The popular quiz show featuring Chris Tarrant made a bee line for the gaming world back in 2000 (September 29th on Dreamcast) thanks to developers Hothouse Creations and publishers Eidos Interactive. The game is exactly the same as the television show and will be instantly familiar with anyone who was/is a fan.
Answer 15 questions of ever increasing difficulty, in order to move up the board to reach one million smackeroonies. To help you along are 3 lifelines; Ask The Audience, Phone A Friend and 50/50. Its all here in exact replica for budding quiz masters of the games world. Visually its all rather nice; granted there is little more to look at than the famous leather chair and moneyboard but it all looks polished like its just walked straight off the tv screen. Tarrant himself is on hand to provide the voice overs, and apart from the rather dense 'friends' you get to phone (Molly from Scotland? Who she?), its a pretty good title.
However there is a most obvious FAIL to this title. You see in reality, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire the quiz show is all about turning egg heads into REAL millionaires. On your way to the top of the board there are REAL cheques to be won for REAL coinage. On the videogame version of course, this is not the case so in the end all you have is a spin off from a hugely successful quiz show, that has all the flashing lights and authentic voices, but without those lovely spondoolicks. Basically without the money incentive it all boils down to a game of who can answer the most questions correctly, and be honest, you can play that with any old quiz book. The cash prizes gives ITV's show a genuine thrill factor, take them away and its an empty game, no matter how cool it looks.
Still, fans of the show won't be disappointed and even without the moolah this title is a great way to spend half hour to show off your general knowledge skills. And this goes for £3 on auction sites so its a worthwhile purchase if a quiz game is what you crave. I still play it for a fun blast to dust off the grey matter, it beats those Wii 'brain' games.
Just imagine if it DID hand out REAL money from the Dreamcasts luscious shell??
On 9th September 1999, Sega released a new console to an excited public, the now legendary Dreamcast. Many would argue the first in Next Gen visuals, and online gaming, the Dreamcast was overtaken by Playstation2 but never forgotten. To this day, a decade on, it is still a powerful force in the gaming world. This is my tribute to the console and games, where a poet becomes fanboy.
Saturday 24 April 2010
Friday 23 April 2010
Shadow Man
Shadowman arrived on the Dreamcast on December 31st, 1999 by developers Iguana UK and publishers Acclaim Entertainment. The game is a third person action affair and revolves around an African American guy by the name of Michael LeRoi, a former English literature student now turned Shadow Man, a voodoo warrior.
It all starts with a mysterious figure called 'Legion' visiting Jack the Ripper underground in the sewers of London, and convincing the killer to join him and other serial killers (known simply as the 'Five') in another world, Deadside, by comitting suicide. The ultimate goal being to bring about the Apocalypse by sending a hoarde of demons to Earth (Liveside) through a quite frankly grim sounding construction called 'Asylum'.
Assisting Mike/Shadowman, or the Bald One, on his quest are Agnetta (or Mama Nettie) a powerful voodoo priestess and Jaunty, a snake with a skull head with an Irish accent who dishes out advice whenever needed.
To be quite honest for all its cool sounding voodoo touches (and it DOES have some very cool ideas) like switching worlds and dispensing powerful magic at will, Shadowman never quite grabbed my attention by the lapels, despite our shared belief that skulls and morbid designs are awesome. The game never had me spending long hours at it, not back in 1999 or now that I have purchased it again for my collection in 2010.
I find the controls about as fluid as wood which combined with a camera that has a mind of its own makes for VERY frustrating play. Lighting could be better too, as often I found myself schlepping around in semi-darkness without any obvious clue as to where to go next. It all felt dis-jointed like things had been tacked on at the last minute.
I desperately wanted to enjoy this title because as ive said, it does have neat ideas what with the whole voodoo vibe going on but each time I visit Deadside I come away disappointed. And this does deserve to be better; for example early on in the adventure Mike is sent to an abandoned church complete with fiery swirling skies, graveyard studded with rickety crosses and around 12 fierce looking rottweilers guarding everything. The atmosphere was super eerie and impressed me no end. Sadly however bits like these aren't the norm and before long you are fumbling about in uninspired scenery.
I got hold of my copy for around £4, which felt right. Anything below the £5 mark is fair but Ive also seen this priced at £19.99 which is utterly ridiculous. To want to pay twenty quid for this you would have to been struck by voodoo yourself. Or desperate to want advice from a snake-bodied Irish man.
