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Glad you were feeling Crisis Force, Sarge! I think it's definitely one of the better shooters on the NES/Famicom.

ElkinFencer10 wrote:I don't like the faces on the two protagonists

I think it was done that way as an homage to the N64 original's protagonists' derp derp faces. And yes they have some creepy faces, agreed.

ElkinFencer10 wrote:I think they got a little too boss-happy (there were like four or five bosses in one level).

Well that's the Treasure shtick though. They're a company that's always loved creating boss fights and filling their games with them. If you've never played Alien Soldier for Genesis, give that one a go. I mean, if you want to see boss overload. (The entire game is basically a boss rush from start to finish.)

No joke, about a third of my 9 hours or so was on the last boss. I could not for life of me kill him in time.

It's tricky, and Star Successor is easily the most hardcore Wii game I've ever played. So you definitely earned some cred for beating it. I don't know how many folks around here have beaten it, let alone given it a fair shot, but the game's no joke. At least you beat it in one day. I knew a guy that took two weeks to beat it on normal.

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Anyway I beat Sleeping Dogs tonight (and one of its DLCs) but I'll have to post my review tomorrow, it's bedtime.

Exhuminator wrote:It's tricky, and Star Successor is easily the most hardcore Wii game I've ever played. So you definitely earned some cred for beating it. I don't know how many folks around here have beaten it, let alone given it a fair shot, but the game's no joke. At least you beat it in one day. I knew a guy that took two weeks to beat it on normal.

I beat it when it first came out, but I went back and tried to play a random level recently and it tore me a new one. I'm rusty

1. Mega Man ZX Advent|DS|2007|platformer|8h|7/10
2. King's Field III: Pilot Style|PS1|1996|dungeon crawler|1h|8/10


3. Sleeping Dogs |360|2012|action-adventure|20h 45m|8/10

What would happen if you mixed Yakuza with Grand Theft Auto, plus a dash of True Crime as garnishing? Yeah, this right here. Sleeping Dogs. Indeed, despite its name this is actually not a game about narcoleptic canines. Nope, rather it's about an undercover cop named Wei Shen, on assignment in Hong Kong to infiltrate the Sun On Yee triad. That is, when he's not busy gulping down pork buns and singing karaoke.



You play the part of Wei Shen, living his Hong Kong cop life. You start the game out with a crappy apartment and crappy clothes and a joke of a motorcycle. By the end of the game you'll own million yuan apartments, fancy Italian suits, and cars that cost a fortune just to insure. Getting from those humble beginnings to the extravagant end's gonna take quite a bit of effort from the player though. You'll have to learn to navigate a labyrinthine city, how to brawl like a tiger, and above all else; never ever blow your cover.



Sleeping Dog's greatest strength is its variety of gameplay. This game is a jack of many trades and a master of some. First and foremost, the combat engine is excellent and as you unlock more and more moves you'll go from white belt punching bag to cocaine addled Bruce Lee. When fists aren't enough, Wei Shen's not afraid to bust some caps, and the third person shooting is on par. Getting from point A to B involves copious driving, and thankfully the handling is arcade style, making it easy to burn up the streets. (You can even hijack a car FROM another car and that's always exciting.) Sometimes a car won't do it though, and Wei has to use his own feet. No problem, Sleeping Dogs has a very solid parkour engine and makes chasing down escaping punks a vigorously entertaining affair. There's also surveillance mini games, racing, hacking, singing, dating, rooster fighting, gambling, and whatever else I'm forgetting. There are all kinds of optional side missions and most are worth doing. If you're bored playing Sleeping Dogs, it's your own darn fault.



