Monthly Archives: April 2014

Gamer's Life, General Commentary, Retro

Community post: A poor game of an even worse film….. and I love it

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The game were you get to play the Waxwork models of famous Jedi. Image taken from https://www.gamedbase.com

So we are talking about embarrassing games. Well I’m going to raise the stakes. Lets get a truly awful game in here. Jedi Power Battles is a tie in to the much maligned first prequel to the Star Wars trilogy.You remember that film don’t you? That sting of disappointment, the odd air that what should have been the easiest sell in the world had somehow become a dull trudging beast of a ham fisted galactic political drama. Space politics. Politics… in space! All against the background of some casual racism and horrendous child acting.

So, the source material isn’t great but, everyone loves Jedis and having powers and battles! This game should retain the best elements of the franchise and strip out the nonsense. Just like the film that inspired it however, it takes winning individual elements and then through a complete misunderstanding of what makes them so well loved, creates an experience that makes you never want to look at the nights sky again. For fear that this version of space might be true up there somewhere.

Continue reading Community post: A poor game of an even worse film….. and I love it →

General Commentary

Community Post: Hopelessly Spellbound by Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup

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I was in an HMV store with my dad when we bumped into my godmother who we hadn’t seen for a while. I was 9 years old then and it occurred to her that my birthday was coming up. “Is there anything you’d like, dear?” I knew the answer before the question escaped her lips. I had been eying that game the whole time we were at the store. Shyly, I pointed at the box next to me. And that was how I attained my guiltiest pleasure to date, Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup.

Much of Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup‘s gameplay is a highly repetitive affair. Every match gives you the same thing: you start off the game trying to score goals, doing special moves when available, and stealing the quaffle (the ball) whenever needed. All this is done to build up your team’s half of the snitch (a tiny golden ball with wings that flies really fast) bar. Once the two halves of the bar meet, you go into the high-speed snitch chasing sequence where you go head-to-head with the other team’s Seeker (player who’s responsible for catching the snitch). Catch the snitch, get 150 points and end the game. Don’t catch the snitch, hope your team scored enough to still beat the other team.

Continue reading Community Post: Hopelessly Spellbound by Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup →

General Commentary

Community Post: Earthworm Jim 3D — If loving you is wrong, I don’t wanna be right

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Image by Flickr user Aaron Himel
Image by Flickr user Aaron Himel

If you’ve not yet checked out all the great posts in UWG’s “guilty pleasure” games community posts, then be sure to take a few clicks back to see what fun we’ve been having in recalling the best of the worst (of the best) since April 1st! And share with us your favorite games that you hate to love and love to love no matter what anyone else says!

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The following article was adapted from a post published on Recollections of Play, April 16, 2013.

Me and Earthworm Jim, we go back…like waaaay back to almost the beginning. I never played the original Sega Earthworm Jim game in 1994, but I did, with all the inane trappings of maniacal glee, play the version that was ported to the SNES in 1995. If games followed movie genres, it was one of the earliest “comedies” I played. The premise was entirely hilarious (earthworm finds spacesuit, becomes a force for good, fights of the likes of Bob the Killer Goldfish and Professor Monkey-For-A-Head to save Prince What’s-Her-Name), and the platforming/shooting/collecting action was beautiful. It was simply a fantastic game. Its sequel, Earthworm Jim 2 was even more fantastically ridiculous and fun. With the release of these games, there was also a short-lived but brilliant Earthworm Jim cartoon.

It was my favoritest.

So, to say I looked forward to the release of Earthworm Jim 3D in 1999 is a bit in an understatement. Continue reading Community Post: Earthworm Jim 3D — If loving you is wrong, I don’t wanna be right →

Game Series, Review

Community Post: Why Not Remember Me?

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Image by Flickr User: RMA2kay4

It seems we all have our guilty pleasures don’t we? After the stellar start we’ve had from the Duck and Chip, I hope to continue to the trend! Read on for more Tales of the Slightly Embarrassing (but not really :) )!

