2D-X

Interview: Mike Fahrny, producer, Tecmo Bowl Throwback

Jeffrey L. Wilson — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:02:07 +0000

If you follow my game-related ramblings on Twitter, you know that I recently spotted a Tecmo Bowl Throwback plug on one of ESPN’s late afternoon/early evening sports programs. As a long time fan of the franchise, I was admittedly geeked; not just for the exposure that the legendary series has garnered, but also for the fact that I had a Q + A session cooking up in 2D-X‘ cauldron of awesome. A Q+A that you can check out right now.

Certainly, building a football game within the era of EA’s Madden exclusivity is an uphill battle . How do you hope craft a compelling pigskin experience?

To put it simply – by staying true to the original that everyone loved so much. We’re not trying to give people the next gen sim experience that Madden is – we just want people to have a good time with some nostalgia form their childhood.

Tecmo Bowl Throwback is the first new Tecmo football game since Tecmo Bowl Kickoff. Will the new game contain elements of the old such as the Super Abilities?

No, this version is much more true to the SNES version of Tecmo Bowl. We found that a lot of people didn’t like the some of those elements from Kickoff.

In terms of customization, will gamers be able to tweak teams as they see fit, or will they have to have to earn points over the course of a season to apply to abilities?

All abilities in Throwback are true to the SNES version and players will not be able to edit them nor will they increase/decrease over a season. Earning points over a season is a good idea though – perhaps the next time around.

Will Tecmo Bowl Throwback have any secret characters or teams?

Well, I’ll tell you this – all the SNES stats are in the game so you really just need to know where to look to find what you’re looking for.

Tecmo Bowl Throwback features both retro, 2D graphics, and a polygonal, modern look. What was the emphasis for this move?

While we wanted to give people the original experience that they all love, we also wanted a chance to update the visuals of the game while still keeping it arcade.

When playing in the polygonal mode, can you rotate the field or is the view locked in the horizontal view?

The camera is locked to the horizontal view in Throwback. We played a lot with the camera this time around and found the one you’ll see in the finished product to be best for this type of arcade football. There is a zoom option that will let you get a closer look than the default camera though, should you want one.

Will the stat tracking be improved over the rather confusing implementation seen in Tecmo Bowl Kickoff?

The stats have been modified to be a little more user friendly now. I think people will enjoy the new look and be able to interpret the info a little easier than before.

An official release date hasn’t been announced, but which quarter can we expect to see the game released?

Very, very soon…

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Gameworks, Las Vegas: SEGA’s gaming oasis in the desert

Jeffrey L. Wilson — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:24:59 +0000

If you happen to be in Las Vegas and grow tired of the neon lights, slot machines, and over the top nature of the city, Gameworks is your haven. CES 2010 gave me the opportunity to first venture into the place, as Valkor (the head honcho of The Other View) and I decided to hit it up after an early evening burger run.

Upon strolling into the place, Gameworks doesn’t look much different from any other family dining/arcade establishments (think Dave & Busters), but after casing the joint and noticing the lineup of titles — After Burner Climax, Daytona USA, Outrun, Rambo — we realized that it’s a SEGA fan’s dream arcade. And being that, we nearly splooged.

Rambo. Two player terrorist-killing action at its finest.

After buying a cart load of game tokens, Valk and I plopped down in front of the bad ass cab you see above, fed it shiny metal circles, and lifted the machine guns, and proceeded to lay waste to all manner of people that speak differently than we. Rambo’s your typical light gun shooter, but the license and satisfying feedback led us to complete the game (after losing significant amounts of money).

Outrun in mock cars kicks ass.

It just kept getting better. I love Outrun. It’s one of my favorite all-time racers. Gameworks had an incredible four sit-down machines, which allow virtual drivers to compete against one another. What made this set up kick ass was the cameras embedded into each machine that broadcast each gamers’ smiling faces on an overhead screen for all to see. Awesome stuff. As all the Outrun seats were taken, Valk and I took on one another in Daytona USA where I lost by a few seconds after tanking a bank.

After wiping away a man-tear, I took out my sorrows on After Burner: Climax and an odd Sonic fighting game; Valkor moved onto a funky Star Wars action game. At the end of the night, we were stoked to have finally found a kick ass arcade — something that as you well know is very hard to come by these days. Fortunately, Gameworks isn’t confined just to Las Vegas; you can find a splattering of locations across the nation.

Game on.

Virtual Vox Pop: What’s the hardest 2D game you’ve ever played?

