Planet Sillicon

Boss Battles

By blog on Apr. 4, 2009.

Sometimes when you are playing a game, you can travel along thinking all is fine and dandy. Then you hit the boss battle at the end of a world, and BAM! You’re no longer fine and dandy, no, your the opposite of that. You need the reflexes of a ninja and the patience of a master thief to get through this bloody battle. I am going to list a few that have bothered me over the years.

Firstly, because I am playing it right now, Henry Hatsworth is proving to have rather difficult boss battles. I mean, you have to bring your A+ Game and have good luck, half the time. It is very annoying, as much of the game alternates between this hyper difficulty, and then fairly easy. And yet I keep coming back. I am even dreaming about those damn blocks now, as if someone is throwing them at me.

Then there was, and this was a long time ago, Earthbound. This was one of those need to know a certain trick, boss guys. If you didn’t know this trick, this battle was completely impossible… I played this game for such a long time, in one great stretch, so I wasn’t forgetting things or missing things. Nonetheless, I didn’t actually beat the damn boss in this game, because I didn’t know to look it up on the net and find what the magic trick was that actually allowed you to beat him! The boss, Giygas, had a ‘resetting health bar’. At the end of every round, his health would completely reset, and you couldn’t beat him unless you used the attack ‘Pray’ and the final ‘Pray’ would deal more damage than ol’ Giygas had hitpoints. Gah, that was really annoying.

Next another older game, Gun, on the XBOX360. Annoyingly easy throughout the entire game, except the final boss battle. Oh yeah, that battle was next to impossible! And it was only the final boss too, the rest were easy enough, but that final boss was so frustratingly difficult. It was really hard to keep playing and trying to beat the schmoozer, when you kept being blown up whilst he is ya-hooing his way through the whole thing. Way to make a mediocre at best game leave a very bad impression on a gamer.

Lastly I will complain about Ninja Gaiden. This one is further back than Gun, but not as far back as Earthbound. This was a hard game, the easy mode was called ‘Ninja Dog’. This is a blow to ones pride if they have to play on this difficulty, so I certainly didn’t! It was fun, alright, but it was tough as nails. I am not the only one who thinks so, this game is renown for its difficulty. And the final boss battle was one of those that not only required great skills, but also a lot of luck and a bit of chance. At least the rest of the game was like that though, more understandable and less infuriating.

Games you didnt’ know anything about

By blog on Apr. 1, 2009.

As a gamer, occasionally you will stumble onto a game that you have never heard anything about. A game that has, for you at least, seen no mass marketing of any kind, has slipped under your precursory glance of IGN every other day, and has so far completely escaped your notice.

In the past two weeks, this has happened with two games. There is, of course, the thrill of finding these great games late in the game. Especially with the slew of PC and console games released with so many bugs they are unplayable! Yes, I am still annoyed about Assassin’s creed.

Anyway, the other day, I stumbled onto a game called Mount & Blade. I hadn’t ever heard of this game, in spite of it being around for some time in one form or another, and it did get a pretty good score, so I don’t know what happened there. I couldn’t believe how much fun I had with this game, not to mention for once, easy to download to Australia – I hate Direct to Drive for that very reason – and didn’t cost a fortune! This game has the best, by a long, long way, mounted combat I have experienced in a game to date!

It is fluid, there are no bugs, there is a plethora of free user made mods if you are interested, and the game is still being worked on! There is a certain… lack of polish to the game. Nothing is wrong with it, but a once over might make it a little better visually and the story a little more captivating. However, that has allowed Taleworlds, the developers, to focus on what makes this game great, bloody great battles! I haven’t seen this game hitch once, even with over 150 NPCs in a battle.

There is just something about this game that makes it really fun, the fact that your skill at blocking and directing hits is actually important is fantastic. It is tiring after a while when game after game just has you point your character in the right direction and then left click like a mad hatter until your opponent is dead. I have been playing Mount & Blade for much of the past three days straight!

The only other game getting a great deal of my time, is another surprising bolt out the blue, Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure. Now I know, I know, what’s with the name, right? Well, as soon as you watch the opening sequence, no wait, as soon as you turn it on and hear that English voice say ‘Good show’ you know you are in for a treat!

I mentioned earlier my penchant for puzzle games, Professor Layton still takes the cake there, but this is really quite fun. It is a combined platformer, with a Planet Puzzle League like aspect going on on the touch screen. You have to flip between these two aspects of the game to keep progressing through. What I like about this, is that you get the bonuses for both this kind of puzzle game, and a platformer. Being able to switch between the two allows you to not play too much of the one style for too long. This means you play for a lot longer! I will say this though, the learning curve is a bit steep! :yes: All in all though, this is a fabulous DS game, and keeps me so happy with the console in general.