We can thank George A. Romero for starting off the whole brain-munching-zombie epidemic witnessed in cinema and games for the last few decades...and in his 1978 film Dawn Of The Dead he also made sure that we'd forever associate the undead flesh-fiends with shopping malls! This Ubisoft game is basically a cheeky homage ( read "blatant rip-off" ) and as close as gamers would get to recreating the movie until Dead Rising came along....
The wonderfully awful comic in the instruction manual tells how our four heroes have managed to nab a helicopter from a hospital roof, but are now severely lacking in petrol. Deciding that the shopping mall might have loads of the stuff, they head there and find the undead have decided that it's the best place to pick up a quick snack....
Using on-screen icons to move around and click on things, you start to explore the mall and can switch between characters to use their different strengths. For instance, the chaps are supposedly a bit handier with the weapons...which is probably seen as being a bit sexist, but if they're following the movie they're probably supposed to be members of SWAT or something....
Anyway...as you search, zombies keep popping up and trying to get access to your yummy brains and you have to batter them with whatever's at hand...or just, well...your hands....by clicking furiously on their head! You'll find guns lying around too which are obviously a bit better for dealing with the hungry horrors..
Items are picked up by clicking on them...Cupboards also reveal their secrets when clicked upon, although sometimes it can be difficult to work out what exactly you're picking up, as the item graphics aren't the best....and with minimal instructions, you're pretty much left on your own when it comes to working out what to do with an item too, meaning you'll probably need to seek help from a walkthrough at some point!
Despite all this, the game is a lot of fun and you should definitely check it out! It'll keep you happy as you recreate scenes from Dawn Of The Dead such as blocking the doors with trucks, throwing dead bodies down garbage chutes to keep the place clean and eventually having to deal with a bunch of scary bikers who have come looking for food!
Ah yes...time for anyone with a hatred for things with more than six legs to look away! This BlueSky Software game is based on the 1990 movie of the same name and has you take control of bug exterminator Delbert McClintock, John Goodman's character in the movie
A deadly Venezuelan spider had hitched a ride in to town and got frisky with the local arachnids, creating an infertile but dangerous horde of offspring. Driving around a map that reminds me of the Ghostbusters game, Delbert must stop and go through the houses in eight different towns, killing all the spiders in each one.
He's armed with a can of bug spray, and you can aim the joystick in the required direction depending on where the spiders are, and give them a blast of the repellent...be careful though, as some of the little feckers will jump at you, making it easy to miss them as they try to chew your face off and web up your insides!!
You also get a couple of gas bombs that you can set on the floor, and these will wipe out all the spiders in that room....unless of course it's a queen spider! Yes, in every town there will be a queen that you have to track down and kill. She's not always easy to find, but the compass on the map screen will handily point in the general direction of where she might be hanging out...
You'll discover her nests everywhere though, and these need to be taken out to stop spiders spawning in the houses. Also, if you find yourself running low on spray, a quick jump on top of a spider should squish it in to a sticky, bloody mess...a trick worth remembering when you're in a tight spot. If you run completely out of spray, you'll need to leave the house for another can y'see...but this spawns all the spiders back to life when you re-enter...
As I just mentioned, gas bombs will only slow the queen spiders down when you find them...not kill them....and spray is pretty useless against them too. No, these silk spinners need a special kind of finishing off! Somewhere in town there will be a red can lying around. This allows you to spray fire once you aquire some matches, which will also be lying around somewhere...it's worth checking where the queen is first though before you light up and waste the spray, as I've been told the queen sometimes isn't in the same house as some of the matches, meaning you might light up only to discover you've no flame spray left when you actually need it!
It's a fairly enjoyable little bug hunt, and the spiders move around in a suitably creepy way. It can get a bit repetitive I guess, but in the short time I've played it it's never really become a problem. Whilst looking for the box art I discovered a little extra something awaits those who clean out all the towns too, so I'll definitely be going back to the game later to try and do just that! And also try to avoid the screen below that greets you every time you die....
Freak Out (Stretch Panic-US, Hippa Linda-JPN) (PS2) :
More utter insanity now, but this time from Treasure, a company who excel at making great games that nobody buys! And even a lot of Treasure fans seemed to not give this one much notice...