Jeffrey L. Wilson — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:33:46 +0000

Virtual Vox Pop is a weekly open mic in which we ask you, the reader, to sound off on a particular topic. This week, it’s the hardest games ever.

Games just aren’t as hard as they used to be.

Don’t mistake this statement as one coming from a person looking to artificially give his gaming accomplishments more weight – - I see it as fact. Outside of a few throwback titles (Mega Man 9, Mega Man 10), few contemporary games achieve the level of hair-pulling insanity that ran rampant through the 8- and 16-bit eras.

The 2D-X team has decided to list our most frustrating 2D games and, as expected, they’re all pretty old. Agree? Disagree? Let your voice be heard, folks.

Chris Gampat, News Editor
Action titles, truthfully, have to be amongst the hardest games I’ve ever played. A couple of them really stand out, but the king has to be the original Prince of Persia. The reason why is because you needed to save your beloved princess in one hour while fighting through hordes of palace guards, skeletons, countering your alter ego that is created when you jump through a mirror and navigating traps. The game really started to mess with your mind, too, because you had the counter down at the bottom of the screen telling you “15 mins…30 mins…” and you didn’t know just how many levels there were to navigate and how long it was going to take for you to win this. Eventually you start to realize that you don’t need to fight all the guards in order to win, but back then us gamers really didn’t figure that out. This is probably the first game I’ve ever played where in order to win you really need to just concentrate on getting to your objective and that’s all. It is to date one of the only games I’ve never beaten. In fact, I only know people that have beaten it using cheat codes.

Thomas Rivas, Contributing Editor
The Battle of Olympus has to be one of the most difficult games I’ve ever played. You may not die with one hit, but seemingly never-ending quests filled with absurd obstacles will have most players rethinking whether or not Helene (the damsel in distress) is worth all the trouble. If there’s one thing you’ll be doing a lot of in this game, it’s falling. For a heavily armed man on a perilous journey to save the love of his life, Orpheus (the hero) can’t take a hit. Any contact with a creature or projectile knocks your player back a few steps into an uncontrollable moonwalk-like motion. Normally, that might be pretty cool, but when you’re at the edge of a platform and moonwalk yourself into a pit, it can be anything but.

Jeffrey L. Wilson, Editor-in-Chief
No question, it’s Image Fight II, a semi-obscure Irem-developed PC Engine Super CD shooter that will make you want to toss rocks at grandma . Casual shmup fans like often cite bullet-hell shooters as some of the most difficult in the drama, but few games actually destory your ships and portions of your soul like Image Fight II. Vertical shmups are my preferred style of shooting, and Image Fight II did all it could to take the fun out of it. The sprites are relatively big, which combined with the limited vertical movement, made bobbing and weaving incoming artillery pure bastardy. I never passed the third level. Whatevs.

Microvision’s Show WX pico projector pimps your portable playing

Timothy Torres — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:16:34 +0000

Platinum members of the gaming community, if you ever felt like you didn’t have it all already with your fancy iPhone, worry not. Now you can show everyone how good you got it with Microvision’s SHOW WX, a pocket-sized projector with a laser display system that boasts 10 ANSI lumens, a 5000:1 contrast ratio, WVGA (848 x 480) resolution, and it never needs focusing. Its battery lasts about two hours on a single charge, too.

If that sounds good to you call up your concierge to order yours for $549 for the standard edition. If you feel like you can skip lunch at Nobu for a day or two, by all means, go for the limited edition for $999, for which you’ll get a personalized splash screen, LE insignia, a certificate of authenticity, a VGA dock and some other trinkets.

Once you have your SHOW WX, find your nearest wall without an original Rothko on it and go to town playing Plants vs. Zombies and Flight Control. Those lasers should make any casual iPhone game feel like an actual substantial big screen gaming experience as you can scale images from 6 inches all the way up to 200.

No related posts.

Shank pre-GDC gameplay trailer is bad ass

Jeffrey L. Wilson — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:23:43 +0000

Klei Entertainment, fresh from inking a publishing deal with EA, has released a pre-GDC gameplay trailer of the upcoming modern-day Western, Shank. The 2D, cartoony side-scroller packs hardcore action title that features copious amounts of gunplay, bladeplay, and bloodshed.

The animation looks remarkably smooth, and the shadowed, sunset level, stylistically, is pure coolness. Shank will be headed to PC, PSN, and XBLA this summer. Are you ready for some animated violence? Methinks I am.

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Free Twin Blades DLC revealed in new trailer

Jeffrey L. Wilson — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:25:24 +0000

Remember that forthcoming Twin Blades DLC that we mention in the game’s review? Well, Press Start Stuido has released a trailer detailing the new additions, which includes a more robust fighting system, a map, a storyline, new environments, and maybe the most welcome plus of all, bosses.

