Gaming Memories: Reaching Level 50 In Halo 3

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room. No collection updates to speak of today, but I have something instead that I wrote recently. I wanted to revisit something I started off the blog with and then abandoned shortly after as it proved a bit too ambitious for a recurring series: recollecting personal gaming memories. I wrote a whole huge 4-part saga discussing my memories of playing games in the Resident Evil franchise (which you can find here you're interested in reading it), but haven't really done anything else. So today I'm going to revisit a moment that stands out to me as a tremendous accomplishment as a gamer- not even necessarily because it was all that difficult of a thing to do, but more so because of the story behind it and the long path to victory that ensued.

I know I usually talk about older games, but there was a time in my life where I was hip with the world and up to speed on the latest and greatest gaming trends. I'm talking about playing games online, over Xbox Live. Obviously, this has become ubiquitous these days; online gaming is everywhere and almost everything. However, back in the halcyon days of the early-mid 2000's it was a little unprecedented, at least to the mainstream of console gamers (obviously PC gaming, which I've never been into, is an entirely different story). I remember that buying a wireless router and getting into a matchmaking game in Halo 2 for the first time seemed like the coolest thing in the entire world. For the first time in my life, I was playing video games with other people who weren't sitting on the couch right next to me- they were halfway across the planet! The concept alone seemed unimaginable to me.

But there I was, gunning people down in what had already become one of my favorite video game franchises ever, only on its second installment. It was mayhem. I spent days on end locked in my room doing essentially the same thing over and over again but with different people every time (and sometimes friends too). I stayed up all night, I didn't go out with friends, and my eyes were bloodshot from sitting 5 feet away from the TV for hours on end. I remember feeling like I wanted to be better at it than everyone I knew. Better than all my friends, better than everyone I faced online. Now, I'm definitely no pro gamer- I never was, never will be, and nor would I claim to be anything close. However, I will say that I am at least halfway decent at first person shooters, most likely one standard deviation above the mean, for you statistics nerds out there. The point is, I took my quest to be the best that I could be at Halo very seriously back in the day. But alas, the climb to the top was certainly not an easy one.

The early days of Xbox Live were kind of like the wild west. As I mentioned before, online connectivity between consoles was sort of a burgeoning market at the time. Sure, it had existed in some rudimentary forms previously, but it really didn't reach the mainstream until the early 2000's. Because of this, Microsoft didn't really have that sophisticated of a system for dealing with their own online market in the beginning. As a result, Xbox Live was overrun with rampant cheating. Modders who hacked the game to basically allow them automatically kill you, so-called "standbyers" who would use some complicated means of causing other plays to lag while they were free to win the game on their own, you name it- anyone who had the means to screw someone else out of winning a match for their own gain was free to do so, virtually free of any ramifications. Halo 2 also had a plethora of weird glitches that users constantly exploited during matchmaking in order to gain an unfair advantage over players who didn't know how to do so for themselves (admittedly, even I too used the "super bounce" glitch during matchmaking periodically). It was total anarchy.

Halo 2 had a pretty simple ranking system- the more games of any matchmaking type that you won, the higher your rank number got, the highest being level 50. For some odd reason, levels in the high 40s to 50 were denoted by symbols like the Halo ring, a sun or moon, etc. That's neither here nor there, but I remember one particularly disgruntled Xbox user who rambled on over my headset about how anyone with a symbol ranking was not "legit." He was right though- if you saw that your opponents had those symbols, even before a game started you knew that you were done for, and that precious rank you worked so hard to achieve would take a hit. The highest I ever even managed to get myself to was level 34 before I was decimated by cheaters. I loved the game, but after match upon match upon match of getting unfairly beaten down, I grew incredibly weary of the experience. It made me hate playing the game not even very long after I had learned to love it.

Symbols denoting levels 44-50 in Halo 2's matchmaking. If you saw one of these in the lobby before the game, you pretty much knew you were screwed.

About three years after Halo 2 was released came Halo 3, this time on the next generation Xbox 360 console, and you bet your sweet ass I was one of those people parked out in front of my local game store at midnight waiting in line to get my copy on September 25th, 2007. By now, Xbox live had been totally revamped for the new console and things were quite different. Microsoft seemed to have finally gained control over their online empire and now monitored carefully for the aforementioned types of cheating. Any type was met with a swift ban, and finally we were all free to play and rely solely on our skill to win. This time, I wasn't going to let anything stop me on my way to reaching level 50. I played endlessly in the games' "Lone Wolves" matchmaking mode, a free-for-all battle in which 8 players duked it out against one another for 25 kills to win. I was pretty good at it- I even managed to make it to level 47. I was so close- only 3 levels away!

