*cake* R2K's Birthday Extravaganza - Games, Glory, & Prizes *cake*
21-Sep-23 12:25am
#1 Renaissance2K
Hi, GameTZers.
Next month, I turn 40. I've been a GameTZ for 15 of those years and a gamer for about 35, kicking off when I received a Nintendo Action Set for my fifth birthday.
As my mid-life crisis, in lieu of buying a Ferrari or leaving my wife for a Laker girl, I've decided to spend it by... uh... unexpectedly expanding everyone's backlog. My initial plan was to just loop this into the Retro Talkshop Thread's October Game of the Month, but since transitioning into an old fart only happens once in a lifetime, I decided to open the festivities up to the rest of the site.
Please join me in celebrating my birthday by replaying a few of the games that defined my history as a gamer for fun, for glory, and yes, even for some prizes.
What are the standings?
How do I play?
The Birthday Extravaganza is comprised of six different game series of one or more titles. The games span a variety of eras, platforms, and console generations, though the various franchises skew towards "retro." Because I'm old.
The goal is to complete a game in as many series as possible. The first time you finish a game and check off a series, you earn your R2Kake Badge, which will initially be decorated with the series that you just completed. Continue to finish more series, and your cake will be increasingly blinged out. Completing series also makes you eligible for other prizes and raffles, which we'll talk about later.
Each game series also has an additional objective to "gild" each series' badge and give it a gold border. In some cases, it's completing a specific in-game objective. In others, it's completing a specific game in the series. In all cases, these bonus achievements highlight a certain aspect of each sprawling game series that carries special weight or unlocks a special memory for me. There's a slight raffle bonus for completing them, but don't go to pieces if you feel like a few of them are out of your reach.
Bedazzled badges will be featured here and in the Retro Talkshop Thread.
The game starts on October 1 and ends on October 31. Feel free to use the lead time to acquire games, research strategies, or make ageist jokes at me.
Why are we playing these games?
All the games series featured in the Birthday Extravaganza are important to me and the 35 or so years I've been a gamer. I go into more detail about this in the posts that follow, but needless to say, beyond just pure hours played, each of the games in our scope have been an important part of my gaming identity in some way.
This final list is actually quite a bit different than the one with which I started, which included Bionic Commando, Burgertime, and Crazy Taxi; all of which hold sentimental significance. Since the Retro Talkshop Thread featured each of these games this year, I wanted to keep the lot fresh rather than exhaust an option we recently visited.
Of the series that are left
- They all originate from eras that we universally consider "retro".
- Almost all of them are still accessible in some modern fashion without raiding thrift stores and eBay.
- Almost all of them have modern, semi-modern, or remastered entries that appeal to modern platforms.
- The genres vary: one racing game, one flying game, and a variety of different action titles.
- Most of the games in these series are fairly short. Many entries can be completed in an hour or less, and most of the remaining ones are just a few hours. No hundred-hour epics here.
- Acknowledging this is subjective, the games don't suck. Yes, I did spend an unfortunate amount of time in my youth playing Where's Waldo? for the NES. No, I'm not going to make y'all do it.
That excludes a lot of my favorite franchises. Tekken has been my favorite fighter since 1995, but we already have a "must include" fighter in the list. Final Fantasy is a borderline obsession, but all the games take 30+ hours to complete, so it's out. I worship the original Unreal titles, but Epic yanked them from all the digital marketplaces earlier this year for no obvious reason. There are similar excuses for Diablo, Burnout, WipEout, SoulCalibur, and a number of other great franchises, but I guess we'll just to have to save them for the 50th Birthday Extravaganza. Ha.
So, what exactly are we playing?
https://youtu.be/gyo...
In the posts that follow, I've tried to include the cheapest and/or easiest way to legally get a hold of a game in each series. If you know of a better option, please share, and I'll update these posts.
#1 Renaissance2K
Hi, GameTZers.
Next month, I turn 40. I've been a GameTZ for 15 of those years and a gamer for about 35, kicking off when I received a Nintendo Action Set for my fifth birthday.
As my mid-life crisis, in lieu of buying a Ferrari or leaving my wife for a Laker girl, I've decided to spend it by... uh... unexpectedly expanding everyone's backlog. My initial plan was to just loop this into the Retro Talkshop Thread's October Game of the Month, but since transitioning into an old fart only happens once in a lifetime, I decided to open the festivities up to the rest of the site.
Please join me in celebrating my birthday by replaying a few of the games that defined my history as a gamer for fun, for glory, and yes, even for some prizes.
