"Crash" Racing? Are you sure this isn't Burnout?

Another game I have fond memories of from my childhood, CTR: Crash Team Racing, released in 1999, is a cart racing game for the Playstation utilising Naughty Dog's popular Crash franchise.

While the game, at its core, is a Mario Kart 64 rip-off, it holds several signifigant differences from its source material. For one, the coin system is back from Super Mario Kart, here with wumpa fruit (known affectionately as "apples" to most). Each apple the player picks up gives them a slight speed increase, with a limit of ten apples. However, as an added bonus, once the player has all ten apples, any weapons they pick up to change to become more powerful: The TNTs become Nitros, the beakers slow your enemies down for longer and the Uka Uka and Aku Aku masks (or, as most people know them, "Ooga Boogas") last longer than usual.

Another difference from Mario Kart 64 is the track design. The tracks in CTR tend to feel more polished and look much more interesting, though most of this can be credited to the fact that MK64 was released two years earlier. As well as this, CTR also has an adventure mode, which basically acts as a hub wherein the player drives to a teleporter to their next race. During this adventure mode, the player earns trophies for completing races, as well as relics for setting a specific time on time trial and CTR tokens for picking up the letters C, T and R during the race. Many of the races in the game require a certain number of trophies to unlock, giving the player a limited amount of races to choose from at one time.

Crash Team Racing, as with any good racer, has a multiplayer mode, which supports up to four players racing against four NPCs, as well as each other, for that sweet, sweet first place. In addition to just racing, the players could also go head to head in a battle mode, which, while ripped straight from Mario Kart, is still just as fun as the rest of the game.

While it is a shameless ripoff, Crash Team Racing still provides an enjoyable alternative, even going as far as to have some improvements over the Mario Kart games and while its sequels (which weren't even developed by Naughty Dog) are no where near the standard of Mario Kart sequels, CTR is still worth picking up, especially if you are a fan of the original Crash Bandicoot series.

You blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to hell!

Released in 1999 and later ported to the PSP in 2005, as well as being the beginning of a series that today spans 10 games and 5 spin-offs, Ape Escape is a gem you don't have to dig deep for. However, that doesn't make it any less of a gem.

Ape Escape was the first game to take advantage of the analouge sticks on the Playstation's then new DualShock controller. With the left stick, the player would move Spike, the game's protagonist, while tilting the right stick in any direction to hit enemies with different weapons and gadgets or use the net. In this regard, the game is similar to the dual-stick arcade games of old such as Robotron 2084 or Smash TV, though, without the guns and/or killing. This control scheme works extremely well, even today, and makes the game a blast to play.

The objective of the game, in case you hadn't already guessed from the title, is to catch escaped monkeys. These monkeys have been freed and are now being controlled by the game's antagonist, Specter, a circus monkey who's fed up with being told what to do and using his recently aquired "Peak Point Helmet" gains the intelligence to take over the world and attempts to do just that. Specter then commandeers a time machine and sends hundreds of monkeys back to various times in history. Gotta catch 'em all!

The gameplay is where most of the fun lies, of course. You, as Spike, travel back to various time periods to catch as many apes as possible. The levels begin in prehistoric times and progress to a modern (or year 2000 modern) setting. Having so many different settings leaves the game open for some very interesting level designs (including one that is very reminiscent of Lord Jabu Jabu from Ocarina of Time).

Spike's grandfather, known simply as 'The Professor' throughout most of the game, also provides you with many different weapons and gadgets to assist your ape-catching exploits. These range from your standard net and stun-club (which is very similar to a lightsaber, though you cannot slice limbs off with it) to using a remote-controlled car to run down monkeys or a hula-hoop to run faster.

Ape Escape truly is one of the classics for the Playstation. It provides a unique experience and its colourful graphics still look pretty decent today (at least by PS1 standards). If you like the Playstation and Ape Escape isn't already in your collection, you're missing out.

