N64 Week: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire

Howdy gaming geeks and welcome back to Day 4 of N64 Week.   Given how many different first person shooter games have been established since the 1995 Castle Wolfenstein; I thought it best to focus on Lucasarts growing collection of third person shooter games.  Third person means you actually see your character interact around in his or her surroundings plus you also see the character his or herself. First person is just from the character’s POV.   At the time PC CD-Rom games were getting a wide variety in first and third person shooter but Lucasarts decided to expand its existing Star Wars franchise into new player heroes.  So strap on your blaster, keep your wits about you and brush up on your swoop bike skills.  This is Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire.

Trust me ladies!

Based on the novel written by Steve Perry (Shadow of the Empire: Evolution, MedStar I: Battle Surgeons, MedStar II: Jedi Healer and Death Star) this game like its same name titled book fell as a prequel between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.  

Our main protagonist Dash Rendar and his droid Leebo have arrived on Hoth prior to the battle and are dropping off supplies for a tidy sum.  After chatting up with Han Solo he convinces Solo to drop him in a Snowspeeder with Rogue Squadron to fight off the AT-ATs (All Terrain Armored Transport) and provide cover for the escaping ships.  

Ew, Wampa breeding pens.

As the rest of the ships are taking off the Snowstorm troopers have entered the base and have cut you off from your ship the Outrider.  You must get past a small army of storm troopers, a few Wampas and oh yes an AT-ST (All Terrain Scout Transport) armed with turbo lasers that could blast through several feet of ice and concrete.  No sweat, right?

The game is done in true Lucasarts standard.  Treating the game over a series of interaction from Empire Strikes Back, Dash throws in his lot with the Rebels and tries to assist them in 10 different levels ranging over a period of months and chapters. 

Stinking sewers...not getting paid enough for this.

Now I think it is time for some handy hints and tips on this particular game.  

Invincibility and Infinite Ammo:  You know you love it, you know you want it and here is how to get it.  On the Hard setting of the game you need to get all the challenge points before the code works.   Then you hold the crouch button for 15 seconds on the first person levels and boom instant invulnerability and unlimited ammo.   Mind you, if you fall off a cliff or scaffolding you are still gonna die.

 

Infrared Vison: Seeing in different spectrums of light comes in handy.  Press on Control buttons, the L, R and Z at the same time.  Then while those buttons are pressed gently move the Control stick around until the screen turns green.  Technically this is Night Vision and you will see yourself and all enemies easily.

Defeat Wampas Easy Peasy:  Okay so you lack the Force, a lightsaber and a crusty puppet to cheer you on to your fledgling abilities so I too would be scared of a Wampa.  Lucky for you there are at least 4 on most of the Hoth levels.  They however are in cages to be released.  Why the rebels needed Wampas on standby?  Oh who has time for these questions?  Release them both and run like a bat out of Hell to the main door.  These critters will start wailing on each other.  Then you can pick off the battered winner with your blaster.   Pretty Machiavellian, wouldn't you say?

The levels vary from third person shooter, to racing down a swarm of swoop bike scumbags trying to kill Skywalker to outer space battles.  Your only real pain is adapting to the graphics of this older series.  The music is full orchestral and none of that synthesized crap from Rogue Squadron as it is also the first 3D incorporated game.  So if you miss a jet pack of less than controllable capabilities, blasters with explosive shells and heat seekers and heck a jump that doesn’t go higher than 3 feet then brothers and sisters welcome back to Shadows of the Empire!

N64 Week: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Welcome geeks to Day 3 of N64 Week and I thought we would take a look at a classic theme of the NES alumni.  The fifth of its incarnation and the first to partake in 3D breathes life into the franchise.   So gather your Deku nuts for your slingshot, prep for fishing and hey take in a game of darts.  This is Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Faster Impa!! Past the title card!!

Navi: Hey! Hey! Listen!

