2004 was a big year for the PC. Which I may not be covering here but it is worth bringing up Half Life 2 and World of Warcraft. Honestly if HL3 ever comes out it’ll never live up to the expectations it has gained as time has gone by. More than the game itself Steam launching had the most overall effect on video games to this day. After all who buys a physical PC/console games anymore? ( I know a lot of people can’t embrace the digital future thanks to a data cap like me. But the majority seem to have access to unlimited internet.) WoW never quite clicked for me but it did bring in the modern era of massively multiplayer online games. So many developers tried to ride the MMO money train and failed. Being the first has its advantages as noted by how popular WoW is to this day.

Switching back to my main focus for now. Which doesn’t have that much going on. Nintendo released the DS but I’m going to cover that in the next paragraph. They also revealed the Revolution which would eventually turn into the Wii. Neither Sony or Microsoft did anything of note this year. With nothing else going on it is worth mentioning that Sammy bought Sega this year. I can’t say that it caused the downward trend but the quality of Sega products started to falter around this time. We’ll sadly get to see part of that transition soon thanks to a few poor decisions I ended up making.

Nintendo DS

How far we’ve come in how we regard touch based devices since the original DS launched. They just weren’t as widespread as they are now. Adding the new layer of touch to video games was a great idea. So Nintendo got the ball rolling and now we have the insane amount of touch based video games on our phones today. Some of the other features of the DS would be the dual screens. It mostly allowed developers to put menus on the bottom screen while allowing the top screen to continue the action that would have been obscured otherwise. Not really the most useful thing ever but it did bring some quality of life improvements to games. Meanwhile the mic was a pointless addition that added nothing but a few mini games. I managed to keep my original fat DS through the entire lifecycle. It just kept continuing to work although the battery barely keeps a charge anymore. For me this device ended up being a great game to play adventure games on compared to just about anything else.

2004

The end is nigh for the virtual and real world. Kite and co still haven’t been able to stop the virus. They’ve finally found a way to fight back with a anti virus but the best it can do is stop it from moving. Wounding the virus and then finishing it off with Kite’s hacking arm is the only way to defeat it. Which I assume they do at some point during this game. Once again nothing has changed from the last part. Combat is still the same with only the story being the only thing new. I may have bought it to see the entire picture but it wasn’t worth the effort. Some of these parts really feel like filler episodes in a anime and that is almost never a good thing. In the end nothing of note really happening in some of these parts really sapped any interest I originally had for this series.

It’ll be a while before we see another James Bond game. At least we get to end on a high note. Everything Or Nothing is another original story. I didn’t quite pay attention to the story thanks to the issues I was having running this on my PC. My PS2 laser decided to die so I don’t have any other way to play these games. Anyway looks like nanomachines have been created and James must save a scientist that has been captured by some evil group of terrorists. This game really goes for it with all the explosions. After the intro level where you blow up a bunch of vehicles the 2nd one starts by by blowing up a factory that constantly causes explosions as the player makes their way down the tower. I should also note that this game is not a walk in the park. Not using cover is a great way to die. Enemies easily sap all of Bond’s health away in a few shots even on normal. I’m pretty sure I appreciated the challenge and the fun narrative in this game when it came out. Hard to get a feel for it now but I do think it is still a fun game.

The Chronicles Of Riddick has just about everything I like about story focused FPS. An interesting tale is formed as Riddick makes his way through the grimy underbelly of the prison. With the undercurrent always being about how he’ll escape. To make his escape he’ll need to brawl/shoot/sneak his way through many different areas. First person fighting is hard to do but it works well in most 1v1 situations. Multiple enemies is kinda annoying but it isn’t an issue most of the time. I remember the shooting being one of the weakest links on the Xbox. While the stealth being just okay even if I’m always bad at it. All together it is a well rounded package that really shows that it is once again possible to create a interesting environment to explore from the first person point of view.

Oh this is pretty much Taiko Drum Master huh? Somehow I didn’t realize that fact till picking this back up again to play it for this retrospective. Instead of taiko drums we get a plastic pair of bongo drums to hit along with the music. Left, Right, both and side are all the notes the player will need to hit to succeed. Hitting them in time with the music is the entire game. Although it does have some mini games that I wasn’t able to check out since it required me to play enough to unlock them. The music is all over the place. A assortment of Nintendo themes mixed up a bunch of classic rock. Pop songs and classical music also fill out the rest of the setlist. Seems like a fun game to pull out for a bit of fun but not sure if it has much staying power.

