Mobile Games #6

Flappy Bird (2013)
By: .GEARS Studios  Genre: Action  Players: 1  Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Android First Day Score: 30
Also Available For: Apple iOS

Aside from the odd flirtation, I've never really been too bothered about playing games on my smartphone. Consequently, many of the most popular titles drift by me largely unnoticed. One that I definitely did notice, however, was Flappy Bird. It was seemingly a rather popular game already, receiving millions of downloads during the short time it was available, but its developer, a Vietnamese gentleman called Dong Nguyen, thrust it immeasurably further into the limelight by abruptly announcing its removal from Android and Apple stores due to apparent guilt over its addictive nature. This is the point I first heard of the game - on the 'proper' BBC News website of all places! Soon afterwards I witnessed desperate pleas from fans for it to be reinstated, stories of how Mr. Nguyen had been raking in tens of thousands of dollars each day just in advertising revenue, and there was even news of people selling phones with the game pre-installed for hugely inflated prices. What on earth was going on? Could the game really be so amazing as to garner this much attention, even hysteria? I had no idea - I still didn't even know what kind of game it was at this point, but I decided to find this 'next Angry Birds' to see what all the fuss was about.

Film Review #62

John Carter (2012)
Director: Andrew Stanton Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Mark Strong, Ciarán Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy, Willem Dafoe, Daryl Sabara

Certificate: 12 Running Time: 132 Minutes

Tagline: "Lost In Our World, Found In Another"

So, John Carter huh? Prior to this movie's release who had heard of him? I sure hadn't and, although I may be in the minority in that regard, it meant I had absolutely no idea what kind of film this is. Therefore, for the benefit of those as ignorant as I apparently am, allow me to explain. Mr. Carter is the star of the 'Barsoom' series of novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the first of which - A Princess of Mars - was published all the way back in 1917 and upon which this film is based. They are primarily set on 'Barsoom' which is the name given to Mars by the native populace. That's right, for the book was written in a time when it was believed that not only might Mars harbour life but whole civilisations, perhaps even more advanced than our own! Barsoom may well have once been home to such glorious societies but during the time of the story it's a ruined and dying planet.

PSN Downloads #2

Page Chronica (2012)
By: Red Hare Studios Genre: Platform Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Sony PlayStation 3
Also Available For: Nothing

Being a librarian must be a pretty decent job. You get to sit around reading interesting books in peace and quiet - something I think I would enjoy a lot. I guess it's not the most exciting way to spend the majority of one's waking day though, and one young lady who definitely feels that way is Topez, the star of this intriguing indie release from Singapore. She's an apprentice to Morpheous, the 'Lord of Dreams and Master of Stories', who resides in a place called the Infinite Palace which contains all the stories that have ever been dreamt. Despite her talent and promise, though, Morpheous just leaves her to tidy and organise the many special books. That is, until one day while doing her chores she found a mysterious book she had never seen before, bound in chains.

Game Boy Games #2

Solar Striker (1989)
By: Nintendo EAD Genre: Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Featured Version: Nintendo Game Boy First Day Score: 143,600
Also Available For: Nothing

Gunpei Yokoi certainly seems to have been a busy fellow during the lead-up to the Game Boy's launch. Not only did he design the system itself but also had a hand in the development of some of its launch titles as well! One was Solar Striker, the first shmup for the new handheld (in the UK at least), and one that has a slightly unusual back-story for such a game. It's set in the year 2159, soon after the establishment of the Earth Federal Government and along with it the Earth Federal Army. This all seems sensible enough for a newly space-faring race. However, it seems that having such an army available wasn't a sufficient comfort for Earth's leaders who instead decided to launch an unprovoked attack on the nearby Turin system. Amusingly, we got our arses kicked in the process! Did we then apologise and skulk back to our insignificant little planet? No, we didn't. We instead developed a 'very advanced space fighter' called... yep, the Solar Striker.

