Tag Archives: rayman legends

Listmas

Listmas: Games I Played This Year

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Image from Flickr User: Mark Fleming
Image from Flickr User: Mark Fleming

How wonderful that we’re doing Listmas again this year, as it was quite a fun holiday, and I’m just a person who enjoys listing things, no matter what time of year that may be. This has been a crazy year for gaming, so I thought today’s list would be a list of the games I played this year. Look at me go!

  1. Rayman Legends, PS3, which somehow managed to top the masterpiece that came before it
  2. Final Fantasy VIII, PS1, a game that makes you want to conserve your magic at all costs, only to have it get periodically stolen during the final boss, the only time you feel like you can actually use it
  3. Final Fantasy VI, PS1, the inspiration for the first costume I ever made and for getting me into masquerade competitions
  4. Final Fantasy IX, PS1, a game I strangely couldn’t get into, even when, at the same time, it was pretty darn fun
  5. Chrono Trigger, PS1, a nice break from the turn-based RPG’s I had played up until that point and which included some pretty neat time travel
  6. Chrono Cross, PS1, which was both fun and the bane of my existence, considering they didn’t let you get experience from fighting most of the time, and the bosses could be so darn ridiculous
  7. Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal, PS2, my second playthrough, but my first time completing Annihilation Nation and collecting all sewer crystals, thanks to a map I completely forgot existed before
  8. New Super Mario Bros U, Wii U, which I’m still in the process of playing, with much gusto
  9. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Wii U, which is a lot like the prequel, which accounts for the lessened gusto and less motivation to complete it any time soon…
  10. Pikmin 3, Wii U, which makes fruit far more fun than I ever would have expected; I just wish Brittany would shut up

A Duck That’s Been Busy With Nonsense

Game Series

Why the Rayman Series Needs More Love (Especially Rayman 2)

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Image from Flickr User: Indusfr
Image from Flickr User: Indusfr

It feels like I’ve been writing about the “Rayman” series quite a lot lately, but it seems such posts have always gotten a rather positive response, so I said to myself, why not write another one. Why not indeed? You see, this is one of those series that has some really great games, and yet hasn’t really gotten the attention it so deserves. Fortunately, that’s all started to change with the release of “Rayman Origins” and “Rayman Legends” in recent years, but how many of you know about the old “Rayman” games from before the series started to gain more recognition? And it is for that reason, and because thinking up ideas has been rather hard for me lately, that I have decided to summarize the “Rayman” series for all of you who have yet to become converted to its limbless greatness, or who have simply missed out on the games from its past. Continue reading Why the Rayman Series Needs More Love (Especially Rayman 2) →

Console

The Duck Discusses the Wii, 360, and PS3 Generation: Part 3-Sony Still Can’t Think of Creative Names

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Image from Flickr User: alessandrofaj
Image from Flickr User: alessandrofaj

Today is the last day of my series of posts on what I like and dislike about the last generation of consoles, the Wii, the 360, and the PS3.  While I loved the PlayStation 2, I actually didn’t have any intention of getting the PS3 because Naughty Dog was still refusing to make any more “Jak and Daxter” games, the “Kingdom Hearts 3” release date was nowhere in sight, and because I could just keep up with the “Final Fantasy” games on the 360.  And then, because of a sale on used games at GameStop, I bought myself a few PS2 “Ratchet and Clank” games, causing me to really get into the series.  And that’s when I found myself with an unstoppable need to buy the PS3 and catch up on all the “R&C” games I had missed.  Nevertheless, at first, my PS3 didn’t have much to motivate me to play it aside from a few short “R&C” games, and I wondered if I may have wasted my money.  The console did become much better, however, when I added to my collection “Portal 2”, “Rayman Legends”, and the Final Mix version of “Kingdom Hearts”, and now I’m starting to really love it.  Not as much as my PS2, but it still turned out to be a pretty grand console.  And now, I present you with my pros and cons for the PS3!  (With the focus, again, on gaming, and information found on Wikipedia.) Continue reading The Duck Discusses the Wii, 360, and PS3 Generation: Part 3-Sony Still Can’t Think of Creative Names →

Console

The Duck Discusses the Wii, 360, and PS3 Generation: Part 2-360 Boxes

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Image by Flickr User: ChipperMist
Image by Flickr User: ChipperMist

Not long ago, I published a post discussing what I like and dislike about the Wii, and seeing as the next console of this particular generation that I bought was the XBox 360, it makes sense for Microsoft’s console to be the subject of the second post in this series.  It’s a funny thing, though, how I got this console in the first place, because I am more of a PlayStation fan than an XBox fan, so it would stand to reason that I would have been much more inclined to purchase a console made by Sony over one made by Microsoft.  Unfortunately, at the time, the PS3 was much too expensive, and it didn’t have any games I really cared for yet that weren’t already on the 360 (this was obviously before I became a “Ratchet and Clank” fan…).  Since the games I wanted at that time were all on the 360, plus that console would also allow me to play any new “Halo” games, this became the next console I added to my gaming family.

