Bite Size 2008 is a brief series of posts about my highs and lows of 2008 gaming. Not “favorite games” or “worst games” by any means, simply just moments or chunks of games that had an impact on me in some form this year.
Check out this listing for the rest of my Bite Size 2008 posts!
Delayed Reaction: Catching Up With Next-Gen
Since I did not get an Xbox 360 until November of 2007, I was a bit behind the times. This was truly unfortunate, because 2006 and 2007 saw some great games. I dabbled in hits such as Oblivion or the Lego Star Wars series, but I found real next-gen love in those two big names of 2007, Bioshock and Portal. I kicked off the year with a rental of The Orange Box, and fell in love with GlaDOS. After a price drop, I entered Rapture, and whether it was Atlas’ “Would You Kindly?” or my own free will, it became one of my favorite games of all time. I honestly have not become so enamored with a game since Chrono Trigger or Kingdom Hearts. I actually just purchased Bioshock again, since my friends have been passing it around for the better part of 8 months, this time for PC off of Steam thanks to the ridiculous price of $4.99 during the Holiday Sale. While I was late to the party, I was glad I got to see the show.
Those Things I Loved… Well…
I just dropped the fact that I love Kingdom Hearts. I am the kind of fan who knows what “Deep Dive”, and “Another Side, Another Story” are. I put down my preorder for Kingdom Hearts 2 the day it became available. I played the shit out of the GBA version of Chain of Memories, to the point where I ignored my extended family on Christmas Day and sat on a couch playing it. I admit, I got excited opening the case for RE:Chain of Memories. Seeing that now-standard silver box, with Sora and company waiting for an adventure. However, in the transition from GBA to PS2, the game lost it’s charm. On the portable system, it was a new way to play, even if it was reusing the story progression from KH1 with some additional Organization XIII bits in between. Here, on PS2, it’s almost disappointing. Now it’s an entirely reused game, built on a reused engine. They didn’t even change the menu art from KH2. I played through Traverse Town, but couldn’t help feeling that the game is relying too heavily on it’s pedigree, and is nothing more than a cash cow. Who knows, maybe there is some additional content in here that will change my mind. The new titles from the series hold promise, so let’s hope Square Enix proves the series still has its worth.
I Appreciate the Effort
I also downloaded some community game trials this year, as many others did with the launch of the NXE. My friend Joe and I spent a couple hours downloading things that looked interesting, only to be let down by almost all of them. The only one that really held my interest for more than a minute was Word Soup, and that is because it is the exact same mechanic of Bookworm, a PopCap game which I love due to my affection for Scrabble. It’s nothing more than a horde of clones, and we’re not talking Jango Fett clones, but rather something more akin to an attempt at transmuting a human from chemicals.
I Seriously Cannot Handle This
I played Ninja Gaiden for the NES. I think I may even own it. I played through most of Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword, and I enjoyed it. Even though it sometimes misinterpreted my actions, it’s not bad. So, with that in mind I got my hands on Ninja Gaiden 2. Ninja Gaiden 2 is hard and not the kind of game I want. From its clumsy camera, to the uneven enemy strength, and punishing deaths, I put it down because it is not the experience I look for in games. At least God of War games let you win on normal difficulty. Something I cannot handle in a different respect is Rock Revolution, because the covers are bad and the top-to-bottom scrolling without a perspective view of the incoming notes, so that you can view things in a natural manner, makes Konami look like a poor copy artist rather than the innovator of the rhythm genre as it is massively known.
That’s a few of my downer moments from 2008, and outside of Dwayne’s phone calls, I think that makes up the bulk of them. From here on out it will probably be the positive moments, of which there were many! I’ll try to fire these things off for the rest of the week, and round it out with my aspirations for 2009.