Halo 3 had a bit of a different system for raising your rank than Halo 2- ranks were determined individually by different matchmaking types. For instance, I could have a rank of 47 in Lone Wolves, but only a 7 in another type like Team Skirmish. However, your highest achieved rank in any game type was always displayed proudly in your user profile, the highest once again being level 50. Not only that, but you were also assigned a military rank for higher levels- such as Captain, Colonel, and Brigadier- and only if you managed to reach level 50 would be awarded with the coveted distinction of General.

I had come so far in Lone Wolves, but it got incredibly difficult to raise my rank at that high of a level. Lone Wolves was almost entirely built on preying upon others- as in, using every dirty trick in the book like camping, stealing kills from others and grabbing hold of high powered weapons and powerups as soon as they spawned. For me and my ridiculous sense of gaming morality to a fault, I could never take enough advantage to get over the proverbial hump. So, I had to start over from the bottom by trying my hand in Team Slayer.

Another thing I should mention is that I never really used the headset that came with the console or listened to other people in-game. This is almost a requirement of Team Slayer, but I made things a bit more difficult on myself by purposely choosing not to do so. Additionally, I never joined up with parties- even in a team game, I always chose to go it alone. Even still, I got better and better. I rose all the way to level 48; however, it was there that I hit a wall again. I would go on long steaks of alternating wins and losses, never gaining any ground. I would win several games in a row, just waiting to rank up to 49 but never seeming to get there, only to go on and lose several more in a row. I wondered if I would be perpetually stuck at 48 forever. I was good, but not good enough to rise to the next level. This went on for weeks. I remember reading somewhere that the ranking system was complex and through some sort of algorithm, it always left you at the rank it believed you should be at, and once you reached your limit there was no way to change it. Not knowing if this was true or not, I started to believe that I would never get any higher than level 48.

Even still, I refused to quit. Despite playing as a loner, despite never coordinating with my teammates through headset, I pushed on. I had come so far, gotten so close- the glory of a General rank was too enticing to give up. Finally, my day came. I was on a winning streak and every game I was kicking ass. And then, like a shimmering beacon of hope, I broke through- I ranked up to 49. I was ecstatic; the rumors weren't true, I wouldn't be stuck at 48 forever. However, I knew this wasn't the end- there was still one last level standing between me and the illustrious 50. But now, there was absolutely no way I was giving up. I was too close. I trudged forward, once again facing alternating wins and losses. I wasn't sure how long it would take this time. With every loss I feared that my rank would be lowered to 48 once again. I even kept track of every win and loss, charting out my progress. After days on end, I was trending upward. I knew the end had to be somewhere in sight.

 My actual "charts" of my progress in matchmaking wins, dated February 13th, 2008 and March 8th, 2008. Up arrows are wins, and down arrows are losses. Note the long periods of back and forth wins and losses for both 48-49 and 49-50. Also, apologies for my terrible handwriting. It hasn't gotten a whole lot better almost 9 years later.

And then it happened. I remember the game clearly- my team was getting beaten down from the very beginning. I had won eight of the last 10 games and desperately wanted to keep my streak going, so I buckled down and willed my team to victory. I had the overwhelming majority of kills on my team and despite them dragging me down, I carried us forward and won the game. Then, as the post-game stats screen faded and I was brought back to the matchmaking lobby, something was different. My rank was 50. And then, the shining golden General ranking was bestowed upon me. I leaped up and shouted with joy. I had finally done it. After all of the "unfairness" I had faced in Halo 2, after all the roadblocks put in front of me in Halo 3, I had broken through. I was one of the best of the best now.

I never played Team Slayer again after that day, leaving my 50 ranking as a testament to my dramatic triumph. Now, obviously for many people who are skilled at first person shooters, reaching level 50 probably wasn't a big deal, and if you are one of those people you're probably laughing pretty hard at what a "noob" I am right now (do people still say noob? I'm pretty out of the loop). Rightfully so for you, but for me, this was about more than that. It was about redemption. It was about earning my keep. It was about being the best I could be, and for that one day, I had done it.

Collection Additions Volume 5: A rarity and a...box

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room. I go through some lulls in my collecting adventures, so this update is a tad light- however, I did get one very cool addition and another that was more or so just for the completionist in me, so let's check it out.