This game operates as an action-adventure game with some role playing and puzzle aspects and tries its best to show real-time interaction as best as possible.   Link mostly relies on his sword and shield but he can also scroll through other weapons such as: arrows, slingshot, bombs and magic spells. 

The game opens up with Navi waking Link from a horrendous nightmare that Link witnesses a storm ridden night of a man in obsidian armor on a black horse chasing a girl on a white horse.  The village elder explains to Link the significance of the dream means he is destined to right the wrongs of this armored knight, speak to the princess of destiny and fight for Hyrule Castle.   I thought, “Thank God he didn’t have a dream he was surrounded by naked mimes armed with flamethrowers.”   Then he would have been stuck in a Resident Evil scenario.

Sure wish I was big.

As always with the Zelda games Hyrule is the kingdom with a huge topographical layout and a wide variety of races like: Hylians, Kokiri, Gorons, Zoras, Gerudos and Sheikah.

After making it to Princess Zelda she informs young Link that she has had dreams of the dreaded Ganondorf, The Gerudo King of Thieves seeks the highly coveted Tri-force (Power of the Gods), a sacred relic that depicts the past and future of Hyrule. Zelda tells Link he must obtain the three Spiritual Stones so he may enter the Sacred Realm and claim the Triforce before Ganondorf reaches it. 

I have just a few comments to be made about the game.  I was disturbed with the whole sending a 12 year old out on a dangerous quest seems a bit too child endangering.  At least Robin got back up from Batman.  Also as common with the original series Link mystically ages 7 years to tackle the more difficult of the tasks and bosses ahead. I guess that is also so we do not think his relationship with Zelda is a bit risqué. 

Shh, I think someone is watching us..

Link is stuck with a less than spectacular AI fairy.  She constantly loops her information about towns, potential traps and lands and quests you have already done.  That is quite annoying and in fact her only attribute for Link is her targeting ability for his weapons of choice.  

There are many distractions throughout the game.  Playing darts, fishing and town interaction can delay your quest quite a bit but no direct impact on time line.    So feel free to fiddly fart around the towns with no repercussions of villages getting ransacked or villagers being mutilated by the evil armies of Ganondorf.   Imagine being a farmer or blacksmith trying to take your goods from village to village when BOOM!  Raiding party or just random monsters attack.   Got to be made of sterner stuff to be living in Hyrule. 

N64 Week: Mario Kart N64

Hey there gamers and back to N64 Week and thought we would tackle another beloved multi-player game.  One that has been in almost every collection and I myself had to search for another copy for more than 2 years.  A head to head competition via race or and out and out combat for blood.  Rather balloons actually.    So grab your controller, squabble for first player and get ready for the match.  This is Mario Kart N64.

Yer goin down Mario!

Welcome to Mario Kart!!

Created in 1996 via Japan and it was released in North America and Europe in 1997 this go kart game boasts four different forms of game play: Grand Prix, Time Trial, Versus and Battle.  Grand Prix mode allows one or two people to compete against the computer players in a cup that takes place from four different courses with three laps each.  At the end of each race points are doled out after race is completed.  The difficulty level is measured by engine size 50, 100, or 150 cc (cubic centimenter).   Time Trial allows players to improve on their existing records per courses.  The players’ start their run with three mushrooms with give speed bursts to rip around the track. Lastly Versus mode gives two to four players to race around a single level with obstacles, hiding areas and weapons on standby.   This multi-player portion of the game is a last man standing.  Each player attacks the other with Koopa shells red, blue and green, bananas, upside down icons as traps and lastly a flower for temporary invincibility. 

Itsa me!

Every level or track is a variant of levels from all the Mario based games Nintendo and Super Nintendo and due to the breaking ground in 3D tracks got changes in elevation, bridges, walls and pits.  IGN and GamePro gave Mario Kart N64 at a solid 87% in Game Rankings.

Pfftt! Kong dust!