A trip into outer space.

Back in the mid 90s, my household was dominated by the grey slab known as the Playstation. As such, I did not get to experience many other consoles that were available at the time. Sure, my cousins owned a Nintendo 64, but they lived thousands of kilometres away, so I only really got to enjoy it once.

The one system of this era that I never got the opportunity to discover was the Sega Saturn.
Released in 1995, the Saturn was Sega's attempt to pull themselves out of the lull of console sales that the failed Sega CD and 32X had left them in. Unfortunately however, it did not manage to achieve this as well as it should have and was discontinued after only a few

The Saturn holds host to a variety of different games, such as Sega's staple franchises of the time: Virtua Cop, Virtua Fighter, Sega Rally Championship.. as well as many other unique games like Guardian Heroes, Panzer Dragoon and Darkstalkers (not to mention the best version of Bomberman to date, and a shitload of 2D shooters).

Nowadays, the Saturn is greatly underrated. A 2D powerhouse, this clunky black piece of hardware has become one of my favourite systems in my collection. It's a pity, really, that the two I own don't work as great as they should anymore.

Run to the hills.

For those looking for a trip back into retro gaming, look no further than Bit.Trip Runner.
Developed by Gaijin Games and published by Aksys, Bit.Trip Runner is a WiiWare title in which the player takes control of Commander Video, a small, black, humanoid character who runs, slides, kicks and jumps endlessly through whatever the game throws at him.

The game is, at its core, an old-school platformer with emphasis on rhythm. Every action the player makes creates a musical note to go along with the beat that repeatedly loops in the background.

The levels are split up into three worlds, each with their own distinct graphical and musical style. From the dull greys and melancholic music of the first world to the bright, colourful and exciting third world, the game never becomes stale.

The difficulty on the other hand may prove too steep for some. As the levels progress, many different types of obstacles are thrown at you. From sliding under giant catapillars to deflecting square balls, the game will always keep you on your toes. If that's not enough, take just one hit from anything and it's back to the beginning of the level for you.

This difficulty is, of course, reminiscent of the old 8 and 16-bit platformers from the late 80s/early 90s. The graphics, in turn, reflect this, as the designers of the game gave it a real retro feel. Every character is made of pseudo-3D squares, creating a nostalgiac look that really fits the theme of the game.

I've sunk about a dozen hours into it, so why don't you?
Whether you're a retro game enthusiast or just looking for a good, fun challenge, Bit.Trip Runner is definitely worth a download. It's just a pity it doesn't come on a cartridge.

A handheld long forgotten.

If you showed this little piece of tech to practically anyone on the street today, I can pretty much guarantee they would not know what in the hell it is.
Well, at least you readers know what it is, right?
..Right?

Allow me to explain.
This is Bandai's WonderSwan.

Originally released in 1999, solely in Japan, the WonderSwan was a huge leap forwards in handheld video gaming technology. With graphics almost up to the par of the Gameboy Advance in its later days and prominent third-party support from many video gaming giants such as Capcom and Squaresoft, it truly is a pity that the system was never released outside of glorious nippon.

The system was designed by the late Gunpei Yokoi. Does that name sound familiar? Well of course it does, Yokoi happened to be the creator of the original Game Boy and the commercial bomb we know as the Virtual Boy. Apparently he fell out with Nintendo and decided to make his own system to compete with the Game Boy.

Squaresoft even went as far as to release updated ports of Final Fantasies I, II and IV, the former two eventually being ported to the Playstation in the form of Final Fantasy Origins.
Yes, those snazzy, new versions of the first two Final Fantasy games that many people thought were exclusive to the Playstation at the time were in fact released two years earlier, on a handheld no less.

In addition to ports of their beloved franchise, Square and Bandai also collaborated on creating two special edition WonderSwan Colour consoles, bundled with either Final Fantasy I or II.