Freak Out tells the tale of Linda, a girl who has to deal with 12 rather vain sisters who constantly mock Linda's fashion sense and love of her scarf, which was gifted to her when she was six by her now deceased father. One day...whilst Linda is off picking up the weekly cosmetic shopping for her self-obsessed sisters... a mysterious package arrives on their doorstep. Possibly thinking it has come form some secret admirer, the sisters open it.....and unleash 13 scary vanity demons looking to punish pretty types!
12 of the demons possess the sisters, but the 13th only manages to attach itself to Linda's scarf... thanks to her lack of vanity. Despite her obvious annoyance at her stupid siblings, she decides she better get to the task of saving them from the vile Zakos, for that is what these demons are called! Because Linda took good care of the scarf, and with it's magically gained sentience it agrees to help Linda rescue her sisters, and let her utilize its newly acquired powers of stretching... that turns everything it touches into elastic!
Each of the sisters has been zapped off to a seperate dimension, and these are accessed through various different dimension doors. In order to open the doors, Linda must first defeat some more vanity demons...ones named Bonita Zakos!
These rather large-breasted baddies can only be defeated by pinging their heads or bums, which can be tricky to grab hold of as their bulbous boobs block your aim! Once you've managed to get a few of them to explode though, you can access one of the doors to the other dimensions..
Here you'll face one of your possessed relatives, and have to work out exactly what needs to be stretched and pulled in order to free them. Once..well, if... you've managed to do that, your sister will be saved and she'll be added to the Gallery Of Shame...a place you access by pinging a bell in the hub world and that lets you mess around with your families features and textures later in the game! And you set off to blow up more Bonitas and rescue the next victim of vanity!
It's truly a weird little game, and won't be for everyone. It has a sort of odd Tim Burton-esque atmosphere, but probably has just a touch too much colour in it to be really classed as such. Still, I think it looks rather groovy but I can see how some people might find it a bit too strange...
It was one of Treasure's first 3D titles, and you can see they haven't quite mastered how to make a good game camera, with it spinning around and not letting you see what you need to see sometimes.
It can also be tricky to judge exactly where your scarf is in relation to things, and the controls for using it take a bit of getting used to too. And I've had to refer to an online guide more than once to work out exactly how to defeat the bosses...But having said all that, I still enjoy it every time I restart it to try and play through again, and if you're looking for something very different from the type of things you normally play, then this could be a good place to start!
I've never really been one for portable gaming devices...I've always thought that I do enough gaming while I'm indoors, and so like to do other stuff while I'm out and about and be more sociable and look at trees and animals and people and things.... If I had a hand-held, I'd probably never stop playing games....
Because of this, even though I picked up an original Gameboy a few years back, I still tend to play the games via a Super Gameboy on the big TV. Also, I never ever got to experience the joys of playing other handheld systems, like Atari's Lynx! So after discovering this game via emulation, I'm wondering just what other gems I've been missing....
As you start the game, you're greeted with eerie music and a screen featuring the author of Dracula himself, Mr. Bram Stoker! He explains that using the magic of technology he is able to narrate his tale to you through time, and that you'll be able to interact in a way that would be impossible in his day! Which basically means you'll read a lot of text and then get to play a nice little point-n-click type affair for a bit before reading some more....
Once Bram has finished his first little bit of story telling, you find yourself in control of Jonathan Harker, who is staying at Dracula's Castle with a view to doing some business with the old count. Using a slightly odd interface that takes a little bit of getting used to, you can wander the rooms and interact with various doors, cupboards and objects in order to advance the story...
Some doors and objects can be tricky to see, mainly because of the graphical limitations of the system. It took me quite a while to discover a door at the back of the antechamber where I started for instance, as I couldn't make it out by looking at the screen and only discovered it when I saw "door" pop up as I walked past...
But you'll soon get used to hunting around everywhere and trying every command available to find things and work stuff out, and it becomes a little easier to play. And then you'll find your way to the Dining Room, where you'll meet our old pal Dracula himself!
It can still be a bit tricky to work out what you have to do sometimes, and I'll admit I had to cheat a couple of times and look at a walk-through to progress... but I reckon if you were a bit more patient than me you would probably discover what to do by yourself eventually anyway....
