Day -3: The First Game Is Chosen

Hello again everyone!  I am back with the second preview blog entry before I begin my Completion Challenge.  I listed all of the possible games I could play, and it totaled to 302.  Those compilation games sure do have a ton of games on them.  Anyway, I spent about five hours deciding which game I play to kick off this challenge.  But first, here's a little information about each of the final six choices.

1. Atari Anthology - Pong (PS2 - 2004): 

One of two Atari Anthology games to make it to the Final 6 Picks.  Pong itself is a game that has a simple concept, a long history, and is one game that I am horrible at playing.  I don't what it is, but I can never win when I play this.  Even on the most basic difficulty I have trouble.  I am good at playing tennis, so my lack of skill at playing Pong is baffling to me.  Maybe it's because I am so used to seeing the ball coming toward me that watching it from a different view is not something I can get used to.  I don't know.

One of things that makes Atari Anthology's Pong different compared to the original is the special modes that you can play the game on.  There's a Time Challenge, where you have only a limited time to get the most points.  Then there's Trippy Mode, where the colors become distorted (they call it a "mind-warping experience") and makes it very difficult to see where the ball and paddles are on the screen.  Next, your gaming experience is affected in Time Warp mode by the speed changing at random moments.  Fast or slow, you have to be able to change reaction times at a glance.  There's also a Double Speed mode, that plays the entire game in well, double the speed as normal.  And finally, in Hot Seat mode, the actual game you are playing will change.  I am not sure which games you play along with Pong, but I do know that it changes the game at random times, having you change your play style a lot.

However, this is not the game I will be playing.

2. Atari Anthology - Swordquest: Waterworld (PS2 - 2004):

I am a big fan of adventure games and RPGs.  I especially like the Final Fantasy series, with IX being my favorite (maybe, I haven't actually finished all of the ones I own - hence the reason why I am having this challenge and blog).  I know very little about the Swordquest games.  Basically, Atari has adventure games, and they are playable.  That's about it.  From a quick glance at the manual (Atari Anthology features the manuals and other fun information and facts in the Bonus Menu) I am to find the clues in the game that correspond to the correct frame numbers in the comic book of the game (which I can't seem to find in the menus if it is even there).  As for gameplay, it's a big puzzle with items that I have to put in the correct room and complete the game.  I think.  Anyway, since there is no chance for me to win the big contest and get that $25,000 crown (since the game came out in 1983), I am not sure how fun this game will actually be.  It seems kind of entertaining, though.

But sadly, this didn't get chosen as the first game to play.

3. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (GameBoy Advance - 2003):

As much as I am a fan of the Final Fantasy games, I am not a big fan of turn-based tactics and strategy games.  I have only finished one such game in my gaming career.  That was Future Tactics (PS2) last year.  I borrowed the game from someone, and had to finish it before he wanted it back.  I don't know if I prefer the originial FFT to FFTA, because I haven't finished either one.  From what I have played of both, they each have things I really don't like.  As this entry is about the Final 6 Picks, I will save any thoughts of the original Tactics for later.  As for what I don't like about this game, though, there's quite a few things

First, I don't like how the characters learn abilities.  It's the same way as in Final Fantasy IX, and I really like it then.  It's just that I would have to outfit the characters with the same things multiple times in order to get all of the abilities.  And since advanced jobs are linked with the quantity of the lower jobs, it's just too much.

Second, there are too many characters.  I prefer a RPG to have a small battle party, four being optimal.  With this game, there are just too many characters.  And then, you can send the ones you aren't using for battle on little sidequests.  Sure, it allows to not think about them for a little bit, but they are still there.  I think what my main problem with the amount of characters, equipment, and abilities is that I would have preferred to see all the information on one screen rather than having to switch screens all the time.  When I would attempt to play this game, I'd have my dry erase board filled with stat information, abilities and equipment logs, and character stuff.  There is just so much information, and because it wasn't all together on the screen, it may have led to my not wanting to finish it.

