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• Suffering Castlevania Fatigue

  It's hard to look a gift horse in the mouth, especially when it comes to Castlevania--I'd rather see an installment from Koji Igarashi's beloved franchise on the DS than yet another animal grooming game. But since the series has moved to the DS, I've been slightly disappointed. As good as Dawn of Sorrow was on its own terms, the game felt waaay too much like Aria of Sorrow, even within the limited Castlevania framework established over a decade ago by Symphony of the Night. (I'll go ahead and admit that, three years later, Dawn is a game I really need to re-visit, now that I'm even further removed from its predecessor.) My reaction was even worse with 2006's Portrait of Ruin which claimed to be a return to the roots of classic Castlevania that I never liked much to begin with.  I can't tell you if Portrait lived up to its promises, because my limited time with the game was spent pressing the character change button in order to annoy people in my immediate vicinity. "Charlotte!" "Jonathan!" "Charlotte!" "Jonathan!" You get the idea. Read More... Posted Oct 21 2008, 09:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: castlevania, castlevania 2, ds, koji igarashi, bob mackey, castlevania portrait of ruin, castlevania aria of sorrow, castlevania dawn of sorrow

• The Ten Most Adventurous Sequels in Gaming History, Part 2

  Super Mario 64 If you'd asked a young me to imagine a three-dimensional Mario Bros. game, I'd have pictured a screenshot from Super Paper Mario — essentially, the point-A-to-point-B linearity of classic side-scrolling Mario, shot from a different camera angle. Instead, Shigeru Miyamoto's first 3D adventure completely rewrote the rules of platforming, replacing the "get to the end" format with a variety of challenges set in one, open physical space. To a generation weaned on linearity, this was pretty overwhelming at first — I remember being plunked down in Bob-Omb Battlefield and wandering around like a chump for an embarrassingly long time. 64 was so different from its precursors that you arguably wouldn't call it a sequel, but bear in mind that no one knew at the time what the next generation of games would look like. Early 32-bit games like Bug and Clockwork Knight dressed 2D gaming in 3D clothes. As usual, that nut Miyamoto had something different in mind. — PS Read More... Posted Jun 05 2008, 08:31 PM by Peter Smith with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, peter smith, the legend of zelda, top ten, list, gradius, donkey kong, castlevania 2, the ten most adventurous sequels in gaming history, shigeru miyamoto, the adventure of link, clockwork knight, super paper mario, super mario 64, zelda II, contra, bug, simon's quest

• The Ten Greatest Fire Levels in Gaming History, Part 1

  Videogame designers have found a great deal of inspiration in elemental dichotomies. Wood versus stone, wind versus lightning, ice versus fire — these natural conflicts are excellent bases for compelling environments and rich atmospheres. What better than tangible extremes like hot and cold to convey a sense of place to a player? To celebrate the imminent arrival of summer, 61 Frames Per Second is going hot with our first top-ten list, looking at the greatest fire levels in gaming history. If you're sweating, don't worry — we'll get to ice soon enough. — John Constantine Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts — Crucible of Flame Nobody would subject themselves to the brutally difficult Ghosts 'n Goblins series if the games didn't feature Capcom's usual immaculate production values. Dying a hundred times in Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts' third stage, the Crucible of Flame (and you will) is made marginally more bearable by the brooding music (forever seared in my brain after a misspent youth) and the characteristically idiosyncratic twist on the usual "fire level" theme: instead of a generic inferno, the Crucible of Flame finds you in some kind of metallurgical hell. The stage has a lot of character; as fire levels go, it's more of an oozing, molten nightmare than a pyrotechnic fun fair. (In fact, some would say there's nothing fun about it.) A word of warning: it only gets worse from here. — Peter Smith Read More... Posted May 29 2008, 06:30 PM by Peter Smith with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, peter smith, top ten, list, f-zero, ghosts 'n goblins, the ten greatest fire levels in gaming history, castlevania 3, rondo of blood, castlevania 2, dracula x, castlevania 1, super ghouls 'n ghosts