Jazz Jackrabbit Review

Jazz Jackrabbit
Developed by: Epic Megagames
Published by: Epic Games
Date of release: August 1, 1994
Date of re-release: November 30, 2017
Price: $9.99 (GoG)

Back in the early 90's, videogame consoles reigned supreme when it came to home entertainment. With their action-packed sidescrollers, it seemed like PC gaming would never catch up to the likes of Super Mario Bros and Sonic the Hedgehog. The PC generally suffered from the inability to show smoothly scrolling playfields in the way that consoles could. Many attempts were made with games like Commander Keen and Duke Nukem being notable examples, however no developer seemed to be able to replicate the smooth console experience. But then in the summer of 1994, Epic Megagames surprised everyone when they released Jazz jackrabbit to great acclaim.



The first thing noticeable about Jazz Jackrabbit in addition to how smooth the playfield scrolls is the speed at which it does so. Perhaps even a bit faster than the original Sonic The Hedgehog games, Jazz moves along at an impressive clip. Don't try to jump on your foes or you'll just get hurt, Jazz isn't packing that gun just for show. There are plenty of gun upgrades to pick up along the way, providing Jazz with a serious arsenal. Now, as great as the graphics and gameplay are, the soundtrack is another amazing element of Jazz Jackrabbit. Done in a streamed Amiga Tracker style format, the soundscape is vast and impressive, with each world having it's own particular theme music.



Speaking of the worlds, there is one helluva lot of variety in this game. The version on offer at GoG is the second release of the CD-ROM version, which has 9 complete episodes, as well as bonus Christmas levels in an episode known as Holiday Hare. Kudos to Epic Games and GoG for working together to bring Jazz back, as for years there has been no legal way of obtaining this amazing game. Now with the re-release of this masterpiece, gamers can and definitely should check out this classic, and just in time for the holidays too.

Quake Retrospective

It was a Saturday like any other. June 22nd, 1996. Little did the world know that the face of PC gaming would be changed forever. id Software, famous for their work on Wolfenstein 3D and Doom chose this sweet Saturday in summer to release their latest blockbuster hit onto the world, and boy did they ever shake things up. id Software's previous offerings, though giving the illusion of 3D, were really nothing of the sort. They used graphical trickery to give the impression of a wholly 3D environment, but were really just cleverly engineered two-dimensional affairs. As revolutionary as they were, they still had nothing on the true FPS coup-de-grace that was to come. And it came in the form of Quake.



The first thing you might notice about Quake's visuals is that everything is constructed out of textured polygons, eschewing the sprites of Doom and Wolfenstein. This is a massive game changer, not only in terms of visual fidelity but also in terms of level layout. The biggest change from the static blocks of Wolfenstein 3D and the winding corridors of Doom is the added verticality that the Quake engine allows. For the first time towering structures and massive chasms were a reality, with no technical trickery needed to achieve them. From sprawling military compounds packed with high-tech machinery to dank underground caverns with abyssal water pools, and even eldritch dimensions with Gothic architecture, Quake had it all.



The visuals weren't the only revolution Quake brought to the table either. Oh no, there was also the audio to contend with. Masterfully wrought by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, the soundtrack for Quake is nothing short of a masterpiece. Using Redbook Audio CD tracks rather than the MIDI sequences of yore, Quake has one of the best sounding scores of the era. From grinding industrial metal to eerie pulsating ambiance, Quake has an extremely diverse soundscape. The ambient sounds, monster noises and weapon effects are all top notch as well. Quite amusingly, the ammunition crates for the nailgun featured the logo for Reznor's band, Nine Inch Nails.



That brings us to the arsenal of Quake. Instad of the genre-standard pistol, you start with a shotgun, and an axe for when you run out of shells. Along the way you can find a double-barreled shotgun, a nailgun and super nailgun, a genre-staple rocket launcher, a grenade launcher, and an utterly electrifying lightning gun. Each weapon had it's time and place to really shine, and they are balanced very well, nothing feels overkill or underpowered. The rocket launcher also has a hidden function, if you sacrifice a bit of health in the process, you can use the explosion to jump extremely high, a manueuver that the genre would christen Rocket Jumping. Rocket Jumping really helped with finding the secrets of Quake's massive and diverse world.



Another thing that Quake did differently from the norm was its control scheme. You could play with the arrow keys like in older FPS games, but it also introduced the now standard WASD with mouselook control scheme, and that added the helpful ability to actually aim at your foes. for extra accuracy a crosshair is also available. Modern gamers may scoff at this, having taken these things for granted, but at the time these features were absolutely groundbreaking. These precise were a boon to fans of Quake's multiplayer. Previous games such as Doom required a separate client for online matchmaking, but Quake came with TCP/IP and LAN support right out of the box. Players were free to use their connection of choice to frag their foes remotely, and a robust suite of multiplayer options sweetened the deal.



