Overwatch is getting competitive. Here comes the pain.

I guess this is news? If you play Overwatch, then you knew about this already, and if you don't play it, then you probably don't care. Competitive mode is great and all, but I like to think of this as an entry point to even better things to come down the road. There's no doubt that the depth of Overwatch is insane, and even the level 100 players you've all probably come across at some point, still haven't figured everything out about the game. There are so many different combinations of characters each team can have it's astounding, and the fact that each player can switch characters in the middle of a match makes for countless options for various offensive and defensive strengths. Right now, if you were to log and play Overwatch, you'd come across so many different play levels, that it could be very frustrating.

So many rage quits...so many

I'm not saying new players should be shamed, because Overwatch is possibly the most "Newb" friendly shooter I've seen. However, I think giving the extra option for competitive mode, where you'll see high level play, will only expand the game and it's culture. I'm sure we'll see defined strategies come out and specific play styles to counter and push different points of each match. All of this really depends on how it's received by the game's community. I know Blizzard had been working on balancing, but I'm sure there will rage quits galore if players feel like the game is unfair, and considering the new policy on people leaving the match early, this could get ridiculous. Now I know competitive play isn't for everyone, and I can assure you, I won't be playing it just to die over and over, however, I'm excited to see where this takes the game. Like I said, this is the start to some great things on the horizon, and I can only hope Blizzard keeps up with the standard of quality they've used so far. What do you think? What new game modes do you think they'll release moving forward? Comment your opinions!

Chronicles: Mighty No. 9. The Disappointment.

Before I even start getting into things, let me clear some stuff up so you can have a better understanding about where I'm coming from. I am, in fact, a huge Mega Man fan. Long story short, Mega Man 3 was the very first game I played on the NES when I was a kid. Therefor, when I talk about Might No. 9, I'm talking about it as someone who is incredibly passionate about the ideals, and history the game tried to represent. Second, this is NOT a review. If you'd like to read a review of the game, check out Andrew Reiner's review on Game Informer, it's the most comprehensive. I just don't feel like I can be completely un-biased about the game, at all. So, with that being said, it's been a while since I did something like this, but here are my complete thoughts, chronicling the kickstarter, development, and release of Mighty No. 9. 

I want you to picture this. I log onto Facebook to see a post from the getmeoffthemoon page (a really cool Mega Man fan page centered around Mega Man Legends) with a video from Keiji Inafune, with him explaining his new game. I, for good reason, freaked out and clicked on the link immediately. This happened to bring me to the kickstarter page for a little game called Mighty Number 9, a spiritual successor to Mega Man. This was 2013. 

For those of you who don't know, Mighty No. 9 was supposed to be the return of the classic Japanese side scrolling games. These were games that thrived on twitch reflexes, memorizing enemy patterns, and solving the puzzles each section of the game presented. Developed by the father of the beloved Mega Man games, Keiji Inafune, the game had huge promise. His company, Comcept, announced a Kickstarter campaign, and within 2 days, raised the $900k goal they had set. After that, money kept pouring in and eventually reached over $4,000,000 in total funds raised. It was one of the most impressive Kickstarters ever, and really showed companies that there is still a desire for the older games of a past generation. 

Backers got to choose which version they'd want for Call, the sidekick

Okay, everything I just said there seems great right? Like, how could any of this possibly go wrong? Comcept even went as far as to release bits and pieces of recorded footage of them developing the game. Interesting. Those pieces would eventually be put together into a documentary. Honestly, if the campaign would have stopped at $900k, I think a lot of issues wouldn't have arisen. Believe it or not, at the time, there was major hype for this game, and people couldn't imagine any part of it failing. From the beginning, everything seemed to be going smoothly. The updates we rolling in, and gameplay footage was shown regularly. For what it's worth, that's exactly how you're supposed to do a kickstarter, keep everyone up to date with what's going on-perfect. However, the updates started slowing down and less and less information was being released about the development of the game. Eventually, the info just stopped. Now, it takes a lot of intestinal fortitude to ask complete strangers for $1,000,000, it really does. However, once you get 4 times the requested amount...that's it, no more...all done. You can't come back and say, "We need more money for things that have nothing to do with the game itself". Okay, so the Ray stage was pretty cool of them to create, but the friggan voice acting? We didn't need that. So there you go Comcept, there's an extra $400k, now what? Eventually, the campaign ended with them raising a ton of money for what started out as a simple game. It seemed like it was getting more and more out of hand every day. 