What are the standings?
 BleedingViolet  image Renaissance2K image sailorneorune  image Slickriven image SwiftJAB  image SupremeSarna  image WithinTemptation  image |
How do I play?
The Birthday Extravaganza is comprised of six different game series of one or more titles. The games span a variety of eras, platforms, and console generations, though the various franchises skew towards "retro." Because I'm old.
The goal is to complete a game in as many series as possible. The first time you finish a game and check off a series, you earn your R2Kake Badge, which will initially be decorated with the series that you just completed. Continue to finish more series, and your cake will be increasingly blinged out. Completing series also makes you eligible for other prizes and raffles, which we'll talk about later.
Each game series also has an additional objective to "gild" each series' badge and give it a gold border. In some cases, it's completing a specific in-game objective. In others, it's completing a specific game in the series. In all cases, these bonus achievements highlight a certain aspect of each sprawling game series that carries special weight or unlocks a special memory for me. There's a slight raffle bonus for completing them, but don't go to pieces if you feel like a few of them are out of your reach.
Bedazzled badges will be featured here and in the Retro Talkshop Thread.
The game starts on October 1 and ends on October 31. Feel free to use the lead time to acquire games, research strategies, or make ageist jokes at me.
Why are we playing these games?
All the games series featured in the Birthday Extravaganza are important to me and the 35 or so years I've been a gamer. I go into more detail about this in the posts that follow, but needless to say, beyond just pure hours played, each of the games in our scope have been an important part of my gaming identity in some way.
This final list is actually quite a bit different than the one with which I started, which included Bionic Commando, Burgertime, and Crazy Taxi; all of which hold sentimental significance. Since the Retro Talkshop Thread featured each of these games this year, I wanted to keep the lot fresh rather than exhaust an option we recently visited.
Of the series that are left
- They all originate from eras that we universally consider "retro".
- Almost all of them are still accessible in some modern fashion without raiding thrift stores and eBay.
- Almost all of them have modern, semi-modern, or remastered entries that appeal to modern platforms.
- The genres vary: one racing game, one flying game, and a variety of different action titles.
- Most of the games in these series are fairly short. Many entries can be completed in an hour or less, and most of the remaining ones are just a few hours. No hundred-hour epics here.
- Acknowledging this is subjective, the games don't suck. Yes, I did spend an unfortunate amount of time in my youth playing Where's Waldo? for the NES. No, I'm not going to make y'all do it.
That excludes a lot of my favorite franchises. Tekken has been my favorite fighter since 1995, but we already have a "must include" fighter in the list. Final Fantasy is a borderline obsession, but all the games take 30+ hours to complete, so it's out. I worship the original Unreal titles, but Epic yanked them from all the digital marketplaces earlier this year for no obvious reason. There are similar excuses for Diablo, Burnout, WipEout, SoulCalibur, and a number of other great franchises, but I guess we'll just to have to save them for the 50th Birthday Extravaganza. Ha.
So, what exactly are we playing?
https://youtu.be/gyo...
In the posts that follow, I've tried to include the cheapest and/or easiest way to legally get a hold of a game in each series. If you know of a better option, please share, and I'll update these posts.
13-Oct-23 2:18pm
#82 SupremeSarna
I just started Twisted Metal: Head On. It's pretty fun. Cousin Eddy is giving me a tricky time, though--you have to attack every window on his camper, including the sunroof your missiles won't reach. I assume the napalm weapon is the key there, but he won't hold still! Not to mention my PSP is constantly turning off for no reason... that creates a bit of a roadblock.
How many story mode playthroughs are required to call the game beaten? Is it fighting game rules where you need to beat two?
#82 SupremeSarna
I just started Twisted Metal: Head On. It's pretty fun. Cousin Eddy is giving me a tricky time, though--you have to attack every window on his camper, including the sunroof your missiles won't reach. I assume the napalm weapon is the key there, but he won't hold still! Not to mention my PSP is constantly turning off for no reason... that creates a bit of a roadblock.
How many story mode playthroughs are required to call the game beaten? Is it fighting game rules where you need to beat two?
13-Oct-23 4:42pm
#83 Renaissance2K
SupremeSarna wrote:
How many story mode playthroughs are required to call the game beaten? Is it fighting game rules where you need to beat two?
I'm happy with just one. The bosses in Twisted Metal games can be serious bottlenecks.
Who are you playing as?
#83 Renaissance2K
SupremeSarna wrote:
How many story mode playthroughs are required to call the game beaten? Is it fighting game rules where you need to beat two?