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There’s something so fascinating about the idea of memories. They live in the past but actively shape our present lives. Everything that we are in the present: our personalities, our skills, our motivations, even small matters like the food we enjoy is all defined by our previous life experiences. We are, to some degree, the sum total of our memories up a given moment. So what if someone had the power to alter those memories? What if they could reach into your mind and twist them, bend them to their will, or even remove them completely? Would you still be yourself? How much would you change? What kind of person would your altered memories create? Remember Me not only asks all these questions, but puts you into the shoes of that memory-altering someone! Even though the gameplay itself leaves much to be desired, It’s an existential role that I absolutely love and makes Remember Me a guilty pleasure of mine. Continue reading Community Post: Why Not Remember Me? →

Console, Posts By Active Authors, Review

Community Post: I’m a Fool for Deadly Premonition

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We all have games that are foolish to love; those comfort titles that the general public regards as less-than.  We players can look past these games’ warts and rough edges to find a worthwhile experience in spite of what others may think.  To start the month of April off with a goofy bang, those of us at United We Game will be divulging some of our own guilty pleasure games for your amusement.  Things have gotten off on the right webbed foot by the Duck of Indeed, so let’s continue the joke with another foolish game!

Image from Flicker User: TheStouffer
Image from Flicker User: TheStouffer

Let us be frank at the commencement: Deadly Premonition is not a good game.  The graphics are outdated, the combat is repetitive (at best), and the game controls quite poorly.  The voice acting is hyper cheesy, the hit detection is appalling, and there are boring portions of the game that are simply included to drag out the time spent in front of your television.  I could go on, but you get the idea; Deadly Premonition is far from the pinnacle of video game development.  But despite all of these flaws, I really, really  love this game.  I would even go so far to recommend playing this strange title, as long as you don’t take it too seriously (along with friends and a case of beer).

When I first heard of Deadly Premonition, the main topic of discussion was how the game was receiving reviews covering the entirety of the number line.  Some reviewers abhorred the game, damning it with scores of 1 and 2 (out of 10) to match their hatred.  Others looked past the flaws to praise the story and ingenuity of the developer, rewarding the game with scores of 8 and 9 (also out of 10).  I was intrigued, to say the least.  As I was talking with a friend about the game, he revealed that he had purchased Deadly Premonition and was about to finish it for a second time.  He also mentioned that he was No. 1 on the Xbox Leaderboards for this game, which is irrelevant (and super badass).  So he agreed to let me borrow this strange survival horror/murder mystery game, mainly so he could have someone with which to talk about this title. Continue reading Community Post: I’m a Fool for Deadly Premonition →

Review

Community Post: The Embarrassing Joys of Lost Kingdoms II

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Image from Flickr User: Migue Alcaino
Image from Flickr User: Migue Alcaino

Thanks to an idea from Chip of “Games I Made My Girlfriend Play”, the admins and contributors of UWG will be posting a series of community posts over the next span of days on the topic of our “guilty pleasure” games in celebration of April Fool’s Day. And it looks as if the Duck gets the honor of starting things off. And on April Fool’s Day, of all days! Score!

Well, we all have some games we’re rather embarrassed to admit that we like, right? And if you deny it, I’ll only assume that you have a game in mind you’re just keeping secret from me…. Well, I have some of these games, as well. I often have pretty decent taste in games, or so I like to believe. I love “The Legend of Zelda” and “Kingdom Hearts” and “Halo”, but I also have some games I enjoy that I’m less eager to tell you about. But, I will. Now, I have already written a post on a rather goofy game I enjoy called “Bomberman Generation” on my own blog, and so I decided to write about something different this time. And as I thought about what to discuss, yet another GameCube game came to mind because, frankly, I have a lot of bad GameCube games. This game is actually part of a very small series, of which I think there are only two games, “Lost Kingdoms II”. (And notice how it is so very unpopular, I couldn’t even get an image for it, so enjoy this photo of the console it’s played on instead.)

Continue reading Community Post: The Embarrassing Joys of Lost Kingdoms II →