Blowout for GC 9.95=good solid retro "contraesqe"

[sabre2922]

I just picked up Blowout for Gamecube for only 9.95 at local Walmart
Surprisingly it is a good solid game that reminds me a lot of the old Contra arcade game even though u cant jump O_O
It has decent graphics and the whole mood of the game takes me back to the Snes days
I would recommend this game to any old school 2-D lovers out there especially for the bargain basement price @_@
Also Im sure it has been brought up before but is this a small print run game?
cuase the only other couple of copies i saw where at my local Gamestop and those were for Xbox

[Gamereviewgod]

I have it on the PS2 and thought it was decent. Too Metroidy for me as I'm not a big exploration fan. Not bad though, espcially for the price. there was anothe rthread about the GC version a while back, last month maybe. Defintely the hardest of the 3 find was the genral consensus.

[josekortez]

I don't think it's a small print run. It was released on all the next-gen platforms. I got it for PS2 the day after Christmas last year. The GameCube version was just released later than the other versions. Toys R Us also carries it for $14.99 new. It is cheap at Wal-Mart, but I'm going to wait a while so I can pick it up even cheaper used.

[sabre2922]

Thankx for the input gamer I thought there had been another post about the GC version but couldnt find it
Anyway I luv the old and new Metroids so yeah anyone that enjoys that type of gameplay and graphics should grab them a copy

[Jasoco]

My store has the game for $9.99. A kid was looking through the case and his Mom picked it up. He said, "That game sucks." "How do you know?" she said. "Because it's so cheap!" LOL :roll:

[sabre2922]

lol Jasoco yeah I heard someone say the same thing about Panzer Dragoon Orta in Gamestop a few months ago LOL
Anyway I have been playing Blowout GC for the last few hours now and can truthfully say that im having a blast with it
its crazy that im having more fun with a 10.00$ game than all of the full priced games ive bought in the last few months combined
It really reminds me a lot of the Snes metroid and Contra Genny games
Anyway Ive decided im going to pick up the Xbox version also

[sabre2922]

Natalie is a GODESS!!!!!!!!!mmmm tasty!!!!!!! love your avatars J :evil:

[Jasoco]

Natalie is a GODESS!!!!!!!!!mmmm tasty!!!!!!! love your avatars J :evil:Thanks. Which reminds me. Time to change the picture. :D

[Kamino]

i saw that game for $5 at my walmart, however, i'm real picky about WHAT system i have a game on; i'm holding out for PS2 on that one...it's a controller thing!

[Jasoco]

i saw that game for $5 at my walmart, however, i'm real picky about WHAT system i have a game on; i'm holding out for PS2 on that one...it's a controller thing!Same reason I'm holding out for an Xbox version. It's a controller thing. :P

[Kamino]

to each his own, jasoco...
i'm just glad the INTV and coleco control type never caught on, nor the n64!!

[Jasoco]

I'd take the N64 over the PS2, but that's just me.. And apparently ONLY me. LOL

Anyway, I was wondering what Blowout was! I had thought it was a Racing game! Maybe I'll look into it tomorrow. I plan on taking a few trips to some stores. I'll check it all out if we don't have one for the Box or Cube. Surprisingly, it's one of the PS2 games that's less than $10 and ISN'T clearanced!

[Kamino]

I'd take the N64 over the PS2, but that's just me.. And apparently ONLY me. LOL

@_@ are you a three handed alien, jasoco? or did you use 3rd party controllers? at least with the ps2 controller all the buttons are USEABLE...unlike the decorations that are the n64 d-pad and L button

[Jasoco]

I'd take the N64 over the PS2, but that's just me.. And apparently ONLY me. LOL

@_@ are you a three handed alien, jasoco? or did you use 3rd party controllers? at least with the ps2 controller all the buttons are USEABLE...unlike the decorations that are the n64 d-pad and L buttonI had a cool ass MakoPad with both the stick and D-pad on the side. Damn I miss that. And before that, I didn't actually play games that needed the D-pad. I knew it was a thing of the past. Unlike Sony who likes to keep the damn D-Pad in the WRONG FUCKING PLACE! Put the stick at the top! And move the L1 and R1 buttons into a comfortable position and we'll talk!

Damn.. you got me ranting again! Someone make a fucking converter already! I want to use a REAL controller on the PlayStation! (Xbox)

[Ed Oscuro]

its crazy that im having more fun with a 10.00$ game than all of the full priced games ive bought in the last few months combined
That sums up what I think is the game industry's problem: they're spending all their time on creating games that make it harder and harder to get 20 minutes of good play time in. The last major appearance of 2D style (isometric) gaming on the PC has been with the strategy games (C&C Generals, the Total War series), and those are among the most obfusticated designs I've yet seen...

