PixlBit

Pixlbit Nation how are you on this this wet Monday Morning? Currently it is a nice 58 degrees and it rained last night in my corner of Sunny Southern California. This is the final week of Blog A Day and I have to say I might have some BaD spillover next week because I still have a couple of systems to talk about and one of them might be another 2 parter *cough the Original Playstation. Anyways Monday’s are usually reserved for games I’ve been playing but I’d like to get through the second part of the PS2 library so let’s get it started!

 

 

B-Boy: So this is one of those games I decided to try out because it was a couple of bucks. Think of a fighting game but instead of throwing punches you do pull off dance moves. I thought it would be somewhat decent, but it wasn’t. Auto Modellista: Who doesn’t like racing games, especially when they are cell shaded. This was actually a fun racer that is more simulation than arcade but I didn’t complain. The online was a bit tough because everyone either treated it like a real race (and they were good) or let’s crash into each other. I ran into crash guy more often than professional racer guy. Ford Racing 2: You know for a budget title I really enjoyed this game. It seemed like it would be a Ford commercial *cue Mike Rowe’s voiceovers but it was a surprisingly good arcade racer…with Ford products. Eye Toy Stuff: I bought a new Eye Toy (I really want to spell it iToy) on a whim when I saw it for $2, and I proceeded to spend $10 total on the camera and games just to see how it works. It was ok but after that weekend of trying stuff out, the Eye Toy now sits unplugged. I lack of enthusiasm for games that require cameras focused on the gamer hasn’t changed since. Okay maybe my weekend of playing nothing but Skee Ball on the PS3’s Carnival Games might say otherwise. Bad Boys: Have you ever heard a child who learned a cuss word and then proceeded to use it all the time? This is the dialogue for this bad shooter. The actor’s voices aren’t from the movie and you play nothing but the same type of levels over and over again with every other sentence involving a certain F word. I played through it, but it was on mute while I listened to podcasts.

 

 

I think in my last blog I said I played a lot of that college basketball game as North Florida but in fact it was this game College Hoops 2K7: I played at least 20 seasons as the head coach of the North Florida Ospreys. I don’t know what it was but 2K7 was my favorite of the 2K games. Corvette: Since I had good luck with the Ford game I went with another Company specific game and this game wasn’t as fun as Ford but I still had a blast roaming around driving various Corvettes. I kind of grew up liking them because my dad was a big Corvette guy. Britney’s Dance Beat: Have you ever wanted to play a dancing game where you controlled the dance movements with hitting buttons when prompted? This is the game for you. You start out as a wannabe who works their way up to be Britney’s background dancer for a video. I couldn’t get pass the level to where you become her background dancer because there was one section where you tap on the buttons and then move one of the sticks in a circular motion. Ace Combat 04: This was my favorite of the Ace Combat lineup. I didn’t care much for the Playstation versions but I gave the series a try again when I was getting tired of my current game lineup (which was maybe around 10-15 at the time) and Target was selling this game for something like $15. I think I had more fun in cockpit mode than behind the plane but I would often switch because I found it a bit difficult looking for fighters during a dogfight. One of my favorite missions was early on in the game because you had to take out oil fields and ships, so there was a lot of circling to take down out those pesky stationary oil storage tanks that I would always miss. Cold Fear: Ok so I’m not big on the survival horror games but I give them a try from time to time. This one sounded fun, and since I had a code for maxed out everything I gave it a try. Everything was going well, I was on the ship, I solved a few puzzles, and then there was a room with a dead Killer Whale that decided to become undead and tried to attack me. After that I was done. The shame is real.

 

 

Bode Miller Alpine Skiing: Yes, skiing’s bad boy had a video game and it wasn’t bad. It was all racing where you ventured into a professional skiing season and you would think it would be somewhat easy but every run I would always miss at least one or two gates. This game relied on practicing the runs. Bloody Roar 3: I don’t think I ever played any of the previous BR games so the whole changing into animals for special moves was a new thing for me. Cart Fury: I called this the NBA Jam meets Mariokart. Before every race the game points out your rival and your goal is to beat him. There are turbo power ups, shortcuts and other fun things to knock out your opponent. If you are a hard core racing fan, this might not be for you, but for someone who likes Arcade racing this is a must try. Blitz The League: First off I would like to thank GameStop employee who talked me out of preordering this game. He said it wasn’t good, and for the most part he was right. Blitz decided to take on a storyline where hits were dirty, you could risk major injury to your players by drugging them up to play, and wagering on games. If Any Given Sunday and the short-lived ESPN series Playmakers was a game this would be it. The actual football was slow, and made Madden look like a genius game. The only fun things were that it had some famous faces in the game as well as the infamous alias “Ron Mexico.” Remember when the NFL banned Atlanta Falcons 7 jerseys with Mexico on the nameplate? Good times. Beatmania: I remember I bought this game and turntable controller when my friend and I stopped at the mall for lunch. It was marked down to something crazy like 10-20 bucks and I took a chance on it. I remembered seeing something similar in the arcade but never tried it. It was a long rectangle controller with a turntable on the left side and I think 7 keys 3 black, 4 white staggered on the rest of the controller. It played like Guitar Hero but with house music. It was actually a lot of fun but at times I would miss the buttons on the far right side of the game. Batman: I think this was based off the animated series because Batman had the square jaw and wore gray. The game was ok except for sections were timed and I hate being rushed in a beat’em up.