I'm happy with just one. The bosses in Twisted Metal games can be serious bottlenecks.
Who are you playing as?
13-Oct-23 5:06pm
#84 SupremeSarna
Renaissance2K wrote:
SupremeSarna wrote:> How many story mode playthroughs are required to call the game beaten? Is it fighting> game rules where you need to beat two? I'm happy with just one. The bosses in Twisted Metal games can be serious bottlenecks. Who are you playing as?
Mr. Grimm. I gravitated toward the skeleton man. It is spooky month, after all.
#84 SupremeSarna
Renaissance2K wrote:
SupremeSarna wrote:> How many story mode playthroughs are required to call the game beaten? Is it fighting> game rules where you need to beat two? I'm happy with just one. The bosses in Twisted Metal games can be serious bottlenecks. Who are you playing as?
Mr. Grimm. I gravitated toward the skeleton man. It is spooky month, after all.
13-Oct-23 5:08pm
#85 Renaissance2K
He's such a cool character, but I rarely use him because I get asploded too much.
#85 Renaissance2K
He's such a cool character, but I rarely use him because I get asploded too much.
14-Oct-23 2:49am
#87 Renaissance2K
Badge #3 for me is One Must Fall, which I earned by finishing One Must Fall: Battlegrounds tonight.
https://twitter.com/...
On one hand, the original One Must Fall is an obscure classic that's lucky it got a sequel at all, especially after so long. On the other hand... this is the best they could do?
It's slow. Even running on hardware that was top tier for the time, the game struggles to keep a stable frame rate, especially with some of the more exotic arenas.
It's buggy. Characters go flying through walls. HARs take damage during cutscenes. Text pop-ups are layered on top of each other so you can barely read them.
It's unpolished. Character portraits look unfinished. The single player mode is shallow and lacking, especially compared to 2097's Tournament Mode. The UI, announcer, and music all feel like afterthoughts. And the typos!
It feels like a mid-tier early Xbox Live Arcade title: rough around the edges but accessible and at a good price. Except this was marketed as a AAA title and was in development for seven years. Once you get the hang of a HAR, it has its moments, and the third-person perspective can be almost forgiven. Most of the time, though, it's the game engine or character dialogue making my eyes roll.
Continuing the trend with sequels that forgot about their predecessors, MDK 2 is next.
#87 Renaissance2K
Badge #3 for me is One Must Fall, which I earned by finishing One Must Fall: Battlegrounds tonight.
https://twitter.com/...
On one hand, the original One Must Fall is an obscure classic that's lucky it got a sequel at all, especially after so long. On the other hand... this is the best they could do?
It's slow. Even running on hardware that was top tier for the time, the game struggles to keep a stable frame rate, especially with some of the more exotic arenas.
It's buggy. Characters go flying through walls. HARs take damage during cutscenes. Text pop-ups are layered on top of each other so you can barely read them.
It's unpolished. Character portraits look unfinished. The single player mode is shallow and lacking, especially compared to 2097's Tournament Mode. The UI, announcer, and music all feel like afterthoughts. And the typos!
It feels like a mid-tier early Xbox Live Arcade title: rough around the edges but accessible and at a good price. Except this was marketed as a AAA title and was in development for seven years. Once you get the hang of a HAR, it has its moments, and the third-person perspective can be almost forgiven. Most of the time, though, it's the game engine or character dialogue making my eyes roll.
Continuing the trend with sequels that forgot about their predecessors, MDK 2 is next.
17-Oct-23 4:10pm
#89 Renaissance2K
For my Rollcage badge, I finished GRIP: Combat Racing. And apparently, I'm now the boss.
https://twitter.com/...
My first impressions of this spiritual successor to Rollcage - resurrected by a group of the original's developers - was not great. I picked it up for the Switch, since portables and racing games go together like Rice Krispies and marshmallows, but the small screen, low resolution, and laggy physics made the game borderline unplayable. I thought this was another missed opportunity for a dormant franchise and set the game aside.
All that changed when I started playing the game again on the Steam Deck years later. All my gripes with the Switch port were addressed, and GRIP ended up being a worthy successor to the Rollcage crown, albeit with a greater sense of speed, complex multi-pathed track designs, and a whole lot of customization options. The campaign is massive - Steam is telling me I spent over 13 hours on it - but with all the gears turning properly, the game is an absolute blast.
#89 Renaissance2K
For my Rollcage badge, I finished GRIP: Combat Racing. And apparently, I'm now the boss.
https://twitter.com/...
