Some of my best childhood memories were had on the X-Men 6 arcade machine. It was the first game me and my friends would run to when we were unleashed into the arcade. But does it hold up? Check out my $5 play-through and see for yourself!
Well it is an X-Men game, which gives it a considerable head start because X-Men are awesome. Compared to other beat ’em ups it is certainly above average. Let’s do a quick run down.
Special Powers
To begin, let me give some attention to the special power system. Although I hate the idea of Cyclops loses life when he uses his eye laser, I understand the convention. This was simply the status quo in beat em ups of the era. Final Fight, Streets of Rage, Turtle in Time, King of Dragons, and Knights of the Round all used the same life loss mechanic to offset the power of the special ability. However X-Men does a much better job of it in two ways.
First, the mutant power in X-Men auto kills every single enemy in the game except bosses. It’s WAY more powerful then any of the other beat em ups mentioned. In those games the specials simply do a set amount of damage, often not enough to kill even the basic enemies. Trading life to “hurt” enemies is almost always not worth it. Killing the entire screen often is.
Second, you get one free “desperation” special move per life. Next to your life bar you have one blue power orb which you use if your life is at 4/10 or lower. This means at least once per life, you get to use your power! Finally, you are encouraged to use the special. Do you know how many time I have seen Leonardo’s sword spin move in Turtles in Time? Probably zero times, because it’s a bad idea to use 100% of the time. At least I get one free use in this game.
Combat
Combat variety is another thing worth talking about. In this game you have exactly 3 basic attacks: standing attack, jump attack, and quick jump attack. There is a grab, and a ground attack but they happen automatically and only in special cases (although they do visually add considerable variety to the combat). Despite this seemingly simply combat system, each character does feel very different. This is more than I can say for some other games like Turtles in Time and Knights of the Round.
Enemies
Enemy variety is where this game really lacks. The sentinels come at you like M&Ms, and like M&Ms they are all the same aside from the paint job. Other than sentinels you have some other various monsters but nothing makes you act differently to kill them other than mini-bosses. There certainly could have been more to this game in the enemy department.
The bad does not even come close to overpowering the good in this classic. It does a few things wrong, but so much right. Even today, this game remains one of the best arcade games. Play it alone, play it with your friends, but totally give it another play-through.
Metal Slug is one of the best side scrolling shoot em ups ever made. This is the first game in a long and successful series, which pretty much stays true to this core gameplay through all of it’s iterations. It has coop mode, excellent sprite graphics, awesome music, and a sense of humor about itself. I would compare gameplay to Contra.
There is something specific about Metal Slug that stands out. How fast paced it is, and I think I know why.
I am interested in limited resources in games, special powers, magic and especially ammo. I often find myself analyzing how useful they are, and how the game chooses to limit them. Metal Slug has two limited resources, special ammo and grenades.
I guess it’s also fair to count lives as a limited resource, although there isn’t any decision making when it comes to rationing the resource of life. You simply always try to preserve your life.
You get special weapons from POWs who you rescue throughout the stages. Each special weapon has a predetermined amount of ammo. Other than grenades, you have no alternate weapons. You must use your special weapon ammo constantly because this isn’t really the kind of game in which you ever stop shooting. It is slightly frustrating to “waste” rocket launcher or flame shot rounds on enemies that only take one bullet from your pea-shooter, but you have to do it.
The good news is, Metal Slug is very liberal with special weapons. You probably have one more often than not, using all the different weapons keeps the game fun and varied. Compare this paradigm with a game like Contra. In Contra once you get spread shot, homing missiles, or whatever your favorite weapons is, you AVOID other power ups like the plague. No one wants to get the machine gun on accident when they have spread.
What is more interesting is the grenades. Every time you begin a life you spawn with ten grenades. This is a pretty high number considering the life expectancy of your character is about ninety seconds. Even though they are a limited resource, you are being wasteful if you try to conserve them and end up dying with eight in your pocket.
Even though limited resources usual add tension, in Metal Slug they force you to hit the gas and play it fast. It’s part of the reason this game feels so awesome. You shoot all of them ammo, you pitch all the grenades, you die with everything exhausted. Respawn and run amok all over again.
The scarcity vs abundance dichotomy of this game creates a fast and action-packed burn.
Playing arcade games through an emulator isn’t the same as really playing them. Knowing you only have 15 quarters left in your pocket and every single life counts is a thrill that doesn’t exist when there is an “insert coin” button. That is why I imposed a $5 limit on myself, that is often how much money my parents would give me when they let me loose in an arcade during my childhood.
How deep into the classic Mortal Kombat can I get with only $5? Watch and find out!
I was playing Mass Effect 2 for like the 20th time when it finally dawned on me how silly the Purgatory (recruit Jack) mission is. Here is a summery in case you don’t remember:
You go to the Blue Sun owned prison ship, Purgatory, to acquire Jack. Cerberus paid for Jack’s release and you arrive to pick her up and on the way to the processing station the prison locks down. Turns out Warden Kuril is pulling the old “double-cross.” He decided Shepard is worth more as a prisoner. Then you proceed to fight your way out freeing Jack and getting off the prison. Not only thwarting Warden Kuril’s plan, but killing him during the escape.
