Top 52: Halo 3 (#47)

This week's Top 52 features one of the two games on this list that I currently do not own: Halo 3. It seems as though everyone who has an Xbox 360 owns this game as it is one of the "killer apps" for the console. However, this game is on my list for a slightly different reason. Read on and you'll see what I'm talking about.
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Title: Halo 3
Console: Xbox 360
Release Date: 09/25/07 (US)
Genre: First-Person Shooter
My Ranking: #47

To those that know my taste in video games, this game might come as quite a shock. I have repeatedly argued with my friends that the Halo series is one of the most overrated series in video game history, as the engine used for Halo isn’t that phenomenal. There have been far better shooters, before and after Halo, that have been more tactical and simply, more fun.

However, despite my clear negative bias towards it, I absolutely loved Halo 3. It would not make me buy an Xbox 360 but, whenever I play it at my friend’s house I always end up enjoying it. I’ve beaten the single-player mode in its entirety (in co-op of course), and I’ve played numerous games online with various friends.

The single-player co-op experience felt extremely satisfying as on Heroic, the difficulty was perfect. We died a couple times on later stages and felt as though I really improved in the game when we beat a difficult section. Legendary was nearly impossible but me and my friends managed to get through it just grinding out way through with pinpoint accuracy. Or, if we were really frustrated, we would just beat the crap out of each other, or attach a sticky grenade on the other’s player’s back. I couldn’t care less about the story; it seemed over-the-top and a little silly, but I didn’t see the story in the previous versions so I can’t justifiably give an opinion about it.

Halo 3 didn’t just stop with the single-player co-op. Halo 3 was the first game that exposed me to co-op online play and that’s what really captivated me. I love being able to find 6 to 8 other people to play with, almost instantaneously, and just play a deathmatch alongside my best friend. I’ll be shooting with a needler gun trying to take out my best friend only to be sniped by a random online sharpshooter. I love it. For the most part, the competition on Halo 3 is pretty intense. There are some dumb people, but most people know how to get cover, fire accurately and use grenades effectively.

But like I said, there are some really dumb, young Halo players online, seemingly more so than with other games. This is the main reason why this game is on my list. My friend Kevin and I constantly try to mess with the young, obnoxious Halo players who think they are the best players in the world. One example of what we have done occurred when we were playing Ninjaball on Snowbound.

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Just to give some background for people who haven’t played this mode before, Ninjaball is a special online mode in Halo 3 where the object of the game is to hold a point ball for a certain amount of time. The game starts with the ball placed somewhere on the map, and for each second someone possesses the ball, they gain a point. When that person dies, the ball is dropped where that person died and then someone else can pick it up and gain points. There is more to the setting than this, but this is all you need to know for this story.

As I said before, my friend Kevin and I love to mess with people online. So, me and Kevin make a pact and decide not to kill each other, just for a little while. We kill off some other players and I gain possession of the ball. Kevin starts taking out some people around me and we make a mad dash for the edge of the map where an invincible AI turret awaits. Kevin approaches the turret first, with me following directly behind him. After a couple of shots, the turret kills Kevin and then starts pummeling me. I run almost right in front of the turret, and die pretty much next to it.

I know, this plan doesn’t seem that interesting, as we ended up killing ourselves. However, what happened as a result of this plan was hilarious. The ball that everyone needs in order to gain points is now being guarded by an invincible turret. Anybody who runs up towards it is killed way before they can reach it. Obnoxious kid responds: “What the #$%@? Who is did dat? I kep dyin’!”

We chuckle on our end. We just shattered the world of a Halo-obsessed child. After about 5 minutes, the ball is reset, which is a long time in this mode. So, we move the ball again, back to the same spot, laughing the whole way. Obnoxious kid responds again once he realizes where it is: “Who the %&*$ keeps doin’ dat!? Dis isn’t how u play ninjaball! I’m gonna f’ing murder the foo who did dis!” Ah, we had a good time.

