As I played this week’s $20 GOTW entry, three questions immediately popped into my head. How were the people who made Okami make the transition from something so beautiful and artistic to well….this? How did Sega get the green light from Nintendo for this to be released on the Wii of all systems? Most of all, WHY IS NO ONE BUYING THIS GAME? The Wii’s hardcore gamer audience would love this game, as it contains the perfect combination of extreme violence and “what the hell is this” brand of zaniness that made No More Heroes and Killer 7 cult classics. It’s Japanese producers designed this game with a western audience in mind. In fact, as of this writing it’s unsure of weather of not this game will even be released in Japan!
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It’s Halloween weekend! Time to dress up in your costume, scare the neighbors, and grab some candy! Along with Powet’s creepiest games feature, this week’s Lost Classics and $20 GOTW focus on some very scary video games. We’ve got the most recent Castlevania along with an adventure title from the Playstation era. As a bonus, we even threw in some import love. Click below and check out the scares.
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The best way to describe Epic/Chair Entertainment’s Xbox Live offering is an old school gaming experience with a new school style. Although Shadow Complex contains 3D graphics powered by Unreal 3, its gameplay is reminiscent of old school 2d games such as Metroid. The game’s plot, penned by comic book writer Peter David (The Incredible Hulk, X-Factor), is a side story to the Orson Scott Card novel Empire. You play as Jason Flemming, an everyday guy who was doing some rock climbing with his girlfriend Claire. When Claire is captured by members of a terrorist organization (which has already assassinated the vice president by the way), it’s up to you to rescue her.
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Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

When Sony entered the market as a console manufacturer, they began a whole new era of gaming, and much of it was due to the rise of disc-based gaming. Disc based systems at the time were becoming more commonplace due to CDs being easier and cheaper to manufacture. Since they could hold more information than floppy disks and cartridges, it was easy to see why they were becoming increasingly attractive to developers. Even before the Sony, there were already several disc-based systems on the market, although few of them fully utilized the potential of the added storage space and horse power of the medium. The Sega CD for instance, was merely an add-on to the Sega Genesis. Most of its line up either consisted of amped-up versions of Sega Genesis titles, arcade ports, and interactive movies. such as the controversial Night Trap. The Super CD, an add on for the Turbographix-16, had a slightly more impressive lineup (including the highly sought after Dracula X), but it never made it beyond the borders of Japan. The 3DO, which was a standalone system, carried many of the interactive movies that graced the Sega CD, and it also boasted arcade-perfect ports of games such as Samurai Showdown and Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. However, its high price tag prevented it from making a huge impact in the marketplace. The Phillips CD-I, just plain sucked.

Around the early 90s, Nintendo wanted to jump into the CD gaming market. Originally, it was Sony who would help them develop the technology that would power the new system. Sony was of course no stranger to gaming. Under the name Sony Imagesoft, they developed and published several games for their soon-to-be competitors (in fact, you may have even seen a couple of them as Lost Classics). However, the deal would fall through due to lawsuits on both sides, and Nintendo opted to go with Phillips instead. That deal would also fall apart, and Nintendo would eventually abandon the concept of a CD based gaming system altogether in favor of cartridge-based the Nintendo 64. It’s because of this reason that many suspect that the Playstation is what Nintendo’s CD system would have been. Regardless of weather or not that rumor was true, it was ironic that Sony, the people slated to work with Nintendo on their new hardware, instead usurped their place as top dog console manufacturer.
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During the early days of the Xbox 360, there weren’t a lot of launch-window titles that made people want to run out and buy the system. Dead or Alive 4 and Condemned were nice, but other than those two and a few others, the Xbox 360’s post-launch library was pretty weak. Thankfully, Microsoft’s Xbox Live downloadable games service, introduced during the previous Xbox life cycle (albeit to little fanfare) was kicking into high gear this generation, starting with its integration into the console itself (rather than having to buy a separate disc). Over time, players would be treated to a slew of classic re-releases, newer titles, and independently developed games. One of the first games available on the service, Geometry Wars, took old school style gameplay and touched it up with some nice graphical effects. It was in the tradition of Space Invaders, where one played simply to earn a high score. It was incredibly addictive as well. So addictive, that many Xbox 360 owners played this game more than any game that was released via retail during the first 4 months after the Xbox 360’s release. Now, Bizzare Creations has created a sequel which adds new game modes while keeping the previous game’s gameplay intact.
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Gotta love the 8-bit era of gaming. Playing the old NES brings back so many classic memories. Remember using the drift technique in Rally King to make it through to the end of the race? Or how about seeing if you could make it to level 64 in Cosmic Gate? Or how about when you finally defeated that mega-tough guardian in Guadia Quest after some serious level grinding? What’s that? You don’t remember any of those games? Good. There is a reason for that (besides me calling you a liar if you said yes). Those games, along with 5 others, are retro-style games created for this cart. While they have 8-bit NES looks, rest assured, they are as current as Gears of War or Halo.
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I have always loved college and high school level athletics. In the place of money hungry celebrities whose egos and off-court/field antics seemingly overshadow their athletic abilities (Vick, Rodman, Owens, and about dozens of others, I’m looking firmly at you), you get young and hungry talent willing to do anything to get noticed and make it towards that next level, be it a college scholarship, or an NFL contract. This be-the-best-that-you-can mentality creates an atmosphere where anything can happen. Also, there is a certain charm in seeing local high school and college stars compete that you can’t get watching multi-million dollar celebrities, and who doesn’t enjoy watching the marching band, especially in black college football games? So it’s no surprise that I’ve always enjoyed 2K Games’ College Hoops better than its NBA counterpart. For years, developer Visual Concepts has managed to create a game that captures the atmosphere of college basketball while delivering solid gameplay on the court. That is why I was sad to learn that 2K Sports would not be renewing it’s NCAA basketball license for subsequent years, thereby putting an end to this series. To that end, 2K8 is an excellent swan song for the series. The improvements that it makes are little compared to 2K7, but they serve to refine the gameplay further.
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A few month’s ago, I featured this game’s predecessor, which could only be described as darkly humorous, delightfully tasteless, and disturbingly addictive. It attracted its share of controversy, and the fact hasn’t been lost on developer Running with Scissors. In 2003, they created this sequel, and there are a number of substantial changed to the formula. Although its content these days is pretty tame compared to the Grand Theft Autos and Manhunts, it can still get a bit extreme at times. In fact, its content is so extreme that it has been banned in both Australia and New Zealand. It gained further negative publicity a few years back after the Dawson College shooting rampage in Montreal when the gunman listed Postal 2 among his favorite video games. This is the type of game that, while it clearly doesn’t appeal to everyone, still maintains a healthy cult following.
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