Dizzy Series - Part 4

Fast Food (1992)
By: Optimus / Code Masters Genre: Maze Players: 1 Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Featured Version: Commodore Amiga First Day Score: 1,246
Also Available For: Atari ST, PC, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Enterprise 64/128

The spin-off games featuring Dizzy were never as well-received as his 'proper' games but Fast Food was still a fairly enjoyable Pac-Man clone in occasional doses. Well, for us 8-bit users at least, who could pick it up for a couple of pounds. A few years later, however, it was ported to the 16-bit monsters as well and, rather than just being tarted-up a bit as was usually the case, the simple audio/visuals were instead given a complete overhaul. So much so, in fact, that I decided it was worth taking a quick look at these versions of the game too! As you can see, rather than basic and repetitive monochrome mazes, the stages are now based in all-new living, breathing, real-life locales, positively brimming with features and detail! And we all know that fancier graphics make games better, right?

Star Trek #5

Next Generation Favourite Episodes - Season Five

Well, we're now over half-way through the mighty Next Generation's run and even before I started watching the fifth season again I suspected it would be the most challenging one yet to whittle down to five episodes. This indeed proved to be the case - I was even forced to count the mid-season two-parter as one selection - but that at least demonstrates the increasingly splendid quality on offer!

One of the more notable (as well as sexiest) occurrences was the introduction of Ensign Ro Laren, a 'troubled' Bajoran officer, who immediately starts giving everyone attitude, and we also meet the dangerous Silicon Avatar thingy for the second time. Meanwhile, those Cardassians start flexing their muscles, everyone has orgasms playing some weird addictive brain-stimulating game, Worf's parenting skills are (unhappily) put to the test, the Enterprise gets stuck in a time-loop ending with its destruction over and over, a clone of Lieutenant Tom Paris is found on Earth masquerading as a cadet (snigger), a little girl's imaginary friend causes havoc on the ship, and Geordie and Ro get 'phased' during a transporter accident which leaves everyone else thinking they're dead. Eeek!

Exploring the BBC Micro

For young scamps growing up in the UK in the 80's like me, there were a good few choices with regard to playing these fancy computer games we kept reading about. In my experience the most popular choice was the trusty ZX Spectrum but there were also a good few Commodore 64's and Amstrad CPC's doing the rounds and even a few less popular examples such as the Acorn Electron, Dragon 32, or one of the numerous MSX models. However, whichever choice you made (or had made for you), there's a good chance that the first time most of us used a computer it was none of these. For most, our introduction to computing was with a BBC at school.

It wasn't a looker but those red function keys stood out...

Although most commonly known simply as the 'BBC Micro', it was actually designed and produced by another British company - Acorn - who beat several other computer manufacturers (including Sinclair) to the rights to build the machine for the BBC's Computer Literacy Project. The result of the unlikely collaboration was initially available as the 16kB Model A or the more common Model B which came with either 32kB or 64kB of RAM. The Model B was unsurprisingly the one found in my school's classrooms and it was probably (although I can't be sure) the first real computer I ever laid my grubby mitts on. Unfortunately this was mainly for educational purposes but on the odd special occasion our teacher did allow us to play a game - the only game they had, in fact - Granny's Garden, although even this was a game with an educational slant (those crafty teachers never miss a trick, do they?). Alarmingly, this remains the only BBC game I've played.

PlayStation Driving / Racing Games #3

Ridge Racer Revolution (1995)
By: Namco Genre: Racing Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Sony PlayStation
Also Available For: Nothing

If any game ever demonstrated the difference between arcade and home gaming it was Ridge Racer. Released in the arcades just as the obsession with polygon games was taking hold, it went down a storm, especially if you were lucky enough to happen upon the enormous version complete with a full-size car to sit in (a Mazda MX5/Eunos Roadster, I believe, which doesn't suit the game really). However, upon receiving a hasty conversion for the PlayStation's launch, the shortcomings of Namco's racer were all too obvious to everyone but the biggest graphics tarts. Yes, it looked nice - nicer than the rival Saturn version of Daytona USA - but the pitiful one-and-a-half courses got old very quickly, and that's if you even liked the game to begin with which I didn't thanks to its stupid twisty-twirly car handling. What this game needed was a sequel.