My first impressions of this spiritual successor to Rollcage - resurrected by a group of the original's developers - was not great. I picked it up for the Switch, since portables and racing games go together like Rice Krispies and marshmallows, but the small screen, low resolution, and laggy physics made the game borderline unplayable. I thought this was another missed opportunity for a dormant franchise and set the game aside.
All that changed when I started playing the game again on the Steam Deck years later. All my gripes with the Switch port were addressed, and GRIP ended up being a worthy successor to the Rollcage crown, albeit with a greater sense of speed, complex multi-pathed track designs, and a whole lot of customization options. The campaign is massive - Steam is telling me I spent over 13 hours on it - but with all the gears turning properly, the game is an absolute blast.
18-Oct-23 12:12am
#90 Slickriven
I got one and didn't love it... Rollcage beat on PS1
When I didn't fly up a wall and get hella turned around it wasn't too bad. I only beat it on the default easy difficulty and don't know if my patience could handle too much more. I used Jet and the black guy b/c they had more grip and that was key for me and my style. Really on some tracks I had to just slow down a little and flying through and getting tons of air wasn't helpful. I didn't end up using many offensive weapons, but did like the shield and the boost was at times pointless.
I can see the appeal from the late 90's of this and the sense of speed was there, but the super short wheelbases and getting spun around was a little frustrating.
#90 Slickriven
I got one and didn't love it... Rollcage beat on PS1
When I didn't fly up a wall and get hella turned around it wasn't too bad. I only beat it on the default easy difficulty and don't know if my patience could handle too much more. I used Jet and the black guy b/c they had more grip and that was key for me and my style. Really on some tracks I had to just slow down a little and flying through and getting tons of air wasn't helpful. I didn't end up using many offensive weapons, but did like the shield and the boost was at times pointless.
I can see the appeal from the late 90's of this and the sense of speed was there, but the super short wheelbases and getting spun around was a little frustrating.
18-Oct-23 1:57am
#91 Renaissance2K
Slickriven wrote:
I got one and didn't love it... Rollcage beat on PS1
Yay!
And yeah, you're not wrong. For an "extreme" racing game, Rollcage sure is unforgiving when it comes to crazy speeds. My method for beating the game - especially the last circuit - was to pick a high grip car (I play as Jet 90% of the time and only switch away when I unlock Yuri) and take it slow around those curves, unless there's a ceiling to carry my mistakes.
For that reason, I agree with you: Boost is pretty self-destructive until you find the one or two places on each track where they're safe to use. Shield, however, is still pretty useful as long as you don't waste it on chip damage. A full-strength shield can stop even that "Blue Shell" missile without throwing you off course, but its effectiveness depletes as you bump into walls or other cars.
GRIP might be more your style. Some of the truly wild tracks still have you cradling the brake to keep from being spaghetti stuck to a wall, but the larger, more open track layouts are better for boosting, and the Shield blocks anything if you time it right.
So, anybody want to tell me why everybody who's playing has a handle that starts with S?
#91 Renaissance2K
Slickriven wrote:
I got one and didn't love it... Rollcage beat on PS1
Yay!
And yeah, you're not wrong. For an "extreme" racing game, Rollcage sure is unforgiving when it comes to crazy speeds. My method for beating the game - especially the last circuit - was to pick a high grip car (I play as Jet 90% of the time and only switch away when I unlock Yuri) and take it slow around those curves, unless there's a ceiling to carry my mistakes.
For that reason, I agree with you: Boost is pretty self-destructive until you find the one or two places on each track where they're safe to use. Shield, however, is still pretty useful as long as you don't waste it on chip damage. A full-strength shield can stop even that "Blue Shell" missile without throwing you off course, but its effectiveness depletes as you bump into walls or other cars.
GRIP might be more your style. Some of the truly wild tracks still have you cradling the brake to keep from being spaghetti stuck to a wall, but the larger, more open track layouts are better for boosting, and the Shield blocks anything if you time it right.
So, anybody want to tell me why everybody who's playing has a handle that starts with S?
18-Oct-23 2:15am
#92 SwiftJAB
Started Rollcage Redux on my PC tonight. Y'all aren't joking, the physics on this game are wild and narrow corridors need to be navigated with some break checking. Button mapping to the Xbox controller was a bit weird. I tried mapping the acceleration to the right trigger and it somehow always wanted to attach it to up on the analog stick. Ended up mapping it to A and had much better time controlling the car.