And when I first started playing the 360, I was immediately impressed with the graphics, which were way ahead of the Wii, and even though the first two games I played were not as good as I was expecting (“Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts” and “Sonic the Hedgehog”, the 2006 version, shudder, gag, shiver), I did have a good time playing “Halo 3” (even though it was short) and “Final Fantasy XIII” (despite its flaws), the latter of which came with my console.  (I even got this little waste of time thing on one end of the console that says “Final Fantasy XIII” on it.  Jealous?)  Plus, I was just pretty thrilled that this new XBox had “Final Fantasy” games as part of its library now, as during the last generation, only the PS2 had such an honor.  My game collection was further improved with the addition of “Halo: Reach” and “Halo 4”, which were awesome, and I even had the pleasure of expanding my game library with over 40 Sega Genesis games on “Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection”.  In the end, I ended up really enjoying my 360, and I loved it way more than the original XBox.  And now, anymore of my thoughts on this console will be listed below.  (As usual, my main focus is on gaming, not the other features the 360 has to offer, and extra info was found on Wikipedia.) Continue reading The Duck Discusses the Wii, 360, and PS3 Generation: Part 2-360 Boxes →

Game Series

Rayman: Rising Out of Obscurity

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Image from Flickr User: Tamer Yesildag
Image from Flickr User: Tamer Yesildag

Over a decade ago, while perusing my local Best Buy, I came across a game called “Rayman 2: The Great Escape” for the Nintendo 64. The box sported a bizarre looking dude with a big nose that I actually mistook for a rather odd dog (I later found that he is, in fact, you know what, I don’t know what the heck Rayman is). The game looked quite appealing, and so I bought it, my gaming instincts once again proving to be right, as I ended up having a blast with this game, right from the start.

Everything about it was just awesome. The graphics were quite lovely, the landscapes lush and beautiful, while the characters were strange and whimsical, and I couldn’t help but love the way they spoke in their strange gibberish language. In the end, I just fell in love with this game. I loved Rayman and his rain-dancing pal Globox, not to mention Rayman’s lack of limbs and his awesome helicopter hair and his ability to shoot balls of energy from his fist. This game, actually, is still one of my all-time favorites, and with my great adoration for this game, I got it into my head that the “Rayman” series was one that…people had actually heard of.

Continue reading Rayman: Rising Out of Obscurity →

Resonance

Resonance: Dark Creature Pursuit

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Screenshot by Flickr User: PSMANIA
Screenshot by Flickr User: PSMANIA

Video from Youtube User: Soniman001

One game I recently had the pleasure of playing was “Rayman Legends”, a wonderful game that contains some of the best video game music I have ever heard.  But, as I believe I have said before (and if I hadn’t, now you know), a song has to be more than just good to resonate with me.  There are songs that are just nice to listen to, and there are songs that do so much more.  There are songs that make me feel emotions, like fear or joy or sadness.  And there was only one song, in this game filled with great music, that really did that, and it is “Dark Creature Pursuit”.

This song plays in several areas where you are chased by hoards of these vicious, little monsters.  These things are nasty, and the way they snarl and try their darnedest to clamber up over ledges to try and get at you, you just know they are ravenous…for your blood.  They are scary enough on their own, and it doesn’t help that there are some pretty stressful sequences of being chased by these horrible beasties, sometimes for fairly long stretches of time, too, but it is the music that sends this already frightening experience over the top. Continue reading Resonance: Dark Creature Pursuit →

General Commentary

Why Games Should Do Away With Extra Lives

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Image by Flickr User: Yoshi Gizmo
Image by Flickr User: Yoshi Gizmo

I grew up playing video games that used extra lives.  The old “Mario” games had them and the old “Donkey Kong Country” series, too, and it was just a feature that you had to deal with.  As you played through such a game, level by level, it was always on your mind how many lives you had left.  And as you played, your main purpose being to complete the level, it was always a bit of a secondary objective to collect more of these extra lives.  I remember how very satisfying it was every time I collected enough bananas in “DKC” to acquire yet another balloon in the upper corner of the screen.  Each life meant extra chances.  It meant security.  One more time you could slipup and still be all right.  They were a good thing and one item I sought after most.

But, sometimes, extra lives were a hassle.  I remember every time I started playing a new file of “Donkey Kong Country 2”, I would just rack up tons of extra lives during my first hour of gameplay.  I collected so many darn extra lives, I was effectively unstoppable.  I could die as many times as I pleased, and it mattered not.  I’d go from world to world, and when no save point was yet available, it didn’t matter, because I had those extra lives.  And then, I’d stop playing for the day, and when I returned, the lives were always reset to a much smaller number, my hard work collecting lives the previous day all for naught. Continue reading Why Games Should Do Away With Extra Lives →