Indie Nuggets #2

Ninja Twins (2013)
By: Matriax / Kronbits Genre: Puzzle Players: 1 Difficulty: Hard
Featured Version: PC
Also Available For: Nothing

Like monkeys, anything featuring ninjas is automatically cool, and that's a fact apparently recognised by Spanish indie developer, Davit Kasia, a.k.a. Matriax, who recently released this puzzler on Kronbits, his own label. As you might've guessed from the title, there are actually two identical ninjas here, and square ones at that as well! Their home, for the purposes of this game at least, are 30 single-screened stages, each measuring 20x13 blocks in size. The object is to get one of them to the treasure chest that sits somewhere on each stage. It's not as easy as it sounds though, obviously. Firstly, the ninjas can be moved in four directions using the cursor keys but they'll keep moving until they hit something. Secondly, they both move at once and if they touch... it's game over!

Film Review #61

Superman Returns (2006)
Director: Bryan Singer Starring: Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, James Marsden, Frank Langella, Eva Marie Saint, Parker Posey, Kal Penn, Sam Huntington

Certificate: 12 Running Time: 154 Minutes

Tagline: "This Summer, the World's Greatest Hero Returns..."

Superhero films are awesome, everyone knows that. The fantastical characters and abilities, as well as the routine threats to our very existence, never cease to enthral and amaze. I suppose we all have our favourites, especially since the spate of related films in recent years which has not, for some strange reason, included Superman nearly as prolifically as one might've thought. Perhaps because of this, perhaps not, but the Kryptonian oaf is one of the few 'main' superheroes I've never really been that keen on. It might be because he's an alien and was already a 'superhero' from birth, at least to us mere humans. He isn't some tortured 'normal' guy who happened to have an accident and became 'cursed' by weird new powers or something like that - he's just a higher being doing us the odd favour whenever the need arises. Whatever reasoning is behind it though, I wasn't particularly bothered about seeing this film when it was announced and have in fact only just gotten around to it...

Arcade Fighting Games #3

Karate Champ a.k.a. Karate Dou (1984)
By: Technos / Data East Genre: Fighting Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: 26,100
Also Available For: NES, Commodore 64, Apple II
Download For: Wii Virtual Console

Not quite sure why a bull is here...

Considering how popular video games have been since... pretty much always, it's surprising they haven't featured in more movies. Perhaps it's a copyright or royalties issue or something but a few do make appearances here and there. One of the most memorable examples for me was Karate Champ which was featured in a favourite film of mine as a teenager - Bloodsport (1988) - where Frank Dux (Jean Claude Van Damme) was invited to challenge Ray Jackson (Donald Gibb) to a digital bout. It was a short sequence but it's always stuck in my mind, perhaps due to its similarities with the film itself. Both consist of a series of one-on-one contests, both employ fairly technical martial arts, and neither feature much in the way of story or exposition.

Currently Playing...

Forza Motorsport by Turn 10 Studios / Microsoft Game Studios (2005) - Xbox

My introduction to Xbox gaming came recently with Ninja Gaiden which was good but far too difficult for a wussy like me (it must've been designed by Chuck Norris) but regardless of its quality it was never going to take me long to buy a racing game for my green box o' tricks and, very splendidly, I found this, the first game of the Forza series, in my local second-hand shop for a mere £1.50! Unusually for me I even tried it out as soon as I got home from work. I selected a mighty Aston Martin DB9 and went for a spin on the arcade mode only to find that... this game is also difficult! In fact, it reminded me of the hardest racing game I've yet played - F355 Challenge. Both are closer to racing simulators than arcade-style games and as such both have numerous driver-assist options which are all active by default. Here these include anti-lock brakes, traction control, stability control, and an on-circuit racing line (complete with braking zones). I tried turning them off which obviously made things more difficult (though not nearly as much so as F355) but even with them turned on I was having trouble staying on the track for more than ten seconds at a time! Nonetheless, I soon also gave the career mode a try since most of my time would be spent there anyway.