So that's Doom for the Sega 32X and Mega Man 5 for the NES. Doom was a game I've already owned for the 32X (as well as nearly every other console I own, it seems), but I didn't have the box for it. If you didn't already know from any of my other posts, I have a complete Sega 32X North American library- yup, all 36 of those pretty bad (and a sparingly few good) games for a weird console add-on that should've never existed. Anyway, I've been trying to obtain all 36 games CIB- I'm almost there, and the only games I don't have boxes for were Doom and Star Wars: The Arcade Game, which ironically enough are two of the most common games out of the whole library. Even then I won't be entirely finished yet because I want to get better condition copies of certain games (some of them are beat to shit), but having a box for everything will feel pretty good. Especially since the price of 32X games (and all games in general, pretty much) has been steadily increasing over the years. Thankfully my copies of the rarest ones (i.e. Spiderman: Web Of Fire, World Series Baseball) are in very good condition.

Anyway, there's not much to say about the actual game itself other than...it's Doom. The graphics are pretty good for the time, but the sound quality is terrible compared to the SNES port. The SNES port has inferior graphics though...so I guess it's just a matter of preference between graphics and sound. These days, it's kinda obsolete though since you can play a high quality version of the original Doom just about anywhere. But I digress.

As for Mega Man 5, it filled another completionist void I've been yearning to meet by finally obtaining all 6 original games in the Mega Man series for the NES. For the longest time I was missing 5 because it's (sort of inexplicably) the rarest of the bunch. I'm not sure if it's because it's marginally better than the other Mega Man games, but regardless it's currently the rarest NES I game I own thus far by quite a bit. Is it really that different of a game from the others though? I'm a tad skeptical on that. Of course I haven't had a chance to play it at length yet, but from what I have seen, it doesn't look a whole lot more original than the others. It could just be that I've always been a much bigger fan of the Mega Man X series than the original, but the first 6 just seem to blend together in my mind. Anywho, I'll just have to play it more find out for myself.

That's all for today, thanks for reading.

Why Sonic 3 & Knuckles Is My Favorite Video Game Of All Time

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room. Today I'm going to talk about my favorite video game of all time, the nearest and dearest to my heart and one that I can always pick up and play, no matter the circumstances. It's a game from my childhood that was one of the first to make me love video games in the first place, and without it I might not be sitting here writing this right now. It's a game that's...actually two games, not one.

So let me get that out of the way right now, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles is technically two different games: Sonic The Hedgehog 3, released for the Sega Genesis in 1994, and Sonic & Knuckles, released a little later that same year. Both games were originally intended to be one massive adventure, but due to hardware limitations the development team was forced to split it into two separate games. However, the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge was fitted with so called "lock-on" technology, allowing a cartridge to be plugged in on top of it. I'm still not really sure how this works technically, but I've always just gone with it. Anyway, Sonic 3 could therefore be directly connected to Sonic & Knuckles, allowing gamers to experience the entire adventure in all of it's originally intended glory. For this reason, I consider the two to be one game. Playing one without the other is like watching only half of a movie; it just feels wholly incomplete to me. So, I will pretty much be referring to the two as one game throughout this editorial. It's just Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and that's all there is to it as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, what is it about this game that I love so much? Is it just nostalgia, or is there something deeper beneath the surface? To answer that, we need to go back to the year 1995. Sonic The Hedgehog, both the character and the entire franchise, was at the height of popularity in the mid-90's. We all know that he keeps managing to sink to new lows nowadays (just as much as we all hope that "Sonic Mania" will change that), but back in his heyday, Sonic ruled the world. He had critically acclaimed games, not one or two but three different cartoon shows, comic books, toys, and an avalanche of other merchandise. On the gaming front, the Sega Genesis was battling it out with the Super Nintendo, which was churning out a seemingly endless barrage of it's own smash hit games. The Genesis had some pretty popular exclusive titles of its own, but it seemed as though only its' main mascot Sonic could stand ground with the likes of Mario, Link, Samus and Kirby. Sonic already had three hit games under his belt (the third being Sonic CD), and the Sega team needed to push him to new heights as the war of the 16-bit era raged on.

Maybe it was the fierce competition that drove the Sega team; I believe they had to have known that this game needed to represent their best work yet if it were to stand up to the juggernaut of Nintendo. What they eventually created was an overhaul of Sonic, keeping the original foundation intact while building on top of it. Sonic, Tails, and even Dr. Robotnik all sported new, slick sprites. Three new types of energy shields were introduced that added different special abilities, unlike the normal shield that appeared in the first two games. There was the fire shield that makes Sonic impervious to lava and fire and gives him the ability to do a mid-air dash, the electricity shield that attracts nearby rings and allows him to perform a double jump, and the bubble shield which lets him stay underwater indefinitely and lets him do a bounce jump on the ground for added height. Also, and perhaps most importantly, a new playable character was introduced with Knuckles the Echidna (which I've spoken about the overall importance of in my review of Knuckles' Chaotix).

