Games You Don't Play #5: FireFighter F.D. 18 PS2

I really love to play video games that aren't like the rest. When I saw Firefighter F.D. 18 come through the store, I had to pick it up. I've always thought firefighters were really cool, ever since I was a child. The reason is probably because my father was a firefighter (Retired/Disabled).
To me, this game is pretty cool. I guess the only reason I think it's cool is because it's a Firefighter game and it's not something you see or play everyday.
In Firefighter F.D. 18, you play as Dean McGregor, a firefighter who is determined to save anyone in trouble. The reason he's so determined, and I mean more determined than any other firefighter in the world, is because he lost a loved one to a fire. That seems like a pretty good reason!!!
You're trying to save people caught in fires set by an arsonist who has some some sort of vendetta against Dean. Along the way you'll also meet a woman named Emily, a news reporter who seems like she's in the way but ends up helping you as the story progresses.
The controls in this game are manageable but sometimes clumsy and you have no camera control unless you're standing still. It's not such a big deal though, because the camera usually stays in a pretty good spot.
Everything that happens in this game is scripted, so after a few times of dying (if you die at all) you will have the entire map memorized.
There are a few items you can pick up along the way to heal yourself like first aid kits, which help a lot because sometimes fire embers or explosions happen and catch you on fire, depleting your health quickly. You can also get rid of the fire burning you by running around (Whatever happened to "Stop Drop and Roll"?).
You are on a time limit in this game, dictated by your survivors health bar. The more damage they take, the less time you have, so save them before they die, because if you don't, your mission will end and you'll have to start over again.
This game has most things any action-adventure game would include, action, adventure, boss battles, you name it. The boss battles to me are the most interesting part, because it's more like fighting a monster than an actual fire. The AI is good but still somewhat predictable and easy to memorize. You can usually defeat the fire by calling backup and blasting it, resulting in a somewhat hilarious scream.

Other things of note are the dialogue and music. Both are very dramatic.

I give this game a 6.5 out of 10.

Pick it up if you're a collector (it's quite rare) or a fan of firefighters!!

Games You Don't Play #4: Mad Maestro PS2

Hi friends, yes it's that time again! Time to review another game!
While I am still working on beating Odin Sphere (yeah yeah, I know. It's taking me a little too long..!!) I still have some extra time somewhere to play other games.
This time I'm going to be reviewing the game "Mad Maestro!" for the Playstation 2. This is yet another Japanese music/rhythm game that no one has ever heard of or played. It was released under the "Fresh" line by Edios Games who's sole purpose is to bring you games that you've never heard of before. I have a few other games under this "Fresh" title; "Mister Mosquito", "R-Type Final", etc.
In the game you play as a character named Tackt, a young conductor. A small fairy named Symphony pursues your help to bring music back into the hearts of the townspeople before they tear down the symphony music hall! Of course, this building is also the fairy's home, so her wanting you to save it is not surprising.
This game is very "quirky" which is used by many in the game industry; but I wouldn't say it's the best kind of quirky. The story is quite strange but not engaging or engrossing and definitely not funny. There are all sorts of things happening in the background as there usually are in most rhythm games but of course you cannot pay attention to these things as you are trying to play the game, which brings me to:

The in-game play.
There are a lot of different factors involved with this. Some things you might want to note are timing, tempo change and volume. Yes, volume. Not something I, personally am used to in a rhythm game. I sometimes forget that the Playstation 2 controller has pressure sensitive buttons as not many games use this function. Circles which you must watch to time your action also show a color to tell you what volume to use. If it's blue, you press lightly. If it's green, you press medium. If it's red, of course you press hard. Light and Red are easy, but Green? For some reason I always mess this up. I was playing the game on a Logitec Wireless Controller and thought this might have something to do with it, and yes, it did. I switched to a normal controller and it made the game quite a bit easier but I still sometimes messed it up.
Then you have your "life gauge" to the left of the screen, which will pretty much make or break you. There are two ends to this gauge, "Angel Mode" and "Devil Mode". You must have "Angel Mode" by the end of the song or you will lose the game. If you get "Angel Mode" before the song is over you must keep it at "Angel Mode", because if you mess up, you will get "Devil Mode" and that can sometimes be very difficult to come back from. If you do not have "Angel" or "Devil" mode by the end of the song, you will lose the level. If your life gauge drops to the bottom, of course you will be "Booo'ed" off the stage.

The Graphics for this game are cute but... Not very great. I guess given the year it was released (2001 JP) it's not too terrible. Bright colors, big eyes, but blocky. No big deal though, you don't spend too much time looking at the graphics as you are mostly focusing on timing and pressure.

All of the music on this game is classical music, and I do believe it is the first music/rhythm game to feature classical music exclusively. Unfortunately, most don't enjoy classical music too much, so if you don't, I don't think you will appreciate this game. It's not good enough/moving enough to sway your opinion about it.