Third, the laws.  Oh my gosh, by the final boss fight the laws were outrageous.  And on top of that, I couldn't  negate the laws or change them!  During my last attempt at completing the game, I got to the second stage of the final boss fight.  I couldn't change the laws, and the characters I had available were not suited for the battle, and there was nothing I could do about it.  I even went and waited for "days" to get more preferable laws, but there would always be one law that would be stuck in there that would hinder me.  But the boss would still be perfectly capable of defeat me.

Thankfully, I am not playing this first!

4.  Midway Arcade Treasures 3 – Badlands (XBOX - 2005)

 

I have never actually played this game.  It was a game that came with the XBOX when my Mom gave it to us kids.  When she gave it to us, I was a "I am strict SONY gamer, and Microsoft sucks!" kind of person.  And at the time, I didn't like racing games, especially arcade style racing games.  I was not good at steering, or braking, or anything associated with the genre.  My brother was the racing game player in our house.

Anyway, this game takes place in post nuclear war era?  I don't really know what that looks like in this game.  If it's like Fallout 3, then it is definitely not somewhere that is not suited for driving.  From the manual's description of the game, you drive and you can shoot the other racers.  That's it.

By the grace of the gaming gods, this game did not win the first place spot.

5. Sega Genesis Collection - Comix Zone (PS2 - 2006):

This game is odd.  I haven't gotten past the first level, so I don't know how odd it actually is.  But from what I have played in the past, it's odd.  Here's the description from the SGC manual.

With his blond ponytail and tiny shades, comic book artist Sketch Turner is as hip as they come.  But all the hipness in the world won't help him when his own creations turn against him.  Mortus, the main villain in Sketch's comic book comes to life after a bizarre thunderstorm, blasting the artist into his own comic book where he must fight off an army of mutant warriors.

It's a pretty basic platform game.  It's has good graphics for it's time.  It came out in 1995, so it's graphics are most definitely better than that of the Atari Top 6 games.  It may or may not have a story to it.  I haven't gotten very far in it before, so I am not sure.

Though I was kind of looking forward to playing this one, it didn't win.  The next game I talk about is the one that will begin the challenge.

6. Sonic Unleashed (PS2 - 2007)

This is actually one game that I have finished before.  But the challenge is to finish every game I own in the 6 months, so even those games that I have completed are on the list.  Though I have finished the story, I haven't 100%'ed it.  There were still tons of things I needed to collect. But I know the basic story and what happens.

I think this is my favorite Sonic the Hedgehog game.  It's not just the fast hedgehog that can slide on pipes and run super fast in this game.  It has a precision element and battle mechanics that you don't normally see in a Sonic game.  And Chip is my all-time favorite character in the series now.  Beating out Tails and Cream.

So in this game, Sonic has been transformed into a Werewolf-type creature.  Every night his body changes into a gristly monster with some butt-kicking prowess.  Where his fast feet and legs are his strong point in the day light, at night his stretchy arms are massive punches take precedence.

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How did I go about choosing what game I would play?  In a way, it was randomized.  I had all of the games listed in alphabetical order.  Then to make it fun and not mind numbing, I went over to Board Game Online and played a few games there.  Every time the dice was rolled, I would go down the list and mark off one of the games.  I played five games today.  Here's the breakdown:

Round 1: 302 started, 234 moved on to the next round

Round 2: 234 started, 110 moved on to the next round

Round 3: 110 started, 58 moved on to the next round

Round 4: 58 started, 6 moved on to the next round

Round 5: 6 started, 1 won the chance to be played first.

Anyway, that's how I got to choose which game would start off this challenge.  On Monday, I will play as much as possible so I can get it done and move on to the next one.  Now, I won't move on down the list.  It will be a completely different evaluation to see which one gets played next.  And chances are that I will have more games by the time I have to pick one to play after this first one.

The next entry is probably going to come up on Sunday evening.  I think I will try and do a marathon gaming session starting at Midnight on July 1, 2013.  So the entry on Sunday will be the big kickoff entry.  Here's hoping everything goes well with you, and have fun with what ever it is you choose to do!

Michael, aka me3lingual, aka 情郎