So, developing games is probably very difficult to do, trust me, I'm not doubting that. However, it's also not my fault that game development isn't easy, and to say this went through developmental hell, is an understatement. I know what a lot of you are thinking, "What about games like Kingdom Hearts 3, Final Fantasy XV, and The Last Guardian?" Let me tell you the difference, those games were forgotten about. That is exactly how it sounds, the game studios put their respective games down and said, I'll get back to it...and didn't touch them, for a very long time. The huge difference is, Mighty No. 9 was being worked on, constantly. Which means, I can only imagine, the amount of stress that plagued the team working on it was immense, because it was stressful just watching from the outside. The game was supposed to release on April 28th 2015 but got delayed to September 2015, then that got delayed to January 2016, then THAT got delayed to June 2016, and now we finally have the game. You know, over a year late. Yikes. The development issues, I believe, can be directly tied to another game Comcept announced at E3 2015, ReCore for the Xbox One. Now, I don't know for sure, but one can assume that Microsoft dumped a truckload of money on Inafune's porch and told him to make a game, so he did, at all costs. The issue is that Comcept isn't really a huge studio to begin with. So now you have some people working on Mighty No. 9, and some working on ReCore. Let's say the game began development at the end of 2014 and they prepared a rough build for E3 2015. That means the development of Mighty No. 9 must have been completely halted for the announcement of ReCore, which explains the delays considering the game probably wasn't even finished at the beginning of 2015. In fact, I have doubts that the basic game had made much progress at all by the end of 2015. 

This was from the demo...looks the exact same huh? 

that's a long list...

It is mid year 2016, Mighty No. 9 just released, and it let me tell you something, it looks exactly like it did in the first videos we were shown during the kickstarter. Nevertheless, it came out. It's no secret the reviews are bad. I don't think it deserves all the hate it's getting, however, Mighty No. 9 isn't a good game. Not by any stretch of the phrase. It is a shallow, lifeless version of what I believe Inafune wanted it to be. Think about this for a moment. At one point in time, Keiji Inafune was excited about Mighty No. 9. Hell, he even talked about franchising it out, making a dumb cartoon about it, and really owning the idea. Somewhere down the line, that excitement faded, and eventually disappeared. Nothing sums it up better that his own quote when being interviewed about the games response, "It's better than nothing..." That is a line from a man who is disappointed, and he should be. He had these ideas of grandeur, making a new Mega Man game for the people who wanted Legends 3, and who miss Mega Man X; this was for them. Then that passion died. Let me tell you something, $4,400,000 is a lot of money. Like, a lot. There were 16 stretch goals for the kickstarter that the $4,400,000 had to achieve. That sure is a lot of content considering this was supposed to be a $900,000 game. It literally needed to be 4 times the size of it's original idea, there was no way it could live up to the expectations.

I still think the cover art is amazing, just saying

After everything, I think Inafune lost touch with what Mighty No. 9 was supposed to be. I honestly don't think he wanted it to turn into what it is now. It's hard to say really, but I think he saw the failure coming. Effort shifted towards ReCore and Mighty No. 9 was left in the dust. It probably wasn't that extreme, but it sure felt like it. I feel bad for Inafune. However, I hope he learns from the mistake and continues making games. I don't know if we'll ever get a good Mega Man game again, and honestly, I'm okay with that. I want people to remember Mega Man for what it was, and not what it was turned into. As for Mighty No. 9, I think it's best if we all just forget this ever happened. 

Top 5 Most Annoying NES Moments. #1- Ninja Gaiden Respawning Enemies.

Any game you've ever played, whether its from the NES era, or present day gaming, doesn't compare to the amount of frustration that comes from playing Ninja Gaiden. This game is the grand daddy of friggan hard games, and it goes without saying that if you've beaten this, then you're a god of gaming. There are many factors that make this game so difficult, for one, it has the same thing like in Castlevainia where when you get hit, you jump backwards (normally towards a hole). The other factor, and what I think is the main reason this game is so difficult, are the respawning enemies.