 

 

Mad Maestro: Being a former Drum Major in high school I had to direct the band and I thought this would be up my alley. You kept paced with the music hitting buttons when prompted and often times it would say I was too fast. I thought this was BS but whatever. Anyways your goal was to improve this town by conducting music. The concept was good, the execution wasn’t. This would be a perfect game for the Wii. Madden 2002: This was the first Madden game I bought for the PS2 and it came one month after buying the PS2. I spent something like $30 on a game I already owned on the Playstation and this game was maybe equal to it. Madden 2004: I bought the last game at Best Buy the day it came out, and the one thing I played the most of any other game mode is the skills mode. You earned in game trophies by completing drills, which were a lot of fun. The QB mode where you stood in a circle and avoided yellow football shot at you while trying to hit highlighted targets was my favorite. Also being able to import draft classes with names from NCAA to Madden was a plus. This was the game where I started 3^rd String Quarterback Tony Romo over Vinny Testaverde and baseball player turned Quarterback Drew Henson. Rumble Roses: Women’s wrestling. This was a solid wrestling game that got kind of awkward when the women would wrestle in a ring that was filled with mud. Simpsons Hit & Run: This was a fun GTA Clone. If you changed the date on your PS2 to Christmas or Halloween the game would change the surroundings to fit in with the season. Smuggler’s Run: So other than driving around picking up packets of drugs and bringing them to an extraction point, the fun item for this game was that if you had a Smuggler’s Run game save on the same memory card as a Midnight Club game save, you could import the Smuggler’s Run dune buggy into the game.

 

 

Stretch Panic: This was a quirky platformer where I think your body could stretch to grab things and help you advance. I didn’t play much of it but it was an interesting budget title. Taiko Drum Master: Target had some fun clearance games and this was one of them. You have a plastic drum controller and you bang on the head or sides when the screen prompts you. Think side scrolling Guitar Hero. I bought two copies of the game so I could have two drumheads. Later on while at a 99 Cent Store I found two 3^rd party drum heads that had the consistency of a hard cushion and the size of a large pizza. They were easier to use and didn’t make as much noise so I would use those controllers at night when people were sleeping. Let’s Ride: I called this game Fast and Furious with horses. You controlled your horse with both sticks and you washed your horse and other duties when not running through an obstacle course.

 

 

Battlefront II: Oh I loved this series. I would get my lunch handed to me online, but I didn’t care, I enjoyed running around in the Star Wars Universe. There was one yahoo who kept following me around because I kept sniping him and it pissed him off. Finally during a game after trading kill shots, I got annoying and went overkill and blew him up with a rocket launcher and then quit. That must have angered him because I couldn’t stop laughing on the mic right before I quit.

 

 

NBA Street: I used to play this game a lot when I had a break from class. What I always found funny was when you were playing on Easy, and just beating down the opponent, the announcer would always try and get you to play on Normal. I played through the game once on easy, normal, and hard. I stuck with Normal after that. Shadow of Rome: I liked the concept of this game, and playing through a portion of it before I got tired of it. I don’t think they used the f-word in Rome but in this game it didn’t care. I think if this was a sandbox game today, it would be awesome.

 

 

Project Snowblind: Yet another Halo killer that didn’t live up to its name, Project Snowblind was a FPS about a guy who got injured during a gun fight so his bosses added a bunch of upgrades to him and then he found out his bosses were evil, or something like that. I really couldn’t tell you what happened in the end because I muted the music, which for some reason also muted the dialogue.