However, the main thing that set the WonderSwan out from its competitors, as you've probably already noticed, was the addition of a second D-pad. This allowed the system to be held horizontally or tilted vertically for some games, giving arcade or puzzle games a more authentic feel on the system's wide (or tall, depending on which way you're holding it) screen.

On top of all of that, the WonderSwan takes just one AA battery and manages to squeeze an impressive 15 hour lifespan out of it. Some of this can be credited to the lack of a backlit screen, but this omission can be expected as this was not the industry standard at the time.

The WonderSwan really deserves more credit today. It helped progress the power and design of handheld gaming systems and provided a pretty damn fun experience while doing so. If it were ever released outside of Japan, it would be a wonder that this swan never took off.

Those mega men.

While the game may not be a step back into my childhood like others, I can still find some sentimental value in Mega Man 2 on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Mega Man 2, in case you've been living under an 8-bit rock for the last twenty two years, is the second in the now classic Mega Man series made by Capcom. The game is an action-platformer with a semi-non-linear gameplay style, wherein the player can choose to tackle the eight robot bosses in any order they choose before being forced to plunge back into linearity to get through the final levels and defeat the evil Doctor Wily at the end.

The ability to be able to choose which level to play from the beginning allows the player to choose how difficult they want the game to be once they know what the easiest order is. For example, one could attempt to take on Quick Man from the get-go.

Standard to the Mega Man formula introduced in the first iteration of the series, Mega Man 2 rewards your victory over a boss with the ability to use their weapon for the rest of the game. Each robot master has his own weakness to another master's weapon, and the player can also use these aquired weapons to experiment of ways to beat levels quicker or make enemies easier to conquer. This allows for a deeper degree of strategy than one would come to expect from a seemingly standard side-scroller on the NES.

Being able to change weapons at any time also allows the player to limit themself as much as they want, gaining an even greater challenge from the game.
As well as all these self-regulated limitations, the game offers a hard mode, wherein Mega Man takes more damage and the enemies take less.

Of course, as is now standard with the Mega Man games, the most important aspect of the game besides the core gameplay is the soundtrack. Every track that is belted out by the old machine still holds up today as some of the best video game music of all time. Catchier than most pop music, each song in the game, once heard, will never leave your head.

While I wasn't even alive when Mega Man 2 was released (I was born five years later) and I did not play it as a child (I only got my hands on a copy last year), I can still find some nostalgic value in the game. Something about the graphics and presentation get me pining for my childhood days where I could play a game for days on end. Perhaps this is because I grew up on the 8-bit Gameboy, which was practically emulating the NES' graphical and musical style.

Mega Man 2, as a whole, is a game that, in my mind, cannot be matched by many others, past or present. This game is perfect. Any flaws in the game merely add to this, as it feels more real because of them. This game was designed and made by real people who really put their heart and soul into it, and you can feel this the moment you pop the cart into your Nintendo.
If you, the reader, have not already played this game, you have never experienced gaming as it was truly meant to be.

Video game gold.

I feel it best, when making a new blog as I am, to start at the beginning.
For me, that beginning is represented by my first technological endeavour, known to most as the 2000 Gameboy Colour release, Pokemon Gold.

Pokemon Gold may be a small, insignifigant and outdated game by today's standards, but it opens a window into my childhood that cannot be created by anything else. Every single battle, every place, every graphic, every note in every song in this game takes me back to my childhood and how I felt playing this game for the first time on August 29th, my birthday of that year.

I can still remember the feeling of holding that brand new Gameboy Colour in my grubby little hands for the first time, inserting the cartridge, turning on the power and being transported into a world I have not left behind to this day. To play the game now is to become a child again. The ins and outs of every cave, the strategies used to defeat every gym leader and the locations of every pokemon in this game will always remain with me until the day I die.

No, this blog entry is not about the workings and presentation of the game, more how it holds a place in my heart as one of my favourite video games and as one of the greatest video games of all time. This game is part of a small collection of things that represent my life.