I ended up picking Leon because he seemed more well balanced with grip just a bit less than Jet but speed was better. Got through all the leagues on easy. Is it just me or does it feel like there was a big jump in difficulty when starting the Taurus league? Now on to hard, God help me.
#92 SwiftJAB
Started Rollcage Redux on my PC tonight. Y'all aren't joking, the physics on this game are wild and narrow corridors need to be navigated with some break checking. Button mapping to the Xbox controller was a bit weird. I tried mapping the acceleration to the right trigger and it somehow always wanted to attach it to up on the analog stick. Ended up mapping it to A and had much better time controlling the car.
I ended up picking Leon because he seemed more well balanced with grip just a bit less than Jet but speed was better. Got through all the leagues on easy. Is it just me or does it feel like there was a big jump in difficulty when starting the Taurus league? Now on to hard, God help me.
18-Oct-23 12:17pm
#94 Slickriven
Renaissance2K wrote:
GRIP might be more your style. Some of the truly wild tracks still have you cradling the brake to keep from being spaghetti stuck to a wall, but the larger, more open track layouts are better for boosting, and the Shield blocks anything if you time it right.
Looks like I have Grip thanks to Amazon Games giving it away a while back, I was aware of it and after playing Rollcage I'll surely keep it on my 'list'. According to HL2B Grip has a 14 hour campaign which right now I don't have the time for... sneaking in 60ish mins for Rollcage was about the most gaming I've done in 5+ weeks. Doing a remodel of a bathroom and gutting that space completely takes time. Plus my 'staging' area/partial materials storage took over the room I was setup for gaming in, so that's still a total mess.
#94 Slickriven
Renaissance2K wrote:
GRIP might be more your style. Some of the truly wild tracks still have you cradling the brake to keep from being spaghetti stuck to a wall, but the larger, more open track layouts are better for boosting, and the Shield blocks anything if you time it right.
Looks like I have Grip thanks to Amazon Games giving it away a while back, I was aware of it and after playing Rollcage I'll surely keep it on my 'list'. According to HL2B Grip has a 14 hour campaign which right now I don't have the time for... sneaking in 60ish mins for Rollcage was about the most gaming I've done in 5+ weeks. Doing a remodel of a bathroom and gutting that space completely takes time. Plus my 'staging' area/partial materials storage took over the room I was setup for gaming in, so that's still a total mess.
18-Oct-23 1:32pm
#95 benstylus
I like the Racing in GRIP.
Not a fan of the open area levels where you have to make crazy jumps and stunts to collect all the bits (I think those are optional?)
#95 benstylus
I like the Racing in GRIP.
Not a fan of the open area levels where you have to make crazy jumps and stunts to collect all the bits (I think those are optional?)
18-Oct-23 5:07pm
#96 Renaissance2K
benstylus wrote:
Not a fan of the open area levels where you have to make crazy jumps and stunts to collect all the bits (I think those are optional?)
Carkour? Yeah, I didn't bother with that.
#96 Renaissance2K
benstylus wrote:
Not a fan of the open area levels where you have to make crazy jumps and stunts to collect all the bits (I think those are optional?)
Carkour? Yeah, I didn't bother with that.
18-Oct-23 6:55pm
#97 Renaissance2K
Slickriven wrote:
Looks like I have Grip thanks to Amazon Games giving it away a while back, I was aware of it and after playing Rollcage I'll surely keep it on my 'list'. According to HL2B Grip has a 14 hour campaign which right now I don't have the time for... sneaking in 60ish mins for Rollcage was about the most gaming I've done in 5+ weeks.
That's in the ballpark of what it took for me to beat it. There are 11 campaign tiers, most of which contains three blocks of 3-4 races, and a 1:1 duel. The game is pretty forgiving about what it takes to qualify in an event block - a detail I realized way too late. Some difficult races took over an hour of retries in itself.
I need a new portable game to play, with GRIP out of the way. I played a level of two PSP games I've been meaning to pick back up - Mega Man Powered Up, and Twisted Metal: Head-On - and ended up having more fun with the latter, so here we go. While I beat the PS2 re-release a while back, I never finished the original.
I'm playing as Grasshopper. I'm really curious about how they resolve the story of Krista Sparks given her... uh... situation after Twisted Metal 2.
#97 Renaissance2K
Slickriven wrote:
Looks like I have Grip thanks to Amazon Games giving it away a while back, I was aware of it and after playing Rollcage I'll surely keep it on my 'list'. According to HL2B Grip has a 14 hour campaign which right now I don't have the time for... sneaking in 60ish mins for Rollcage was about the most gaming I've done in 5+ weeks.
