Games I Own, Like & Hate

PlayStation 2

[last updated: 31/Mar/2008]

 

No foreword yet, but the reason 24: The Game isn't one of the first games is because Steve got it before I had a PS2. He used it on a friend's, see.

 

FIRST GAME2002 FIFA World Cup   |    Rating: _/10    |    Bought: March 2007    |    Status: Still here

Not even thinking of touching.

[review to come]

Completed: No.

 

24: The Game   |    Rating: _/10    |    Bought: Summer 2006?    |    Status: Still here

Looks decent.

[review to come]

Completed: Steve did.

 

Bomberman Kart   |    Rating: 6/10    |    Bought: June 2007    |    Status: Still here

An interesting take on the kart game genre, but not exactly worthy of being mildly rare.

As flawed as it was, Bomberman Fantasy Race was an interesting beast. The fact it actually tinkered ever so slightly with the basic racing mascot genre is good enough on it's own, never mind that it changed the whole tournament thing in favour of "GET BETTER OR YOU'RE GOIN' NOWHERE BOY" style gameplay. Of course, by "get better" it meant "get luck on your side or you'll never get those Time Stops." C'est la vie.

Bomberman Kart, unreleased in America and obvious in the title, ditches that beast riding for your basic automobiles. You've got five racers who play no different from each other (and one secret!), five selectable karts with different attributes (two secret, one being more or less a game breaker if you don't flub too much), and a total of twelve grands prix. Yes, twelve! Mario took until Mario Kart DS to get more than four, so that's pretty astonishing. However, there are only sixteen courses, plus reversed versions of all of them. How does this work?

Simple. Repeat courses.

And somehow, it works so, so well. It adds vague lasting appeal! Once you've conquered the four cups in Mario Kart, you're left to go through them the same way over and over. Not Bomberman Kart. It mixes them up. Plus it has four extra grands prix that randomise the courses, upping the count in each from four, up to the last at thirty two! Of course, playing four courses can take fifteen to twenty minutes, so anything more tends to get rather draining, and I still haven't finished the thirty two course one because it just gets very, very dull.

This isn't mentioning that there's more to the game than tournaments! There's time trial (which is of no interest to me), a multi-player battle mode, Speed Race which is an obstacle course of some kind, and Challenge Mode. Challenge Mode is clearly the highlight of these extras, more or less being Mario Kart DS' Mission Mode before that game was even out. Such games as stopping as close to the edge as possible, avoiding the homing missiles 'til the end of the course, and answering maths questions by hitting the right item box, while also facing a time limit. They're surprisingly good fun!

And there's also a traditional Bomberman mode. Pretty barebones; there's no Louies or arenas that aren't green and grey, but it's a pleasant little extra, and actually makes sense.

The problem with the game?

Well, not so much a problem as an irregularity; it's a pretty well-rounded package, with plenty of modes and plenty of opportunities for multi-player. The problem, quite simply, lies in the controls. You see, despite featuring cutesy characters blowing each other up with bombs and shark missiles, the controls are very... "realistic." Of course, I don't drive or know about anything regarding the sport (aside from once you're a driver you're legally obligated to criticize every other poor sod on the road), hence the quotation marks, but I see no other reason why the cars would turn very, very stiffly, and practically requiring braking and drifting for anything bendier than 25 degrees. And drifting is a confusing pain. Do you tap brake, hold drift, and then hit the accelerator before you're at the right angle? Or do you hold brake, tap drift and then slam the accelerator once you're back on the right path? The game never says, and considering it's an essential to making progress, it's hard to forgive. Of course, the enemies never worry about this; they just streak through every tight angle like a shoelace. None the less, it doesn't ruin the game like Fantasy Race's item demanding, it just requires a bit of mastering, if just to lessen the troubles it causes rather than outright quash it.

Another problem is that the CPU only use items when it can harm you; they will refuse to use a boost unless they'll knock you down in the process, and they will hold onto the first-place reaching shark missiles until you're there. It can be a pain when they swipe it before you, but a single attack will knock them for a loop and make them drop it, so it's not a lost cause.

The game is relatively rare, but I was lucky and got it for £5, thanks to the auctioneer misspelling the name. It's a decent little game that's an interesting change from so many games that feel so alike, but it's not without faults. The long levels can become a drag, and the CPU never really poses much of a threat unless you deliberately seek it by using a low-quality kart, but for a company that don't exactly participate much in the genre, it's a pretty decent venture. At the end of the day, though, Fantasy Race feels the better game, even with it's broken second half, primarily due to being that more unique. Combine the two and it'd be super, but I can't imagine Hudson going back to racing titles for a while.

Completed: No.

 

Crash Nitro Kart   |    Rating: _/10    |    Bought: November 2007    |    Status: Still here

Crash Team Racing was boring enough, why make a game that's exactly the same?

[review to come]

Completed: No.

 

Crash Tag Team Racing   |    Rating: _/10    |    Bought: November 2007    |    Status: Still here

Only Crash racing game I like!

[review to come]

Completed: No.

 

Crash Twinsanity   |    Rating: _/10    |    Bought: November 2007    |    Status: Still here

Different, but still pretty awesome.

[review to come]

Completed: No.

 

Drakengard   |    Rating: _/10    |    Bought: November 2007    |    Status: Still here

Further proof that I can't be non-critical of anything of Square's that isn't 3D World Runner.

[review to come]

Completed: No.

 

FIRST GAMEFIFA Football 2003   |    Rating: 0/10    |    Bought: March 2007    |    Status: Still here

Do not want.

Unless the game includes a NotSuk-FX Chip or something, I refuse to play this because the GameCube version was terrible enough.

Completed: No.

 

FIRST GAMEFrom Russia With Love   |