Mario Kart N64 has eight different characters for the players to use.  Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Toad, Yoshi, Bowser which appeared the first Super Mario Kart and lastly the two new to series Wario and Donkey Kong.   Characters are divided into three weight classes: Lightweights (karts with high acceleration and lower top speed), Heavyweights (top heavy, low acceleration but a high top speed) and Middleweights (a perfect balance of both acceleration and top speed) 

And now a few tips and hints for the game to assist your play a bit better.   For example: the Grand Prix and Time Trial can get a burst of acceleration prior the third light. Hold down the after just before the third light and you will fly past the competition.    To use either red or green shells use the Z button to save that shell at the ready and toggle the analog stick down and launch the it with Z to fire it behind you as a trip up. 

The popularity of this game gave kids lunchboxes, bed sheets, posters and even action figures.  

Toy Biz created a Series one including Mario, Bowser and Yoshi.  Series two offered Ghost Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong and Wario.    While many feel this game has aged poorly and admittedly the graphics are lesser by today’s standards I still hold a place in my heart for it and I know many of my friends would agree.

N64 Week: Star Fox N64

 Today we start off N64 Week right with a fun filled game full of dangerous forces, high stakes and the difficulties of aerial dog fights.  So just in your way back machines, call up 3 friends to join you and make sure your hands doesn’t get too sweaty.  This is Star Fox N64

 

I think my tights are binding.

Spoiler:  Do a barrel roll!

Back in 1997, 3 years after its Super NES predecessor Star Fox 64 was the first game to implement the rumble pack to simulate combat damage from impacts from energy weapons to careless flying bashing into buildings or the ground.  The improvements did not stop there.  Sample of voice over was used for each character bringing a bit more life into the game from its 8 megabyte humble beginnings. The returning characters from Star Fox assist you (Fox McCloud) as your wingmen.  Peppy (the rabbit) is a mentor and offers you tips and hints throughout each level. Slippy (the frog) analyzes shields of each main boss and keeps track of their life as you fly in, disable and destroy them.  Falco (the bird) offers you different and quicker routes to the more difficult levels.  As team leader of the Fox squadron you must look out for one another.  The longer it takes to get an enemy off one of your squad, the more it is for to repair their ship.  Simple, right?  You are sent to fight the forces of Andross, who has a stranglehold on the galaxy and is personally responsible for the death of your father.

Slippy, deodorant. Look it up.

Multi-player option

Okay now the main reason this game is still beloved is the 4 person multi-player option.  Going head to head or playing for points.  You and three of your friends take each other out in a series of aerial dogfights. For the life of me I have no idea why the game was not set up for you and your friends to go through missions together but hey who needs them? 

Now we will get to the mean and evil portion of the multi-player aspect. Dual lasers and a bomb will be available on all head to head levels.  Weapons lock is possible if you hold down the laser button and it charges a more concentrated burst of fire, however this is a one shot deal.  You will need to follow it up with a series of smaller bursts.  Using your radar is key for many reasons.  It allows you to know where you are, where your opposition is and how close are that to the target, i.e. you.

Hints for multi-player play

Now there are cheats and tips all over the net for this game still, I just thought a few little surprises would assist you in better pissing off your friends.  With weapons lock you also have the ability to fire a bomb at them instead of lasers.  This act of heinous evil is best performed from stalking them down, using the boost lightly to catch them in your sights and fire.  Immediately after the bomb has been released, U-turn the hell away or you will get caught in the blast zone.  There is nothing more sad then dying at the hands of your own ambush.

Alright, now you are being chased and hunted down.  Your friend sneaked off and picked up the bomb after it was used on him. So in a blatant attack he or she will repeat that which was done to him or her.  How to avoid this heinous attack you ask?  Hmm?  I can’t hear you maggot!!!  Okay since you asked so nicely the somersault option is very wise but it cannot be timed as well as a U-turn.  Gets you out in plenty of time and leaves you free to explore for the newly formed bomb.  As for a strictly laser based aerial attack, your opponents will waste countless rounds trying to eliminate you and commonly yet another cowardly attack from behind.   