Quake also shipped with support for the wildly popular 3DFX Voodoo accelerator cards, with it's own dedicated client called GLQuake. Using the glide API, 3DFX accelerator owners were able to obtain higher fidelity graphics and a much smoother framerate compared to the default software rendering. This made the Lovecraftian worlds feel that much more alive, and drew players in that much more. A humble Voodoo 1 with 4mb of ram could run the game perfectly at 640x480, and with later models such as the Voodoo3 2000 you could reach dizzying heights of 1024x768, all while retaining wonderfully smooth framerates.



Quake was by far one of the most influential games of the 90s, both revolutionizing the FPS genre, and putting the final nail in the coffin of mere Doom clones. Even in this day and age the quality of the game holds up, and a plethora of sourceports and mods keep the game feeling fresh, with absolute replayability. With two official mission packs and mods, total conversions, and multiplayer shenanigans out the wazoo, there's more fun here than you can shake a Dimensional Shambler at. So whether you're a newcomer to the series, or a grizzled Slipgate veteran, it's time to sharpen your axe and strap on your armor. There's always something new to do in Quake!

Puyo Puyo Tetris Review

Puyo Puyo Tetris
Developed By: Sonic Team
Published By: Sega
Date of Release: April 25, 2017
Price: $29.99

Back in 1984 when Alexey Pajitnov released Tetris, I can't imagine he ever could have conceived that it would end up mashed together with arguably one of the most popular puzzlers from japan, 1991's smash hit Puyo Puyo. But here we are, in 2017 and such an absurd combo platter does in fact exist! (Though it should be noted that Puyo Puyo Tetris actually came out in 2014 in Japan, it's only now been localized!) So now, Tetris has got it's smooth chocolate all up in Puyo Puyo's creamy peanut butter, and the resulting consolidated confection is pretty sweet indeed.



I'm not sure who decided that it would be a good idea to combine both of these time-honored franchises, but I am certainly glad that they did. Somehow the two distinct games play off each other quite nicely, and manage to strike a decent balance. It's a bit different to see a normally serious (and somewhat bland) game such as Tetris spiced up with cutesy visuals and plot. Tetris: The Grand Master 3 Terror-Instinct this is not. That;s not to say that this game can't put up a good challenge, it can easily hand you your puyos on a silver platter if you're not careful.



So Puyo Puyo Tetris is part visual novel, part puzzler, and 100% weird! You have your 4-player battle modes that mash up the classic block stacking and puyo-blobbing, and as you rack up combos you dump garbage blocks on your foes, last one standing is the winner. A wacky story with a colorful cast of characters rounds things out, and a host of different ways to play each game is the icing on the cake. There's not a whole lot else to be said here, I mean it's Puyo Puyo and Tetris. Those two games really need no explanation as you've probably played several versions of each by now. TL;DR: Get Puyo Puyo Tetris, you won't regret it!

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap Review

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap
Developed By: Lizardcube
Published By: DotEmu
Date of Release: April 18, 2017
Price: $19.99

In the year 1989, a company known as Westone released a game for the Sega Master System. That game was Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap. It was an exciting action-adventure sidescrolling RPG with non-linear exploration, thrilling PSG synthesized music, and charming pixel graphics as was the de-facto standard for the era. It was incredibly well received, and in fact won the coveted Game of The Year award from Electronic Gaming Monthly. Fast forward to modern times, and Wonder Boy has made a triumphant return, lovingly crafted by the indie studio Lizardcube, in the form of Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap.



If you've played Wonder Boy III in the past you should be no stranger to the plot. Wonder Boy (I played as Wonder Girl, the title screen even changes to accommodate her) is out to slay the Meka Dragon, but little do they know that a trap is in store for them, as they are cursed upon it's defeat and turned into a lizard! The plot of the game is basically to journey forth and find a way to return to human form. All that is of course intact, but with a fresh coat of paint sorry, lovingly hand drawn visuals. Everything is beautifully drawn, and you can see the pencil lines and crosshatching, and the watercolor brushstrokes that make up the gorgeous graphics The overall palette makes wonderful use of pastel-hued sunsets and vibrantly colored vegetation to accentuate the dank castles and dungeons that your journeys take you. The sound and music have been equally attended to and are wonderfully remastered, with birds chirping outdoors and ambient drips and drops in the caves underscoring the brilliant orchestral arrangement of the original soundtrack.



That said if you wish to, you can turn off the fancy-ass modernization, and the original game which makes the basis of the entire package will shine through untouched, with optional details such as scanlines, phosphor glow, and the like available if you want to revisit the CRT days of yore. You can also choose between the unadulterated PSG soundtrack or opt for the full glory of the Sega Mark III's FM Synthesis. The lengths they went through with this project are stunning, and you can really tell that the devs are passionate about their work. I don't often assign a numerical score to a game, but when i do it's for the few exceptional titles that demand it. I give Wonder Boy Girl: The Dragon's Trap a solid 10/10.