The Bald Ones score; 5/10
It all starts with a mysterious figure called 'Legion' visiting Jack the Ripper underground in the sewers of London, and convincing the killer to join him and other serial killers (known simply as the 'Five') in another world, Deadside, by comitting suicide. The ultimate goal being to bring about the Apocalypse by sending a hoarde of demons to Earth (Liveside) through a quite frankly grim sounding construction called 'Asylum'.
Assisting Mike/Shadowman, or the Bald One, on his quest are Agnetta (or Mama Nettie) a powerful voodoo priestess and Jaunty, a snake with a skull head with an Irish accent who dishes out advice whenever needed.
To be quite honest for all its cool sounding voodoo touches (and it DOES have some very cool ideas) like switching worlds and dispensing powerful magic at will, Shadowman never quite grabbed my attention by the lapels, despite our shared belief that skulls and morbid designs are awesome. The game never had me spending long hours at it, not back in 1999 or now that I have purchased it again for my collection in 2010.
I find the controls about as fluid as wood which combined with a camera that has a mind of its own makes for VERY frustrating play. Lighting could be better too, as often I found myself schlepping around in semi-darkness without any obvious clue as to where to go next. It all felt dis-jointed like things had been tacked on at the last minute.
I desperately wanted to enjoy this title because as ive said, it does have neat ideas what with the whole voodoo vibe going on but each time I visit Deadside I come away disappointed. And this does deserve to be better; for example early on in the adventure Mike is sent to an abandoned church complete with fiery swirling skies, graveyard studded with rickety crosses and around 12 fierce looking rottweilers guarding everything. The atmosphere was super eerie and impressed me no end. Sadly however bits like these aren't the norm and before long you are fumbling about in uninspired scenery.
I got hold of my copy for around £4, which felt right. Anything below the £5 mark is fair but Ive also seen this priced at £19.99 which is utterly ridiculous. To want to pay twenty quid for this you would have to been struck by voodoo yourself. Or desperate to want advice from a snake-bodied Irish man.
The Bald Ones score; 5/10
Friday 9 April 2010
Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes
Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes was released on the Dreamcast on June 23rd 2000 by master developer Capcom and publishers Virgin Interactive. And what a fantastic beat 'em up it is! Not content with pitting two plain old stereotypical brawlers against each other, the legendary Capcom decide to have icons from their gaming catalogue slug it out with well known hitters from Marvel's amazing universe. And if that were not enough they dress everything up in gorgeous candy coloured visuals to put icing on an already sumptious cake.
In the Marvel team you have Captain America, Spiderman, Hulk ,Wolverine, Gambit, War Machine (like Iron Man), Venom and the boss of the game Onslaught. While in the Capcom camp there is Ryu, Chun Li, Zangief (from the Street Fighter series), Mega Man, Morrigan (the sexy succubus from Dark Stalkers), Strider, Jin (Cyberbots) and Captain Commando from a scrolling arcade beat 'em up called erm...Captain Commando natch.
There are also around 20 helper characters who jump in and out of the game to aid (or hinder) your quest. Pretty much cameo roles. Hey even the little guys need press!
Its a 2 on 2 fighter but only one character from each team can be scrapping at a time. Think tag team in wrestling.
Shamefully I totally allowed this cracking title escape my clutches back in 2000, to be honest I hadn't heard of it back then. I must have been too busy wading through the undead in Capcom's other smash hit, Resident Evil. But hopefully I have redeemed myself by picking up a copy now and playing it to bits. Clash of Super Heroes is a brilliant fighting game with nice touches scattered throughout. Fans of both franchises should be in raptures about their favourite characters duking it out together.
To make things even tougher there is also a Turbo mode if you find the Normal mode too easy. And trust me, the Normal mode was tough enough for me.
The only downside has nothing to do with the game at all. Its the price. On auction sites you will be VERY lucky indeed to find this selling for anything below £15. I paid £17 for my copy and that was at a straight sell. When it goes to the highest bid I have seen this title go for a wallet wopping £30. Which is more than a lot of todays games go for! But even at these prices you cannot complain because the whole package amounts to a thoroughly satisfying slab of entertainment.
The only other touch that would have made Clash of Super Heroes utterly unmissable would have been the addition of Resident Evil's zombies, hunters and Tyrants to face off against. In the case of the hunters, quite literally a face off!
A superb 10/10. Bravo!
In the Marvel team you have Captain America, Spiderman, Hulk ,Wolverine, Gambit, War Machine (like Iron Man), Venom and the boss of the game Onslaught. While in the Capcom camp there is Ryu, Chun Li, Zangief (from the Street Fighter series), Mega Man, Morrigan (the sexy succubus from Dark Stalkers), Strider, Jin (Cyberbots) and Captain Commando from a scrolling arcade beat 'em up called erm...Captain Commando natch.
