『 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock 』

It must have been a hundred times already I said this, but I am going to say it again: Supermarket deals rock and there are no two ways about it. Not too long ago I was able to get Guitar Hero III: Aerosmith bundled with Les Paul controller fitted with a neat faceplate for only 299 Swedish kronas [about 38 US dollars]. This time, the very same supermarket decided to cut the price of "Legends of Rock" bundle.


After I spotted the ad, it didn't take too much time for me to decide I wanted this nice set. After all, you get a new game with tons of songs and another Les Paul, this time with a regular faceplate [shiny black surface, perfect for fingerprinting]. The "Legends of Rock" bundle had a bit higher pricetag but at 399 Swedish kronas [roughly 48 US dollars] it was still a bargain. The game by itself sells for more than that.


Like last time, the store had all possible versions on sale, but again I chose to go with the Xbox 360 one. Supposedly PlayStation 3 version has some controller issues, Wii version doesn't have downloadable content and on top of that if you're out of luck, you can buy the version with mono sound. I wasn't interested in PC or PlayStation 2 versions so the choice was obvious. Yet again, Microsoft's machine came out on top. Way to go.


So what's in the box this time? I could say "the usual" because the contents is very similar to the Aerosmith bundle. Again, we get the Les Paul controller, guitar belt, two sets of stickers to pimp your guitar with and of course the game. There's also a pink manual explaining how to sync your controller with the console but who needs a manual for that? Not me, because I'm awsome.


I really enjoyed the Aerosmith edition but it had one major problem: almost all of the songs came from band's discography which, if you're not a rabid Aerosmith fan, can be quite a drag. I guess I could say that I like Aerosmith enough to enjoy all of the songs they put on the game disc, but I would much rather go for diversity. Well, "Legends of Rock" is all about diversity. It features over 70 songs by various artists and if that's not enough for you, you're impossible to please.


What bands can we rock with this time? Slayer, Kiss, Tenacious D, Scorpions, The Smashing Pumpkins, Sex Pistols, Weezer, Muse, Alice Cooper, The Rolling Stones ... You name it. The list just goes on and on. After you've unlocked all of the songs in career mode, there's just as many waiting for you in the store. In case you don't know how this works, in Guitar Hero you earn money by playing concerts, the cash can later be spent on various things like new characters, clothes, new guitars and of course new songs. It's fairly easy to earn enough cash to unlock an impressive number of tracks and that is a huge plus.


Every Guitar Hero game comes with a bunch of characters for you to choose from and play as. Legends of Rock has the exact same lineup of standard characters as the Aerosmith bundle, which makes sense because it's a part of the GH3 line. The only thing that bugged me was the lack of official characters for the artists. There are only two real artist models in the game: Guns 'n Roses' Slash and Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello. I don't know if it was a question of licenses and money, but I'd like to see more familiar faces.


After Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock came out, I read about the complaints many people had concerning the difficulty level. I thought the Aerosmith game was nicely balanced, but when I played Legends of Rock on normal setting, I instantly knew that this game meant business. I guess Neversoft tweaked the difficulty for Aerosmith and World Tour, so if you're getting Legends of Rock, know that it's not going to be easy to reach the expert mode.


Obviously, the game has some serious replay value and if you ever come across a nice, cheap bundle, no matter what the platform, I suggest you invest some money and later time in this game. It's a bucket of fun. And you might just get all jazzed up about starting to learn an instrument.


Before I finish this entry I wanted to include some videos so that you can get a clear picture of how things look and how it works. I'm sure most of you already knows this game well enough to pick up a controller anytime and start playing, but still, It's fun to watch someone else have go at a harder difficulty. Here's one of the coolest songs on the disc: Knights of Cydonia by Muse.


Knights of Cydonia is not only a kickass song, but it also has one of the coolest videos out there. Since I'm such a nice guy, I'll share the original music video with you aswell [simply because someone has already uploaded it and it doesn't require too much work to link it]. And that's the director's cut! Spot the difference between this one and the regular edition [which you'll have to find on your own, because I cant't be bothered].


That's it for today, good folks. I guess it's time let my fingers rest after they've done a magnificent job of beating the whole game on easy and half the way through on normal. Rock on!