The core of the experience though, focuses on Wei infiltrating the triads. There are 30 primary missions in which he does this, with great variety as to how they occur. Rest assured you are going to beat the bloody snot bubbles out of a lot of overly tattooed punks, wreck a lot of cars, and splatter plenty of brains via bullet time. Sleeping Dogs is a very, very violent game. For being an undercover cop, Wei Shen doesn't mind breaking the law and murdering the hell out of... well, anyone who gets in his way. Sometimes quite gruesomely thanks to "environment kills". If there's anything nearby that can be used to execute someone, Wei can use it. And yes, there are table saws lying around sometimes. Doing extremely violent things literally intimidates the thugs you're fighting, and gives you temporary stat boosts. So it pays for the player to be as ruthless as possible.



Graphically speaking, Sleeping Dogs is often gorgeous. Hong Kong sprawls as a convincing urban wasteland, with a few areas offering natural beauty as well. Driving through the city at night while it rains, with neon signs reflecting off the road, is thoroughly convincing. Stop moving and start looking a little more closely though, and you can see some questionable art assets and murky textures. This is a game that looks great as long as you're just cruising on through. Aurally Sleeping Dogs gets the job done. Top notch voice acting and the bone crunching sound effects are done well. The radio stations available to you in automobiles leave a lot to be desired though.



If I have one big complaint about Sleeping Dogs however, it's the actual story. The plot just never took hold of me, nor did I ever really care about Wei Shen's problems. Whereas in Yakuza 1 & 2, I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen to Kazuma Kiryu, Sleeping Dog's Wei Shen just felt more like an angry hollow avatar. And while the plot does have some twists and turns, it's told in a haphazard way with not enough character development for anyone involved. Sleeping Dog's story line just gets the job done and little more, a real let down for a crime drama epic of its size. After completing the game, I still didn't fully understand Wei's true motivations or alliances.



But maybe that's not the point. Maybe the point of Sleeping Dogs is just to be a crazy rogue cop gettin' rich in a Hong Kong's crime stained underbelly. And if that is the point, than Sleeping Dogs makes that point with the power of a dim mak punch. With so much to offer the player in excitement, laughs, collectibles, side missions, and sheer unbridled catharsis, Sleeping Dogs keeps its players wide awake.

1. Mega Man ZX Advent|DS|2007|platformer|8h|7/10
2. King's Field III: Pilot Style|PS1|1996|dungeon crawler|1h|8/10
3. Sleeping Dogs |360|2012|action-adventure|20h 45m|8/10


4. Sleepings Dogs: Nightmare in North Point DLC|360|2012|action adventure|1h 22m|5/10

Wei Shen and his girlfriend have just left a movie. Suddenly a mean ghost appears out of nowhere wearing a smiling cat mask. Who is this guy? Why did he just steal Wei's girlfriend and run away? These are questions Wei must seek the answers to, as he busts ghosts, slays demons, and crushes vampires. But first, he's gonna have to make a spot of tea.



Yes, Nightmare in North Point is Sleeping Dogs' goofy DLC. Starting strangely and only getting stranger, it's definitely a departure from the serious nature of the main game. NiNP sees Hong Kong bathed in eerie blue light, with all of its citizens possessed by evil spirits who really, really hate Wei Shen. At first Wei can't do much about this, but after figuring out how to concoct some magical tea, he's given the powers he needs to send these creatures back to hell.



The plot packs on some meat pretty quickly, with Wei finding out that some of the hundreds of folks he killed aren't so happy about that. And they are coming back to seek revenge. Smiley Cat himself though, has grander ambitions than just vengeance. He seeks to take over all of Hong Kong, and he knows Wei Shen is the only man who can stop him. Wei's gonna have to learn some new moves here, like how to body slam a hungry ghost back into the portal it came from. Not to mention beating up huge demons so bad they turn into glowing blue swords. Yes, you read that right.



While this might all sound exciting in theory, in practice this DLC is incredibly repetitive. You only have a handful of missions, and each one simply focuses on pounding blue baddies back down to the netherworld. You revisit places you've already been in Hong Kong, there's no new areas to fight in. All of the advanced moves you learned before are stripped away, and you're stuck with Wei's basic techniques. Not a big deal because you can kill most of these ghosts by just throwing them into the flaming trashcans that are littered about. If the DLC is too hard you can always just find hell shrines and use them to power up Wei.



