When this arcade shooter from Konami was released in 2001, it was way ahead of its time. The arcade cabinet was lined with infrared sensors that tracked your every movement, so you could duck and dodge and take cover. Years before the Wii, Police 911 got players in the game like no other game could do so. Playing as either a Japanese police detective or an American police officer, your job was to stop a Japanese crime syndicate. You made your way through several stages, shooting enemies while avoiding fellow officers and civilians. There is a timer not unlike Time Crisis, so it’s best not to dawdle in an area for too long. You can increase your rank and earn bonuses by completing the levels without killing civilians. A sequel was released, featuring more characters and levels. This game would be a perfect fit on the Nintendo Wii, as the Wiimote and the balance board make a perfect substitute for the arcade cabinet’s infrared sensors.

One thing you gotta love about Goichi Suda is that he doesn’t care how well his games are received by critics. He doesn’t care how well reviewers score his product, how well his games sell, or weather or not he gets a game of the year award. In fact, he doesn’t care about gaining any kind of mainstream recognition whatsoever, as anyone who has played Killer 7 knows. He works in this same spirit as many independent game programmers, and simply wants to share his demented thoughts with the world. No More Heroes is his latest creation. Weather you love or hate the game, it will be sure to have you scratching your head in a way that few games can.
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Powet Presents something that’s not very standard fare for the site (or me, for that matter), but is close enough to geek topics near and dear to our hearts.

Happy birthday, Dreamcast!

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the release of the Sega Dreamcast on 9/9/1999 – the very first released of the sixth generation of gaming consoles. As the last console developed by Sega, we’ve got a bit of a tribute to the ill-fated awesomeness that was the Dreamcast.
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I got to contribute a little piece to 4cr’s “Games Rebels Play” posting for August. If you’ve been listening to the Powetcast (and why the heck WOULDN’T you be?), you’ve heard me go on about Penny Arcade: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness — and for good reason! Well, I do it again! Take a gander:

http://www.4colorrebellion.com/archives/2009/09/06/games-rebels-play-august-2/

Gyruss is a shooter from Konami. Although Gyruss was originally an arcade game, but like other NES ports of arcade games, players would be more fond of its NES counterpart. Gyruss’s gameplay can best be described as ‘Galaga in a funnel’. You’re assaulted by waves of enemies, and you roll around the screen in a circle blasting at them. You travel throughout the solar system, eventually making your way toward Earth from Neptune. The NES version of the game adds new soundtrack tunes (including a remixed version of J. S. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor that’s pretty catchy), a more detailed plot, new power ups, boss battles, an ending, and extra stages (including the former planet Pluto and the Sun). Like other games of its type, Gyruss has little setting apart from the rest of the pack (beside the cool music and 3d effects), but you’ll enjoy it while it lasts.

Wanna have some fun with your mp3 collection? Go to Steam and download Audiosurf. This game is basically a fusion of Guitar Hero, Wipeout, and Columnus. You take control of one of many characters, each grouped by difficulty and having their own special abilities. You make your way down a racetrack, picking up colored blocks. You use these colored blocks to create clusters, which score you points. The colored blocks are synced your chosen song. The game contains additional game modes, and there is 2-player co-op play available. This is an incredibly addictive game, and it has won many awards on the independent gaming scene. Pedro Macedo Camacho, who composed the game’s original soundtrack, has won an “Excellence in Audio” award at the 2008 Independent Games Festival. Currently the game is only available on Valve’s Steam distribution network. It’s available for less than $10, so check it out and support the independent gaming scene.

Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

Now we all love video games. At least most of you do. I can’t imagine that the majority of our visitors would be here if they didn’t, let alone reading this article. However, many of us can’t afford to run out and buy the latest new game when it is released, especially in this recession. Most of us have to deal with tuition/student loan payments, rent/mortgage payments, food, utilities, and in some cases, even extra mouths to feed. However, just because you’re swamped with bills doesn’t mean you have to keep playing the same games over and over again, simply because you can’t afford new ones. In this addition of the powet alphabet, I’m going to show you 10 selections straight from our weekly $20 Game of the Week feature, a.k.a the gamer stimulus package, designed to stimulate your collection and bail you out from the monotony of replaying the same titles again. I tried to cover every system here, and there is a good selection of genre offerings, so there is something for everyone. As luck would have it, this is also the 4 year anniversary of the column. All of these titles can be found for under 20 dollars anywhere you buy games from.

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