Play Report: Teenagent

Wikipedia

I really thought I would enjoy Teenagent, but that just wasn't what happened. I liked the premise, I liked the humor, and I liked the characters, but eventually, it just became too difficult for me. In most games like this point-and-click game from 1994, I don't need to use a walkthrough for many things. I hate using a walkthrough unless I'm absolutely completely stumped. If I can figure something out on my own, I will. In Teenagent, I would find myself completely stumped every few minutes.

Of course, much of this is my own fault. I understand that I have to think with adventure games, and sometimes, I felt stupid, quite frankly, when I would find the answer to a puzzle in a walkthrough. In a few instances, I was just about to try something (for instance, using a spring in getting over the brick wall), but I felt it probably wouldn't work. That led me to become less lenient with my peeks at the walkthrough. Of course, when the time to actually do a mission came, I got completely lost.

There was so much to find! My inventory was constantly expanding upon finding small things in abandoned houses, tricking people into leaving their houses in order to steal from them, and stealing from small animals. It was really interesting to look at what I had and think of what I could do with them. I was excited for how, when, and where these items would come into play. But eventually, the tedium kind of took over in.

I wanted something, anything to happen, and it didn't. I just wanted the plot to advance, but I just got bored with it and put it down. I don't think I'm going to continue. I also don't think all of that is my fault. Some of the puzzles were just asinine. At some points, I found myself scanning my eyes across the screen, my face just inches away from a screen that can't possibly be helping me in health, in order to find some mythical object sitting underneath a chair or on a pathway. I understand that both of these are to be expected from classic adventure games, but it got a little ridiculous in some cases.

There isn't much to hate about Teenagent, and I'll absolutely admit that this is an above-average game, but there are better games to go for. To be fair, you can try Teenagent for absolutely free by signing up for an account at gog.com. If adventure games are your kind of thing, then go ahead and try Teenagent for free. Just keep in mind that great patience is a must.

This lunch line is too goddamn long

Something game related. Mario Paint music stuck in my head. Smells way too heavily of pizza here. I'm really excited for Gone Home.

what the hell happened to regular italian sandwiches Planet Sub these are exactly the same except you renamed it "Spicy Italian." Any way you slice it (right down the middle of the baguette typically) you lied. You lied, Planet Sub.

Games Update: 3/24/13

Haven't done this in a while. Due to the NCAA Tournament, I've been completely enthralled with watching every game, no matter how lopsided the victory is or how long it takes. (Also my mother is using the basement TV for basketball watching so I don't get to play as much as I would typically during a week without anything else to do.) Typically this week would be spent on the TV but for other reasons I cannot use a mouse on my laptop correctly this week either. SO HERE'S WHAT YOU GET

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (XBOX)
I own like 4 different versions of this game. When I first obtained a copy (back in 2002 when I turned 7 years old), I played through the game with nearly every character with all cheats in use. Special meter was always full, perfect grind and manual balance, and surf mode, which made it nearly impossible to fall if you land sideways. I was like 7, don't blame me.

Two years ago, I played and completed 100% the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater on the Sega Dreamcast. While I actually probably had the least experience (of the first few THPS games) on the original, I played all the way through it. With every skater. On the Dreamcast. You see, I was working at a camp, living in a small 4-person cabin. I only had a small TV, my Dreamcast, and the great outdoors. In order to stay away from the great outdoors at the place where my job was to teach kids about the wonders of the great outdoors, I played with that Dreamcast. Unfortunately for me, my Dreamcast library was barely anything compared to what it is today. Basically, I owned the first two Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games, Sonic Shuffle, Sydney Olympics 2000, and Unreal Tournament. Most of these games were geared towards multi-player action, but the only roommate who I would have wanted to play against had stopped working there for a few months. So I sat alone, with the first THPS, intending to complete the entire thing. With every skater. Even the hidden ones. It took a long time, but I was able to get my 100% completion time down to like 25 minutes per skater. (I was really goddamn good is what I'm trying to get across)

So now, because I'm pathetic, I've started to do the same with THPS3. This is basically all in the name of misplaced nostalgia. I'd like to replay the game I beat as an eight year old but without cheats. Some kids were in little league. Some kids played games against their friends. Some kids rode bikes and went on adventures. I cheated and completed almost all of THPS3 and LOOK WHAT I BECAME.

College Hoops 2K7 (XBOX 360)
I'm playing 2 sports games. Sue me. This is an impulse play based on March Madness, nothing much to see here. I love the legacy mode, though. It's a whole lot of fun to take a small team from the Ivy League or the MEAC or the like and turn it in to a big program (though it takes a lot of time). I find stupid stuff like that to be very enjoyable (though I don't have any reasoning as to why). Hopefully, once I'm done with this, I can play a longer RPG style game, because I think it would be fun in the same kind of way.