But perhaps the best overall addition to the game as opposed to any of the previous ones was the progression of the story it told from beginning to end. Having a narrative in video games outside of manuals wasn't such a common thing, back in the days before things like extended cutscenes (or even voicework, for that matter). Obviously many great games pulled it off spectacularly, like the Final Fantasies and Zeldas of the world. What's more, even games like Super Mario Bros. 3 and Doom managed to have great stories with little to no dialogue at all. Sonic 3 & Knuckles falls into this category, as it's story is told entirely through the actions of the characters. As I mentioned you can get plenty of back story in the manual, but when we were kids nobody ever really bothered with that, and besides which all you need to know is shown to you through the use of clever little cutscenes throughout the game.

For example, within the first 15 seconds of playing the game you learn that Knuckles is an antagonist, after he knocks Sonic out and steals his 7 chaos emeralds. It turns out that Knuckles has been duped by Robotnik into believing that Sonic is his enemy and is after the master emerald, the power source of the floating island where Knuckles lives and is the sacred guardian of. Things progress from there and on the sixth stage (and final stage of Sonic 3 by itself), you can see Dr. Robotnik's final weapon, the Death Egg ship, prepping for launch in the background of the stage. Much later on, Knuckles confronts Sonic deep within the caverns of the floating island, and the two clash while Robotnik stealthily sneaks in and steals the master emerald behind Knuckles' back. Knuckles then realizes that he's made a huge mistake to trust him, but it's too late- Robotnik knocks Knuckles out cold and retreats back to the Death Egg ship, which then takes off for space. The story unfolds further as you play onward, culminating in a thrilling final battle in space where Sonic must chase down and destroy Robotnik's robo-carrier, retrieve the master emerald and save the world once and for all. And to reiterate, this entire story is told through brief cutscenes and a bit of supplementary material from the manual.

 The Death Egg ship prepping for launch in the background of the Launch Base Zone, the midpoint of the game (or the finale of Sonic 3, technically).

For me, nothing since then has ever even come close to the scale of that grand final showdown. The game is as simple as running to the right, collecting rings and jumping on bad guys, but the story it tells and the way it tells it just makes it that much more complex. And I have to throw this out there too- the game just looks beautiful. I've spent a ton of time in my life making perler bead sprites (such as those pictured below) so I feel like I have an added appreciation for great spritework, which this game has no shortage of. Sonic and the gang have all new sprites from the previous games, and the levels and backgrounds through which you traverse are exquisite. Sure, Sonic's gimmick may be to "go fast," but ironically you might just enjoy the game that much more if you slow down for a bit and take everything in.

 If you've ever made perler bead sprites, you probably have an added appreciation for detailed spritework. I certainly do when it comes to those of Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

There's tons of little details you just might overlook if you pass everything by in a blur. For instance, have you ever noticed that in water levels such as the Hydrocity Zone, you can see the surface of the water as you emerge from being underwater? Or how about late in the game in the Lava Reef Zone, when for just a small moment you can spot the Death Egg Ship in the background, embedded in the rocks. Later on you'll get much closer to it, but this little tidbit teases that encounter and truly makes you appreciate the fine details that the programmers added in. But my personal favorite little detail has to be in the room where you fight Knuckles in the hidden palace zone, where a large mural is displayed in the background that alludes to the secret Doomsday Zone finale, which you can only access if you've collected all 7 chaos emeralds in the bonus zones. I was always too busy battling it out with Knuckles to notice it as a kid, but one day when I was playing through for what had to have been the thousandth time in my life, I finally noticed it and it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was a truly brilliant moment and one that just made me love every bit of this game that much more.

 The Death Egg ship masterfully tucked away in the background of the Lava Reef Zone.

 See that mural in the background of the Hidden Palace Zone? It's a small easter egg that hints toward the secret finale of the game and the first time you really noticed it, you probably, as they say, shat bricks.

Of course, I'm neglecting Knuckles & Tails' campaigns here. Knuckles' story take place after Sonic's and has you exploring completely different level routes. Naturally, due to Knuckles' ability to climb walls and glide, the game mechanics completely change and you find yourself doing a whole lot more exploring and experimenting. Knuckles also has a different final boss fight against a supercharged mechanized version Sonic called Mecha Sonic (sometimes also referred to as Metal Sonic). Knuckles' campaign in general is a lot harder than Sonic's. The alternate routes are trickier to navigate and bosses also have slightly different attack patterns that make them more difficult to attack. For me though, I've personally always favored Sonic's adventure over Knuckles'. I appreciate that Knuckles offers a totally different way of playing the same game, but I think Knuckles' game ends a bit anti-climatically, especially compared to Sonic's explosive final battle. As for Tails, he can hover about for a bit which is fun, but for the most part his campaign is entirely identical to Sonic's, with the major exception being that the Doomsday Zone is omitted entirely.

