Year after year, I’m reminded that the holidays are the perfect time to catch up with the really important things in life. Friends and family? “Bah!” I say to that. I’m talking about video games, man. Video games and books.
Last week I learned that Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, one of my favorite games of all time (see for yourself; it’s on my official list), has been on Xbox Live for years. Years! Of course I reupped my XBLA account (username Ppong102 — add me!) and purchased the game within minutes. Meanwhile the AC unit I’ve been meaning to uninstall for weeks remains comfortably perched on my window sill. It’s called priorities, people.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
In less than a week I’ve already passed 130 percent completion (it goes to 200.6 percent if you know what you’re doing) and rediscovered why I loved it so much fourteen years ago. Oh my god I am old.
The XBox’s analog controls aren’t quite as sharp as the PS1′s D-pad that I lovingly groped for so many hours back in the day, but it’s still plenty sharp. Alucard remains inhumanly graceful, and his voice acting is still so atrociously overdone that it completely justified this piece I wrote in tribute recently. The graphics, however, have aged terribly. Each sprite occupies approximately one-fifth of the screen and all of Alucard’s animations could probably be counted on a single hand that lost a couple of fingers in a nasty cheese grating accident.
Despite all that, SotN is as fun as I remember. Dracula’s palace is huge and even my memories and a helpful Internet map couldn’t stop me from getting lost, again and again. And more important than the game’s sheer size is how many secrets are buried behind false walls and tucked within vases positioned juuuust out of reach. You’re almost always rewarded for exploring, if not with a powerful new sword than perhaps with a familiar, or at the very least a percentage point checked off your completion total. With the beautiful, haunting soundtrack to accompany the adventure, I’m pretty sure I’ll earn that 200.6 percent sooner rather than later. Will I want to do it again as Richter Belmont however…
Madden NFL 2012
As wonderful as it is playing through SotN again, I’ve had to break up the retro gaming with some more modern fare. Madden NFL 2012 had been sitting on my counter for weeks until I decided to get virtual revenge on the Baltimore Ravens for the victory they squeezed out over my Niners.
I won’t write a full review here, but it was nice to discover that my years of playing past Maddens made ’12 extremely easy to pick up and play. That’s probably a downside for many gamers but I’m not complaining. I tried out a regular and fantasy franchise mode and I can confirm that both are capable of pilfering an entire day if you’re not careful. I’m still irked that EA hasn’t figured out a way to give my team realistic stats when I’m playing 5 minute quarters. Isn’t there some kind of multiplication conversion that can make my measly totals compare with all the simulated teams that play more than twice as long? I dunno. I just want the league to recognize Frank Gore’s awesomeness once in a while.
The Superstar mode has been surprisingly fun, though I can only imagine how boring it must be if you pick a defensive player, or –– god help you –– a lineman. Playing as a rocket-armed but raw QB helped me pick up more nuances in the passing game, but I wish my coaches expanded the playbook beyond the same dozen pass and run plays. I’m not Vince Young, you guys.
I have to say something about the commentary too. I like Cris Collinsworth. I think he’s a smart guy and an insightful commentator. Virtual Cris Collinsworth, however, THAT guy I want to stomp on his peepee. Both he and virtual Gus Johnson frequently misname players’ positions, repeat the same calls again and again and again (and again), and perhaps worst of all, make EXTREMELY judgmental comments when I decide that I don’t want to gamble on my kicker booting a “routine” 60-yard field goal. C’mon Madden, you’re better than this. Aren’t you?
Dark Souls
Which brings me to Dark Souls, a game so outrageously difficult that its tagline is “Prepare to die.” I have a feeling that publisher Namco Bandai would’ve included maniacal laughter after the tagline if it could have. I haven’t played it yet, but I moved it to the top of my rental queue. I have no intention of actually beating the game, but I feel like I have to make the effort. In so many ways it seems like a game that I dislike: there’s barely any plot; you’re expected to lose, again and again; and there’s almost no gameplay beyond fighting and dying. Still, I think it’ll be good for me, like the time I fell down a mountain backwards. Sure I almost died, but it made a great story.
The Alloy of Law
Speaking of stories, last week my review copy of Brandon Sanderson’s The Alloy of Law arrived in the mail. I opened it up on Wednesday and by Saturday I was finished. I enjoyed it, but like all of Sanderson’s work, I can’t recommend it wholeheartedly.
The Alloy of Law is a Mistborn novel, but it’s not a direct sequel to his Mistborn series (which is fortunate because I haven’t quite finished it). It takes places in the same world, but hundreds of years after the time when Vin and Sanderson’s other heroes have passed on. Brand new characters take the stage, and they’re just as thrilling and hollow as any other character that Sanderson has created. I won’t go into it much here –– after all I have a real review to write –– but I will say that Sanderson understands his strengths, namely his marvelous magical systems and dashing fight scenes and puts on a proper show with them in Alloy.
Well, that’s more than enough for now. Check back here in the near future as I continue to write stuff –– promise. In the meantime, what are you playing or reading?