I do like how Goku keeps his level from game to game. At least it seems that way with him being level 60 in the introduction stage. This picks up right after Goku dies again at the end of the Cell saga and continues till the DBZ crew manage to beat down the evil Buu thus ending the series. Or at least would have been if they didn’t keep bringing it back. Anyway the biggest additions to the gameplay this time happen to be the power to block attacks and equipable items. Pretty much making this a full fledged action RPG. Gotta give it up to the developers they did keep improving on the formula each time..

A new device has launched so obviously the best way to try out a new system is to make a mini game collection. Well at least they went in a weird direction with this game. Between having everyone look like they are from a Ipod commercial and the many bizarre mini games like trying to put out a giant candle before catching the rub rabbits on fire. Yes the main character is apart of a troup of performers called the Rub Rabbits. He is using their performances to impress a girl who he has fallen in love with even if she doesn’t seem interested. At the time of release this was a great use of the features the DS was touting. Not as impressive anymore but thanks to the humor it is fun to see what crazy thing the player will have to do next.

The first of the many Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles games. I completely forgot that SquareEnix brought this back years later until I looked it up after I played through the first level. This first game was presented as a multiplayer game. Although in some cases this might be better solo. At least then someone doesn’t have to carry a bucket around for most of the game. Going solo means a mog gets to do all the heavy lifting while I blow away the malboro that is protecting one of the trees of life. The world of Crystal Chronicles is full of miasma and only the myrrh from specific trees allows a settlement to survive the year. But to gain enough myrrh the player must travel around the world to collect enough to survive while learning more about the world as they visit new places. As a spin off game this is alright and it has a certain charm with how it presents each new dungeon as a tale that has been told to many generations of adventurers.

Do you like anime? How about shooting a metric ton of bullets at enemies? If you said yes to both of those questions you should like this game. Grave is the main protagonist who happens to be undead. So at least he has a reason for being a silent protagonist. He likes to shoot things in effort to support Mika who is one of the few things he can remember about his previous life. His new goal is to support her as he takes on the villainous Mafia don and a organization called SEED. Their overall goal is to take over the world and the only way to stop them is to shoot them a lot. Grave does have a melee attack as well but it isn’t more than a 3 hit combo. Which is fine since shooting stuff works. The entire game is pretty much just one corridor of dudes to blow away over and over again. So it does make up for the fact it is super linear a little bit by having 2 other playable characters. Although I didn’t get to see them during this session.

So I have a lot of games as you should be able to tell by now. Yet with each one I can still remember playing them. Except I don’t remember this game at all. None of the characters or the fact I got a cow from day one is within my memories. The farm in general seems like it is set up to raise a bunch of animals instead of growing crops. The field is full of grass to use as fodder and it looks like the section where I can grow crops is super small. Oh well it is still harvest moon even if I remember nothing about it at all.

The type of games I ended up buying around this time does let you know what I was watching on TV. This was the height of interest in anime which died down a bit after this point. Uh the best way to sum up Inuyasha is that it is DBZ but in the feudal era. Inuyasha is half demon but he grows to learn love etc. But that doesn’t matter at all with this game since it is a side story about a character that must learn the secret of the cursed mask to return home. At the start you pick either a boy or girl and a lengthy animated intro ensues where they accidentally gets thrown back in time by falling into a hole. Typing that out really shows how dumb this premise is huh. Anyway the gameplay is a run of the mill turn based RPG. Nothing new or flashy about it thus leading this to be a game I didn’t put much time into in the past. Looking at it with a 2016 perspective I really don’t have anything to add. Overall just a bland JRPG.

This game is alright but I can’t say that I wasn’t bummed that this wasn’t just a normal action RPG. Including cards into action games seems like a thing that comes up a lot. Nothing too fancy though with very little time spent making a deck. Especially with Riku’s side of the story which just gives you a set of cards that must be used well to succeed. Meanwhile in Sora’s side of the story the deck is customizable. Battles play out in real time with the player continuing to use cards till either the enemy beats the number on his card or you win. I do like that cards aren’t consumible with the only downfall for using a lot is that you’ll need to reshuffle your deck after using them all once. Much better than any other mix of action/rpg/card game I’ve played up to this point.

Nippon Ichi Software may not diverge from their style of gameplay often but you can’t say that they don’t take time to create a unique setting for every other game they make. La Pucelle follows in the shadow of Disgaea while twisting some of the mechanics in a new way that could make them feel fresh. For one this isn’t a game about creating a party of characters instead the focus is on capturing strong monsters that will then be used to fill out your ranks. The geo pad system has been extended where you can make crazy long combos if you position your characters correctly to extend it out. Meanwhile this tale is about Prier a nun who is apart of a group that hunts down demons. With the help of her little brother Collette and her teacher Alouette they go down the path of learning about who the true divine maiden is. Which requires a lot of monster killing. This might be the only NIS game that I ended up beating before they started re-releasing them. Once this style of games started to show up on mobile again later I actually liked them better than before. Which you will see when the PSP launches.

