Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=709https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3148Gameplay For all of the faults in the game's categorey set up, I have to ay that my freinds and I loved this game. Its hard not too. The set up provides lots of competition between players, and everyone loves to talk trash to everyone else. It didn't matter if the other people were ahead or behind you in score, you still gave them flack anyways. While this game was probably made with a familly audiance in mind, it appeals plenty to the half drunken college male audiance as well with its trivia quetions most people can ansewr and competitive enviorment. The difficulty of the questions was set low enough that anyone could compete for top position. Addmittedly though, some questions did come out of left feild and stumped anyone, espeacially in the history categorey it would occasionally ask about people and I, as a hitory major, would respond with "who is this person, and why do I care?" The history categorey really could have benefitted from relying on obscurities less. If you want a game where you can sit down with friends, whittle away the hours, and blow a number of tokens higher than you would like to admit, then this is the game for you. Design For the first part of the deign portion I would like to talk about the design of the arcade booth itself. acutally, I want to spend the entire design portion on this topic. One of the most often forgotten rules of the arcade game is that even an awful game can be made awesome with a cool booth set up. A classic example of this is the original Star Trek aracde game, where the ship was hard as hell to controll, and you couldn't hit anything, but no one ever complained becaue they got to sit in what looked like Kirk's chair with all the cool buttons on it. Another good, more recent example is the Star Wars trilogy game, where a so-so shooter was turned into an arcade staple. Super Trivia takes advantage of this rule. There are four consoles, each accompanied by a stool. One for each possible player. Unlike other arcade consoles which try to squish players together to conserve space, Super Trivia gives the players all the space they could need. The three buttons alloted to each player are about six inches in diameter, so even the most senior player can hit the right button despite any unteadyness in the hands. This set up is placed around a huge big screen tv that displays the categorey wheel in the questions. It really captures the gameshow feel, and turns a so-so arcade game into a valued time-waster.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 02:12:11 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3148&iddiary=5886https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3148Summary Super Trivia is an arcade machine with a gameshow style asthetic and set up. Players sit at consoles and compete to see who is the best at trivia. Gameplay Each console has three buttons, A, B, and C. Each one is then linked to an answer for each question. For each question, a virtual wheel is spun, and i used to determine the categorey of the question. Music, Sports, Television and Movies, History, Arts and Science, and Curiosities are the available categories. I was a bit confused at e turning of arts and science into the same categorey. I Really fealt that they should have been two different categoreys. Also, the curiosities categorey was a bit of a blunder seeing as it did not ask quetions about what my party and myself considered curiosities, but rather pulled questions from the other cattegories. I really feel that it should have been named something like random rather than curiosties which brings up the image of wierd things rather than some of everything. Each player answers the question and the answer is given once all players have responded to the question. In the end, tickets are distributed to each player depending on how fast and accurately they answered the questions.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:55:44 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3148&iddiary=5859https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2814GAMEPLAY As of this session, I have now beaten the game in single player twice. I can see where this game can get boring and repeatitive fast. Thankfully, there is multiplayer. Multiplayer is where this game truly shines. WIth a fairly forgiving learning curve compared to some other similar games, and more causual style really make this game great for multiplayer. Something really does have to be said about the sheer siliness of it. It gives the game a much more casual feel, unlike other games that try to present themselves as serious business. I really do feel that this campyness and siliness is one of the points that has made SSB such a great seller across many audiances. Nintendo did a very good job with the feel of the game. DESIGN Ha Ha! That SSB! It puts in justy enough fighting game elements to allmost make someone forget that it is a platformer. Which it is. It has platmors which you jump on and use to attack, a fairly 2d cardnality with jumping, and occasional upgrades. The difference is that it is a competitive platformer rather than a cooperative one. The competative nature of the game makes it feel enough like a fighting game (but hey, who in a co-op platformer has never tried to jump on another player to see what happens) to make it different. I also have to hand it to them on level design. Each level has its own unique design and feel to match the game the character it showcases is from. Samus has a very metroid-y level with acid water and everything.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:38:15 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2814&iddiary=5278https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2814SUMMARY Super Smash Bros is a cross over game from Nintendo where Nintendo Classic characters go head to head in combat against eachother. A variety of other chanllenges are included between certain levels, and palyers are rewarded with trophies and unlockable characters. GAMEPLAY Yay! SSB! Who doesn't like SSB/ Everyone likes SSB. It has been a while since I last played it, and I am still getting used to playing it again. I am currently using Donkey Kong, and have been enjoying the character's abilities. I have been developing a tactic based around beating the enemy through normal means once, then just walking them off the edge after picking them up until they die. It is quite effective. It's effectiveness and ease of use causes fellow human players to griping about it. It is fairly obvious this early into the gameplay that there are some balance issues in the game. Certain characters are much stronger than others, and this is a trend that continues into the other SSB games.