TV Shows #4 - Part 2

24 Seasons 1 - 3

After rambling on for much longer than intended in the previous post for this feature, I thought it might be best to take a look at the first few seasons of the awesome 24 in a separate post. As usual, it's taken me ages to get around to it (partly due to the time spent continuing to watch the show - I'm up to season five again now!) but here, finally, is a quick look at the first three seasons. It's also worth noting that I've decided not to give each season a score, simply because they're all awesome!

Spoiler Alert: is it assumed for the purpose of this feature that you've seen the show in question or at least don't mind knowing about some of its most prominent moments, so don't come whining to me if it ruins something that you haven't seen yet!

Day 1

Jack as we often see him - armed and alert...

After getting cosy with his family, Jack gets called into CTU who have uncovered an assassination plot against presidential candidate, David Palmer, on the 'day of the California Presidential Primary'. Not only does Jack have that to worry about but his wife and daughter have also been kidnapped by the same terrorist - American, Ira Gaines. He and his crew are actually working for Victor Drazen, a Serbian war criminal with past ties to both Senator Palmer and Jack himself as well, who is trying to use Jack's family to blackmail him into assassinating Senator Palmer who is having his own problems with a journalist who's attempting to derail his campaign by airing some dirty family laundry. This first season starts off quite slowly, and coming back to it after having watched the later seasons does make things seem... maybe the teensiest bit unsophisticated at first, but it introduces several important characters and quickly pulls you in, building up the tension with its sense of urgency and (what would become) characteristically snowballing story.

Gaming Memories - Part 13

The early 90's were probably when we saw Sega at the height of their powers. Their splendid Master System was a big success here in the UK (and Brazil) but a failure everywhere else. The release of the mighty MegaDrive, however saw their success duplicated in all regions of the gaming world. It was a fantastic machine to be sure, but it didn't even have any serious competition either. That was, until Nintendo's long-awaited successor to the elderly NES arrived...

Being a Sega fanboy, basking in the dominance of the MegaDrive, I sneered at the first pics to appear of the Super Famicom and laughed most heartily at the hideous US SNES. Then, when reports began to emerge of its under-powered CPU which could only limp along at 3.5MHz, I openly mocked the pitiful grey slab. This poor performance often resulted in some major slow-down in games and was a joke compared to the MegaDrive. Even the secondary processor ran at 3.5MHz in Sega's machine with its main power plant running at almost 8MHz! It wasn't long before shots from games started appearing as well, and they did little to sway my allegiance. A new Mario game? Okay, but it doesn't look much better than the NES games. Sim City? Old PC game, blah, blah. Gradius 3? Not bad but the MD has plenty of decent horizontal shmups. Super Tennis? They'll need to do better than a tennis game to defeat Sega! But then, after the UK launch had been and gone, I saw some footage of F-Zero and Pilot Wings in shop windows. Convincing 3D graphics? What the devil? These games looked much more interesting and were of a type the MegaDrive, and indeed most previous systems, did not excel at.

Computer Shmups #1

Hybris (1989)
By: Cope-Com / Discovery Software Genre: Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Commodore Amiga First Day Score: 132,375
Also Available For: Nothing

It was many moons ago now that I took a good look at the various shmups available on Commodore's 16-bit monster and I ended up making what I believed at the time to be a fairly well-considered and definitive Top Five list. However, since the moment that post was made I've been hearing regularly about a game that did not feature in my list; a game that I didn't really know of and therefore didn't even consider, no less. That game is unsurprisingly Hybris which, as well as being popular with the Amiga fanboys, is also in fact the prequel to one of my existing favourite vertical scrollers - Battle Squadron - which was released on the Mega Drive as well as the Amiga. The version on Sega's powerhouse is superior, obviously, and that was the version I had, so what will I make of its Amiga-only predecessor?