I Broke Down And Got A PSP

Yup I finally bought a PSP Gran Turismo pack. I didn't plan on it, but I broke down and bought one along with Castlevania, and SF Alpha Max. The other games are games I had already bought, but I included them in the shot anyway. Shortly after trying the system out, I discovered that there was an annoying faint boarder around the screen. Almost like burn that formed a frame. So I googled this and it seems that others had the same issue. So I hurried back to Best Buy asap to exchange it for the last Gran Turismo PSP set they had. Thankfully this new system is trouble free so far.

As far as my impressions of the system go, I really like it, but so far it fails to wow me like the DS the first day I got it. Yeah it looks prettier then the DS in motion, but it just seems to lack that certain magic the DS has. On the plus side, I love the fact that I can transfer my downloaded PS1 titles from my PS3, to it. So far i've only transfered Gex, and SF Alpha 2, but I plan on trying a few more out tonight. Finally, why couldn't Gran Turismo come in an actual PSP case? Instead it comes in a shitty cardboard case that won't do very much to protect it.

Next up are some games i've gotten over the past week and a half. No spectactular deals hear, but Tekken 6 was $50, GOW Collection $40, and Stormrise $20. And yes I already got Tekken on PS3 the day it hit, but for some reason I had the itch to buy it on 360 as well. In fact, this is the version I should have got from the start. Not only are the graphics slightly cleaner, but the load times are better, and the 360 pad just feels much better then the PS3 pad. Funny since the reason I got the PS3 version to begin with was because I felt its pad would offer better control to Tekken. Anyway, I may have forgotten to add a new game or 2 to the pic that i've gotten since my last blog, but for the life of me I cant remember. Oh well, I do remember some Wii VC games I downloaded though. Those games include Contra Rebirth, Final Fight 2, Blaster Master, Pulse Man, and Zombies Ate My Neighbors. Out of all these, I have to say Final Fight 2 did not age very well. Heck even when it was released it felt like a step back from the original. A shame that Capcom kinda screwed this series up so much after the first, while Sega took its similar Streets of Rage series, and kept improving upon it. I did like Final Fight Streetwise on Xbox though. Yeah it was flawed, but it was still a lot of fun.

Street Fighter Alpha 2 SNES

Why do people always attack the SNES version of Street Fighter Alpha 2? Nearly every time I hear about it I hear people cry how much it sucks, and how its not arcade perfect like the other Street Fighter games on the console. My friggen word people. First of all the arcade machine the game was originally done on was a lot more powerful then the then aging SNES. It was also more powerful hardware then the original SF2 games, which gave the game far better animation, and sound. Could the SNES version have been done a little more accurate to the arcade? Im sure it could have, but not by much. Seriously people, if all you had was a SNES at the time it came out and you wanted an Alpha 2 fix at home, but couldn't afford a Saturn, or PS1, then this game was amazing. But yeah, this is just my opinion.

Riot Zone for Wii Virtual Console

If you're familiar with the old Turbo Duo console, then chances are you may have heard of Riot Zone. If not, then let me fill you in. Back in the late 80s, and early 90s the side-scrolling beat-em-up genre was all the rage. The gameplay of this genre basically consisted of the player (or players) scrolling from left to right while fighting various badies on there way to the end of the level. Unlike some action games, player movement was not limited to left, and right, but you could move up, down, and diagonal as well. In many games of the genre, weapons, and other powerups like life, and extra points could be picked up as we. Double Dragon was perhaps the game most responsible for getting the genre kicked off, but with its popularity came imitators. Some were really good like Final Fight, and Streets of Rage, but others were bad like Riot Zone.

So, why did Riot Zone suck while others like Streets of Rage were so good? Well first and foremost it is very boring. You get your choice of 2 different characters, with one being the fast, but weak guy and the other being the strong and slow one. The fast one who is called Hawk is your typical cookie cutter hero with the blond hair, white t-shirt, and jeans, and the strong one it a generic punk rocker type with a mohawk. This could be forgiven if they had some interesting moves to play with, but they don't. Both have a very small amount of moves to use against the bad guys, and to add insult to injury you can't even pick up weapons. Things don't get much better with the enemies either and you'll quickly find yourself getting bored fighting the same few enemies over and over again through the entire game.

The graphics are just as bland as the gameplay. Not only does it have some very bland animation, but everything just looks so flat. This game could use some major parallax in the backgrounds to give it a little more depth. It seems the developers at Westone just didn't care though. And yes I said Westone, and yes this is the same people responsible for the great Wonderboy series. Sad eh?

If you think things are gonna get better for the sound since its on CD, then your sadly mistaken there as well since the generic rock tunes are just as boring as the rest of the game. The sad part is, the music is probably the highest point of the game.



If you're looking for a good side-scrolling beat-em-up then look elsewhere because you wont find one here. Im not sure how much the going rate is for an original copy of the game, but I can tell you now that its not worth it unless you're a serious collector. Other then that save your $8 on something better and skip the Wii download. Better yet, google "Beats of Rage" and download that or any of its mods for the PC, or Dreamcast. Not only is it free and legal, but its far better then the crap that is Riot Zone.

Current PS3 Collection

The PS3 part of my game collection. Damn I love collecting games even if I don't really play em all. Yes I have no life.

King Of Fighters X11 is...

disappointing. Yes, one of my most anticipated games of 09 has left me with a sour taste in my mouth. No, it doesn't suck and is not a bad game by any means, its just that its rushed and incomplete. Yes the sprites are all new and animated smoothly, but their also pretty pixelated as well. Its not that bad, but enough to annoy me slightly, especially after playing Blazblue. The backgrounds look great...but there's only 4 of them. 5 if you count a variation of one. Then there's the lack of modes. You get arcade, practice, and online. Practice is just practice and is nothing but that. Arcade is nothing more then a time attack mode that contains no story, and not even an end boss. Very very lame. Its not like KOF had the best story, but its always had interesting intermissions and cool endings, but none of that here. The online mode is poor at best since every match I played so far had so much lag it was nearly unplayable. Really SNK, how could you release this game in this incomplete state? I know there's an option for download content, but thats empty right now. Im not sure whats going into it, but im hoping for a few extra characters, modes, and backgrounds. And if SNK has the nerve to charge people for the extra content, then they have some real balls. On the plus side, the actual gameplay is really good. It feels more like pre-99 KOF games with nothing too flashy. There's also a lot of missing moves too. No Power Dunk, or Power Charge for Terry, and all characters have only 1 super move. Also sort of a let down is the fact that this game has no new characters. For $60 this game is a rip-off, especially with stuff like Blazblue out there for the same price. If you need a KOF fix, then download the vastly superior KOF 98 on 360, or better yet get the PS2 version. Heck for $60 on PS2 you could get yourself KOF 98, KOF 11, Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, and Samurai Shodown Anthology and get a far better deal at around $15 each