Last Week's Games: Hydro Thunder Hurricane, Lock's Quest, Shinobi III, Streets of Rage II, Vectorman 2 and The Story of Thor

With a well-received week off one of my two jobs, I found myself with a bit more time to play games this week, including some important finishers. Let’s see what they were:

I recently downloaded Hydro Thunder Hurricane for free from Xbox Live Gold, and inspired by Youtube’s MetalJesusRocks, who likes games like this, I thought I’d give it a go. It’s a speedboat racing game, and is good fun; it has a good selection of modes and there’s plenty to unlock. I probably won’t ever complete it, as some of the achievements rely on local multiplayer of all things; I currently only have one controller. But I’ll dip in to it now and then to see what it’s got to offer.

Also I had another look at a game I’d been meaning to finish for roughly five years and have now got round to coming back to: Lock’s Quest on the Nintendo DS. I started the campaign again as I’d forgotten most of the plot and the mechanics, but I found it coming back to me quickly enough, even if I had forgotten how hard the game is! I’ll try and get to the end of it this time, when it’s convenient for me to be playing a handheld system.

But the Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection is still in my Xbox360 and is not leaving any time soon. I can’t think of any other Xbox360 game other than XCOM: Enemy Unknown that I’ve got more mileage from during the time I’ve had the console. I gave Shinobi III another go, and very nearly got to the end. I lost on the last stage; the fighting is easy enough but at one point you come into a section of the final level where most of the floors and walls are electrified, and you need some precision platforming in order to survive; I just don’t have the right set of skills! Also, during a quiet night at work, I transcribed the tune “Whirlwind” from the game’s soundtrack into Guitar Pro. One of my hobbies is listening to old video game music and transcribing them; it’s a great way to train my musical ear!

I attacked Streets of Rage II as well, because why wouldn’t I. Once again I fell down on the last boss rush, however I’ve been varying my runs by playing as Axel every so often. Normally I would play Max, but Axel has his own charm. His Grand Upper attack does a huge amount of damage, and spamming it is a great approach to most of the bosses, but I find other aspects of his style a little hard to deal with – he’s nowhere near as good with the heavy weapons as Max.

I played, and to my surprise beat, Vectorman 2. After being stuck on the fifth level for goodness knows how long, I took a more methodical approach to playing the game, and got to the eleventh level with a good amount of lives in reserve. Feeling that I had a good chance of beating the game, I ploughed ahead to the end and did just that. You can read my full review here.

Finally, I played the oddly-titled The Story of Thor. Oddly-titled because in North America and Europe it’s actually called Beyond Oasis, which makes more sense in the context of the game, and also the story has nothing to do with any iteration of the character Thor that I am aware of. It was called The Story of Thor in Japan. Nonetheless, it’s a pretty good Zelda-like RPG, designed for the Mega Drive’s 6-button controller and with surprisingly good graphics and sound. I’ve enjoyed my time with it so far, though I’ve only got as far as I needed to unlock the Water shrine, which is what I needed to do to get the achievement points.

This brings my quest to get all the achievement points for the Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection to an end, and it’s been quite a journey! There’s still mileage out of some of the games and I don’t think I’ll ever say goodbye to Streets of Rage 2 again, but it’s still a milestone for me.

Backlog Beatdown: Taking Out the Trash with Vectorman 2

I’ve been stuck on the fifth level of Vectorman 2 for a year now, and I occasionally play it when the Sega Megadrive Ultimate Collection is in my Xbox 360 to try to get to the eleventh stage, which was what I needed to get the available achievement points. Imagine my surprise when, not only did I manage to win the achievement, but I beat the game as well…

Vectorman 2 is a 16bit platforming game that was released on the Sega Megadrive/Genesis back in 1996. You control Vectorman, an “Orbot” – a robot made entirely out of orbs – as you run and gun your way through a nasty collection of insect-like enemies over twenty-two levels, aiming to find out who shot your ship out of the sky.

This is only the second level, and it's brutally hard.
Mainly because you can't see.

In the 90s, platforming games were one of the main styles of game available on consoles, and the better ones had their own gimmicks and mechanics that set them apart. Vectorman’s most obvious shtick was to morph into different things like tanks, space-ships, and some shapes based on his tougher enemies like scorpions and stag beetles. But the quality of the game comes from doing a lot with a very solid base of game mechanics. The controls were great and responsive, for most of the game there were two buttons (jump and fire,) the power-ups were meaningful, the graphics were of the highest quality the Megadrive could manage, and it was a lot of fun.