『 SNK vs Capcom: SVC Chaos 』

What's the thing you love most about Christmas? Is it being with your family? Is it the obscene amounts of delicious food and sweets? Is it the christmas spirit? It's the presents, isn't it. Yea, for me too. No matter whether you get them of buy them yourself, Christmas has to be celebrated with tons of presents and here are some of the gifts I got for myself this season. A bunch of Andreas comics, including first four Capricorne albums and the final Rork album, and NiGHTS: Journey of dreams for the Wii, plus SNK vs Capcom: SVC Chaos for the Xbox.


I'll talk about NiGHTS soon enough, but this time I wanted to focus on SVC Chaos. I absolutely adore SNK, their platforms and I don't think I would be lying if I said I love each and every one of their games. SNK are the true kings of 2D and they have proven it time and time again, even now when Capcom has moved to 3D with their Street Fighter IV, SNK's King of Fighters XII will be all 2D, hand drawn, mindblowing hi resolution monster of a game with some serious attachment to the old school.


Getting back to SVC Chaos though, you might remember the famed Capcom vs SNK series which had some great success, especially with the arrival of second installment. This title gathered fighters from several Capcom and SNK games and put them together in one great game. It was developed by the Capcom and being lazy bums, the developers just took the sprites of all possible characters and put them in one game. The gameplay system was almost flawless, but the character sprites were sometimes mismatched because of different resolutions and art styles.


In 2003 it was time for SNK to try it their way and so, they had developed SVC Chaos, a game build from ground up, again, featuring fighters from both Capcom and SNK titles. What SNK did that Capcom didn't however, was to redraw every single character so that they would match. Every Capcom fighter present in the game got a new sprite drawn by SNK artists and if you ever played this game, you know what a fantastic job SNK did. Even though there are precious few stages in SNK's production, the sprites make up for it.


Since the game was released by SNK Playmore, not only did it use their sprites, it also used the four button system, even for the Capcom characters. This change, however shocking it might be for Capcom fans, did not make too big of an impact on the gameplay complexity. On the contrary, decreased number of buttons and much more faster battle pace than what was seen in Capcom vs SNK 2 made SVC Chaos come on top. If you own an Xbox or a PS2, aswell as an arcade stick, it would be a sin not to own this title.


SVC Chaos was one of the last titles released for the Neo Geo [the absolute last one being サムライスピリッツ零 Special / Samurai Spirits Zero Special, released in 2004]. It's clear that SNK cared for their platform up until the very end and ensured it gets the highest quality games possible. SVC Chaos might not be as colorful and as impressive graphically as some other titles out there, but once you try it, you'll see why it is safe to call it one of the best fighting games out there.


To show you just how fast the game is and how complex it can get, here is a combo video [of a questionable picture quality, unfortunately] for all of you to enjoy. It was snatched off YouTube so if you're not one of the cool people with a Nico Nico account, you can look for SVC Chaos combo videos there. If you do have a Nico Nico account, click on the thumbnail above and enjoy the show.


So that's it for this time. I feel a cold creeping up on me so I've decided to fight off the germs with some gin to disinfect myself from the inside, some lemons to provide the much needed vitamins and some tonic to add flavour. Let's hope this will be enough because I'm not in the mood to get sick right now.

『 Dimensional Ninja Action Movie: Tenchu / 立体忍者活劇 天誅 』

Some weeks ago I was browsing through the game bargain jungle that is eBay, and I found something that cought my eye. The first Japanese edition of Tenchu was up for sale and noone was bidding. I'm always willing to try my luck and this time it actually paid off. I scored a brand new, shrinkwrapped copy of Tenchu for a whole $1.4. You can start getting jelous right about ... now.


Tenchu series has been around for a while, but if you ask me, the first game always was the best and by the look of things, it will be for some years to come. When the first game came out, everything was exactly right or close to it [Or as right and as close to it as a PlayStation game from 1998 can get]. After the first game got released worldwide and some changes have been made, Acquire released an updated version called Tenchu Shinobi Gaisen, which featured two additional missions and an editor. This editor was used to make over a hundred missions which are all fanmade and were later released as a standalone mission pack called Tenchu Shinobi Hyakusen.


Tenchu Shinobi Hyakusen is the last game based on the first, unmodified engine and it was this title that marked the end of an era for me. Tenchu series from the second game onwards lost some of its magic, at least for me. But dwelling on the past wasn't what I meant to write about. I meant to write about my great and cheap find.