In all, it's sort of difficult for me to put into words how much I love this game. I know it's not the best game ever created, and probably isn't even at the top tier level as far as games are concerned, but for me it will always be #1.

Collection Additions Volume 4: 80's movies and other Genesis wonders

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room. For this week’s addition of collection additions corner, I’m taking us back to the late 80’s when action movies didn’t need to have much substance or even make much sense, because as long as they were violent it was all good. And this translated to video games pretty well, because hey, violence in video games has never been an issue with anyone, right?

Anywho, I have admittedly always been a Genesis person all my life. Yes, I’m aware Nintendo always had the superior consoles and better games, while the Genesis is repeatedly the source of much internet mockery these days. And that’s fine, it may be the cool thing to do nowadays but I still will always have a soft spot for the Genesis and its cheesy marketing campaign about whatever it did that Ninten-didn’t.

So, while I was having a look at my collection yesterday I decided that I didn’t own nearly enough notable Genesis games to talk about while I defend the black hunk of plastic and that I needed to change that. My Genesis in mind at the local video game watering hole, I picked up four of what I estimated to be “higher end” Genesis games (honestly, based on their price tags) to hopefully help round out my collection a bit. So let’s take a look at what I got.

That's Predator 2, Robocop Versus Terminator, Shadow of the Beast, and Sub Terrania, four fairly uncommon Genesis games that I've never played before. I gave them each a quick test, so here's my thoughts after 10 minutes of each:

Predator 2

So I'm a huge fan of the original Predator, and I even enjoy the inferior sequel a lot too (yes, even with the perpetually pissed off Danny Glover). I wasn't expecting much from a movie based game, but honestly this one was unexpectedly a lot of fun. As Glover's character Lt. Harrigan from the movie, you run around in an overhead 3rd-person view gunning down every gang member and drug dealer in sight in search of hostages throughout stages. Where's the predator, you might ask? He pops up occasionally, shining his little red target down and blowing away hostages if you aren't fast enough. The controls are responsive and despite a lot of enemies flooding the screen at once, their bullets are fairly easy to dodge. There's also plenty of health to retrieve to save yourself before you die if you are hit too many times. If the predator kills too many of your hostages it's game over..and I honestly wasn't able to figure out how many "strikes" you get, so to speak, before that happens, but I'm sure a quick look at the manual would probably tell me. One funny thing is that when enemies die, tons of drug paraphernalia spills all over the street and you pick it up for points, kind of like "Narc" for the NES, and a big "no drugs" sign appears on the screen. Yeah, for you younger readers out there they were really pushing these anti-drug things on kids back in the 80's and 90's. Another weird thing about this game is the music. It's just...really unfitting, given the plot of murderous drug gangs and killer alien assassins. I don't know, just listen for yourself. I don't even know what kind of game that would be appropriate for. Anyway, anti-drug narratives and odd musical choices aside, this is a really fun game. I was a little disappointed to find out that it's only one-player, as it would've been a ton of fun to play with someone else. Regardless, I'll definitely revisit this one sometime in the future. Oh, and one more fun thing about this game- check out the cover:

Now that's violent. Awesome, but violent. Weren't parents making a big stink about Mortal Kombat during this era? Why wasn't anyone crying about this game?

Robocop Versus Terminator

Besides an endless barrage of anti-drug messages, another thing that was big in the 90's were these so called "versus" comics. Many of them were by Dark Horse comics, but I'm sure there were others I don't know about. Anyway, these comics usually pitted some unlikely foes against one another in ultimate battles to the death, for example Alien vs Predator (which spawned two movie adaptations) and even Batman vs. Predator! Don't believe me? See for yourself! Isn't that fucking metal!? Anyway, another big one was Robocop Vs. Terminator, the two big sci-fi cyborg movies of the 80's (and as an aside, wouldn't that have made a sick movie?). And what better than to make a video game adaptation of such a radical concept. So, Robocop being the "good guy," you take control of him in a side scroller where you just point, shoot and duck, simple as that. The graphics are really nice, and enemies explode in a nice fountain of blood when shot (again, with the gratuitous violence). Controlling Robocop is a bit stiff, since he doesn't jump very well and can only point his gun forward or at a downward or upward angle. it's also pretty easy to die, which I did several times in the first stage. Not the best side scrolling shooter, but nice to look at and you can't deny that the concept is awesome, at least.