...On the other hand, GIVE US MORE $10 GAMES! :D

Yay for Nintendo, now get off your collective backsides and create some NEW titles that are $10. Wind Waker should've been $10. Yeah it should've.

[WiseSalesman]

I'd take the N64 over the PS2, but that's just me.. And apparently ONLY me. LOL

Anyway, I was wondering what Blowout was! I had thought it was a Racing game! Maybe I'll look into it tomorrow. I plan on taking a few trips to some stores. I'll check it all out if we don't have one for the Box or Cube. Surprisingly, it's one of the PS2 games that's less than $10 and ISN'T clearanced!

What the....? You know, Jasoco, this may be the only thing you and I have ever agreed on. Anyway, I love the N64 controller, it may be my favorite controller of all time.

</off-topic>

[Ed Oscuro]

Well, I'd go with the PS2 if it was up to N64 standards ;)

I'm not a fan of the grinding feel to the joystick in the N64 and it sucks for precise aiming, and I do like the dual joysticks of the PS2, but the N64 controller allows for better control overall, really. Hey-hey.

[josekortez]

To Jasoco: I think you're talking about the racing game Burnout, which is a kick-ass game in its own right. Lots of fast driving and crashes. It should be $10 at a lot of places too at this point. I think I bought it for $10 for Xbox a while back.

To Ed Oscuro: Wind Waker should've been $10. I've only gotten $2 worth of play time out of it at this point, and I paid full price. Nintendo should start releasing other games at $30 like they did for Wario Ware. If Custom Robo came out at $30, I wouldn't have to wait 2 years for the price to drop before I buy it.

To all: If you pick up Blowout GC at Wal-Mart, Bomberman Jetters is $15 there too and the multi-player is fun in that old-school sort of way. It ain't Generation, but then again, what is?

[Half Japanese]

I remember Bomberman Generations being mildly amusing as a single player experience, how does Jetters compare on that front? Then again, the multiplayer is really all you need...

[Ed Oscuro]

To Ed Oscuro: Wind Waker should've been $10. I've only gotten $2 worth of play time out of it at this point, and I paid full price. Nintendo should start releasing other games at $30 like they did for Wario Ware. If Custom Robo came out at $30, I wouldn't have to wait 2 years for the price to drop before I buy it.
Aye! I was very impressed with the graphical style in Wind Waker when I first got it, but after a while everything seems to start fading to gray (well, besides that, I mean detail seems to drop off outside enemy deaths and the like). There's a lot of stuff in the game but not THAT much. The levels of detail system for distant objects while on your ship is a bit off, too. It seems very much a gimmick.

Inside and outside areas throughout the game feel hastily completed, and some of the more potentially interesting locations weren't completed or expanded like they should've been. Lots of Morrowind-style prefab structure use, and the same music plays pretty much all the time when you're at sea during the daytime. :(

The N64 Zelda games were worth full price, every penny of it. Wind Waker has a lot of textures but not a lot of variety.

It'd be nice if they'd make another Zelda title more along the lines of the original game. Sure, all the kids would get stuck, but that's why you can buy keys in stores :)

[josekortez]

DrJustin, Jetters plays much the same as Generations.

Every magazine I read only gave the game a 6, but the single-player is pretty much the same. You place bombs to progress and collect Charaboms ala Pokemon. Plus, switching between Bomberman and Max let you use their respective talents on different challenges.

Multiplayer is cool, but Battle for Balloons is probably the most innovative mode. Switch mode forces you to blast numerical switches in the right order.

Everybody claims the new big-eyed art style on the B-man himself ruins the game, but if you have time to stare at his eyes while playing, you're missing the point.

[Jasoco]

Well, Custom Robo IS gonna be $40 at releast at Kmart. Not sure if it's the final price or just a sale.

[Ed Oscuro]

Folks, I picked up Walmart (spent entirely too long standing at the desk 'cuz one of the help apparently didn't think it was worth asking me if I needed to check out or going over to where I was standing...finally did get a case opened (which was actually unlocked, heh) and paid.

Anyhow...it's distressing how folks think that slapping a $10 price tag on a game lets them get away with bloody murder. That's not a dig against the developers, who made a damn good game given the limitations, but against the folks who apparently decided to severely limit the scope of the game prematurely. There was apparently some weaksauce overarching story in the manual, but aside from some prerendered CGI movie (more relics, heh heh) there is no story in the game. Just some speech between your guy and his CO - there's a third character but I don't believe he'll speak in the game.