Sure, there is way more to Halo 3 than just the online play, but the gameplay against other competitors was really solid. It takes an absurd amount of ammo to lower someone’s shield and then kill them but the game is pretty balanced by giving you a lot of ammo and placing different guns everywhere. Halo 3 is an addictive fantasy shooter that, for whatever reason, unfortunately attracted a lot of video game meatheads.

However, with the right people, Halo 3 can be extremely competitive and fun to watch. I’ve seen Halo 3 tournaments before and when two great players meet on a map, it’s great to see them duel. I am not that good at this game, but I will always think of it fondly since I shared so many funny moments, both online and during the campaign, with my best friend sitting right next to me. Great games are not only great because of what is on the screen. Great games create an emotion and an atmosphere to the people holding the controllers. As weird as it is, a shooter, Halo 3, did that to me.
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My Top 52:
#52 --- Star Fox 64 (N64)
#51 --- Kirby's Adventure (NES)
#50 --- Roller Coaster Tycoon (PC)
#49 --- Grand Theft Auto III (PS2)
#48 --- Metroid Prime (GC)
#47 --- Halo 3 (Xbox 360)
#46 --- Revealed on 8/19

Simple Hardcore Appeasement for Nintendo

I still cannot believe how bad Nintendo’s E3 press conference was. Everyone’s conference was sub-par but, I think every gamer agrees that Nintendo was the worst of the three.

The Nintendo Wii is still coming out with great games, and I’m genuinely excited about most of the games they showed at their conference. Wii Music looks a little cheesy but the free form drums look amazing. Wii Sports Resort also looks like a lot of fun and the Wii Motion Plus looks as though it has a ton of potential.

This has been the problem with the Wii since it came out though. Everything with their system has great potential that game developers aren’t taking advantage of. Imagine the amount of fun a well-funded sword-fighting adventure game would be with the Wii Motion Plus. Or, imagine how cool it would be to have a futuristic racer *coughExtremeGcough* using both the Wii wheel and possibly the balance board to accelerate.

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But no, game developers don’t need to make games like that to appeal to the hardcore gamers. Like it or not, the casual games sell on the Wii, and they sell well. Wii Fit, Link’s Crossbow training and Big Brain Academy are just some of the examples. And since the developing costs are far less, they rake in more profit, even if the games aren’t the best-sellers of all-time. Nintendo has an excellent business strategy, as they reached an untapped market of casual gamers.

I understand that it is very hard to come out with big-budget games every year and make them successful. Luckily, Nintendo has an edge with their first-party games because if they put Mario, Link or Samus on the cover, it’s going to sell. These games don’t necessarily sell because of the characters but because they have consistently put out great products. When the next installments in those series come out, I expect to buy them as I have consistently enjoyed them.

But there’s even simpler, cheaper ways to appeal to hardcore gamers like myself.

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Make some Virtual Console games have online play. Why not make some the Virtual Console games playable online? Imagine being able to play Mario Kart 64 with anyone around the world. Or how about Street Fighter 2? Or maybe they could add a multiplayer mode to the original F-Zero and make it have online play. That would be so much fun and probably increase the amount of Virtual Console sales. The old SNES and N64 games were immensely enjoyable with my friends when I was younger and I can’t imagine that it would be that difficult to put them online. Sure, this idea is a little bit of a copout as it recycles old content, but as a hardcore gamer, I would love this.

Make downloadable characters for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Making a balanced character might be a little bit difficult but they already made so many of them that are balanced. They would not need to fit them into the Subspace Emissary or into any events. Making a new downloadable character would not cost a lot of money and it might cause people who have stop playing the game to go back into it. First-party characters they could add with little trouble could include Isaac from Golden Sun or Samurai Goroh from F-Zero. Sure, they are already assist trophies but, does that really matter? Third-party characters like Geno or Mega Man would cost more but would also be nice.

Nintendo must have known months before E3 that they had nothing to show the hardcore gamers. These ideas could have been implemented that fast and would have been nice interludes to put in since they don’t have the next Mario, Zelda or Kid Icarus game ready to show. There are simple, cost-effective ways of appealing to the hardcore gamer. Hopefully, Nintendo didn’t forget that.