Shadow Of The Beast

Now we're getting into some weird territory. I've never even heard of this one, but it looked interesting based on a few screenshots on the back. I also find it kind of interesting to check out games made by Electronic Arts, who were most well known for making sports games. Anyway, it is most definitely weird. You take control of some sort of unidentifiable purple creature just running to the right. The first thing you encounter is a large well, with huge flashing letters saying "IN" and arrows pointing toward it. So naturally, you enter. After a short text box appears telling you to descend a ladder, you go down...only to hit a dead end. Nothing is there blocking you, you just can't go down any further. So with literally nothing else to do you go back up, and the text box appears again telling you that you need to find a key for the bottom. What the hell is the point of that!? So, after this very pointless moment, you just head right, dodging all kinds of odd enemies who you'll find have ridiculous hit boxes- you need to be literally having to be touching pixels with them to punch them, in which case they'll almost certainly damage you first. You get 12 hits, but after getting hit again and again, you die...and that's it. No lives, no continues, nothing. One life, and you're back at the beginning with the well. I tried again, made it a tiny bit farther, but still found no well key anywhere. So at that point, I decided to move on to the last game.

Also, just a note on the back of the box...what exactly is "psygnosis artwork?" 

Sub Terrania

An interesting one for fans of shoot 'em up games. It's sort of like that, except instead of being locked in one direction, you're free to explore a level in your little ship. However, no objective is given, and you also run out of fuel. Pretty fast, too. So after attempting once or twice, I got bored and decided to go back to playing Predator 2.

So that's it for now, thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more gaming nonsense from me and as always, game on.

Obscure Game Review: Bug!

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room. Today we'll take a look at an odd yet fun little title for a console that had a distinct lack of just those, at least in America: the Sega Saturn. Ah, the Saturn. It may have received a pretty lukewarm reception here in the USA, but it did have a few quirky games among its mostly lackluster library. Among them was a weird little platformer called Bug!, which was one of the very few Saturn games I played when it was new.

As I mentioned in my review of Knuckles’ Chaotix for the 32X, my good friend always had all the Sega consoles when they were brand new, by virtue of his father working for Sega at the time. As such, I got to play a lot of these games in their heyday way back when, and one such game was Bug!. Though us young, easily distractible children often abandoned games pretty quickly when we couldn’t get very far, Bug! was one of those games that we persistently played despite never being able to reliably advance very deeply into it. Many years later, upon amassing a sizable video game collection and obtaining my very own Saturn, I procured a copy of Bug! and set out to complete a long forgotten game that had been in the back of my mind for years. And I was quite surprised by how even to this day, the game still holds up quite well. It’s certainly no Super Mario 64, but I think it’s a solid adventure-platformer in its own right and is definitely one of the better Saturn-exclusive titles. So that being said, let’s check it out.

The game begins with a pretty simple story- our protagonist Bug is living peacefully with his insect family, when suddenly a giant black widow spider named Queen Cadavra snatches up his entire family and hauls them off to be eaten. Having escaped certain death, Bug quickly sets out to rescue them, and the adventure begins. Er, I mean, the movie begins.Yeah, one kind of weird aspect about this game is that the entire plot is supposed to be…a movie. As in, all the characters are actually actors filming a movie. Transitions between different levels consist of Bug walking between sets, a director yells “Action!” at the beginning of every level, and even some of the powerups are movie-related (i.e. clapper boards are continues, an invulnerability powerup is called the “stuntbug,” etc.). I never really paid attention to this aspect as a kid, but now it just sort of makes me scratch my head. Why did it need to be a movie? Who knows, and honestly, it doesn’t have much bearing on the actual game other than an odd point of interest.

 The entire game is actually a movie, for some reason. Just go with it.

Anyway, as Bug you must traverse large, semi 3-D environments in search of the end goal all while fighting off armies of various insects. Why do I say semi 3-D you ask? Well, because the 3-D aspect is a bit…shallow. Your movement is restricted to the four cardinal directions- up, down, left and right. As you walk along paths you are “fixed” to the floor, only able to move north/south or east/west at any given moment. Some platforms are kind of free-floating, allowing you to jump either up or down to anything above or below you, but for the most part you’ll be on the aforementioned “fixed” paths. Additionally, Bug and all of the enemy insects you encounter are all sprite-based objects. Still, even without being truly 3D the game still manages to be a lot of fun. Each level is laid out like a gigantic hedge maze, with multiple routes to choose from in order to reach the end goal. There are so many different routes, in fact, that you could probably play a single level dozens of times and never take the same one to reach the end of the stage.