Overall: I give this game a 6.0 out of 10.
Pros: Quirky Japanese music/rhythm game, classical music.
Cons: Monotonous controls, less than impressive graphics

Games You Don't Play #3: Odin Sphere PS2

Hay guys, here I am again to shove my video game opinions down your throat! I've got a lot to talk about so I hope you've got the time.

This review is going to cover a more recent game release titled Odin Sphere for the
Playstation 2. I went through a lot of traveling just to get this game on release day and was even late for work because of it, only to find that I could walk into any Best Buy and pick it up. But, nonetheless, I have it and finally got around to playing it once I finished up some old business I had with another game (Mister Mosquito).
This title is a very visually stunning side-scrolling action RPG title that was amazingly picked up by the ever so wonderful Atlus company from VanillaWare. It does have a predecessor, Princess Crown for the Sega Saturn (JP Only) which was recently ported to the PSP. (JP Only as well, HELLO ATLUS LICENSE THIS!!!) It takes place in some sort of war-torn fairy world filled with sorcery, dragons and furries. I know what you're thinking... "Why the hell are YOU playing it then?" Well, it's a damn good game. That's why.
So let me enlighten you:

Graphics: Definitely not lacking here. Absolutely beautiful. It's very anime-inspired, yet it has it's own style. All of the environments are too good to be true, all of them having their own small details that catch your eye every so often, from butterflies in the background to shooting stars. All of the character design is fantastic. Each character is attractive in their own way (Except for Cornelius.. He's the ugliest bunny rabbit I think I've ever seen!) and I feel like I'd like to have all of their outfits. There are not many other games out there that have such well designed characters and backgrounds, especially in the 2D side-scrolling genre.

Controls: Everything seems almost flawless here. Not much I would change except for the lagging when battling the biggest bosses. Only lags at the most crucial points of the battle which can make things difficult, but somehow brings back some nostalgia from the SNES-era. Battling is very simple and straight forward yet takes some tactical planning as most RPG's do. At first I thought this might be your typical hack-and-slash your way through side-scroller but it's really not. Every enemy you fight (especially bosses) have their own things to avoid and sometimes you run out of food or healing tonic.

Story: Actually, it's quite engrossing. I didn't think it would be, but it is. Somehow, this game has me sucked in. It's really well written once you give it a chance. The story builds slow and doesn't give much back story in the beginning but if you stick with it, makes up for it later on. There is some great character development here and many intertwining relationships that somehow resemble a fairy-tale/soap opera hybrid. There are lots of dramatic twists and turns and plenty of surprises to be found. The give a great nod to a novel series, and the story plays out that way. Every cut scene is awesome, as some cut scenes in RPGs can get a little over the top or pointless, in this game, they are short but sweet and totally necessary to story development.

Music: Well, not much to say here. You're typical RPG music, for the most part. It's pretty, but not moving. Not annoying, but it does get repetitive at times. Just the same 30-second track looping over and over until you make it to the next scene.

Side Quests: Well, not really much here either. I could say that Alchemy and recipes are side-quests of some sort but not really. It is a cool mechanic in the game though!

Voice Acting: At first, it seemed a bit boring, but became very interesting later on. The voice actors are great in both Japanese and English, which is rare, as I find most voice actors in games to be pretty horrendous and bottom of the barrel actors in the first place. Also, the speech bubbles, while not absolutely necessary, are a great little add-on. I like them.

So, overall, this game is pretty good. I'm sucked in at the moment, as I played it from 8pm-4am last night. I really just can't get off it. I could honestly stare at the game for hours and not get bored. I wouldn't say it's the best game ever, nor the game of the year, but as stated in EGM, definitely the game of the month. Nothing quite like this has been released state-side so it's nice to see something original get released.

I give the game a 3 1/2 out of 5.

Recommended for: Hardcore RPG fans, quirky gamers, collectors, side-scrolling fans.

Sure to be a guaranteed rare game in years to come. Pick this one up while you can, because 5 years from now it won't be easy to find.

Games You Don't Play #1: Chulip PS2

Hey guys! This is my first game review! I hope you like it!

