This past week has been a week of XBOX Live Arcade titles for me. The first game I picked up is a remake of an NES classic and the second an "art nouveau" type game all about hidden meaning. Both of them are completely fantastic games, but in two totally different ways.
Bionic Commando: Rearmed is a remake of the Nintendo classic called (oddly enough) Bionic Commando. Some say that it is one of the best games on the NES, but I can neither confirm nor deny this, since I never played the original. The remake at least, is great. It's definitely got that old school difficulty that can be so frustrating and yet (for the most part) it sucks me in and makes me want to keep trying (at least until I bought Braid, but more on that later).
The gameplay takes a bit to get used to mainly just because you can't jump at all and really have to learn to use the bionic arm (I forgot to tell you - the hook for the game is that you are a commando with a bionic arm, hence the name) toe get aroudn efficiently and even though I'm a few hours into the game already, I still haven't gotten the hang of the arm and I fall to my death pretty consistently. Maybe it's just me, but I'm more forgiving to these sort of classic titles for their difficulty, if only because I know that when I die, 90% of the time it was my own fault. I have no crappy camera or wonky controls to blame my death on, because both work just fine. On the other hand, enemies can be a bit cheap and you do get hit a ton by stray bullets flying around you if you try to move too fast, but I think it's just that I need to learn to go slowly and methodically through this rather than trying to blast through. Simply put, for ten bucks, this game is a serious steal.
Speaking of great deals, you can also download Braid on XBLA for only 5 bucks more, but holy cow is it a great experience. Although it's only about 5 hours long (on the first play through - subsequent times are shorter, obviously), it is a fantastic thinking man's game. While Bionic Commando is a straight action title, Braid is definitely a lot harder to define. I guess the closest I can put it is a 2D puzzle platformer - like Portal, only side-scrolling. For those of you who may not have experience Portal, let me just gush over what is probably one of the best (if not the best) games of 2007 (and not just because of the awesome song at the end). The only major difference (outside of that whole 2D/3D thing) between the two games is the humor. Portal was filled with smart ass robotic comments, but Braid is completely serious, even dark.
Both the story and the gameplay for Braid are a little hard to define, the story much moreso (I beat it on Tuesday and still don't really know what it is about). Basically, what I understand is that you are Time and you are trying to track down your Princess. There really is a ton more than that and a megaton twist at the end, but I really can't say much more without spoiling and I can't do it justice anyway. So instead, I'll just tell you to play it - no seriously, go play Braid.
The gameplay is basically a series of logic puzzles strung together to collect puzzle pieces. That's actually it... but while it sounds simple, these little pieces can be trickly little devils to get. Even though they can be extremely difficult (at times, some are really easy), it makes the game so much more rewarding when you finally figure out that little bit that you were missing to grab that piece. The creator of the game (Jonathan Blow) says not to use walkthroughs or FAQs to get through the game, and I actually agree. Normally when I get stuck on a game, I shoot off to gamefaqs.com for help, but I held out here and holy crap do I feel good. The harder puzzles in the game can take bunches of messing around to get or even just time away from the game. Seriously, I went to bed on Monday after a particularly difficult part, only to wake up to have the answer come to me. Speaking of time, the hook for Braid is time-twising. Kind of like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, only a bit more in depth and completely crucial to the gameplay. It seemed to make the game a bit easier to take for me, since deaths and mistakes are only temporary and easily reversed and tried again.
I know I'm starting to ramble about this game, but it really is that good. Between these two games, I've now played some of the best games in a really long time. If you've got a 360, I think there really is no excuse for you not to get at least one of these fine titles.... now if only I could get paid for these endorsements....
Bionic Commando: Rearmed is a remake of the Nintendo classic called (oddly enough) Bionic Commando. Some say that it is one of the best games on the NES, but I can neither confirm nor deny this, since I never played the original. The remake at least, is great. It's definitely got that old school difficulty that can be so frustrating and yet (for the most part) it sucks me in and makes me want to keep trying (at least until I bought Braid, but more on that later).
The gameplay takes a bit to get used to mainly just because you can't jump at all and really have to learn to use the bionic arm (I forgot to tell you - the hook for the game is that you are a commando with a bionic arm, hence the name) toe get aroudn efficiently and even though I'm a few hours into the game already, I still haven't gotten the hang of the arm and I fall to my death pretty consistently. Maybe it's just me, but I'm more forgiving to these sort of classic titles for their difficulty, if only because I know that when I die, 90% of the time it was my own fault. I have no crappy camera or wonky controls to blame my death on, because both work just fine. On the other hand, enemies can be a bit cheap and you do get hit a ton by stray bullets flying around you if you try to move too fast, but I think it's just that I need to learn to go slowly and methodically through this rather than trying to blast through. Simply put, for ten bucks, this game is a serious steal.
Speaking of great deals, you can also download Braid on XBLA for only 5 bucks more, but holy cow is it a great experience. Although it's only about 5 hours long (on the first play through - subsequent times are shorter, obviously), it is a fantastic thinking man's game. While Bionic Commando is a straight action title, Braid is definitely a lot harder to define. I guess the closest I can put it is a 2D puzzle platformer - like Portal, only side-scrolling. For those of you who may not have experience Portal, let me just gush over what is probably one of the best (if not the best) games of 2007 (and not just because of the awesome song at the end). The only major difference (outside of that whole 2D/3D thing) between the two games is the humor. Portal was filled with smart ass robotic comments, but Braid is completely serious, even dark.
Both the story and the gameplay for Braid are a little hard to define, the story much moreso (I beat it on Tuesday and still don't really know what it is about). Basically, what I understand is that you are Time and you are trying to track down your Princess. There really is a ton more than that and a megaton twist at the end, but I really can't say much more without spoiling and I can't do it justice anyway. So instead, I'll just tell you to play it - no seriously, go play Braid.
The gameplay is basically a series of logic puzzles strung together to collect puzzle pieces. That's actually it... but while it sounds simple, these little pieces can be trickly little devils to get. Even though they can be extremely difficult (at times, some are really easy), it makes the game so much more rewarding when you finally figure out that little bit that you were missing to grab that piece. The creator of the game (Jonathan Blow) says not to use walkthroughs or FAQs to get through the game, and I actually agree. Normally when I get stuck on a game, I shoot off to gamefaqs.com for help, but I held out here and holy crap do I feel good. The harder puzzles in the game can take bunches of messing around to get or even just time away from the game. Seriously, I went to bed on Monday after a particularly difficult part, only to wake up to have the answer come to me. Speaking of time, the hook for Braid is time-twising. Kind of like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, only a bit more in depth and completely crucial to the gameplay. It seemed to make the game a bit easier to take for me, since deaths and mistakes are only temporary and easily reversed and tried again.
I know I'm starting to ramble about this game, but it really is that good. Between these two games, I've now played some of the best games in a really long time. If you've got a 360, I think there really is no excuse for you not to get at least one of these fine titles.... now if only I could get paid for these endorsements....
2 comments:
Unfortunately I can't comment on these titles as I don't have an XBOX. But I have heard that the Bionic Commando game was pretty sweet. Did you ever play Lost Winds? (Downloadable WiiWare game) I thought that it was a pretty neat game for 10 bucks. Nice way to use the Wii controls.
Braid sounds cool. Roger loves Portal, so I'll have to suggest it to him.
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