Olympics: Basketball and Phelps

I love watching the Olympics as I get to watch sports that I would never find anyplace else. Right now, as I write, I’m checking out the USA-China water polo game. This morning, I also caught the USA-China basketball game, where the USA’s so-called “Redeem Team” crushed China 101-70.

Seeing that score, you would think that the USA team dominated the game on every level. That could not be farther from the truth however. China, especially early on in the game, was raining down three’s. The USA’s perimeter defense was just awful. It felt as though everyone on the Chinese starting five was consistently hitting from outside the arc (even Yao Ming dropped one) in the first half and nearing the close of the second half, the game was tied.

Photo: Getty Images

However, clearly the saving grace of the USA team was Lebron James. He had three huge blocks in the game, one including when he grabbed Liu Wei’s lay-up attempt in mid-air. Lebron James was simply a defensive mastermind in this game as the man he was holding, Yi Jianlian, went four-for-thirteen shooting.

Offensively, Dwayne Wade was the star, as he did not miss a shot the entire game. He was 7-for-7 shooting and perfect from the free throw line. However, his teammates did not follow in his example in regards to foul shooting. The USA team went 18-for-25 from the free throw line, which in this Olympics, is just unacceptable. The USA team also could not hit their three’s, going 7-for-24 in the game. China is not the biggest test for the USA team either, and had they played this sloppy against Spain or Greece, the result might be different.

I can’t have a post about the Olympics without talking about what swimmer Michael Phelps did last night. Phelps is going for a mind-boggling eight gold medals, and he got the first one last night in the 400m Individual Medley. He didn’t just get the gold medal in this event; he also broke another world record, posting a time of 4 minutes 3.84 seconds. The previous record was 4 minutes 5.24 seconds, also set by Michael Phelps.

Photo: Getty Images

Seriously, this guy is just insane. Every stroke he has looks perfect; he never breathes at the wrong time and his entries into the water are just flawless. The NBC announcer said that his weak point may be the breaststroke, and that might be when other swimmers could catch up to him. Upon watching the competition however, he was gaining more ground on the competitors during that leg of the race. He simply looked unstoppable.

I don’t know if he has the stamina to get eight gold medals but no one in the Olympics has shown that they are even close to his swimming ability. Watch for Phelps on Wednesday though, as he has to do three events in one day, one of which includes the 4 x 200 freestyle relay, which will test the USA swim team altogether.

VG Advanced Strategies: Super Mario Bros.

This Saturday is a VG Advanced Strategy segment, featuring the game that probably saved the video game industry: Super Mario Bros.

With perfect jumping and use of all the warp pipes, the original Super Mario Bros can be beaten in five minutes. While most of us can’t hit that five minute plateau, we still can use the warp pipes to get to World 8 as fast as possible. Most of my readers probably know where are the warp pipes are in Super Mario Bros but, if you need a refresher, look at the strategies described below.

World 1-2 has the first set of warp pipes available to you. By staying above the level you can bypass the normal exit of the level and choose to warp to world 2, 3 or 4. If you are Super Mario (big Mario), you can break the brick ceiling as early as the picture shows above and just coast along to the warp pipes.

Those goombas are clueless that a fat plumber is right above them.

The pipe in the middle of the screen would lead you to 1-3. But Mario is too clever to continue on the normal path.

Oh! So many pipes to choose from! Warp Zone is so friendly to Mario. Choose the pipe that leads to World 4 if you are trying to beat the game as fast as possible.

The next opportunity you have to warp is World 4-2. The screenshot above shows where the secret is and it occurs very early in the level immediately after the first moving platform. The left-most brick block is the one you have to hit, as that will spawn a vine.

Don’t just jump after the block though! If you do, the vine block will be impossible to hit as Super Mario.

Instead, hit the two secret blocks to the right of it and run and jump to hit the vine block. Then just climb the vine to head towards the next warp zone.

Wow, now the pipes are orange. How fancy. Enter the warp pipe to World 8, which is the last world of the game. Go kick some Bowser butt and get some Princess Toadstool butt of your own!

There is one more warp pipe I want to show you, however. And that is the secret entrance into the “Minus World.” Note that this trick only works in the NES version of the game. It won’t work in Super Mario All-Stars or Super Mario Bros. DX.

