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Interactive entertainment

Multimedia Games: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Whether you loved them or hated them, this sort-of genre called “multimedia games” took the gaming market by storm during the 1990s. So much in fact that it seemed like this style of game was going to become the future of the medium. But then gaming engines began to render polygonal 3D objects and environments with ease to the point that it practically killed this type of game.

As for me -- I dug them. So I decided to gather a few games together of varying qualities so we can celebrate this now unique style of video games. In addition, this feature is chock full of multimedia goodness that includes videos, audio, animated gifs, hidden items, and a buttload of images. It’s practically a multimedia game in itself. So meta.

The continuation of an origins story

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

An installment to the Metal Gear Solid series where it was written and directed not by Hideo Kojima but from others on his staff *gasp*. But don’t fret, as he was on board to serve as producer to make sure things didn’t go out of control -- like in Metal Gear Solid 2. Tee-hee, just kidding. But jokes aside, it is a great game, even when on a portable console rather than one of the primary systems like the PS2 or PS3.

Actually, I neglected to play Portable Ops for the longest time. I always thought it was a story that was set in an alternate continuity to the mainline of the series, so I never felt it was important to play it. Once I heard it was related to Peace Walker and then that was related to Ground Zeroes, I had to play it so I can eventually play GZ. That’s just the kind of person I am: crazy.

Sir Putt-A-Lot's Merrie Olde Fun Centre

Itchy & Scratchy in Miniature Golf Madness

They fight,
They bite,
They bite and fight and bite,
bite, bite, bite,
fight, fight, fight,
The Itchy and Scratchy Show

Side note: apologies for the terrible screenshots. Will try to find a better way for any future Game Boy articles.

Let’s Rock

Guilty Gear X

As I believe I’ve already stated many times on this site: it was this game that got me back into the genre of fighting games.  I enjoyed wasting many hours and quarters on this game at the arcades and playing its port and then follow-up, Guilty Gear X2 at home on the PS2.  But shortly after that I quickly lost interest of the franchise after a massive amount of sequels that relied on a heavy dose of feature creep until the amazing Guilty Gear Xrd was released not too long ago.  But let’s not dwell on this period and instead celebrate and praise the game that blew us away with its hi-res sprites, crazy moves, and awesome soundtrack.

Are you ready?  It’s cool!  Let’s enjoy a great show time!!

Space Ninja

Strider 2

No doubt about it: ninjas are totally rad and Strider 2 proves it in a way video games can only do: with fast arcade action that has you slicing and dicing your enemies with such break neck speeds that it’ll be over before you know it.  Really, the game is super short, but the action is so concentrated it’s like getting a full days worth of caffeine from a small 5 ounce bottle.

This game is not for shabazos

Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble

Actually, this is the third game in the Kenka Bancho series from Japan.  THIS IS A FANTASTIC GAME!!!  I know, I’m hyping it up, but I was amazed of how well this game was when I finally got my hands on a copy.  Actually, other than a puzzle game like Lumines, this game has been replayed the most from my PSP collection.  It’s a shame that it appears like this is going to be the only game in the series to be ported to the states.  Atlus, thank you for taking the risk and bringing this one over state side.  If you decide to bring any more here to the US, you’ll definitely have a customer waiting.