That's in the ballpark of what it took for me to beat it. There are 11 campaign tiers, most of which contains three blocks of 3-4 races, and a 1:1 duel. The game is pretty forgiving about what it takes to qualify in an event block - a detail I realized way too late. Some difficult races took over an hour of retries in itself.
I need a new portable game to play, with GRIP out of the way. I played a level of two PSP games I've been meaning to pick back up - Mega Man Powered Up, and Twisted Metal: Head-On - and ended up having more fun with the latter, so here we go. While I beat the PS2 re-release a while back, I never finished the original.
I'm playing as Grasshopper. I'm really curious about how they resolve the story of Krista Sparks given her... uh... situation after Twisted Metal 2.
25-Oct-23 1:43am
#98 Renaissance2K
Still plugging away at MDK 2.
I didn't think anything could be worse than trying to snipe those bouncing blue balls with a mouse from 1997.
And then, I picked up the Atomic Jetpack.
#98 Renaissance2K
Still plugging away at MDK 2.
I didn't think anything could be worse than trying to snipe those bouncing blue balls with a mouse from 1997.
And then, I picked up the Atomic Jetpack.
25-Oct-23 10:33am
#99 Slickriven
I think I want to try to get a 2nd layer on my cake and I recall playing a decent amount of Twisted Metal Black in college. So I'm going to shoot for that soon.
#99 Slickriven
I think I want to try to get a 2nd layer on my cake and I recall playing a decent amount of Twisted Metal Black in college. So I'm going to shoot for that soon.
25-Oct-23 2:15pm
#100 Renaissance2K
Slickriven wrote:
I think I want to try to get a 2nd layer on my cake and I recall playing a decent amount of Twisted Metal Black in college. So I'm going to shoot for that soon.
Do it. I just played it with Roadkill, and I think he's a great choice if you haven't played in a while. He's got a good balance of mobility and armor, and his special is great against bosses.
#100 Renaissance2K
Slickriven wrote:
I think I want to try to get a 2nd layer on my cake and I recall playing a decent amount of Twisted Metal Black in college. So I'm going to shoot for that soon.
Do it. I just played it with Roadkill, and I think he's a great choice if you haven't played in a while. He's got a good balance of mobility and armor, and his special is great against bosses.
27-Oct-23 1:49am
#101 Renaissance2K
Well...
https://twitter.com/...
I'll give some credit to the first half of MDK 2. Bioware was clearly trying to respond to feedback from the initial game (too short, too easy, underdeveloped narrative) while keeping some of the personality and putting their own spin on it; and while the mechanics of all three characters are a little rough around the edges, it shows potential.
And then, the game just falls off a cliff. The last four levels are all nightmares, not just because of the mechanical difficulty but because of how long, grueling, and boring each of the larger setpieces is. Dr. Hawkins' maze is twice as large as it needs to be. Kurt shoots about 12-too-many bouncing sniper balls. And Max climbing the radioactive antenna with the Atomic Jetpack may be one of my least favorite gaming sequences in history.
I don't know how anyone played through this with a gamepad back in the day. It's brutal enough aiming with a mouse.
Time to top my cake. I booted up Warhawk tonight, playing through it on a CRT for the first time since the 90s. Still looking for new ways to play through the game, I'm on a power-up hunt this time around, trying to pick up long lost weapons upgrades that I've ignored in past runs.
#101 Renaissance2K
Well...
https://twitter.com/...
I'll give some credit to the first half of MDK 2. Bioware was clearly trying to respond to feedback from the initial game (too short, too easy, underdeveloped narrative) while keeping some of the personality and putting their own spin on it; and while the mechanics of all three characters are a little rough around the edges, it shows potential.
And then, the game just falls off a cliff. The last four levels are all nightmares, not just because of the mechanical difficulty but because of how long, grueling, and boring each of the larger setpieces is. Dr. Hawkins' maze is twice as large as it needs to be. Kurt shoots about 12-too-many bouncing sniper balls. And Max climbing the radioactive antenna with the Atomic Jetpack may be one of my least favorite gaming sequences in history.
I don't know how anyone played through this with a gamepad back in the day. It's brutal enough aiming with a mouse.
Time to top my cake. I booted up Warhawk tonight, playing through it on a CRT for the first time since the 90s. Still looking for new ways to play through the game, I'm on a power-up hunt this time around, trying to pick up long lost weapons upgrades that I've ignored in past runs.
*cake* R2K's Birthday Extravaganza - Games, Glory, & Prizes *cake*