But yeah, I still haven't finished it...and I would have had to start again anyway, as I discovered that when you find your notebook, you have to keep using it every now and again to take notes...or when you get to the end of the game, you'll get a bad ending and need to play again for a good one!
It is a good little game though, and has lots of nice cut-scenes and sound effects that help add to the classic horror atmosphere! But I suppose it won't be for everyone, as the puzzles can frustrate and there is a lot of text in the game, although if you like such stuff and want a nice little spooky treat, you could do a lot worse than this! Oh.. and it sticks close to the book! It even has the Dracula crawling down the wall bit in it!!
Way back in the mists of time, when sorcerors and warriors still held sway over the lands, a swordsman named Chakan reckoned he was pretty good at the death-dealing business, slaying anyone and everyone who crossed his path and didn't bow to his greatness. So sure was he of his abilities that he'd often boast that one day, Death himself would fall at his feet after being bested in battle....
Some fearful wizards and gods decided to test this claim, and using a mysterious ancient ritual summoned Death to the world, where he found Chakan on a misty plain and proposed a wager...Happy with the souls that Chakan had sent him over the years, Death decided that although Chakan had become far too powerful he would offer him immortality if he could actually beat Death in battle! Chakan accepted, and after many days actually achieved what no-one had ever managed before...Death lay at his feet!
Chakan called upon Death to acknowledge the wager and bestow immortality upon him.....Death honoured the agreement, but as always when you do dealings with the reaper, it came with a few unwanted extras.... Stripped of most of his powers and with a face changed to resemble that of his fallen foe, Chakan was cursed to walk eternity in constant pain and suffering, only being able to find peace if the last of the dark beings was slain, and evil was ended....
Starting life as a comic strip by Robert A. Kraus, Chakan was licenced and became a Sega Genesis game...one that has been tormenting my existence since I first picked it up almost 15 years ago. The game picks up the story after Chakan has been cursed, with Death telling him if he slays all the evil lords he will lift the curse and be able to die in peace....But this is a task that is easier said than done! This is quite possibly one of the hardest games ever!
You start the game in a hub world, able to choose one of four elemental stages...Earth, Air, Fire & Water...via doors which will teleport you to the different realms. These individual realms consist of three levels of platforming and a boss stage. However, once these levels are completed, you've only cleared the "terrestrial plane" and a further 3 levels and a boss await for each of the four elements!
As I've already mentioned, you'll have to get really good at the game if you want to see the later levels, as it is far from easy...I've had the game for years, but have never gotten further than the first few levels! I was sure I had beaten it at some point, but after going back and playing it I realise that I must have been thinking of something else....Luckily, the fact you can pick different levels from the start means you'll still get to see a decent variety of stuff, even if you are rubbish at it...
Despite being insanely difficult, the atmosphere and playability of the game mean that it's still one of my favourite games on the Megadrive. It has a dark, depressing feel that was a bit different from other games around at the time, and I've always felt that the setting and story would make for an awesome sequel on a modern console or PC! In fact, a sequel was planned for Dreamcast, but for whatever reason this was cancelled. Interestingly though, it was later revealed that a lot of the concepts and designs were later used in the Legacy of Kain game Blood Omen 2!
Below is an animation video of what the Chakan model would have looked like in the Dreamcast game...someone needs to get on the case and get a new Chakan released on the next-gen machines I reckon! The story is perfect for videogames....
I also managed to pick up the Chakan The Forever Man - The Compendium comic just after I decided to include Chakan in the list, and the drawing you can see at the top of the post comes from it's cover. Anyone interested in Chakan as a character would be well advised to hunt down the comic strips as well as the game, as the atmosphere and general groovyness of the story is present in those too! Here's a couple of pics of some of the stuff you can find in its pages....
So yeah, if this sounds interesting and you've yet to play the game, I heartily recommend you seek it out and add it to your collection...unless of course you hate difficult games! If that's the case you should run screaming in the opposite direction! Although it's rather odd that other really hard games infuriate me to the point of making me want to destroy every copy on the planet, but this one, possibly the hardest game I've played, just makes me want to try again and again until I beat it!? I can't quite understand it....but yeah, choose your own fate wisely!