A somersault is your best friend and allows you to get the drop on them but you need a twist on this idea.  As you somersault, hit the brake button to drop directly behind them, weapons lock and fire!  Congrats.  You just turned the tide in this fight and made them mad as hell.   If you cannot manage this maneuver, a series of barrel rolls will confuse their aim but this is no guarantee to keep from getting hit.  Head on attacks are fun for anyone that enjoys a good game of chicken. Weapons lock is a bit more difficult so keep your hand steady.  In my last GoldenEye review I mentioned ez grip bat tape for your controllers.  Use it and love it.  No matter how sweaty your hands get you can keep a firm grip….on your controller.  Staring down the barrels of your adversary is dangerous to your Arwing but hell it is fun.  Why not engage a series of bursts at him or her?  Spank them with a weapons lock (if you can get one) or break off with a u-turn when they least suspect it?  If you don’t have enough friends you can head to head against a friend and one or two computer players and frankly they are too easy to beat it is sad.  They always go for a back attack so get that somersault handy and strife the hell out of their ships.

Nintendo N64 Week

I have taken an inventory on my reviews and realized I have not done anything on video games in months.  I thought now was an opportune time to dust off the video game system and give a shot at an old profession.  Video Game reviews and I missed doing it.  Checking in my array of game systems I thought it might be fun to see these games and see what we can find as a level of amusement.  So this week we look at these antiquated titles of our childhood and breathe some life into the nostalgia that is Nintendo N64.

Meh I only get one game and Mario has over 20.

Exploitation Week: Black Samurai 200th Blog!!!!

Welcome back babies to the end of Exploitation Week and my 200^th Blog!!!   Now being a fan of some of the more interesting exploitation I see the name Jim Kelly pop up now and again.  Who you ask?   Well this fella starred in a film called Enter the Dragon alongside Bruce Lee and John Saxon.  So I thought I would view his take of a James Bond agent of D.R.A.G.O.N.  So get those skinnies on, prep some R & B and get your groove on.  This is Black Samurai.

 

Gotcha now John Saxon!

Robert Sand: Surprise spoilers!

Robert Sand (Jim Kelly of Enter the Dragon, Black Belt Jones, Three the Hard Way, Take a Hard Ride and The Tattoo Connection) is a special agent of D.R.A.G.O.N. (Defense Reserve Agency Guardian Of Nations) on his month long vacation enjoying a little tennis with a honey when whitey appears with a case!  Say it ain’t so!   His commanding officers Whitey and Oppression inform Sands that he must save a Chinese girl named Toki (Essie Lin Chia of the Dragon Creek, Return of the One-Armed Swordsman, The Singing Thief and Love Without End) who is the top Eastern Ambassador’s daughter as well as Sand’s girlfriend.  

Big Jim is happy to see you too...

The scalawag responsible is named Janicot (Bill Roy of Black Samurai and Nurse Sherri) a student of the dark arts and occult who is known by his mass growing cult as the Warlock.  Why anyone would want to be referred by a Julian Sands movie is beyond me.   The cult specializes in kidnappings, sex trade and human sacrifices as well as dope peddling.   Oh and do expect many a racist comment to be had.   Apparently if you are in a devil worshiping cult you are also a racist.  Who knew?   Janicot’s high priestess Synne (Marilyn Joi of The Kentucky Fried Movie, Nurse Sherri and Satan’s Princess) while very eye catching just delivered her lines with less enthusiasm than a hostage.  Nuance and subtly just was not the order of the day.

Hmm, Charlie's Angels or Andy Warhol? You decide.

I have a few notions on the film at this time if you don’t mind.  Shot in 35 mm Spherical but again recorded in Mono.  C’mon babies put that audio in 4 Track Stereo at least.  The track is mostly redubbed due to their previous boom mic handling was crap they had everyone come in to the same recording booth and then they dialed down the ambient sound.