Basically what it comes down to is, every screen has a certain number of enemies on it and once you kill them, they're gone; until you leave the screen. So each section of the level is programmed to have these enemies on them, no matter if you kill them or not. This may not seem like a big problem at first, in fact in the beginning stages you rarely see this. However, as you progress further in the game, it becomes more and more of hassle to deal with. This being because there are just so many enemies that can appear on each screen, that progressing forward seems impossible.

I also have to mention that some of the enemies will continually respawn. For example, the football player looking guys will run at you and eventually run off the screen, but then another one immediately appears and you have to dodge him too. So, lets take that, add some dudes shooting at you, bats dive bombing you, and if you get hit, you're more than likely to fall off the platform to your death. Yeah, not so easy huh?

Like I said, this isn't as prevalent in the first couple stages, but once you get towards the middle, say, around stage 5, it becomes crazy and you'll want to throw your controller directly at the TV. It's seriously something you have to witness to understand completely. I remember playing this for the first time when I was in highschool (yeah, this isn't from my childhood) and getting to a point in the game where I literally thought there was a glitch. Only to realize that this was just how the game is. To this day, I have yet to be it, and I don't think I'm in the minority here. Ninja Gaiden is a game that requires tons and tons of patience, and it's a perfect example of the NES era of gaming. Games back then were made to be incredibly difficult (at least most were) because developers knew that if someone could beat the game in one playthrough, that it would be over. In turn, we get games like Megaman, Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania, and so much more.

I think that's why I love games from the late 80's and early 90's. They had so much soul put in to them. It's not like today where games can just rely on graphics and online components to get by. Back in the day, you had to make a legitimately good game, or it was going to flop. Most of these games only have one gameplay mode and are single player, and to me, that's why they're so good. Developers had very little to work with graphics wise, and even less to work with when it came to consoles. So they did there best, and most of the good games from the NES still hold up today. You can't say that for many other consoles. These games may have been the bane of my existence growing up, but I still played them, and looking back, I wouldn't change any bit of it.

Top 5 Most Frustrating NES Moments. #2- Battletoads: Second Level

Okay, now it gets serious. We're talking about Battletoads. And you don't f#@* around when you talk about Battletoads. If there was ever game that defined the sheer impossibleness (word?) of the NES era of gaming, it was this game. Known to be one of the most difficult, stress inducing games of its age, and is still feared among the old school gamer scene. So, you know when we talk Battletoads, its about to get real.

The whole game is pretty much an endurance match between you, and your NES. However, the second level is the one that people seem to remember the most. Not because its the hardest level in the game...no, no, no...it gets a lot harder. It's because its the level that everyone got stuck on, all thanks to one section. The speeder bikes.

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever tried to memorize every word in a Harry Potter book, and then recite them in front of an audience of barking dogs smoking cigarettes in your face? Well, I'd like to argue doing that would be a whole lot easier than beating this level. Well, maybe it's not that hard...but you get the point. The level isn't designed poorly, it's just that it throws you into the fray of things without any prior knowledge of how to perform the given task. The beginning of level 2 is simple enough. It's just the basic beat-em style game play that you got from the first level. Then the game gives you the speeder bikes and amps up the difficulty a million levels. And from there on out; welcome to hell.

The speeder bike section isn't designed poorly, in fact, it is done quite well. The problem with it is that, as I stated before, you're ill equipped to deal with the challenge presented to you. Up until this point, you've only seen the beat-em up portion of gameplay, so how are you expected to understand this section at all? There's no learning curve, and if you hit one obstacle, you die. That becomes pretty difficult towards the middle of the stage where you literally have to predict where each obstacle is going to appear. It comes down to memorization, but in the worst way. Memorizing a level in a game should only be done as a type of reward for playing the game enough times, it should never be necessary to beat a level.