People that know me and know the kind of games I like to play would probably say that I like weird games, quirky games and cute games. It's true. I'm addicted to the oddities of the gaming world.
So, I'm at EB Games in Penn Square Mall (My corporate store of choice) and I'm scanning the PS2 wall. I see a game that I haven't seen or heard anything about, called "Chulip." I pick it up, look at the cover, see "Natsume" written in the bottom right corner, scan the back of it and decide to buy it. I really didn't know anything about this game when I bought it, I just thought "Oh this must be a little like 'Harvest Moon.'"
When I got home that night, I popped it into the PS2 and started playing.
My first impression? WTF.
Chulip starts off with your main character walking up to a tree. The tree suddenly has a very odd looking face erupt from a hole and then asks you your name. Then, a girl walks up to the same tree and stands next to you. It asks her name. It then proceeds to ask if you love each other, you say "Yes" and then it tells you to kiss.
You then wake up in the bed of a pickup truck, pulling up to a rickety old house. You're poor, moving into a new town with your father. The whole tree-girl thing was just a dream, but what a dream! You love this girl already!
Your father tells you to wander the town and one of the first people you meet is -- you guessed it! Your dream girl! But she hates you. You have a bad reputation and you've never kissed anyone before. You can try to tell her that you have, but she can see right through your lies. And this brings us to one of the main goals in the game -- Kissing!
I know what you're thinking... "Kissing?" Yeah, I know. How did this game make it to the U.S. shores?
So, you spend your time exploring the town you live in, talking to your neighbors and learning about them and their daily problems. Everyone here has something interesting to say, as Chulip doesn't skimp out on hilarious dialogue.
There's an older alcoholic woman that spends her time wandering the town sweeping, cleaning and gossiping; An unemployed musician that lives in a trailer; A metal Lion that works in the bath house and private tearoom (who knows what goes on in there at night?); And all sorts of other very interesting characters, above ground!
But then, there are the people who live underground as well. They are the ones that no one appreciates, they are depressed, lonely and they do all of the real work around the town. What purpose do they serve? Well, to make them happy, you kiss them of course! And when you kiss them, your heart becomes stronger. How do you know it becomes stronger?? When you go to sleep at night, your father reviews your day, how many people you've kissed, and then the same tree from your dream makes your heart grow.
You earn your reputation by helping various characters in the game and kissing. This is how you win the girl of your dream's heart.
The controls of the game are a bit wobbly, but tolerable. The gameplay, story, graphics, music and theme of the game make up for it big time. The clock is a bit irritating, but it only gives the game some challenge.
I'm really happy that a game like this got licensed in the United States. It's not very often that something this "out-there" is released here!! I'm definitely in love with this game. Everything about it. It just makes me.... Happy!
The character design is great. Fantastic even. It's been a good long while since I've seen such interesting and original character design.
The music, sound effects and voices used by the characters are also very interesting, entertaining and original. The NPC's speak a language that "kind of" sounds like Japanese, but it's not. It reminds me of Simlish(The Sims) or Animalese(Animal Crossing).
You sometimes have to dig through garbage cans to get items to sell to the local pawn shop, but sometimes you get an item called "Poopie" which takes your life away. You can sell it for 1Z (1 dollar).
You can buy cigarettes and smoke but it's illegal.
At some point you will appear naked in public, also illegal.
It even gives you the opportunity to commit suicide, sort-of. Play the game and see for yourself!
All in all, this game is awesome.

Thank you Natsume!

I give this game 3 1/2 out of 5, and I recommend it if you're a collector, japanophile or are into the very very strange.


Here's a video of some kissing on Chulip:

EB sucks!!!!

So every once in a while the boyfriend and I go up to EB despite the fact that we work at competetor stores. We know or KNEW the guys that worked up there, and they were cool with us as always.
We go up there today and two new guys were there, well maybe not new, but we had never seen them before...
The guys were pretty much dicks to me the entire time I was there. Treating me like I was a nobody, that I knew nothing of games, that I was nothing compared to them because they work at the almighty EB now merged with GameStop which gives them a whopping 4k stores. Big woop. Who cares. Since when did that mean anything.
I ask them if they are taking reserves for the Messiah. They ask me what system. HA. HA I SAY! I laugh. It's not for any system because it IS a system. Then they tell me that EB doesn't sell classic games. No, they don't, not in their stores. On their website they do. They wouldn't know that though. I worked for their company for a short short amount of time and hated it there. I know what they do there.
I try to be nice to the guys but they just keep on being dickheads to me. I asked them if I could have the cover art to a game.. Silpheed ... which isn't a popular game, which isn't even a game that they know anything about, it's just a game that I particularly like and happen to have, but don't have the original box art for it. Just some crappy Hollywood Video cover. Nope they won't do it. In fact they threaten to call mall security on me! What nerve! I am sure they feel very secure with their MALL SECURITY backing them up. Wonder what they'd do if they ever were robbed or actually threatened by a customer. Yeah it happens. It's happened to me, I don't need security guards. Fucking rent-a-pigs. Who cares.

So, in conclusion. My opinion of EB games has completely gone down the drain and I will never buy annything from their store again. I don't care if they have a new fucking copy of Rez or something. Fuck them. I better not ever see them in Game Crazy or I might have to call my own security. It's called "My foot in their ass". fuck them. pricks.