Well, what's the game like? You navigate through some bare-bones menus, start a game, hit Start and marvel at their thoroughly fleshed-out Cheat System vocabulary (you select words in whatever sequence activates a cheat, apparently) available during a mission, and then you go back to the mission. Hit Z to let your guy keep firing in the same direction whether he's running towards it or not - very useful. (I usually forget the GC controller has that Z button, and when I do I reach under it to where it should be, ala the N64.)

You run down quite flat (but not terribly primitive looking, which is good) polygonal corridors that have some generic space station crap on them. This is interesting in each level for less than five seconds, no joke. Now and then I come across a set of stairs that look like they belong in a subway and that's a high point for me (I like tile work). Enemies come at you quite regularly, though you can't tell WHERE they'll be found since the stereo sound seems backwards. I'm quite sure I had my headphones on right, as well. Yeah, the stereo sound is pretty far off.

It's an interesting enough diversion for the first two levels, and sure enough I've only gotten through part of the third level, but I don't think anything really interesting is going to happen. The game does have some subleties (such as using various weapons to freeze up the various floating attack orbs) and some nice lighting, and there IS a soundtrack (ambient stuff through and through) but it feels very flat. You aren't told where to go, and sometimes you must shoot through walls to open up passageways, and yet I feel that the only thing that had me replaying a level was the quest for a new highscore.

I read that the "second boss" was the hardest in the game...well, I beat all three of them on my third try and had pretty much no trouble this last time, and I racked up an impressive (I'd say) highscore for the first time I've passed the default, thanks to enemy respawn. Something like 212K where the lowest you must score to actually register a new highscore for that level is 78K.

There are few graphics glitches, mostly ceiling tiles darkening as you move away from them (I'm guessing this wasn't intentional) and I encountered a single case of low-level enemies spawning right in front of me. Nothing terrible. Lots of strangeness happens around elevators, to be sure.

So does anybody remember that Bruce Willis game, Apocalypse? I remember being entertained by the demo. This game has some similarities (setting, simplistic weapons, very straightforward paths to follow) but that game was completely (according to the demo, anyway...) third person...and apparently had a storyline! Wonders never cease.

So if you're looking for some decent, cheap fun, you might consider getting Apocalpse, good enough to get on a PSX Underground sampler disc, over Blowout. Blowout isn't terrible but it's a very flat, unredeeming experience. What's more, you can't save a highscore upon dying. This pretty much kills the game's purpose - it's supposed to be fast entertainment, but to get any use out of it you absolutely must play for half an hour or more and finish the level. Getting killed starts you back at zero score and apparently resets (though doesn't relock) many of the doors and item containers throughout the game.

One positive thing - item containers aren't crates, and they blow up in very satisfying, even dramatic ways. I shot one near the end of my last game an hour or two ago and the top container flipped over, hit the others, resulted in a big explosion, and one was hurled off the screen in the viewer's direction. Impressive!

[Jasoco]

Actually, I already own "Apocalypse" for the very reason that the name "Bruce Willace" was on it. $3.99 at EB. Haven't even tried it.

[Charlie]

I remember Bomberman Generations being mildly amusing as a single player experience, how does Jetters compare on that front? Then again, the multiplayer is really all you need...

As a single player game, it's basicly the same. Pretty horrible actually, because the camera is too close to the action.

And it's multiplayer is nowhere near as good as Generations. Mostly because it doesn't have coin battle. The standard battle stages are pretty weak.

However, it does have this multiplayer mode where you have to run around on the ground and hit these numbers in order, 1-9 I think. Only one player can be doing it at a time, and so the other players have to try to stop him. If he gets blown up, then the first person to hit #1 is the only player who can start hitting the other numbers. It's fun, but nobody in my circle of friends seems to enjoy it.

Oh, and although Jetters is $14.99 at a regular Wal Mart, at all Super Wal-Marts it's $19.99.

[Ed Oscuro]

Actually, I already own "Apocalypse" for the very reason that the name "Bruce Willace" was on it. $3.99 at EB. Haven't even tried it.
I don't believe for one minute that the game has awesome movie sequences, though the advertising says it's really good. HAH.

It looks to me like pretty much the same sort of gritty (with a touch of Puff'n Stuff, if that makes any sense) atmosphere as Blowout, with some rather memorable sequences. Thing is, these games are always going to remain below the radar. They're almost good, in that there really isn't much going on. If you can get some fun out of it I'd say it warrants a 4 or 5 automatically, but with so many better titles out there you really have to be dredging the depths to want to pick these two up. They are cheap, though.

Bruce Willis helps the game out some, though :)