This is depressing game since it has so much potential. With the disguise mechanics this could have easily been a great Hitman like game. Instead the controls are less than stellar making all of the encounters feel like you're a bumbling master thief who doesn’t know what he is doing. That may fit in with Lupin’s image somewhat but it doesn’t make a fun playing game. Especially early on sneaking around is almost impossible on a train. Requiring the player to use a costume to get by which is way too easy. Just salute everyone you see and they won’t expect a thing. I do think this gets harder as the game goes along with addition of characters like Zenigata who can see through any disguise. Other than Lupin the rest of his gang is playable. All of them feel bad no matter if you're trying to shoot guys with Jigen or slash them with Goemon it doesn’t feel like you have much control at all. At least the one thing this does do is recreate the show perfectly. So if you don’t mind the clunky controls it could be worth playing if you're a Lupin the 3rd fan.

Far as I can tell this is a pinnacle of Mario Tennis games. The overly produced CG intro is only the beginning. So the tennis part is mostly the same but they decided to introduce power shots to add a bit more danger to these matches. Each character has a unique shot like Bowser setting the ball on fire with his offensive shot. A defensive power shot lets the player catch a ball they missed for one more chance at turning the tide. Both of these need to be charged before use. This addition adds some comeback potential while also giving a good player the tools to dominate. So it might not be that balanced. Some of the additional mini games actually feel like unique games instead of just a variation on tennis. Like fighting a giant mecha bowser by flinging magical light balls from your tennis racket. Overall a great game that I feel like didn’t need any more follow ups but uh yeah many more will come out even if I didn’t buy them.

I’m no emulation expert but this seems pretty spot on with my memory of Mega Man 4/8. Can’t really say much about the rest since I never played them till I owned this collection. Other than having Mega Man 1-8 this also included Mega Man The Power Battles 1 & 2. Which were arcade games that had the player take on a bunch of old bosses one after another without any stages between them. Here is a few things I noticed about a few of the games. Mega Man 1 was the only game that put enemies within the boss hallway. MM7 was the first time this series had a intro stage before putting the player at a boss screen.So they pretty much just copied MMX. Overall a awesome collection of games that was only really missing Mega Man & Bass at this point in time.

The original MGS was 90’s anime mixed with the action movies of its era while this remake is all about the time period it came out. Hope you like the matrix along with a bunch of over the top crazy stunts cause that is what some of the cutscenes have turned into. As for the game it closely follows what Konami added in MGS2. Adding in the FPS perspective and a bunch of lockers is the main gameplay gimmicks they included with this release. Along with a bunch of dog tags to collect if you're a crazy person. The new way they styled the story may not work for everyone but I didn’t mind the crazy nature of this remake. Plus it is the better playing version of the game too since the ability to shoot in first person makes a lot of the annoying early fights more enjoyable to play.

In every way this is more Paper Mario. A new world to explore and another set of stars to collect to unlock the thousand year old door. Timing jumps and other attacks are still apart of Mario’s repertoire. New sidekicks await him like Goombella which might be the most similar one to a previous partner Goombario since she has the same skill to tattle on a enemy. A new adventure was all I needed to playthrough another Paper Mario game because I quite enjoy the writing and the gameplay of this series. At least when it originally came out. A 30 hour RPG isn’t something I got into lightly these days although I wouldn’t mind replaying this game.

Why is this a weird card game? Is it because Sega wanted to reuse the assets from the first game again? They didn’t think anyone would appreciate another remix dungeon crawling game huh. I mean it is obvious that this was on a budget. No fancy CG intro and a bunch of reused assets from the previous game doesn’t make this feel like the big follow up game a lot of fans wanted. Okay I’ve went on for far too long about how this game wasn’t what I wanted. As a card game this does a good job of giving the player a challenge to overcome when playing as a hunter. Most of the time is spent using cards to equip your hunter and then attack your opponent if you have enough AP. Meanwhile during the enemies turn they are able to summon monsters which I believe is the skill set of the darkside. Which is the other choice you could pick instead of playing as the heroside at the start of the game. In the end this game works and it is a fine playable card game. I just wish I enjoyed playing it.