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:26:01 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2814&iddiary=5263https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2438GAMEPLAY HAHA! THE INSPECTORS ARE DEAD! I KILLED THEM! After the very involved process of eliminating the inspectors, I get my rewards for the effort: The three most powerful upgrade items in the game, and two secret weapons. The fight is very rewarding, not just in that it really does up the quality of your armory, but how quickly you get atttached to killing them. These new items greatly improved my performance in the missions to come. I am really glad I stuck around to fight rather than giving up. One of the best features of OG2 is its challenge and reward system for its secret units and items. You can do things the easy way and just get through the game, or you can do it the hard way and reap the rewards. This way it apeals to both causal, lets try it out types, and those who enjoy massive challenges. DESIGN OG2 contains several new elements not seen in its predecessor that I reviewed before, Super Robot Taisen 3. Now, weapons are upgradable in addition to mechs and people, and that does add a new challenge in figuring out how you want to configure your units. To add even more customization, you can also change the weapons load out of each unit. Unlike the previous version, where you could only chose what kinds of action units took in reaction to enemy attacks, you can now make them a lot more specific and varied. My favorite new innovation for OG2, is the ability to skip combat animations, resulting in much faster gameplay. As stated in the gameplay I really like the challenge/reward system established with the secret units. It really does make a huge difference in the quality of the game. What I however do not like, is how the designers tried to vary the levels this time around. In OG1 levels were made more difficult with terrain elements, improved enemy support skills, and more powerful enemy formations. This led to the increased challenge being a strategic one. Now the levels seem to be varied by how many opponents can the throw at me at one tome, making it less about stategy, and more about how fast can I slaugter units. My last concern comes from a secret unit I just recived, which has a weapon that can paralyse bosses, allowing me to pound on them without consequence. It just seems a little game breaking. Worst comes to worse, I can just not use it. Despite its faults, I highly recomend this game, and consider it to be the best game I have ever purchased for the GBA.Fri, 08 Feb 2008 19:48:04 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2438&iddiary=4633https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2438SUMMARY Super Robot Taisen: Orginal Generation 2 is the second game of the spin off series of Super Robot Taisen. What seperates the two series is that the Original Generation (OG for short) games contain none of the liscensced characters and mechs from the orignal series, and just uses Banpresto created characters and mechs. Like the rest of the Super Robot Taisen games, OG2 is a turn based strategy game, with role playing elements. You take the characters and mechs, command them in battles, and upgrade them to more powerful versions, and lead them through a fairly complex story. GAMEPLAY I have to admit, I had been playing this game for some time before I wrote this entry, so I am allready about 15 missions into the game (out of 40 some-odd missions). At this point I am having my first showdown with the aliens known as the inspectors. The odds are stacked against me, while it is a five of me VS three of them match up, I can't help but feel out gunned. Mu unit with the most health has 14,000 hit points, with one more at a little over 5,000, and the last two sitting at about 4,000 hit points. They all have more hit points than the character limit for the HP bar can display, and can each destory any of my units short of my battle ship in a single blow. If I loose a single unit, I get a game over. Thank the merciful heavens for quick save and reload game commands. I actually really like the set up for this level. You are given two options, fight the inspectors, or run for the map edge to escape. This means that the sort of player who would give up on Gradius after ten minutes can run away, and others who enjoy the challenge can put up a fight. I found my self really involved in the battle and lost track of time fighting them, and after finally whittleing and killing the first of the three inspectors, I considered leaving just to end the level, but decided after I had allready put this much time into the level, it was time to introduce those two remaining rear end top hats to the afterlife. Time for round two.Fri, 08 Feb 2008 19:24:17 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2438&iddiary=4624https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2123GAMEPLAY In the second session of gameplay, you begin to be relieved of your boredom as the plot takes off. A time machine sends you to the past where you have to save the princess. Along the way you meet the frog, and the game's tech attack system makes itself known. The tech system does a lot for improving the game at this point, as the plot has yet to develope, and you have yet to see why Chrono Trigger is such a good game. The tech system works in place of magic and allows characters to use different abilities, and combine them in dual tech, and triple tech attacks using two and three chracters respectively. DESIGN I must begin this part by saying that I do not understand why this game is on the classics list. Console RPGs have had little to no inovation since Final Fantasy I. In Console RPGs, conflict is created, and player kept involved by plot, and even the plot is not too inovative. In all honesty I would have given the classic SNES RPG slot to FF VI with its many ability systems for player characters, and arguably more innovative plot. That said, there are a few aspects of innovation in this game. One of which is the Tech system. Rather than have a traditonal magic system, Chrono Trigger puts all magic and fighting techniques under tech abilities, and allows players to junction certain ones with dual and triple tech attacks. The plot has some innovation with its time travel aspect and the addition of characters that range from Medieval to Cyberpunk, but other than that it falls into standard RPG cliches.Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:59:34 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2123&iddiary=4071https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2123SUMMARY Chrono Trigger is an RPG for the SNES, in which you build a party and travel through time to save the world. The time travel aspect allows a wide variety of settings and characters ranging from Medieval to (arguably) Cyberpunk. GAMEPLAY Why? Why do RPG beginnings have to be so long, tedious. and repetative? You begin with a fairly traditional console RPG beginning. You sleep way too late. Because that is what console RPG characters do, they sleep way too late. This predictably leads to your character's mom waking up your character (whether or not she will wake you up after falling asleep from boredom is a different matter). Two more characters get introduced at a festival, and are also fairly generic. Gameplay at this point is standard RPG gaming. You talk to people. You go to different screens to fight monsters. Oh, and you ransack people's housers and they don't ask questions (to quote diskworld "and that is why the hero can get away with anything, because people don't like to ask inconvienient questions").Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:49:24 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2123&iddiary=4069https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1907Gamelog entry #2: GAMEPLAY I am much more statisfied with the more recent levels of the game I have played through. The addition of the Getter Robo Team, Zeta Gundam, Gundam MKII, and Gundam GP-01 have increased the strategy level involved immensely as there are much more worthwhile units involved. Even your grunt units become somewhat worthwhile (they no longer explode when looked at funny). Newer enemy units increase the chalenge rating as they become more competent in their own strategy, and become significantly tougher, especially the aces. Gone are the levels where I could just have Mazigner Z walk up to an ace and munch it in one hit. Aces now take the use of multiple units and special commands to defeat. DESIGN The best and worst feature of this game comes from the same aspect that makes it different from most strategy games. You can not build more units. You have your force of robots and your battleship and that is it. No building more units in the feild, which is a hinderance. At times you cannot even deploy all of the mechs in your force. Luckily shot down robots can be repaired between levels. This deviation from regular startegy games adds a whole new level of complexity. In the battlefeild resources are exteremely limited. This like the above resource collection in Super Robot Taisen 3 is different from games like it. The only money you get comes from scrap from ememies shot down, and can only be used to upgrade your mechs. So economic resource managment is minimal. At the same time managing other resources becomes more difficult. You are alotted a battleship, some robots, and their pilots a number of points to spend on special orders at the beginning of each level. They need to last until the end, and as the player you need to manage them to not only survive the enemies the AI starts with, but any surprise reinforcements it hits you with as well. There will be times when you have one trooper left with no more points for special commands when five more enemy units suddenly appear. While technically a strategy game like Comand and Conquer or Starcraft, Super Robot Taisen's inovative gameplay would make it hard for it top be any more different.Tue, 15 Jan 2008 02:07:01 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1907&iddiary=3724https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1907Gamelog entry #1: SUMMARY Super Robot Taisen is the third game in Banpresto's series of cross over mecha strategy games. Players use orginal characters and robots as well as those from well known television shows (the majority of which as of number three being created by Tomino or Go Nagai) to beat up and destroy mechs from the evil faction. Gameplay is turn based, and whenever a unit is attacked, it gets to counter attack. In between stages players may upgrade their mechs, and change around their pilot roster. Another Draw is the ability to find secret pilots and mechs. GAMEPLAY Gameplay is fun and starts you off right in the middle of the action. Most of the units you are given are subpar, while two worthwhile units are given, the Gunam and Mazigner Z. Unfortunately this set up leads to a lot of the strategy in the early missions being based around keeping your fragile grunts out of the way, so you can feed enemy grunts to the Mazigner. Two enemy aces appear in the first mission, Char Anzamble, and Garma Zabi, but even they quickly become just more Mazigner fodder. The one other complaint I have to give about this game so far is the dialouge. I understand the version I am playing is a fan translation (no US version to this date), so the quality may not be the best, but you cannot help but feel that there was something more in the origianl dialouge sequences. Especially in the fisrt mission where there is an opportunity for Amuro, the protagonist of Gundam, to speak to his Nemesis, Char Anzamble. The two pass back and forth generic and seemingly unrelated lines to eachother, and the player is supposed to belive that this will influence the plot later on. I can only hope there was more to the exchange in the original version.Tue, 15 Jan 2008 01:44:28 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1907&iddiary=3711