As far as games go, Battletoads isn't anywhere near the worst game in all of history. It is, however, the one of the laziest games ever made. Looking past the second level, you'll see a game that has little to no focus, and it's obvious that the developers just wanted to create a difficult game...by any means necessary. The speeder bikes return towards the end of the game in a level called Volkmire's Inferno, which, I swear to god, is impossible to beat. And of course, if you run out of continues, you go all the way back to the beginning of the game. So, you'll never truly get good at this game unless you play it,
over and over again. Pretty lame.                            

Self-Destruction of G4

I'm sure all of you by now have heard of the of the shows X-Play and Attack of the Show being cancelled on G4 TV...and if you haven't, LEARN TO READ! Just kidding.
Now I'm not one for kicking a mentally disabled horse when its down or anything, but I just couldn't resist this opportunity. For years now, I've watched G4 stab itself in the neck by having 4 hour (Yeah, you heard me, FOUR HOUR) marathons of cops and cheaters. Two shows that I wasn't aware still existed, until G4 so kindly shoved them down my throat. Other than that, they cancelled their core shows like Cheat, Arena, Happy Tree Friends, Ninja Warrior, and the ever so brilliant, Code Monkey's. It's pretty obvious, they just don't care anymore.

At first I was under the impression that they just fired everyone that worked there and one guy was manning the boards to program the never ending cycles of Cop's shows, but I was wrong. It apparently is still a fully functional studio. The fact that someone, somewhere is pouring money into this abomination on nerd culture existence makes me cringe. Even more surprising is that they still have a fully functional gaming news website. I'm sorry, but that just blows my mind. How in the world has G4 lasted this long? I can't be the only one who sees this right? You have a company, who, on one end operates the lowest level TV programming that any human being could ever conjure; and on the other runs a somewhat reputable gaming site (not anymore). That makes no sense to me.

But, let's put all that aside, because the real news here is the cancelling of X-Play and AOTS. With both shows losing their main faces, (Adam Sessler and Kevin Perria, respectively) it wasn't long before each show would come crashing down. When you have names like that, who have basically built you a reputation, a fan base, and a company; and then just go away, you don't recover from that. Each show, over the years, would become more and more repugnant; by changing it's layout, switching cast members, and just poorly edited and awkwardly sequenced programs. Finally, it's time to say our goodbyes.....and good riddance.

What does the future of G4 hold? Well, they say they're still going to put out new shows and that they're going to overhaul the whole concept. That only means one thing. Astronomical layoffs. Those poor, poor G4 employees. Either they'll realize the mass chaos they've wrought upon humanity, and die in a small puff of smoke. or they'll run this locomotive straight into the ground. I'm leaning towards the latter.

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Top 5 most frustrating NES moments. #3- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the whole game.

Now, I know the title screen is telling you to press start, and it's probably really tempting, but don't do it. For the love of God, don't you push start; because once you do, it's all over. There have been very few games that have been on the same level of absolute frustration like the NES TMNT game. It's hard to pick out just one moment in the game that sucks, because almost the entire game is next to impossible, so I'm just going to describe some of the more obvious moments in the game.

This game prides itself in being annoying. All of the enemies respawn, all the time. God help you if you have to backtrack through a stage. You could be making your way perfectly fine through a part of the level and come to a dead end only to realize you had to climb that ladder you saw three screens back. You just fought 48 enemies, jumped over next-to-impossible gaps, and lost 2 of your 4 turtles doing it. Now the game basically gives you the finger and tells you to do it all over again.

Probably the most annoying of all the levels in the game, nay, in all of gaming, would have to be the water level. If you've never played this game, try to imagine this: you're underwater, and have to diffuse bombs within a certain time limit, there's electric seaweed and vines that eat you alive, and you can't attack. The worst part is, you have to do all of that....with an NES controller. It's absolutely horrendous. To this day, I don't think I've ever seen anyone complete that level without dying, or at least losing one turtle.

Last, but certainly not least, is the freaking battle with the Technodrome. If you made it that far without using any kind of save state, or cheat, you deserve a medal. There's lasers flying all over the place, foot soldiers jumping out, and very little space to move. You only have a couple seconds each time the technodrome gets close to get a hit in, and it's so hard to do since you have foot soldiers constantly attacking you.