The trick occurs in World 1-2 and you must be Super Mario or Fire Mario. Stand on top of the pipe that would lead you to World 1-3 and the end of the level. Then break the second brick block from the right as shown in the picture above.

Now this is the tricky part. Start off by facing towards the left. Then, you need to duck and jump upwards into the space you created. While in mid-air, you then need to press right on the control pad so that you hit the left side of the brick block that is next to the green pipe. You must also make sure that you don’t let go of holding down on the control pad or else Mario will stand upright and possibly break the right most block making this trick impossible. You know you did the trick correctly though, if you see Mario stuck in the blocks being forced to the right, towards the warp zone.

When Mario pops out of the side of the wall, you’ll see the pipes that should be the warp zone pipes. Oddly enough though, the pipes won’t be numbered. Be sure not to make the screen scroll too far to the right though, because if you do, it’ll turn back into the normal warp zone area where the pipes lead to Worlds 2, 3, or 4. The pipes above though will lead you worlds -1, 5 or -1, from the left to right pipes.

Yes, you will go world -1, commonly known as the minus world. This underwater level isn’t very complicated, just some fish and bloopers will get in your way. However, when you get to the pipe at the end of this level and walk through it, the level will just restart and will do so every time you go through the pipe. Congratulations, you have just broke the game and now you cannot beat it since Mario is in the minus world. No Princess Toadstool butt for you. How sad.

So now you know where the warp pipes are in Super Mario Bros. And, now you can choose if you want to save the princess as fast as possible or if you want to get lost in the minus world. Fun times.

Team Hide and Go Seek

Hide and Go Seek is a great game, but it gets old fast, and you can only play with so many people, in a somewhat confined before it gets out of hand. Team Hide and Go Seek blows these downsides away. Adding in teams and clues quintuples the fun value of the game.



Setup:
1. Create teams. Try and stay close to having the same number of people on a team as the number of teams you have. So if you have 9 people, go for three teams of 3. If you have 15 people, do three teams of 4 and a team of 3. Make sure at least one person on each team has a reliable mobile. There is some waiting involved, so make sure your team doesn't suck; choose people you can converse with for a while.
2. Establish boundaries and transportation rules. If you're in a city with buses and subways (Manhattan, e.g.) maybe do a 20-30 block radius from your starting point. Adjust if you are walking, have cars, etc.
3. Determine which team will be the first to hide. Be creative, maybe a large multi-person game of mercy?
4. Establish communication methods. It's best for each team to choose a person who will be the pointman for communications, but it's good to have backup in case your mobile runs out of batteries. Decide if communication will be by walkie-talkie, cell phone (voice), text, email, etc.

Gameplay (Hiders):
1. Go and hide. It can be anywhere within the boundaries, but it must be within open sight. Sitting by a tree, fine. Huddled inside a port-a-john, no (and gross). You will be giving out clues as to where you are, so before you choose a location, make sure you can think of a clue or two which you can use to lead them to your location. Move quickly; the others are waiting for you.
2. Tell the other teams your first clue. Make your first clue somewhat vague. Make a riddle if you're clever enough.
3. Relax, and think. They're coming to find you, all you have to do is play the waiting game. You need to be provide the other teams with clues, so brainstorm as you wait.
4. Answer their calls. They will be contacting you every ten minutes to ask a yes or no question. Don't mess this up; they'll be pissed. If nobody on your team knows, tell them to come up with a new question. They'll probably whine, but who cares.
5. Provide clues every 20 minutes. Your biggest job is giving everyone the clue. If you're doing so by calling them, try and have everyone on your team call a different person, so they get the clues at the same time. When you give a clue, they will also ask you a question. (See #4.)

