kisrael

Yeah, I read about the memcard trick, and applied it to get a peak at all the games. I still resent the attitude tho! I often think of the ocean of monkey target, how the ocean floor must be littered with hundreds and hundreds of tiny monkey balls...

I always found each PSX shoulder button too similar to its pal on that side to be intuitive. Genesis too had a bit of "too many too similar buttons" Kudos to Nintendo, not only for reviving the analog stick (and putting four of them into the system) but for always figuring out how to sensilby group their buttons...from the SNES' brilliiant "second crosspad" layout on up. The new Z button strains that a bit, but they gave it a different enough feel that it's not that confusing.

Just another data point, so far I've been a little underwhelmed by the game... First off, I've never liked the one player mode. I'll keep chugging along until I get to one that I just don't have the capacity to deal with; on medium-difficulty challenge mode it's "reversible gear", on world 4 of story it's the one with the big spider walker. And I hate that they lock out the new and interesting multiplayer games and force you to play the damn one player mode; as if to add insult to injury, you HAVE to play it alone, you can't even score play points by doing multiplayer challenge. (This isn't as bad as some games, that have the same "must master 1 player mode to open up multiplayer features" but where the 1 player game is much the same as the mulitplayer; that tends to make one person get better than all your friends...) And yeah, I know about the memory card trick...that's how I can do the following reviews :-) As for the specifics of the multiplayer... Monkey Target 2 is...I dunno, too different. The original used to be a serious challenge (and believe you me I'm not the biggest fan of challenge for challenge's sake) but this new one seems too too easy to steer, and just a random item collection fest. (The I never liked how in the original the rightmost pyramid of the 2nd level was an easy pts bonanza compared to the other levels) Monkey Fight...I dunno. I think there's a strategy that I'm missing, some little element that lets me get my ass kicked all the time. I liked Monkey Boat, but my friends hate it, 'cause they suck at it so badly. Monkey Baseball would be cooler if it was actually baseball. And that roulette wheel screws thing up. Monky Shot is...very unmonkeyballish, frankly. Too tough to know if you're doing well or not. Monkey Soccer...ehh, it's no Sega Soccer Slam. Monkey Tennis...ehh, it's no Mario Tennis. Both of those last two could stand to have more monkey ball inertia. Monkey Race 2 is pretty cool, as is Monkey Dogfight. Haven't tried Bowling Pool or Golf yet. In short...I dunno, sometimes it feels like a big substitute till Mario Party, Mario Kart, and Mario Tennis come out for the system. It's not bad, and I haven't really gotten into it enough to make a final judgement, but that's my opinion after one night.

I humbly suggest my walkthrough: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/dreamcast/f...le/bangai_o.txt includes that pesky level 25! I think the game is worth plowing through. The very final boss, though, is a real bear to beat.

Wing Commander. Star Control 2. Doom. Good times, good times.

Got it a few days ago. About 12 or 13 Shines in. I'm trying to play the game casuall for a change, not rush through it all in marathon sessions, but just a few shines here and there. Trying to stay light on the FAQs as well. :-) Maybe Mario 64 already did this so there's no need to do it again, but I kind of miss how Mario 64 was such a cool update of all the great old 2D stuff. That's one of the reasons I'm such a Nintendo fanboy, their ability to call on a rich legacy of familar visual designs... In making it a single place, and tying it all into a rough island theme, Sunshine makes the whole thing a little more generic. Subworlds like Banjo-Tooie, way too much talking with random townspeople ala Zelda, etc. (Plus, some effects seem duplicated; maybe Nintendo is trying for a signature style, but hear the little "tink tink tink" of treasure from Luigi's Mansion (not to mention the whole backpack idea!), a very Zelda-like warp, etc) So I'm liking it. The rollercoaster in the amusement park was great. Still, I can see why this game isn't the end all and be all for the system.

Nah, there's no jury, no verdict. And I don't even want to take a vote, because "Robot Tank" seems to have the greater number of fans. I just find it much less satisfying of a game, and think Battlezone is the most amazing technical feat I've seen on the 2600. Robot Tank has: fast kinetic gameplay, weather/night conditions, neat up-n-down effect as it travels, and variable damage. Battlezone has: a realistic 3D model, two enemies at once, 4 different types of enemies, and the tanktreads move realistically. So you can take your pick. (Any other features I missed for either?) I don't remember the Robot Tank death scene but the Battlezone one sticks in my head...I should check out the former.

Battlezone is so much better than Robot Tank...it's a real *world*, people! You can hear a bullet fired offscreen, figure out which of the two dots on your radar it likely came from, slam your tank into reverse and watch the bullet pass harmlessly ahead...a far cry from Robot Tank's "if I can't see the bullet it can't see me" gameplay with a tank that steers like a gokart based turret. Weather, shmether. For both techincal achievement and pure gameplay, Battlezone has it over Robot Tank hands down.