Never being ones to shy away from courting controversy, 2003 saw Rockstar Games launch Manhuntto a games playing public hungry for more GTA-style shenanigans after the wonderful Vice City...the public would soon discover that this game would take inspiration from a rather darker side of the eighties though...the video nasty!
As Death Row inmate, James Earl Cash, players awoke to find themselves escaping execution thanks to the mysterious Director... a strange chap who communicates with Cash via a headset and keeps an eye on him with various cameras positioned throughout Carcer City, the dark and seedy backdrop for what is about to become a really bad night for James.....
The Director informs us that we can only be free if we indulge his sick taste for snuff movies, and roam through the streets assassinating various vicious gang members who similarly are all out for Cash's blood! Not having much choice, he (and therefore we!) are forced to hide in the shadows, popping out every now and then to bump-off a baddie and try to find some form of escape from all the madness....
Using plastic bags, shards of glass, baseball bats, crowbars....basically anything with at least one pointy end...you sneak up behind one of the low-life gang goons, lock on with one of the shoulder buttons and let go to unleash an execution. Each weapon has 3 different attacks, depending on how long you hold the button down....the lock-on cursor changing from white..through yellow..to red, with that being the gruesomest execution and therefore the one that bags you the biggest brownie points from the Director!
You have to stay in the shadows though, as walking out into the light sees load of enemies all ganging up on you, making it very difficult to fight back unless you can run away quick enough to find more shadows to hide in! It's this lurking in the shadows that takes up the biggest part of the game, and means that people with no patience won't do very well with this, as sometimes you'll need to learn the enemies paths for the best way to kill them and this can take ages....
Thankfully, being a Rockstar game, all of the enemies are blessed with some great dialogue, and whilst they seek you out you'll hear them complain about being hungry or losing their shoes or what they're going to do to you when they find you for making them stand in the cold for so long! You'll encounter quite a few different gangs too...from the racist Skinz to the totally bat-shit crazy Smileys, all with their own relevant rantings to keep you entertained while you wait for the opportunity to bash their brains in....
About halfway through the game, just when you've got used to sneaking about using the bats and knives, guns are introduced and you discover just who it is putting you through all this craziness, and decide to go pay them a visit! Having hold of these weapons changes the pace of the game slightly, meaning it never gets too stale and keeps you interested!
One extra element people sometimes forget to mention when talking about Manhunt, is the ability to use your Playstation's headset and mic to influence the game...Plugging it in, you hear the Director's voice directly in your ear making it feel like he's actually talking to you! And, any cough or sneeze you happen to let slip during play will actually alert the hunters in game, and have them coming to find the source of the noise! So best not to play this way if you happen to suffer from allergies, but it's an awesome addition to an already impressive title....
Understandably, all this murder and mayhem had various censors and retailers worried about putting the game on shop shelves...this was made even worse when the game was linked to the murder of Stefan Pakeerah, although it was later noted that it was Stefan who owned Manhunt and not his murderer...
Back in 2004, I was working in the Virgin Megastore's game department, and was told to take Manhunt from the shelves and place it under the counter...We were still allowed to sell it, but only if it was specifically asked for! Needless to say, the publicity from the tragic case above... and the fact it was banned in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Germany...only helped sales of the game, and almost every 5 minutes I had people coming in to the store asking if we had any copies left....
It's a game that's definitely not for the squeamish, and it is very graphic in its display of violence...but as usual, the media surrounding its release made it seem far worse than it actually is! Although not for everyone, I recommend you give it a try though, as it's one of the best stealth titles out there...and having to hide in the dark as some psychopaths from the local asylum try to hunt you down and poop down your neck makes for some of the most truly suspenseful and scary gameplay in any of the games on this blog!
In this From Software developed / SEGA published exclusive for the original Xbox, you fill the shoes of assassin Raikoh, last member of a clan who's job it was to deliver a death blow to whoever the Imperial Court wished dead...a job that Raikoh was never very happy doing it has to be said, but one which as a member of the clan was his duty!
