Awesome episode. I played that game YEARS ago, and remember the controls being awful like he said.
I'm also enjoying his Monster Madness movie reviews. They put me in that hallowee mood which I'm sorely lacking.
Awesome episode. I played that game YEARS ago, and remember the controls being awful like he said.
I'm also enjoying his Monster Madness movie reviews. They put me in that hallowee mood which I'm sorely lacking.
The Paunch Stevenson Show free Internet podcast - www.paunchstevenson.com - DP FEEDBACK
Trust me, it doesn't. My friend's uncle had it for his Mac in the late 1980s and it was just as unplayable. Imagine moving the character with the keyboard arrows and controlling the direction of the character's throwing arm with the mouse. It made no sense. Plus, the graphics were literally black-and-white:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/macint...le/screenshots
I have no idea why it was ever ported to other platforms.
I remember that review, I'll post it below for those curious about it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZmXbtvGG4E
The developer was called Silicon Beach Software, they made a few games, including a sequel to Dark Castle, Beyond Dark Castle, which like the first one, was in black and white in formats below the Amiga! They were actually more well known for graphical publishing applications on the Mac, which is why they were bought by Aldus, which eventually merged with Adobe.
The Paunch Stevenson Show free Internet podcast - www.paunchstevenson.com - DP FEEDBACK
For some reason I was quite amused by "heinously anus"
UrinatingTree was his youtube account name, his game reviews were usually titled "Fat Mann Judgeth" or he went with that shortly after he started. He closed his account awhile ago, the only videos left are what other people saved themselves. He was pretty good when he was doing reviews, that was years ago though when everyone started copying the AVGN.
... so controlling the direction of a character's attacks or throw with a gamepad's stick doesn't make sense either?
I didn't "get" mouse control at first either. It works in some games, but it's horrible in others. A lot of people liked it in Geometry Wars and Beat Hazard, for example, while I hated it and preferred to use a dual stick control instead. Part of the problem I had was that I kept pointing the mouse all over the screen, which confused me. I got the hang of it by keeping the mouse cursor near my character at all times, so I could change directions quickly.
Mouse control would probably work with Dark Castle... but that can't be done with a D-Pad, since you can't control the speed your character "points" somewhere.
Last edited by Kitsune Sniper; 10-07-2011 at 02:18 PM.
The mouse control in Abuse was pretty good.
Maybe in some 2D games today, that "move with the keyboard arrows and aim the arm with the mouse" control scheme works. Why? Because the designers actually take the controls into account when creating the levels and placing the enemies. The designers of Dark Castle obviously didn't, even on the Mac.
I agree, a good AVGN review will always make you laugh and put you in a good mood.
He filled a niche that people didn't even realize they needed.A guy that can go back to the games from our childhood that we hated, yet buried or forced ourselves to forget from their suckiness. He managed to put together a schtick that was entertaining with surprisingly good production values to appeal to mainstream gamers all over the world.
The problem is now that he is finding stuff to fake hate on instead of just stuff from his childhood that caused the ultimate disappointment. I also liked him better at his old house such as the place with the Nintendo Power review, the basement setup he has now just seems dark and moldy looking. It gives off a creepy instead of inviting atmosphere to his reviews.
Overall he has more misses than hits these days, but he still is worth watching when he can find that right game to hate on.
Last edited by ReaXan; 10-14-2011 at 02:17 PM.
His basement setup is awesome! It makes me feel nostalgic. How many homes do you see anymore with wood paneling walls? Well I have it in my house but my house has not seen any changes since 1985. My point being the room he uses now puts me back into the time period even more. If he only had a shag rug that would be sweet.
I must be blind. I only just noticed that he changed living spaces.
If there's any problem I have with the nerd, its that sometimes when I've played a game he reviews, I feel like he's missing parts (in Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle he seems unaware that some enemies move in reaction to Bugs' moving), and in some reviews it seems less like "this game is hard" and more like "he's just not good at it." Silver Surfer in particular gave me this vibe.
I gotta say though that the only review of his I truly dislike is the Sega CD one. I mean, his other "whole console" reviews do a good job of explaining why the console isn't worth the effort, but the Sega CD actually had some awesome games, and he doesn't give any screentime to them. I mean I understand he can only review games he actually has, but in that case he should've just not dissed the system. It would be like if I reviewed ten bad SNES games and concluded that the whole system sucks. That works when its a system like the Virtual Boy which didn't have very many games, but not something like the Sega CD.
I still like his reviews, but they are hit and miss.