The free (yes, free) downloadable content for the iPhone/iPod touch/XBLIG is slated to arrive by the end of the month, and from what’s showcased in this clip, it’s just what’s need to break the monotony of this lovingly animated 2D video game, but repetitive, run-and-gunner.

Grab your stylus: Scribblenauts sequel coming this fall

Jeffrey L. Wilson — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:56:02 +0000

5th Cell’s Scribblenauts had quite the lofty intentions, even if its wings began to melt a bit as it approached the goal. Still, the revolutionary game in which the entire game world can be influenced by your jotted words, apparently was profitable enough to warrant a sequent after mixed reviews.

Today, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced plans for a Sribblenauts follow up that’s set to arrive this fall. In it, players control the returning hero, Maxwell, as he attempts to snag the “Starite,” the prize earned from solving the various puzzles.

The biggest addition is the ability to modify objects using the new adjectives system. Adjectives can change the color, size, and many other aspects of the object they are describing. Multiple adjectives can be combo’d together to let you manipulate the game world to an even greater degree.

With all the talk of words and adjectives, it kind of has me jonesing for a Schoolhouse Rock crossover, if not just for the soundtrack alone.

NES controller rug nerdifies your living room

Jeffrey L. Wilson — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:26:35 +0000

Etsy strikes again. The creaftspersons at the popular handmade and vintage items supplier has tapped retro gaming love several times in recent months with such unique items as the GameBoy tube dress, 8-bit gaming pendants, NES external storage drives, and Atari wallets. Now we have an NES controller rug.

The $49.99 NES controller rug adds a touch of geek cred to any home. Crafted by WTCrafts, the fleece floor cover is a particularly pimpin’ piece of DIY goodness that I wouldn’t mind seeing fronting my living room table. Certainly better than a bear skin, yes?

[Hat tip: Technabob]

8-bit Left 4 Dead creator returns with Mega Man 9 HD Remix

Jeffrey L. Wilson — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:52:55 +0000

After garnering significants mounts of nerd-cred with this 8-bit de-make of Left 4 Dead, Eric Ruth is back with a new project: Mega Man 9 HD Remix. Forget the fact for a second that the official Mega Man 9 already runs at 720p, and just stick with us here, folks.

Mega Man 9 HD Remix sees Ruth giving Galaxy Man’s level a visual overall by redrawing all of the sprites and backgrounds, applying vibrant colors, and adding fan remixes of classic Mega Man tunes. Sadly, this lone level is all that exists of this remake, because, you know, Mr. Routh doesn’t want Capcom’s legal pitbulls chomping at his ankles.

[Hat tip: JoyStiq]

Review: Legends of Exidia (DS)

Chris Gampat — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:15:48 +0000

One would think that because Legends of Exidia resembles old school console rpgs with its side missions and lots of button mashing, it would be totally epic. Unfortunately, it’s just not epic, just okay. But it does a great job of taking you back to the 2D gaming days where you had hard puzzles to solve and missions to fulfill.

Legends of Exidia is game where you are thrown immediately into a couple of tasks from your village as well as given the option to solve issues with other civilians. Afterwards, you’re thrust into battle with demons, kings, banshees and a pretty badass dragon. All this happens while you are trying to accomplish quests with the love of your life in both present and past. The plot gets a bit random like that.

Legends of Exidia is short–really short. It’ll be even shorter if you choose to not take any of the side quests. On the upside, the side quests are pretty fun and can help you gain experience.

Playing Legends of Exidia is actually very simple, but there are a few perplexing elements. For example, as mentioned, the game is over too quickly, so you won’t get the chance to memorize the button layout (which results in lots of button mashing.) Additionally, there are far too many items for such a short game. What I mean by this is that you can’t upgrade all the way up to maximum levels to wear the top tier armor and weapons. Additionally, the game tries to prolong itself by telling you things like, “It is recommended that you be level 32 or above before proceeding” to encourage grinding.

I beat the game at level 22. You level up by completing quests and killing things like giant blobs, wraiths, giant bats and orcs.

No characters in the game are voiced, which is good because the dialogue is very cheesy. The music is fairly generic; think Lord of the Rings if the game came out during the 16-bit era.

The graphics resemble Golden Axe 2 quite a bit. That made it for me as I always loved that game and got through it with relative ease. Those of you that miss that game may want to spend the $8 on downloading this.

The only thing once again that really kills it is how short the game is. But for a DSWare game, you have to come to expect that.