So yes, this is the very first release of Tenchu, also known as Rittai Ninja Katsugeki Tenchuu, translated by some as Dimensional Ninja Action Movie Tenchu. Its catalogue number is SLPS-01272 and it was this title that started it all for Acquire and made sneaking around and killing by stealth more fun than ever before. Obviously, I bought the Japanese edition, which as usual, differs greatly from both the US and European releases.


So what's different, you ask? A whole bunch of things! First of all, the Japanese version is harder. Or maybe not harder, but once the enemies spot you, they'll go at it like crazy. This for some reason has been tweaked a bit in other versions of the game and enemies won't go berserk on you if you're playing a US copy of the game. Now why would someone go and make things easy? It's a stealth game. You're supposed to avoid fights or kill the enemies from behind!


In the first Japanese version, you have to watch your timing while attacking. There are a couple of combos for each of the two characters in the game that when executed, have to be timed right. In other words, it takes a minimum amout of skill to pull some moves off and button mashing won't really work. Again, someone thought this needs fixing and so, the timing is more masher friendly in US and European versions, aswell as in later released Shinobi Gaisen version, which was based on the US / EU updates.


The first release has eight missions, while all subsequent versions have ten. Two missions were added when the game was translated. More missions is always good, but I thought the game could defend itself with only eight. I've got the english version aswell, so I'm not complaining. If you want the most complete edition out there however, you'd have to go with the previously mentioned Shinobi Gaisen, which not only has everything that made its way into english versions, but it comes with a mission editor aswell. And while I'm on the topic, the Gaisen editor is much better than the one seen in Tenchu 2.


So, does the first edition have anything cool that didn't make it to the international release? As the matter of fact it does. While most of the game has been translated, the short narrative bits that appear before every mission were skipped. Why? Beats me. Like in most translation cases, someone coudn't be bothered to give the 100% or the deadline simply didn't allow it.


All in all, Tenchu is one of my top ten PlayStation games of all time, simply because it delivered in every possible way. The graphics are great, the gameplay is superb and don't even get me started on the soundtrack. If you have this game, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't, get it and then get the soundtrack aswell [which inclused some bonuses, by the way].


There is one more thing I wanted to mention before I wrap this entry up and that's the game ending. Don't worry, I'm not going to spoil anything for you so calm down and read on. The first Japanese version of Tenchu had an ending cinematic animated in a very unique way. The characters are animated pencil sketches and I always liked this artistic approach. If you're willing to spoil for yourself, click the video below to watch.


Anyone who has seen this has to admit, the style of this video is pretty unique, and while it may not be anything groundbreaking, it catches the eye and adds to the drama. When I first completed the European release, I was surprised to see that the ending had changed. Instead of the hand drawn characters were 3D models which didn't look nearly as cool. Again, if you are willing to spoil the ending for yourself, or if you simply don't care, click on the video below.


I don't know about you, but in my opinion the original ending beats the 3D model one hands down, anytime, any day and that's all I had to say this time around. If you see this game, don't hesitate and grab it. I know I always say this, but you know I wouldn't be lying to you, right? So, get it.

『 Rockstar Games Presents: Table Tennis 』

I was expecting many things from Rockstar. Mobsters, vendettas and ten dollar hookers in the back of your car - in other words, all the wholesome entertainment the company is known for. Noone however expected that this bad boy of a developer would release a table tennis game, but they did and it's pretty damn good.


Who knows what was the original reason behind this project. Maybe it was intended as a test platform for the RAGE engine, later used in Grand Theft Auto IV or maybe guys at Rockstar San Diego are serious ping pong fans. Still, the fact is, that Rockstar's Table Tennis came out to be one superb title with nice graphics and addictive gameplay. I'm not a huge fan of sports but I won't miss out on a good game when I see one. I got hooked on Sega's Virtua Tennis games few years back, but now it's time for some table tennis instead.


The game plays like similarly to many other tennis games I have previously tries. If playing the previously mentioned Virtua Tennis, Top Spin or even Smash Court Tennis came easy to you and you found it enjoyable, you'll feel at home once you boot Rockstar's Table Tennis. The game plays exactly how you'd expect it to play and that in itself is something worthy of an applause. The San Diego team really put some time and effort into polishing the gameplay aspect and the game does not dissapoint.


You'll be bouncing the ping pong ball back and forward using all of the Xbox 360 controller buttons, each one corresponding to a different type of strike. Right and left curved balls, slams and so on. There's even a gauge that once leveled, can be used to slow down time, allowing you to act quickly in dealing with tough opponents. Once you master the power of all the buttons, you'll be able to put up a fight against a stronger player and there's nothing equally rewarding to a lenghty battle ending with your advantage.