 I had to hear a midget sound like Edward G Robinson sporting a 20 gauge sawed off shotgun.   Of course the midget gunsel got blown away and I was screaming hate crime.  More midgets were used in martial arts flogging.   Our Bond car was a ’71 Stingray with a retractable shotgun aimed low for tires and I guess the redneck gunsels were carrying nitroglycerin and moonshine in the car because it went up like a bonfire.

Size 12 snap kick fo you, sucka!

Sorry if this sound like I am on a rant but I had to see “Sands” on a less realistic jetpack that Connery’s in Thunderball.  Yes, I heard the helicopter flying in our jet pack plus saw the crane towing it. The dark arts set up looked like a combination of Haitian beliefs, interpretive dance and leftover Hammer sets for their black mass.  Yeah folks you can avoid this one.

Exploitation Week: Shaft

Welcome back babies to Day 4 of Exploitation Week and I thought we could to with a little mystery, some blackmail and maybe even a dead lead here and there.  For that we will need a suave, cagey mutha that don’t speak no jive but straight up.  So grab your flair bell bottoms, get those platform shoes ready and do that funky chicken.  This is Shaft.  You dig?

Shaft's customer service is second to none!

John Shaft:  I got to feeling like a spoiler and that’s no way to feel.

In New York City, you need some muscle, maybe someone to send a warning or help you out of a tight squeeze, then John Shaft (Richard Roundtree of Embassy, Shaft’s Big Score!, Roots, Day of the Assassin, Maniac Cop, Se7en and Rescue 77) is the man you see.  That Shaft is a bad mother…um shutting my mouth.   

Shaft is approached by a couple of thugs of a crime boss and one didn’t handle his exit well.  A 5 story fall that is.  With the cops having to investigate into what was clearly self-defense some of his former associates on the police force are questioning if he took the law in his own hands.  Lieutenant Androzzi (Charles Cioffi of Klute, The Thief Who Came to Dinner, Assignment Vienna, Tail Gunner Joe and The Other Side of Midnight) is pulling all the strings he can to keep Shaft from losing his license as a P.I. but at the same time needs answers.  He gives Shaft some operating room and to see what is what. 

No dirty white boy, I do NOT want candy!

 Later on he encounters the same thug and his boss Bumpy (Moses Gunn of Wild Rovers, Shaft’s Big Score!, The Cowboys, Rollerball, Good Times and Vega$) at his office with a dire situation.  Bumpy’s daughter has been kidnapped and he needs Shaft to find who took her.  Shaft hits the streets, rolls a few informants and beats down some doors to find the girl.  Chats up with a old buddy of his that went Black Militant Ben Buford (Christopher St. John of The Love of Ivy, Top of the Heap, The Retrievers and The Atlanta Child Murders) only to find out that an Italian syndicate is in town and moving in on Bumpy’s territory.  An armored assault is the call for the night but they need plenty of men and guns for this gig.

Now I just have a few comments to add about the film overall.  Shot in 35 mm Spherical, this is one of MGM’s little gems that got more love from audiences of all color because the performances were solid, the writing was fair and the flow of the story did not drag at all.   It plays out at a good steady pace and does not let up for nothing or nobody!  You may have noticed I am a fan.  

What? You're not girl scouts and that means no cookies! Hustlers!!!

Yes fellas, there is some nudity in case the action and story wasn't enough.   This film is hailed as not only one of the best exploitation films but also one of the best films of the 70’s because it does not feel forced and an amazing soundtrack by none other than Isaac Hayes!!!  So enjoy this piece of funk and get your groovin’ on babies.  Shaft is one of the more memorable films of this era and deserves its hails.

Tomorrow is my 200th Blog people so keep sending me suggestions on my Facebook page or on the blog itself.  Comments, questions and critiques are all welcome!!!  Later babies!!