Gameplay (Seekers):
1. Keep yourselves entertained. The other team is hiding, and you have little to no idea where they're going; there's not much strategizing you can do, so just have fun. Maybe stretch, you might end up doing some running.
2. Be smart. You'll receive your first clue when the other team arrives at their spot. It will probably be vague, but if you have any hunches, go with them.
3. Think of questions. You are allowed to ask a yes or no question every ten minutes. If you have some ideas based on the clue, you can use those, or you can ask based on location. Example: Find a dividing line on the map, then ask, 'Are you north of x avenue?'
4. Plan things out. Decide on a destination, and the path you will take to get there. Move quickly. Decide who will watch the left side of the street, etc. They will be open sight, but can still be somewhat hidden. Important: Your team must stay together! No splitting up.

Winning:
1. Found the hiders? You win! Inform the other teams that the game is over; be sure to brag.
2. Meet at the hiding point. Some people will be farther away, so again, play the waiting game.
3. The winning team hides. Assuming you want to play another round.

Repeat until you get bored. If people have to leave, redistribute teams if necessary.

Strategies:
1. Use all your resources. If you have the internet on your phone, and you think it will help you figure out a clue? Go for it. Know someone (who's not playing) that knows the city better than you? Call them. (Unless any of these methods were discussed initially and prohibited.)
2. Hide within your hiding spot. You need to stay out in the open, but even the simple act of hiding your face with your hand can be effective. (See below.)


He ran right by us, even stopping right about there. This is a recreation of the scene, but this is exactly what happened. Over there on the right is your lead blogger here at Table Salt Games. I'm the bearded one on the right of the bench.

To see pictures from one of the time I played in Manhattan, go here.

Photo: PRactical Ramblings

Godspeed.

Flashy Friday: Duck Hunt

First off, it's Friday, so I made another post on Will and Beyond, entitled Another Controversial Video Game Law, so check that out at his site.

Also, instead of doing a VG Advanced Strategy segment and BC Advanced Strategy segment every week, I'll be alternating one every week on Saturday as I realize that writing those takes up a whole lot of time. In lieu of one of those weekly segments, I'm putting up a new segment, Flashy Friday, that will appear every Friday. Alright, I know it sounds cheesy, but I like alliteration damn it. In this segment I'll just link you a cool flash game that I found that you might find fun to play.

This week's game is Duck Hunt. Sure, you could play this on your NES, but this is a really well-made flash version that uses your mouse instead of a laser gun. You can play in three different modes with shooting one duck, two ducks or using a machine gun to shoot a lot of dogs. Game C, Clay Shooting, for whatever reason, doesn't work. Still, this will keep you entertained for awhile.

Video games have a great quality of still being awesome despite being old and outdated. I can never tell if this feeling is nostaglia for me or if there is intrinsic value in retro-style games. Ah, I'll get into that in another post later. For now, enjoy Duck Hunt through this link.

Review: Space Invaders Extreme (DS)

Space Invaders Extreme
Nintendo DS

Overall Score: 8.1
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Quick Fix:
+ High-quality, intense color filled backgrounds with classic pixilated enemies
+ Stays true to original Space Invaders while adding new gameplay elements
+ Interactive music fits nicely with the setting
+ Great, creative boss fights
+ Fun, challenging multiplayer and makes good use of Wi-fi
+ Difficult levels

- Single-player campaign too short
- Not enough varied boss fights
- The top screen’s gauges are important but cannot be easily read because the bottom screen takes up all of your attention
- Difficult levels

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Gamer or not, chances are that you have at least heard of Space Invaders. When the original game was released in 1978, people went bonkers over shooting aliens with a tiny spaceship. Thirty years later this same idea is being brought to the DS (and PSP) with Space Invaders Extreme. Except now, the aliens are a lot more colorful and there’s much more to do than fire a simple laser.

Space Invaders Extreme has you control a tiny, yellow spaceship capable of taking out nasty aliens that fly your way. The only buttons you need to use are the left and right buttons on the D-pad and either B or A to shoot. Some of pixilated baddies are able to fire back at you and they generally move in a left to right fashion, just like the classic Space Invaders. There are even still UFOs that float over the top of the formation that give you a lot of points. Each stage features a barrage of different enemy formations and your job is to take them all out and then face a boss to clear the stage.