 Very often you'll face junctions such as this one with multiple directions to choose from as you traverse levels.

You'll have to make your way through six different "worlds," each with 3 different stages and a boss fight. The "worlds" differ dramatically, from a grassy field to a desert to a frozen tundra. Along the way you'll encounter a wide variety of insect foes that will try to squash you in your tracks. There's a nice variety in the enemies, and they change accordingly through each overarching world- for example, in the grassy "Insectia" you'll be fighting a handful of common bugs like grasshoppers, snails and bumble bees, whereas in the underwater "Quaria" you'll have to take on moray eels, scuba-diving beetles and killer crabs. Enemies also vary in their attack patterns, as some will simply walk back and forth, others dive bomb you, and still others hurl projectiles like fireballs, electricity and even dung (by dung beetles, of course).

Enemies can be dealt with simply by jumping on them, but it's not always that easy.  Some of them are done away with by one jump, while others require 6, 7, even 8 jumps in order to be defeated. Thankfully, you'll be able to collect a few different powerups that aid in taking on the armies of bugs and such. There's zap, which as its name implies, grants you a short-range but powerful electrical attack. The only problem is that it's limited and tends to run out pretty quickly. However, there's also the spit-glob powerups, which do not run out and can be used until a level ends.

 The "zap" powerup is quite useful, but is limited.

These globs come in four different colors; the green glob is the standard one, allowing you to spit one glob at enemies at a longer range than the zap attack. Each glob equals one "jump damage" to an enemy, meaning that you can defeat them from a distance by jumping and then launching spit balls at them. Red globs give you a double shot spit, while rare blue globs give you a triple shot. Finally, there's purple globs that bounce along the ground until they hit something. Spit globs do not appear until the third world but once they do, green ones are pretty much given at the beginning of every stage from there on.

By jumping and spitting at enemies, you'll be able to safely attack from a distance.

 As I mentioned before, there's the "stuntbug" invulnerability powerup, and there's also a plethora of extra lives and continues scattered about in levels, usually in hidden, blocked off or hard to reach areas. In addition to all of that, there are a few large golden coins that are usually hidden throughout levels which can be used when collected to enter bonus stages in each level. These bonus stages will allow you the chance to gain an extra life or two and consist of various challenges like avoiding falling boulders, bouncing along mushrooms, and even racing Sega's very own mascot Sonic the Hedgehog himself! 

I didn't think a bug would be able to go toe to toe with the "world's fastest hedgehog"...

Finally, there's also a multitude of gems to collect in each level. Collecting them won't do anything for you in the levels themselves, but if you manage to grab 100 or more on all three levels of the world, after the boss battle you'll be able to enter a bonus game for a chance to earn an extra continue, which you will most likely need toward the latter stages of the game. Speaking of boss battles, they are pretty intense in scale. You'll have to go up against gigantic monsters ranging from a huge spikey-tounged iguana beast to a massive octopus that tosses fish at you (which, by the way, you'll have to swat back at him with a tennis racket. Give this game points for originality, if nothing else).

Just one of the boss fights in the game. Is it just me or does that thing look like the Pokémon gyrados?

The graphics are fantastic for the time and still hold up well today. As I mentioned both Bug and his enemies are sprites, but they are very nicely detailed and fluently animated. There's also a few short FMV cutscenes every now and then, which might have been impressive back in the day but suffer from that very mid/late-90's 3D animation look that isn't all that appealing these days. Like I said though, these are pretty scant and don't reflect on the actual gameplay. Each world has its own unique color scheme, fitting the scenery well- for instance, the desert levels are all filled with rustic-looking browns and oranges. The music is pretty good too. Nothing spectacular, but it has a few catchy tunes, such as the theme for Reptilia and Splot.

While everything I've described probably sounds pretty straightforward, the game is definitely not a walk in the park as far as difficulty. The early stages are certainly pretty easy, but as you progress the platforming aspect starts getting in your way, big time. The problem here is with the controls, which are also the biggest flaw this game has. It's a little hard to describe unless you've held a Saturn controller and played it for yourself, but basically the major issue is with jumping from platform to platform. Like I said before, your movement is entirely restricted to one of the four cardinal directions, but some platforms will be moving three dimensionally in space. That means that if you aren't very precise with your jumps, you'll miss and end up falling to your death.