It was also very hard. Where I was going wrong was that I wasn’t exploring the levels enough. The game’s power-ups come in Power Sacs, bulbous green eggs hanging from various points that you have to shoot several times to break open and grab what’s inside. They’re dotted in various locations around the levels. Their contents range from health, to photons (the game’s equivalent of coins, which contribute to your score,) to temporary weapon upgrades, to access to the bonus levels and multipliers. It is on the latter power-up that the genius of the game’s design comes through. In most games, most multipliers multiply your score; decent, but it doesn’t really help you progress. In Vectorman 2, it also multiplies your power-ups. For example, a health orb would normally restore one hit point. If you have a 3* multiplier and you grab one, it restores three hit points. The same applies to extra lives, and while the game is competently-enough designed that it doesn’t put extra lives in easy reach of a 10* multiplier, it’s possible to create a good amount of extra lives beyond your starting three.

I did a bit better this time because I explored the levels and bonus stages enough to find the power-ups that increased your hit points beyond your starting four. This was crucial, as I could take enough damage in the later levels to not lose sight of what I was supposed to be doing. When I reached the eleventh level, and found I was half way through with nine hit points and thirteen lives, I found myself thinking ‘Wow, I could actually beat this today!’ and saw the game through to the end.

A lot of the levels had little puns like this.
I like it!

The four boss battles work well. Vectorman can morph into different things and upgrade his weapons – but not on the boss battles. Apart from increasing your hit points, you can’t stack the odds in your favour and rely on upgrades to beat the bosses. You have to do the same thing you always have to do in older games: Analyse their attack patterns, learn their weaknesses and exploit them to your advantage. I admit I had to check a Youtube video to find out how to beat the last boss; after having come so far I didn’t want to lose due to ignorance, but I still had to beat it!

Vectorman 2 is not perfect; the difficulty curve is harsh, and the tank section has fiddly controls. And it’s not a game I grew up with, nor has it engaged me on such a level that I could see myself returning to it. But it is a competently-designed and very fun platformer. If you have it on a collection, or own a Sega Megadrive/Genesis, it’s worth playing.

Last Week's Games: Streets of Rage 2, Vectorman 2, Bioshock Infinite, Star Wars: X Wing and Final Fantasy II

I’ve picked up and played quite a few games over the course of this week. Let’s see what they all are: 

Some cosmetic differences to the
characters in the game, funnily enough...

First game I had a go with was my favourite game of all time, Streets of Rage 2. I’ve waxed lyrical about this game many times before, and I still get it out every now and then because I’ve only got one thing left to do with it now: try to beat the game on the hardest difficulty without cheating. I tend to use Max for my play through, which might seem like an odd decision because of his speed, or lack thereof. However, at 20,000, 50,000, and every 100,000 points thereafter, you get an extra life, and this happens far more quickly with Max than with the other characters because you score more points for his high-impact grapple moves, and I can make up for his lack of manoeuvrability with his sliding tackle. I can therefore rack up a huge amount of extra lives in the early game, which generally keeps me going until the 6^th – or if I’m very lucky, the 7^th stage.

I didn’t manage it this time; I fell down on the one part I always manage to mess up on – the elevator on the 7^th stage, where there’s a huge ‘minor boss’ rush section and barely any room to move. Max isn’t great at manoeuvring and against the high-speed ninjas, it’s a struggle. It tanks most of my lives, with barely any left for stage 8 if I’m fortunate enough to get there. On this occasion I did, and I got as far as the boss rush in the elevator and finally died to Z.Kusano. Next time…

The other game I had a go with on the same disc is Vectorman 2. I’m after the achievement points for this one, and to get them I simply have to get to Scene 11. The problem with this is that the game is boss-hard and I can’t get past scene 5. It’s a throwback to old-school gaming where you have to study a level to find all the secret areas and power-ups. I wish I could wrap this up a little more quickly but this game was designed at a time where the longevity of the game could be increased by its difficulty!

That's the bit I've just done, if you're wondering...

I played Bioshock Infinite as well; I’m slowly going through it. For me, with the Bioshock games, the story takes a long time to get going. I’ve played all of them up to this one (not the DLC though,) and found myself having a standard experience for the first few hours of the game, before the story and the stakes ramp up in the second half. I’ll keep going at it; one of the better qualities of the game is that it is divided in to sections that you can play through for roughly an hour or so at a time – it’s not necessary to sit down and beat the whole thing in one go.

I played Star Wars: X Wing on my laptop as well. I had this game in several iterations in my youth, and enjoyed it immensely at the time. It harks back to an era of flight simulators where potentially any key on the keyboard does something, and while the control schemes can feel a little contrived sometimes, it’s probably closer to the experience of being a fighter pilot than an arcade shooter! I’m trying to get through all the Y-Wing training and historical missions; while the latter are easy enough, the proving ground was very tricky, as the lack of speed meant I needed to be on it with my targeting!

I continued the game of Civ IV I mentioned last week but I found I was getting stuck in a rut, so I don’t know how long I’ll keep that.

Finally, when I was necessarily restricted to a handheld, I was playing Final Fantasy II on my old Gamebody Advance. I tend to play this one very small bit at a time, in this case the rescue of Princess Hilda from the Palamecia Coliseum.

Am I going to play as many games next week? We shall see…