One fateful day however, the Court made an order that Raikoh was to kill his own father! Raikoh refused, stole his clan's ancestral sword Soul Shrine, and made a hasty exit from the court.....
Now.... this Court had ruled for over a thousand years, but at the same time Raikoh made his escape, a mystical Seal that had been keeping the human world seperate from the demon world cracked open.....
Ominous clouds covered the world, and the lands were plunged into darkness. A huge tempest emerged from the blackness, and destroyed all in its wake....When it had passed, only ruins remained and it looked as if nothing had survived. However, all manner of unearthly creatures were now spread over the world, and they seemed intent to destroy anything and everything that did manage to evade the previous destruction....
Raikoh awoke in a place somewhere between life and death, having been rescued by the mysterious Princess, who informed Raikoh he may return to the world of the living in exchange for his servitude to her. If he performs several quests set by the Princess to cleanse the world of the demonic hordes who have ransacked it, he will also gain redemption from his dark past and be forgiven for his previous sins as an assassin....
As we take control of Raikoh, we find ourselves in a rather nice hack-n-slash adventure through a very stylised ancient Japan. Traditional music creates an eerie atmosphere, and the floaty gameplay has you hardly touching the ground in some levels, as you dart back and forth slashing away at the many different types of demons who now inhabit the place.
Missions are pretty straight forward affairs, and some can be quickly completed by rushing to your objective...but doing this means you'll miss out on the various extras and bonuses the levels hold, like freeing trapped spirits or demolishing as much scenery as possible...As with most hack-n-slash style games, the gameplay can have the tendency to get a bit repetitive after a while, but when it looks as good as this and has as much atmosphere, you shouldn't find it a problem if you play in small doses...
I recently discovered this game....and it's even better sequel.....hidden away in my local charity shop, and having never heard of them before was intrigued as to what they'd be like. Being a fan of all things Japanese I was happy to discover a very enjoyable and atmospheric couple of games that seem to have slipped under most gamers radar...certainly if I had known they existed I would have picked them up before now!
I will say before I finish up talking about Otogi, that I am finding it exceptionally tricky....it's a really difficult game! Something that'll come as no surprise if you've played From Software's more famous 'Souls' series! But yeah, bear that in mind if you decide to pick it up...but if I was you I would definitely try to find the games soon before everybody realises just how awesome they are and they get really tricky to find!
Strange things are afoot at Maxwell Manor....The former mad scientist-type owner has been found headless and obviously dead in the library, and strange creatures resulting from bizarre experiments on doilys & combs (seriously!) roam the grounds and manor, as do undead spiders and the like!
The Psychical Society believes that the legendary Skull Of Doom is now in control of the manor and has tasked you... the wonderfully named Professor Arabesque...with the task of entering the manor, seeking out the skull and destroying it!
With no instructions, this game can be rather confusing as you start off in the middle of road with no idea where to go. A gun, shield and sword can be found here, but if you venture too far along the road you'll end up getting lost and find yourself zapped to the mansion gates! This is not the entry into the manor though, and you'll need to find another entrance somewhere along the wall....
Thinking the game was a bit basic, and not really wanting to continue with it, I did manage to find and check out the instructions online before giving up on it completely...and I'm glad I did! The game is a lot more complex than it first appears!
Apparently there are over a thousand variations to how the game will play out, although the instructions are deliberately vague about what exactly affects these variations. Also included in the game manual are some maps that show how the various areas are connected, so it's worth having the instructions for this fact alone!
The various creatures can be attacked with the sword or gun, and the shield will deflect some projectiles...but I'll leave it up to you to discover how to beat the Vampyre Spider and it's sticky webbing! Oh, and if you happen to die too many times, escape from Limbo can only be achieved by choosing the right direction!
There are a few more items to pick up with some unique abilities, but again you'll get more enjoyment if I leave these for you to discover yourselves. Hopefully you'll make it through the mazes and get to the manor...which I have yet to actually do myself...although I hear some jumping and platforming skills may be needed!
But yeah, having given the game a bit more time, my first impressions turned out to be wrong...and I now recommend Maxwell Manor to any Atari 800 or C64 owners or emulators who are willing to put in that little bit of effort required to fully enjoy it!