There's also parts where some of the jumps you have to make border on absurd. Take this part for example: in certain areas there are a few giant slingshot-looking things where you'll have to press down on the D-pad and let go, allowing yourself to be flung forward. Sounds simple enough, but in other areas you have to slingshot yourself AND bounce on enemies in the air in order to make your mark. Then there's parts like the one pictured below in which you'll have to bounce on TWO enemies moving in different directions than one another. You need to wait until the extremely precise moment in which they both line up in order to safely bounce across and make it to the other side, and this is much easier said than done. This part is pretty late in the game and as far as I remember only occurs once, but it's still a major pain and unless you are absolutely perfect, you'll just die here over and over and over again.

You have to slingshot yourself across the gap, lined up perfectly, and with extremely precise timing land on both these flying bugs to safely cross to the other side. I've never been able to do it myself.

And therein lies another problem. I can't really blame this one on the game itself as much as I can on the Saturn's limited technical capacities, but there isn't much a save feature for this one. It's there, but it only saves automatically when you complete all three stages and the boss fight of a world. This is also assuming that your Saturn's lithium battery is still functioning (which, unless you've replaced it recently, probably isn't) AND that you have enough spare RAM to save the game (unless you have an external memory card for the Saturn, which to my recollection weren't nearly as widely available as those for its rivals the PS1 or N64). A password system probably would've been ideal in this case, but the developers chose this weird save system that doesn't entirely work in your favor, especially due to the aforementioned saving issues. That being said, if you are far along in the game and the jumping part that I mentioned before starts frustrating the hell out of you, you're likely to just give up and not look back; however, more often than not, this would mean that you'd have to start the game all over again if you power off the console.

For this reason, I've never actually completed this game myself. The crazy jump is in the first stage of the penultimate world, and unfortunately I have never been able to make it past there. I would love to one day, but right now this game simply remains an unbeaten and oft-forgotten relic of my childhood. A sequel was made but unfortunately was vastly inferior to the first, both in overall quality and charm. The Saturn died shortly thereafter and with it, Bug! died too. It's a shame because I would've liked to see a true-to-life fully 3D addition to the series, but sadly this was not to pass.

Bug! may have been a weird concept on a third place console that pretty much failed here in the US, but it's still a great game and one of the very few, in my opinion, that might just make the Sega Saturn worth it. It's certainly not a rare game by any stretch of the imagination, so if you've got a Sega Saturn sitting in a box in your attic, you might want to dust it off and plug it in if you get a hold of this game. If you're a fan of classic platforming action, it's got just about everything you'd want and more.

Collection Additions Volume 3: Extensions Galore

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room. I apologize for the long leave of absence but after a much-needed vacation (and some recovery time afterward) I'm back to talk about games and and my never-ending and improbable quest to have the greatest video game collection ever. Now that I have a lot more free time I'm hoping to do more reviews of random games, plus updates every week on any game-related stuff I've bought. Anyway, let's jump into it today, shall we?

So yesterday I nabbed a pair of N64 games, plus some controller extension cords- one for the Super Nintendo and two for the NES. I know a lot of people are into wireless controllers these days, but personally I don't want to bother with that. Changing batteries, constantly charging them- I'd much rather be plugged right into the system without having to worry about any of that. So what's a gamer to do when you want to have a comfy spot on a couch without living in fear that you'll accidentally yank your console right out of the TV in the heat of the moment?

Thankfully, a ton of third party companies have emerged to save us from just that. I already have extenders for pretty much every console I have, including four for my N64 so I don't have to worry about three other people doing the aforementioned console yanking. I didn't have any for the NES though, mainly because the NES controller wire is pretty lengthy as it is. However, after some recent console rearranging I decided it would be a lot easier for me to just buy a few extensions and have the peace of mind that I wouldn't accidentally destroy my toploader NES one day. As for the SNES extender, I already had one so I figured I may as well grab one more, lest I ever have any two-player SNES sessions.

Now for the games- Doom 64 and Perfect Dark. Firstly, I should say that I absolutely love the Doom franchise. Doom is just one of my go-to games that I can always play whenever I want and still have fun with it, regardless of how many times I've beaten it in my life (which is probably in the thousands at this point). However, I must confess that I've never actually played Doom 64. I've known about it, but for whatever reason it always just flew under the radar to me. However, I've been determined to rectify that and now that I own it, I'm hoping to give it a playthrough soon. Might even be good for a review, wink wink.

As for Perfect Dark, I never owned it myself but I have played the multiplayer back in the day with friends. From what I gather, it's pretty similar to another classic first-person shooter Rareware game of the era, that being Goldeneye 007. That's good enough for me to give it a shot.

So that's all for now, but stayed tuned for more stuff coming real soon. Thanks for reading and as always, game on.