Disgaea 2 PC Review

Disgaea 2 PC
Developed and Published by Nippon Ichi Software
Date of Release: January 30, 2017
Price: $19.99

Well, here we are once again, ready to take the plunge into the netherworld. It's been a year since the amazingly polished port of the original Disgaea: Hour of Darkness made it's way to PC under the apt title of Disgaea PC. It was a slightly rocky launch, but things got ironed out quickly enough and all the major bugs have been squashed. With lovely sprites, upgraded texture work, and some modern touches like normal mapping and ambient occlusion, it really ended up being the definitive version of the 2003 classic. Sadly, now that the follow-up Disgaea 2 PC has hit the scene, the exact same cannot be said for it.



Don't get the wrong idea though, Disgaea 2 PC is every bit as great a game as the original, but this port is lacking a lot of the polish that made Disgaea PC great. There's no HD textures, and the sprites are a bit blurry this time around, with the terrain having weird texture tiling issues. Honestly though, those are just a few visual flubs that can easily be patched out later, and barely detract from the real spectacle here, with is the intense SRPG action. Disgaea 2 PC is, like its predecessor, a simply amazing turn-based strategy RPG. A lot of that comes from the flawless execution of its battle system, which has a staggering amount of depth. If you like grinding, this series is for you, as you can level up your characters to 9999, and then enter dungeons based on their very equipment, and level their items and weapons up as well by beating massively powerful bosses in the item worlds.



There's countless hours of superb gaming to be had here, and the well-done interface helps a lot with that. The interface elements have been redrawn painstakingly in HD, and the new character portraits are crisp and clean. The soundtrack by Tenpei Sato is there in all it's glory, and the voice acting is a real treat. Also impressive is the new mouse driven interface for the PC version, though if you want to use a gamepad that works just like in the PS2 days. All in all Disgaea 2 PC is a slightly flawed but impressive addition to the series new home on PC. If grindy-ass SRPG goodness is your bag, go get it!

Ys Origin PS4 Review

Ys Origin
Developed By: Nihon Falcom
Ported & Published By: DOTEMU
Date of Release: February 21, 2017
Price: $20


It has been a long time since Playstation fans last got a taste of Ys, way back when Memories of Celceta hit the Vita in November of 2013. However rather than come out with a new sequel in this long running franchise, Falcom has chosen to take us back to the beginning with Ys Origin. This entry in the series is a prequel, taking place 700 years before the events of the first Ys games. This of course means that the veteran series protagonist Adol Christin has to sit this round out, however do not despair! This time around we have THREE individual protagonists to fill out the roster, and each of them brings their own story and unique gameplay style to the table.



If you have played a Ys game before (and I'm sure you have) then you should feel right at home with Yunica Tovah, our first playable character. She's a tough but compassionate young girl who has dedicated her life to protecting the goddesses. Do not underestimate her abilities because although she cannot use magic, she can swing around a massive battle axe as if it were a feather duster. Players new to the series should start with Yunica, as she is very easy to handle in combat. Once players feel comfortable they can tackle Hugo Fact, a magic user who plays out more like a bullet hell shooter than a typical RPG hero. The third (and secret) character will unlock once you finish the game as either Yunica or Hugo, and suffice it to say he's only for experienced players.



Of course it would not be an Ys game if it didn't have big badass setpiece boss fights, and Ys Origin delivers in spades! As usual each boss has it's weak point and a pattern that you can exploit, and half the fun is figuring out how! Unlike other games that have impossibly punishing bosses, in Ys Origin if you're dying frequently you can simply level up and try again. Also be sure to check out the upgrade menu at save points, though they may seem minor, the right enhancement can save your life. Be on the lookout for rare cleria ore as well, as it is vital for tempering your weapons.



The production values of Ys Origin are amazing, using the engine last seen in Ys: The Oath in Felghana. The music and graphics are of course as stunning as you would expect from a series of such a high caliber as Ys. From the stirring violin strains of the opening theme which give way to choral chants and guitar riffs, you can guess from just that track alone that the soundtrack is something special. And it truly is, with a wildly diverse soundscape of orchestral music inlaid with the finest hair metal that Falcom Sound Team J.D.K. has to offer. Just as rich are the gorgeously rendered 3D backgrounds and lush sprites that make up the visuals. For a port of a 2006 PC game, this is an impressive feat, and it helps that all the interface assets have been reworked in HD. Even though it's not quite as detailed as a new entry such as Celceta, Ys Origin has a charm of it's own.



After you survive the main quest three times over (needed to unlock the canon ending!) in Ys Origin there's still plenty to do. A host of unlockables including Time Attack, Boss Rush, and Arena modes round out the package, offering hours of gameplay beyond the main story. If you yearn for an epic story with brutal bosses, complex character development, and a truly hardcore soundtrack, look no further than Ys Origin. Newcomers will find an engaging start to a new series, and Ys veterans will find plenty of references to their beloved series, and even answers to some burning questions that they may have. At a solid asking price of $20, Ys Origin is an unbeatable value. Not to mention it's cross buy, so once it hits the PS Vita you'll get that version for free.