This is not actually a blog about Zombies, it's a short review of a GBA game I wrote in June and I was supposed to post with two other short reviews that I never finished and thus never posted. Also, I'm adding what i'm playing at the moment. It's not very interesting, but here it is anyway:

Ghost Rider (GBA)

You might be wondering why I played a licensed game made by the developers of gems such as Gormiti: Lords of Nature! and Ed, Ed n’ Eddy: Jawbreaker and based on a shitty movie no less. Well, wonder no more, my brother was throwing away some of his stuff which included his old ass first gen GBA and a fuckton (over 30) of games, I told him I could take all of it for a reasonable (read: free) price and he accepted and the rest, as they say, is history.

The game itself is surprisingly good, especially considering that it is based on one of the lousiest superhero flicks out there, starring everyone’s favorite terrible, terrible actor. But it doesn’t really bother to retell story of the movie here, or…any kind of story really, it does have a few static scenes that pop up every now and then to set up the next level but it doesn’t really bother to tell who the characters are or why they’re doing what they’re doing, it all comes down to this: Mephisto is the bad guy and Ghost Rider has to beat the shit out of him. Maybe it’s because I’m not so familiar with the GR lore but I didn’t find the lack of story as something worthy of bitching about, it doesn’t need it and not having one doesn’t take anything away from it.

This is a beat em’ up through and through and a very simple one at that. It only has two attack buttons, one for punches and another for his classic hell chain or whatever the hell it’s called in the comics, which is not nearly as useful as in the Castlevania games and for the most part can only be used against enemies that are far and bosses. The only other button that it’s used is R for jumping, which really is kind of awkward and uncomfortable for the first few levels. There’s absolutely no strategy necessary here but the game still manages to be fun.

Here’s the thing, even though the combat is overly simple and archaic, it is still addictive as hell and the variety of challenging enemies and new abilities that can be purchased through the adventure keep it from becoming tedious and repetitive.

There’s another part to the game and that’s a few motorcycle levels straight out of Road Rash where Rider (I’m calling him that from now on) has to chase and beat the shit out of his enemies and avoid obstacles at the same time. These levels keep the same simplistic approach as the action ones and still remain addictive and more exciting than I would’ve expected.

Again, I’m not very familiar with the Rider mythos so I couldn’t tell you how close it sticks to the comics in terms of the level design. But I will tell you this, it is a very good looking game with some really nice effects, and the character animation is also well done. The sound…not so much, I mean I won’t lie, the three tunes they use through the game are very good, the problem is…there are only three tunes, it gets repetitive after a while.

It’s not overly long or hard, and there’s little reason to go back to it once it’s done, but I had a lot of fun with this game, to the point where I can say this is one of my favorite games I’ve played on the GBA. Not that I’ve played many GBA games, but hey that’s gotta be worth something right?

Overall:

Good:

• It’s addictive and doesn’t overstay its welcome
• Looks pretty awesome
• Johnny Cage is nowhere to be found

Bad:

• Only three songs in the whole thing, it drives you crazy after a while.
• Jumping with R is awkward
• Blade makes an appearance but you can’t play as him
• I’m pretty sure I just spoiled that, but it’s ok cause you’ll never play this

Result: 3 Spiderman 2 out of Batman Arkham Asylum

Currently Playing

• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: I'm pretty much a Zelda fanboy so of course i'm loving this game. I'm liking the small changes more than all the motion control stuff, which is great but I find that the small additions such as the stamina bar and the breakable shields make it more immersive than the actual controls. I'm also liking the change of the overworld-dungeon-overworld-dungeon formula. On the bad side, the music, while great, is not nearly as memorable as one could expect from a Zelda title. I'm not sure how far I am to the finish line but it's probably my game of the year already.
• Rayman Origins: This is a very fun, somewhat frustrating, weird and hilarious game. I love the crazy style and there's a lot of variety to keep it from getting boring. It's pretty awesome and it's too bad that it didn't do too well because it's one of the best platformers of this generation.
• Sin & Punishment: Star Successor: This I got early this year but I hadn't really touched it until now. I'm not much of a rail-shooter person but i'm enjoying it on short burst. It's fun, which is more than I can say for most games in this genre.

Soon i'm gonna be doing a GOTY blog, because it's mandatory. I'm gonna try to do something a bit different than most people considering I haven't played an awful lot of games released this year, so hope you'll read that.

Until next time.