Table Tennis was first released for the Xbox 360 and that's the version I bought. A year later the game was ported to Nintendo's Wii, featuring all new wiimote controls, but I decided to go with the first release, mostly due to its price. One thing that I always found appealing in the Xbox 360 version are the character details. Even though the players look pretty generic with little to none personality, their polygonal models are extremely detailed. For obvious reasons, the graphics got simplified when the game got ported to the Wii and that was that for neat t-shirt physics and reflections on the floor.


The game doesn't offer much except for the always present tournament mode and multiplayer, so once you score gold on all difficulty settings, you better find yourself someone to play against. And they better be at least as good as you are, otherwise they'll get tired of losing and leave, and that's a lesson learnt from life, boys and girls.


Like in most decent Xbox 360 titles, you can of course play online and upload your scores to internet leaderboards. If your Xbox 360 is connected to the world wide web, you'll never have to worry about the lack of opponents and the game will gain almost infinite replay value. Table tennis might seem like a simple game, but believe me, there's more depth to Rockstar's title than meets the eye.


Above you'll find a trailer for the Xbox 360 version of the game. If what I wrote about this title is up your alley, don't think twice and get it. Rockstar was nice enough to slap a lower price on this game, and since it was overlooked by many, it's not a rare sight in bargain bins. It might not be as entertaining as a ten dollar hooker, but you will enjoy it. After all, everyone loves ping pong.

『 Ghost Squad / ゴーストスカッド 』

The days of glory for lightgun games were pretty much over well before Wii came along and when Nintendo announced a new platform with its innovative wireless controls, being a lightgun game fan I got my hopes up. I used to think that maybe Wii would revitalize the lightgun genre somehow but time had shown that I couldn't have been more wrong. Lightgun games did appear, but there still are very few titles to choose from, and most of them we've already seen on other platforms [like House of the Dead 2 & 3].


I was exceited when I first heard about Sega porting Ghost Squad to Wii. I spent alot of time with the arcade version of this game and I was always fond of Sega lightgun titles. So how well did the porting go and how does Ghost Squad look and play on a home platform compared to a dedicated arcade machine?


The game does very well on the Wii and you don't even need the plastic piece of crap Nintendo likes to call Zapper. With the crosshair on, you can enjoy the game using just the remote and it won't be less fun, I promise. That's how I play it and if it doesn't bother me, I can't see how it could bother anyone else. Originating from an Xbox based Chihiro arcade board, Ghost Squad isn't anything that Wii couldn't handle and the graphics look the way they looked on the arcade machine. No complaints here. The gameplay is still solid, and everything works, so what is there to complain about? There has to be something, right?


I guess the most serious issue is the game length. Ghost Squad consists of only three stages which can be completed pretty quickly. Sega could have tried harder if you ask me, but all they did to add to the replay value is a bunch of bonuses and a stage and character leveling system. Once you finish a stage, you can play it on a higher level. Changing levels aren't only about difficulty, but also about the graphics. A certain stage will look different on another level. Day will turn to night or sunset, enemies will attack in different ways, multiple routes will open.


The game features two bonus modes. Ninja mode - where you throw shurikens at bad guys who now are dressed like ninjas, and so are you and your squad. Paradise mode - where weild a dolphin shaped water gun and squirt the water at bikini clad baddies and ridiculously looking boss characters showing tanlines from bras and such. It's all fun but it doesn't really add that much to the game. Ninja mode plays just like the regular mode would and the only thing different in Paradise mode, except for the graphics, are the horrible sounds your wiimote makes when using the dolphin gun, and the fact that you have to tweak your aiming since the water tends to arch down when shot out of the gun.


Ghost Squad is a really fun game, especially if you love Sega lightgun games, which all tend to have the same atmosphere around them. It's beyond me however, why Sega didn't port Virtua Cop 3, which just like Ghost Squad, runs on Chihiro board, but is longer, bigger, better and more bad-ass. By clicking on the video link above you can check out a small game review showing some of the additional costumes and modes, aswell as a quick playthrough. If you find this game for cheap, pick it up and get yourself on the internet ranking boards. I wouldn't pay a full retail price for this one and the main reason I picked it up was the pricetag and my love for the arcade original. Sega can do better. They just can't be bothered these days, it seems.