Let’s break this down from Kuril’s point of view:
Kuril took a large payment from the Illusive Man to hand Jack over to Shepard. He decided it would be more profitable to kidnap commander Shepard … and then what? How exactly do you profit from having Shepard? I suppose he wants to sell him to the highest bidder? Who is that, the Collectors? Ok I guess that kinda makes sense although I don’t know why they would want him alive. I guess we have to assume he already has a buyer lined up… The shadow broker maybe?
But here are three more problems.
1. Kuril’s foolish confidence that his inept guards can handle a fully armed Shepard and his crew. Maybe Kuril hasn’t read the news for a while: Shepard defeated Matriarch Benezia and a squad of Asari commandos. He defeated the Turian Specter Saren and saved the citadel from the reaper. Shepard eats battalions of Geth for breakfast. He didn’t even do some kind of a sleeping gas trap? His plan was just to send 3 guards in to capture him and his “Perfect Krogan” body guard?
2. The Normandy is currently right outside, in full radio contact, and fully aware of what he is doing. Even if the prison has some kind of radio jammer, what do you suppose the crew of the Normandy will do? Just leave? The Normandy is armed and literally full of the most badass mercs in the galaxy. EDI is probably already hacked into the prison comm system and knows everything that is going on. Best case scenario, Thane, Jacob, Miranda, and Zaeed launch a little rescue party and murder everyone. Worst case scenario Joker blasts a hole in the station. Either way Kuril isn’t going anywhere with Shepard.
3. You are just going to betray the Illusive Man?
What was this guy thinking?
enormous mansion
five hour exploration
marble gallery
five hour exploration
marble gallery
double jump pendant
double’s the enormity
Dracula’s castle
double’s the enormity
Dracula’s castle
My favorite homey Franklin (dressed in a full basketball uniform) just finished eluding the police after going on a knife-sponsored killing spree in front of the movie theater because it was closed and I really wanted to watch “The Loneliest Robot in England.” I found myself in the rich hilly part of Los Santos and I thought maybe I would drive to the top of the highest cliff and drive off for no good reason. My ascent was interrupted by a man in the driveway yelling at his wife. Apparently they were having a lover’s quarrel and she was busy throwing all of his clothes and belongings out of the bedroom window into the driveway.
The gentlemen didn’t seem at all surprised when a black guy with blood all over his basketball uniform stepped out of the horribly smashed (and bloody) Lincoln. Instead he told me he was sick of this shit and wanted a ride to the golf course. Hm yeah ok get in. During the ride he was telling me something but I was too busy driving down the side of the cliff side trying to keep the car from flipping over to pay attention.
He thanked me for the ride and invited me to play golf with him… Sure why not, YOLO right? So there I was, Franklin in full basketball gear teeing up for my very first game of golf. I ended up +3 after nine holes, not bad at all for first timer! I got back into my beat-up car to get back to whatever I was doing… What was it anyway? I couldn’t find the way out of the parking lot and accidentally drove into the golf course. It was really fun driving my car as fast as I could through the rolling hills of the well-kept course, obviously I couldn’t resist running over as many golfers as possible. I wondered if I could find and run over the guy I just played golf with… Maybe I already did… These white-boys, they all look alike right?
Inevitably the police were called and we had a pretty outstanding chase and shoot out on the green of hole 6. While watching the death animation it bugged me that for some reason media coverage isn’t included in this game. You would think once a chase/killing spree lasted long enough news vans and helicopters would start coming to scene of the crime… Oh well, maybe GTA6.
Woke up at the hospital, stabbed the first person I saw … with a crowbar. Stole a car and proceeded to drive aimlessly on the sidewalk.
What was I doing again?
I recently read this article by Charles Salmon (@BeardsandPixels) which made me think.
Are modern games easier or simply designed better?
Returning to Super Metroid recently, Charles found the experience too obtuse. He wonders, were games really this difficult before, or have we just grown soft? Looking at the variety of games available today, he’s come to a conclusion that may just surprise you.
This article poses a very good question unfortunately the author dwells too long on Metroid to look for answers. Metroid is a bad example of difficulty. Not to say Metroid isn’t hard, but if Metroid was just a Mario-Style plat former; it would actually be pretty easy to beat. The “difficulty” in Metroid cames from overwhelming the player with a massive world with no mapping system with tons of unmarked secrets the player was required to find before proceeding.
There is no doubt that this is terrible design. A modern game wouldn’t do this to you because players have come to expect maps, clues, and usually outright instructions for solving puzzles or navigating the game world. That isn’t difficulty, only fake longevity.
What is difficulty?