Considering how simple and repetitive Nightmare in North Point is, it's biggest shame is its length versus cost. You can easily beat this DLC in under an hour. And for $6.99 that is a gross overcharge. If NiNP was $1, I'd say it was a nice little diversion. But as it stands the only true horror of this spooky DLC is its price point.

1. Xenoblade Chronicles X - Nintendo Wii U - January 3
2. Fallout 4 - Xbox One - January 20

I thought the offering of Fallout 4 was overall a very nice affair. It has plenty of exploration, passive story telling in a post-apocalyptic Boston. I mean, A LOT of exploring that can be done. Possibly too much exploring; I often felt sidetracked from the main story by wandering around seeing the sights and taking the loots.

There's plenty of cool little side quests that are often entertaining and sometimes quite funny. My favorite little side quest was playing the part of The Silver Shroud for a ghoul who wanted to make his little sphere of the Commonwealth. I played my part as the Silver Shroud in character, for some RP goodness.

However, I do find the dialogue choices quite limiting compared to last games. This is compounded by the lack of a Karma system. I already know that this is a big game, but it's more useful to me to know what exactly I'd be responding to other NPC's with something other than two or three words listed from the dialogue choices I'm offered. I know the choices don't have too much of an impact in the long run, but it was a bit of a disappointment.

I liked the followers. Nick Valentine was my bud and I went the route of the Institute.

Crafting and Settlements I felt bogged down the experience. I eventually paid them less and less attention, as soon as I found out you can strip a weapon of its modifications and put them on your own. Settlements just felt tacked on, but I'm guessing has more of an impact if you go the route of the Minutemen.

However, I felt Fallout 3 was the superior of the series. I never was able to get into New Vegas, so I can't compare.

Overall, I'd give it a 8.25/10.

3. Outrun 2 - Xbox - January 20

I gave this game a run for its money. I played the Arcade mode and several of the missions. This is a lovely little racing game that I think is honestly a hidden gem on the Xbox. I handles well, the AI isn't annoying, the tracks are unforgiving and the drift mechanic is a neat and balanced addition. I love the first Outrun and it's great to see it's an Easter egg on this game. I vote for it to be a future Together Retro offering! Did this game exist in the arcades? Because I'd like to play it there too.

8.75/10

Exhuminator wrote:

Jiangshis! Yay!

1. SSX 3 (oXbox)
2. Mario Kart DS (NDS)

3. Fairune (Android)

After seeing this game mentioned a handful of times on this board I got around to checking out. Didn't hurt that I recently got a new phone and wanted a game to test drive it.

I have to say that I enjoyed this game once it clicked for me what the designers were going for. It took me a few levels to figure out what I should do and how to grasp the clues the game gives you, but once it sunk in I was pleased with the experience. It isn't a hard game in any real way if you have an eye for detail, which for me made it a perfect game to play while commuting on the train.



The game is very pretty in its simplicity. The palette is bright and pleasant, sprites are well drawn and the extra details in the end game are well presented.

I finished with a time of 3h 3min and 1 second. I don't know that I'm likely to play it again (I recently bought The Banner Saga with my Google Rewards earnings), but I don't regret the experience at all. Be warned that it seemed to crash often on starting and quitting the game, but I never experienced a crash during game-play or any data loss.

Sleeping Dogs was free on PSN so that's probably clouding my judgment somewhat, but I liked it quite a bit and played through it and then some. It doesn't do a whole lot new. Basically GTA but in a cooler setting than "random American city" and the combat is much more about hand to hand than gunplay. It also doesn't have the frills that GTA has, which it's better for. There's some distractions but it's not overwhelming and/or pointless. Good game.

Sleeping Dogs definitely destroys GTA, but I still couldn't finish it. It will take one ridiculous miracle to make me really care about city sandboxes again. The 7th gen overdosed on it way too much.