This is the 2nd NIS game I’ve played this year. Once again this is a variation of their standard turn based setup. The main difference this time is that every character is a ghost except for Marona. Who has the curse of being able to hear and summon them into battle. Well from her point of view it is a gift but it seems like everyone else is racist against anyone who has her power. But she believes if they keep helping people eventually everyone will learn to not fear her power. From the gameplay perspective this is a lot like the rest of these games. Summon guys and defeat every enemy in each stage. It has small variations like having to summon the ghosts by imbuing them into a objects like a tree. Plus the movement is now no longer on a grid. Instead everyone has a giant circle that they can move around and attack foes. Overall a fine game that I never put that much time into. Sure I bought it but I do have a big issue of never actually finishing anything.

Well this is the closest a fan of this series got to a full 3D pokemon game till X/Y came out recently. In some ways it;s interesting that Nintendo decided to go in a different direction with this story. The game starts off with the protagonist stealing a prototype suit from team Snatchem. Odd that they give him some personality here since for the rest of the game he is a silent protagonist who goes around freeing pokemon from their trainers. Yet they didn’t change the gameplay any which is still turn based combat where you pick a move and try to always have a type advantage over your opponent. Well at least this sequel to the Pokemon Stadium series has a story compared to the previous games. So it is the best game by default unless you really like mini games.

I’m glad I got to play this remake of River City Ransom. It has a lot of features that make me enjoy playing beat em ups to this day. For one this is the first game that mixed RPG with the beat em up genre. Powering up your player character via food and other random items was neat. Plus it all but forces the player to keep replaying the game getting ever closer to the end via constantly leveling up. With default stats the player has no chance in taking on some of the later bosses thus ending in a game over. Since the stats you upgraded along the way are kept you will have to keep trying till you succeed. Gameplay wise this is just a normal beat em up although you do unlock special moves to use on enemies. The story is just an excuse for two punks named Alex and Ryan to beat up a bunch of thugs to save Alex’s girlfriend Cydni. Aka the plot of Double Dragon. This reminds me that someone kickstarted a sequel to this huh. River City Underground...

The first of many spin off titles in the Warriors franchise. With Koei being a Japanese company I’m somewhat surprised they didn’t try to make something more relatable to their audience first. But going by all the games that bring up the Romance Of The Three Kingdoms that must be a big thing in Japan as well. When booting this up I was surprised to see EA helped bring this game over. As a video game this is pretty similar to the previous titles. Beat up an army with the power of only one man is still the main goal. Just that it is now set in Japan during the the era in which gunpowder was first getting introduced. I do appreciate them including the true if a bit over the top end of each character that was based on someone in history. Along with including a create a character mode that lets the player create their own Samurai Warrior. Even if you don’t have that many options and is mainly used to include a bunch of mini games from the previous games.

Looking at this game today I have to wonder why I didn’t play more of it back when it was first released. After all it isn’t like we see very many fantasy WWI games. It even has timing based attacks in the combat. Along with a simplistic combo that forces the player to lose a turn to do even more damage. Requiring a bit of skill from the player is always a plus from my perspective when I play a video game. The overall narrative about a german lieutenant named Karin who was sent to deal with a demon could go somewhere interesting. Or it could just be a save the world story. Hard to tell from the first dungeon which just has Karin raid a tower at the vatican that is apparently full of monsters. I should come back to this game at some point. But I can say that about a lot of games and time certainly isn’t on my side.

Over the many years Nintendo has gotten really good at remaking old games and reselling the games back to us. Super Mario 64 DS is a prime example of that. In the case of this remake they actually added a reasonable amount of new content to check out. One of the biggest additions is adding in 3 new playable characters who all have at least one new skill like Yoshi’s ability to breathe fire. Instead of Mario being the primary hero Yoshi gets his chance to shine after Mario,Luigi and for some reason Wario get caught in Bowser’s trap. Leaving it up to Yoshi to traverse his way through the castle and free them all. An additional 30 stars have been added to the game although I don’t remember them being as fun to collect like the original 120. Since the main campaign gives the player zero reason to use any of the features of the DS they added in a bunch of mini games into a rec room. The different mini games use the touch screen and the microphone. Nothing too mind blowing with a set of casino games and other random mini games like bomb bomb pachinko. Overall not a bad remake of SM64 if you felt like revisiting it.

The Tales Of series in general has one big strength over other games.That strength is the skit system. It allows Namco to spend more time fleshing out their characters over time. Seeing the parties perspective on whatever is going on in the story is neat. As for Tales Of Symphonia this was my first time I ever checked out a Tales game. Real time combat was what I always preferred in my RPG around this time so it is easy to see why this left a big impression on me. Slashing up monsters is just better when you're hitting buttons all the time instead of waiting around for a enemy to attack. Although I have grown to like both types of gameplay.