There is something to be said for puzzles, and I guess you could say Metriod has hard puzzles. If you consider shooting every possible block in the game trying to find the one that is fake a puzzle. I don’t consider that difficulty, at least not in the way it is usually measured when comparing old and new games. Better game design has removed much of the fake difficulty. Situations in which the player is expected to do something totally random and unprecedented to continue the game have (should have?) been fixed. The games usually have built-in mechanisms like foreshadowing, clues, or NPCs to explain what to do.
What about gameplay difficulty?
The best way I can explain it is how people currently think of “beating” a game. The conversation today goes like this:
“Did you beat X yet?”
Instead of:
“Have you ever beaten X?”
Games you are assumed to have beaten
Games you will probably never beat
Beating games has changed from a matter of skill into a matter of time. Ninja Gaiden (NES) and Ghouls and Ghosts (NES) have a high level of difficulty because no amount of instructions or walkthroughs can help you beat them. You just need to become amazingly good at avoiding projectiles and enemies. Many people won’t have the “moxie” to complete these games and it isn’t because they don’t’ know what to do (watch me try). You aren’t “stuck” not knowing what to do. The path is clear, you just need to do it. It usually took about 300 tries. So why has the dynamic changed?
Save Game
I attribute the change to game saves. You rarely see a true “Game Over” screen anymore. Generally when you die or lose you just start over at the same section of the game. This is what gives games inevitability, if you play the same section over and over you will eventually beat it. This is essentially how old games worked, except in those games if you died enough times you started the whole game over again.
It was not fun to start the whole game over; I am thankful for saves. I don’t have the time to play Halo over from the start every time I turn on my Xbox. I like to know I have made progress every time I beat a level and that progress is mine to keep. Obviously games are much longer now so this is necessary. Most NES games can be beaten in less than 30 minutes if you just go all the way through. You would be lucky to complete most modern games, even the short ones, in less than 8 hours in one shot.
A friend of mine always jokes that people complain so often about how easy Mass Effect is, even on Insanity difficulty. He tells those people to start a new game every time they die. Then come back and complain how easy the game is.
Is the game hard? Of course it’s hard, you get killed in one hit, bad guys come out of nowhere, you are never prepared for what is coming next, you will literally retry the same ROOM 30-50 times before beating it, only to die from some stray bullet the second you open the next door. It is trial and error bullshit at it’s best.
But it works!
Gameplay
This game’s developers have mastered the art of trial and error gameplay. When you die there is no waiting time, you are back into the action at the press of a button. Each section (floor) is only 1-3 minutes long, so no matter when you get killed it will only take you a minute or two to get right back to were you died. There are no lives, no continues, only your gun, wits, and respawn button. You don’t need to get concerned with trying out a variety of strategies no matter how absurd because if they fail you lose almost no progress.
The gameplay is fast paced and fluid. The enemies are stupid and predictable. Levels almost feel like a logic puzzle, trying to manipulate the enemies into doing what you want, but with just enough randomness to keep your on your toes. After you lose count of how many times you have tried, you enter a zen-like state of murder rage. It is almost peaceful.
Music
The music plays a vital role. It keeps you moving, it keeps you bouncing in your seat. Each track gives it’s respective level a unique feeling, and when you die the music carries the action forward, There is no break. The music tugs you back into the dance of death no matter how many times it takes to get the steps right. I highly recommend getting the soundtrack, at least check it out on youtube.
Story (Spoiler Alert)
To be honest, I felt this was a huge letdown. I was actually really into the story as it progressed. I wanted to know who was calling “Jacket” and why he was doing what they said. Who is trying to kill the Russian mafia, for what reason? Why does Jacket hallucinate and have visions? Why is that guy at the stores giving him everything for free? WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON? You get no answers. Even when you play the second act as “Helmet” who is much more cognizant and actually trying to get the answers, you pretty much get nothing meaningful. It’s pretty frustrating to create this weird creepy atmosphere and then never tie up the loose ends…
Problems
Considering how masterfully the developers created a high tension trial/error action game, I find several massive blunders in the game design. First is the absolutely horrible hospital level called Trauma. In this level you need to sneak out of the hospital without being spotted by anyone, no murder. You are just a confused and dizzy patient, and you need to sneak out. The section takes a long time, doesn’t do anything for the story, and it’s infuriating. As if sneaking around isn’t’ bad enough, the character is also drugged up and wobbles around, and if you walk to long without stopping you need to have a migraine and stand still for a while. It was not fun, the change of pace was not welcome.
Along the same lines, the game has several boss fights, and when you die on them (which you will 10-20 times) you need to go through the dialogue every time. This is a huge misstep, why not just restart right at the “go” point? Why do I need to hear the bad guys line over and over? This is pretty textbook design stuff guys, why do this?
Conclusion
The shortcommings are minor. The gameplay is top notch and the fun factor can’t be beat. I don’t beat games very often anymore. I beat this game, and I had a blast doing it. I will let my gameplay footage speak for itself.
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