Cafeman
11-26-2002, 10:59 AM
I took advantage of the Circuit City deal last week, picked up a Cube along with Mario Sunshine and Metroid Prime, an extra controller and the $20 mem card. I was also looking for a good Svideo multi-system box and found a brand new one by Pelican, it supports 5 consoles with either normal or Svideo hookups, plus it actually has RF on it (I don't use that part though) -- all for $19.99. To compare, over across the store in the A/V section there was one that only allowed 4 systems and it cost $39.99.
So for the past 6 days I've been playing mostly Metroid Prime and a some Mario Sunshine. Hard to believe for some, but I have never played a Metroid game before on NES or SNES (I was a Genesis owner exclusively back then). I'm also not a big fan of FPS games. I bought Metroid Prime because of strong word of mouth, and the desire to play something different.
Well, MP is awesome stuff. It solves the 'empty room' problem of FPS games by regenerating creatures after a while, just like in the 2D games of old! I love the sci-fi aspects of the game, and the visuals and atmosphere are top-notch. You must use your scanner to find weak spots of enemies, or to learn history or "Chozo lore", or to open locks. I've played a number of hours and I'm only at 3% completion! This game has got to be huge. A workmate is at 25%, he says it ramps up in difficulty quite a bit.
The game slightly reminds me of how I felt playing Powerslave on Sega Saturn years ago -- this isn't a pure FPS, but has platforming aspects where you must jump (and its done well) or turn into the morphball to access new places. In Powerslave you'd through grenades to knock out soft sections of walls & get secrets & goodies -- you can use morph bombs or missiles here in Metroid Prime, too.
I investigated Retro Studios -- members from the old Quake and Half-Life and Turok teams also work for RS -- no mention of any ex-Lobotomy members though, who did Powerslave.
I also am enjoying Mario Sunshine. I have about 5 or 6 Shines so far. The waterpack game mechanism makes the game fresh and not just a Mario 64 rehash. Nintendo knows how to make interesting bosses -- the latest one was a tentacled squid thing -- you must yank off its tentacles to defeat it! When he slaps 'em down to hit you, get close to one, press and hold B, and then pull back on the stick. Mario pulls it away from the creature, it gets taught and then snaps right off -- ouch! Then you have to get up close and pull another appendage off which is attached to the front of it -- I'm not to sure if this is it's beak, nose, or ... another appendage. What a violent game! ;)
Seriously, Mario Sunshine is a great 3D platformer, with nice paint and water FX in many different ways, and loads of variety from what I've seen so far.
I have a huge back catalog of Cube games to catch up on over this winter, including Spy Hunter (dying to try that one), Spider-man, Rogue Squadron II , both Monkey Ball games, and Waverace.
A question to you GC PSO players -- are you guys on dial-up or broadband? I've never even seen a broadband adapter in a store for GC.
So for the past 6 days I've been playing mostly Metroid Prime and a some Mario Sunshine. Hard to believe for some, but I have never played a Metroid game before on NES or SNES (I was a Genesis owner exclusively back then). I'm also not a big fan of FPS games. I bought Metroid Prime because of strong word of mouth, and the desire to play something different.
Well, MP is awesome stuff. It solves the 'empty room' problem of FPS games by regenerating creatures after a while, just like in the 2D games of old! I love the sci-fi aspects of the game, and the visuals and atmosphere are top-notch. You must use your scanner to find weak spots of enemies, or to learn history or "Chozo lore", or to open locks. I've played a number of hours and I'm only at 3% completion! This game has got to be huge. A workmate is at 25%, he says it ramps up in difficulty quite a bit.
The game slightly reminds me of how I felt playing Powerslave on Sega Saturn years ago -- this isn't a pure FPS, but has platforming aspects where you must jump (and its done well) or turn into the morphball to access new places. In Powerslave you'd through grenades to knock out soft sections of walls & get secrets & goodies -- you can use morph bombs or missiles here in Metroid Prime, too.
I investigated Retro Studios -- members from the old Quake and Half-Life and Turok teams also work for RS -- no mention of any ex-Lobotomy members though, who did Powerslave.
I also am enjoying Mario Sunshine. I have about 5 or 6 Shines so far. The waterpack game mechanism makes the game fresh and not just a Mario 64 rehash. Nintendo knows how to make interesting bosses -- the latest one was a tentacled squid thing -- you must yank off its tentacles to defeat it! When he slaps 'em down to hit you, get close to one, press and hold B, and then pull back on the stick. Mario pulls it away from the creature, it gets taught and then snaps right off -- ouch! Then you have to get up close and pull another appendage off which is attached to the front of it -- I'm not to sure if this is it's beak, nose, or ... another appendage. What a violent game! ;)
Seriously, Mario Sunshine is a great 3D platformer, with nice paint and water FX in many different ways, and loads of variety from what I've seen so far.
I have a huge back catalog of Cube games to catch up on over this winter, including Spy Hunter (dying to try that one), Spider-man, Rogue Squadron II , both Monkey Ball games, and Waverace.
A question to you GC PSO players -- are you guys on dial-up or broadband? I've never even seen a broadband adapter in a store for GC.