There are a slew of abilities you can get however, to help ease this process. If you shoot four space invaders of the same color, a power up will drop that goes along with that color. A green item will give you a five laser wide shot; a blue item will give you a wide and constant laser, a red item will give you bombs that explode nearby enemies on contact, and a black item will give you a shield. Power ups only last for a short time so you need to use the upgrades effectively to kill more enemies and hopefully get more items.

If you kill enough enemies of similar types and kill them at a high rate, you may also call a special UFO that, if hit, will bring you to a mini-stage. If you complete the mini-stage in the allotted time (usually no longer than 15 seconds), you will enter “fever mode” back in the original stage where you gain a powerful, long-lasting power up and the UFOs give you a jackpot, which are great if you are going for high scores.

There are meters on the top screen of the DS which keep track of various things like your score, the rate at which you kill enemies, your chain, and which color enemy you have killed. Most of these are very helpful if you’re trying to spam fever mode but if you dare take a look at the top screen, chances are you will get killed on the bottom screen. They do have some side meters on the bottom screen, namely the color enemy tracker and the time left on your power ups. However, not knowing your rate may keep you from spawning a UFO that will induce a fever mode mini-game. It’s a small problem though, because if you play the game long enough, you can probably gauge how fast your rate is.

The top screen’s gauges disappear though when you are in a boss battle and the developers get creative with these fights. In stage four’s boss battle, your spaceship is only on the top screen and the boss is below you. Shooting behind you is impossible but luckily there are reflecting enemies on the top of the top screen. By shooting the reflector enemies and dodging your own laser, you can hit the boss on a ricochet. It’s a creative fight that gets really dicey when you suddenly realize that you need to dodge the boss’ lasers, your own lasers, and the lasers from the reflector enemies themselves.

All of this occurs with flashy graphics that will dazzle your eyes and probably make you think that you are on acid. The backgrounds are so bright and colorful and everything moves so it feels like a lot is going on at once. Simply put, it’s really pretty and psychedelic… dude. This doesn’t distract you from the space fighting however, as the enemies are easy to see. The enemy design hasn’t diverged from the classic Space Invaders either. The aliens will likely look familiar as Space Invaders Extreme aptly shows that retro-style graphics can be integrated with modern developments.

The music also fits the setting excellently. Space Invaders Extreme features techno-themed music that seems to move along with the background color scheme. What is especially creative however, is that the actions you take while shooting the space invaders affects the song. When you fire, the game has a different sound depending on what level you are on. When the space invaders get hit, they also make different musical sounds depending on the level. For example, when you hit a space invader with a reflector shield it makes the sound of a crash cymbal on level 3. And since you’re firing and hitting things so much, the music ends up being crazy and highly entertaining.

Unfortunately though, the space invader madness doesn’t last long in the one-player mode. There are only five main stages for you to play through, with levels three through five varying in difficulty with sub-stages. The various sub-stages have some different enemy formations, and you will die more on the harder ones, but the bosses are all the same, with possibly one more attack phase or pattern.


However, you’ll probably will play this game over and over again either because you keep on losing all your lives or because you want to break your high score. In arcade mode, you can replay the same stage over and over again if you lose all your lives, which will happen to you. This game is hard. The difficulty is not impossible, but don’t be surprised if you have to play one of the harder stages five or ten times. I haven’t beaten the hardest sub-stages of stage four or five nor did I stand a chance in the extreme mode.

Once you get really good however, you can try the ranking mode, where you can go through the game’s five stages with no ability to continue and put your name up on the worldwide leaderboard. Or, if climbing leaderboards isn’t your thing, you can go on Nintendo Wi-fi and challenge someone else to a battle. In multiplayer mode you both face endless waves of enemies and the first person to run out of lives loses. You can still get the same basic power ups (no fever mode) in the regular game and shooting UFOs now results in you sending more space invaders to the opposing player. You can even play this game locally with only one cartridge, with the other DS user using download play.

Even if Space Invaders Extreme didn’t have the “Space Invaders” label to give older gamers nostalgia, this game is great on its own. The simple controls and fast-paced action makes this one highly addictive and you’re guaranteed to spend on ton of time with it. Selling only for $20, this game is a steal and will keep you busy for hours on end.

Overall Score: 8.1