Sometimes a developer has a crazy idea that doesn’t quite work. That is the case with Under The Skin. A kooky alien named Cosmi must pass his prank exam and he decides to take it on the toughest planet around Earth. We humans just can’t take a joke which is to bad since the goal is to comically annoy everyone in a area to steal all their coins. Each level has a 10 minute time limit in which Cosmi must disguise himself as a human and use a assortment of gags to prove that he is the master of jokes. Coins are always the goal with 500 being the first minstone you must reach in the first level. Some stages have a small variation on that rule like the one based in Racoon City. Instead of a vs match it is coop with the goal being to reduce all of Nemesis's coins before the time limit runs out. I should also bring up that this has zero staying power. Unless you end up failing an objective you can beat this within 90 minutes. The only replay value this game has after that is the 2 player mode which could be fun.

No one seemed to want to buy any of their games but Cover studios were just good at creating fun games to play. Once again cel shading proves that a game that came out in 2004 can still look good today. Plus the addition of a dodge mechanic makes this a much more interesting beat em up to play through. The addition of adding in the ability to dodge lets the player be able to feel awesome if they clear a room without getting hit. The additional powers Joe has in his viewtiful state are useful as well. Going from the start I only got to see the slow power which slows down time to hit spinning enemies. Along with making his punches hurt more than normal. At the end of each level it is possible to upgrade Joe with new skills and more health if your getting hit a lot. I’m surprised Capcom hasn’t tried to make a HD edition of this series since that is all they are doing right now.

Not very many games try to limit the player via a time limit. Way Of The Samurai 2 is one of those games. Compared to the first game it doesn’t force you to focus on what you want to do in each playthrough. A flexible time limit is good but the thing everyone remembers is the fact it is possible to go down one of many paths to get a different ending. Maybe you want to help the magistrate become the hot stuff around town or even be a samurai of the people.

From the perspective of the gameplay you’ll be running around town doing jobs to earn some yen which you can then use to buy health items or upgrade your sword. The base sword isn’t very powerful and the main way to gain new ones is by defeating one of the notable swordmen in town within one of the endings. After you obtain a nice sword you can upgrade it at the blacksmith which can only be done so many times before it has a chance to break.As for the combat with said sword it is basic square or triangle combos. Which can be changed slightly depending on which way you hold the analog stick. New attacks can be learned by how much the player uses the weapon. Whenever I play this I always think about the original game. It was a much shorter adventure but in a Dead Rising like way the shortness actually helped make me want to replay it many times. Unlike WOTS2 which is a tad bit too long for me to constantly want to replay it.

Worms works so well in 2D. To bad the transition to 3D wasn’t the best idea. The biggest problem of putting the worms into a full 3D environment it is that it is even harder to judge shots compared to the previous games. Not being able to judge how far my opponent is made every long shot miss its target. Not a great first impression which had to be the same thing I thought when I first played this game back it when first came out. The campaign mode did have a bit of a upgrade. Still mainly told via text but this time they seem to be referencing a bunch of movies going by the first level which is Omaha beach Which is better than nothing? Oh well this is easily my least favorite worms strategy game.

Action RPG’s and superheroes is just something that works well together. X-men Legends is the game that started this trend on consoles. Story wise this begins with the kidnaping of a powerful mutant girl named Alison. The X-Men are obviously not going to let that happen so they leap to her rescue. The game continues from there with a bunch of random set pieces where you must face a cavalcade of villains till you come out on top. The story is just an excuse to let the player form a team of 4 X-Men that run around areas beating up random thugs with their powers. You have access to a normal and heavy attack along with a selection of special moves. In the form of active moves like Cyclops optic blast or passive skills like Wolverine’s mutant healing ability. Overall this formula works which is why they continued to make this style of game for quite a few years.

Conclusion

Looking over this list now a lot of these games have a similar art style although a few standouts are present. Most of these were inspired by anime or use a visual trick to emulate the style of a comic book. Plus we’ve gotten to the point where this is pretty much my taste in games today. I’m up for trying new things but the main things I like are here. Like the many variations on the RPG formula that has changed over time. But wherever the numbers light up on my screen I’ll most likely be there. Retro style games or old games in general is a thing I continue to like. After all I wouldn’t be putting this blog together every week if it wasn’t something I enjoyed. Which kinda means I just like video games in general. Oh well no exciting or unique conclusion this time.