Anyway you slice it, TMNT for the NES is one of the hardest games you'll ever play. It's not very good either. However, at the time, it was one of the best selling games on the console. That blows my mind. Back in the day, reviews weren't based on graphics or extra content of the game, people just wanted to know two things: does it work, and what is it about? And, well, given those circumstances, yeah, this game isn't half bad. But if you dive deeper and actually open the book, you'll find it's full of BS.....meaning this game is a pile crap.

Top 5 Most Frustrating NES Moments. #4- Castlevania Medusa Heads

   #4- Castlevania Medusa Heads

If there was any game in the late 80's that took no mercy, it was the original Castlevania. Considered to be one of the best platformers of all time, Castlevania took the players on a journey through the depths of Dracula's castle and pitted you against some of the hardest foes in gaming history. And, if you were tough enough to make it to the end, you faced Dracula himself...possibly one of the hardest bosses in gaming history. It's no doubt that Castlevania was a masterpiece of its time, however, it did have some serious drawbacks. For one, everytime you got hit, you jump backwards, normally into a pit or water. This makes navigating incredibly frustrating since one mess up can send you flying off a ledge to your death. There are also the enemies that you encounter. Most are write offs that'll take about two hits with your whip to kill them. However, there are some that were programmed to piss you off, most notably, the Medusa heads.

I remember when I first saw these monstrosities. They come flying at you, zig-zagging across the screen, and give you little to no time to react. Worst of all, the moment you think you've figured out how to deal with them, the game throws Medusa heads in with other hard enemies, like the knights. So now you're whipping a knight while ducking and jumping over Medusa heads. You think that's enough?

It's not that the Medusa heads are difficult, because like I said, once you figure out their pattern, they're pretty easy. It's just the fact that they fly in the most awkward way, and make it impossible to focus on anything else on the screen. You could be doing just fine in a level, and a group of Medusa heads pop up, and suddenly you're screwed. I can't tell you how many times I've been sent to beginning of the game just because I was knocked off the edge by one of these things. It's left a permanent scar in the back of my mind,  and so many others'. Konami, you're a sick bastard.


Thanks for reading, and remember to check back for the last 3...because things are about to get totally radical man. gnarly....whatever. -____-

Top 5 most frustrating NES moments. #5- The Yellow Devil

                 

Back in the late 80's early 90's gaming wasn't as forgiving as it is now. When you messed up, the game simply laughed at you as your sprite turned into 8-bit dust. However, now with the new console generation, people take saving for granted. Think of Skyrim for a moment. Sure it's an amazing game, but there's no limit to how many times you can save a game. If you mess up, you can just go back to where you saved at the beginning of the dungeon. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, I just think gamers have forgotten just how frustrating it was to get to a certain point in a game, die, and have the life shattering game over screen pop up. Game over meant you go ALL the way back to the beginning. 

With that being said, I'm going to count down my top 5 most frustrating moments in NES gaming. 

                                                         

#5  The Yellow Devil from Megaman

If you remember fighting this annoying piece of crap, then you probably remember throwing plenty of controllers in frustration. After you beat all of the robot masters in the first Megaman, something magical happens, Dr. Wiley appears and you then get transported to his fortress. When I first saw that, I was so excited. Hours and hours of stress inducing gameplay, all leading up to this moment. It was time to kick Wiley's ass. After battling through the first couple parts of his castle, you enter a room kind of like when you fought the robot masters. Yellow chunks of 8 bit garbage come flying at you and what happens next is about to be scarred onto your 6 year old retinas for the rest of your life. The Yellow Devil appears and just immediately starts wrecking you. And then you die. 

I dont know what it was that frustrated me so much about this boss? Maybe it was the fact that his pattern was so hard to learn, maybe it was because I always ran out of the Thunder Beam attack, or maybe it's just because this guy is a cheating piece of CRAP. Since the only spot you can hit him is his eye, and you only have one shot before he starts attacking you, you better be able to hit him every time. You really only get one or two mess ups and then its over. 

It took me years to beat this guy, but once I did, oh man, it was great. So thank you Capcom, for creating one of the most annoying bosses in all of history. 

   O_____O