There are also around 20 helper characters who jump in and out of the game to aid (or hinder) your quest. Pretty much cameo roles. Hey even the little guys need press!
Its a 2 on 2 fighter but only one character from each team can be scrapping at a time. Think tag team in wrestling.
Shamefully I totally allowed this cracking title escape my clutches back in 2000, to be honest I hadn't heard of it back then. I must have been too busy wading through the undead in Capcom's other smash hit, Resident Evil. But hopefully I have redeemed myself by picking up a copy now and playing it to bits. Clash of Super Heroes is a brilliant fighting game with nice touches scattered throughout. Fans of both franchises should be in raptures about their favourite characters duking it out together.
To make things even tougher there is also a Turbo mode if you find the Normal mode too easy. And trust me, the Normal mode was tough enough for me.
The only downside has nothing to do with the game at all. Its the price. On auction sites you will be VERY lucky indeed to find this selling for anything below £15. I paid £17 for my copy and that was at a straight sell. When it goes to the highest bid I have seen this title go for a wallet wopping £30. Which is more than a lot of todays games go for! But even at these prices you cannot complain because the whole package amounts to a thoroughly satisfying slab of entertainment.
The only other touch that would have made Clash of Super Heroes utterly unmissable would have been the addition of Resident Evil's zombies, hunters and Tyrants to face off against. In the case of the hunters, quite literally a face off!
A superb 10/10. Bravo!
Razor Freestyle Scooter
Razor Freestyle Scooter was released on 28th August 2001 by developers Shaba Studios and publishers Crave Entertainment. Ive only recently got my hands on a copy, the title completely flying under my radar in 2001 due to being so close to the Dreamcast consoles sad end. To be honest I was expecting a shabby mess of a game with atrocious looks and handling but upon booting it up I was pleasantly suprised. Not blown out of my boots but not crushed by a mallet either.
Overall the games design is aimed to appeal to the younger gamer with cutsie, new age punk characters and fun themed skate parks, while the scooters handling like the boards in Tony Hawk's Skateboard games. I was quickly confident in pulling off impressive tricks on the plentiful ramps and half pipes, however one major gripe was the feeling of speed; there isn't any. At all. To compensate for this the areas are pretty small but the lack of speed does detract from the game.
Background to the story (as if you need a story to pull stunts on scooters) is a robot has come to earth and kidnapped your skating chums. To get them back you must perform a series of cool tricks in order to presumably impress the mad robot.
Its a fun game to while away half an hour, however be warned. As the games characters are fluffy looking mini-punks, so it must follow that the music is performed by unknown American punk bands (think Green Day only much less famous) and as a result the background sound grinds. And NOT like a smooth skateboard trick but more like a sander to the face.
Skate parks range from regular parks to rooftop areas and even scooter parks in the sky. (Wonder where they applied for that planning permission?)
To sum it up, Razor Freestyle Scooter is a fun quick blast but nothing to keep you going back for more. I picked this up for £3.99 on an auction site which is at least £3 over priced. Oh well, you can't win 'em all and its not a total shambles.
Just one question: what on earth do razors have to do with anything?
Overall the games design is aimed to appeal to the younger gamer with cutsie, new age punk characters and fun themed skate parks, while the scooters handling like the boards in Tony Hawk's Skateboard games. I was quickly confident in pulling off impressive tricks on the plentiful ramps and half pipes, however one major gripe was the feeling of speed; there isn't any. At all. To compensate for this the areas are pretty small but the lack of speed does detract from the game.
Background to the story (as if you need a story to pull stunts on scooters) is a robot has come to earth and kidnapped your skating chums. To get them back you must perform a series of cool tricks in order to presumably impress the mad robot.
Its a fun game to while away half an hour, however be warned. As the games characters are fluffy looking mini-punks, so it must follow that the music is performed by unknown American punk bands (think Green Day only much less famous) and as a result the background sound grinds. And NOT like a smooth skateboard trick but more like a sander to the face.
Skate parks range from regular parks to rooftop areas and even scooter parks in the sky. (Wonder where they applied for that planning permission?)
To sum it up, Razor Freestyle Scooter is a fun quick blast but nothing to keep you going back for more. I picked this up for £3.99 on an auction site which is at least £3 over priced. Oh well, you can't win 'em all and its not a total shambles.
Just one question: what on earth do razors have to do with anything?
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