 

 

Def Jam Fight for NY: It’s a fighting game with rappers. You can’t go wrong with this. WU TANG! PK Out of the Shadows: A platformer with Donald Duck as a super hero. It wasn’t bad. The Godfather Limited Edition: I preordered this game because I LOVE the Godfather flicks (yes even the 3^rd film). This game takes place right around the time of the original with the final mission being the iconic scenes in the end of the movie where Michael orders the hits on the four other families Don’s. In the game you race around NYC performing these hits. You can also take over sections of the city, ultimately turning you into the Don. I loved this game but I never watched the making of DVD. Aggressive Inline: My brother used to be big into Inline Skating so I knew of the professionals and watched it on the X-Games and rooted for skaters like Arlo Eisenberg, and Fabiola De Silva (I had her action figure). In this game I think the big name I remembered was Chris Edwards and this was basically Tony Hawk for Inline skates. I passed it without any problems but when I decided to give it another go years later I got dizzy by it. Crazy. Anyways the skating isn’t bad but its more TH than actual Skate. Driver Parallel Lines: This was such a cool Driver game because you start in the 70s and then get busted by the cops. You are released and the world is different but you still are into driving fast cars. I played this over the course of a summer and really enjoyed it. One of my favorites in the series. GTA Vice City: This was my first sandbox GTA game. I loved the music, 80s Miami, and a couple of years after buying it, I finally finished it. It was this one race before the end of the game that kept screwing me up. I tried everything from jumping out of my car and shooting his car with a rocket launcher to trying to block his lane with random cars. Finally it came down to just the racing and I finally got the win. GTA III: I have two copies because one game was missing the manual, and the other was missing the map. Also both had the Greatest Hits disc instead of the black label disc I was trying to get to make one complete copy. GTA San Andreas: This was by far my favorite of the series. I used to pop the game in just to drive around the map from LA, to SF, to Las Vegas and back. This game drove my then girlfriend nuts because this is all I would do after finishing the game. Oh I also tried crazy things like fly planes under the bridge, and drive motorcycles up the Luxor hotel to escape from the cops.

 

 

God of War: Ok I have two copies. One is because I lent my cousin the game and then he forgot he borrowed it and said I was crazy. I eventually bought another copy just so I could have it again. Also the game is freaking awesome, and I have the demo disc sitting in a tub. God of War II: I waited a bit until buying the game which is why it is the Greatest Hits copy which drives “collectors” nuts (I had a love/hate relationship with Playstation Message Board. Some of the folks on there were really pretentious about their games)

 

 

So a couple of years ago I decided to buy all the Guitar Hero games because I wanted the complete set and because they were cheap. By this point the plastic instrument phase died down. Guitar Hero Aerosmith: I’m not a huge Aerosmith fan so at times it was a chore getting through some of these songs but I finished it. GH Metallica: I five stared Enter Sandman and went perfect. Still haven’t finished it. GH 80s: I love 80s music so this was right up my alley. It wasn’t as good as the other Guitar Hero games. Guitar Hero: was my first game with guitar controller. I used the money I earned teaching saxophone on the side to buy this game. GHII: I didn’t really care for the music in this game but enjoyed it anyways. GHIII: This one was fun because it added something new to the game and that was the showdown boss levels. Final Fantasy: I bought the 40GB Hard Drive that was for playing Final Fantasy. I never played this Online game but I did buy the expansion pack from a thrift store. I thought it was cool to have.

 

 

MLB 2K5: I played a bunch of this game and Video Game Chris had insane baseball numbers. Something like 80 home runs with 80 stolen bases. The Angels were rocking in this game. Manhunt: This game creeps me out to this day. I didn’t like the voice telling you to kill random folks. I played a little bit before I said it wasn’t for me. The Mark of Kri: This game is such a good title. The art style, the story, and the fighting were all really good and this was one of my favorite games on the PS2. Midnight Club: I could never finish the New York level so I never played the London level. That last race was a pain. After 9/11 it was a bit sad to drive to the World Trade Center, and I think I skipped driving through there for a bit. Metal Gear Solid: I liked the early part of this game but I didn’t care for the blond haired guy. I also liked hiding in a box. I had no problem finishing this game but I am absolutely lost in the Vita version.

 

 

Star Wars Bounty Hunter: Playing as Jengo Fett was a lot of fun (why isn’t their no Boba Fett game?) Each mission was a bounty on some bad guy in the Star Wars Universe and you took him out. Another shooter I enjoyed. SSX Tricky: I think this was the game where you could run down the mountain which made absolutely no sense in a snowboard game, but if you wanted to use that code you could. Battlefront: The game that got me into the FPS in Star Wars Universe. Love this game. Sonic Mega Collection: I bought this game so I could unlock the Game Gear games. Rise of the Kensai: This was the sequel to Mark of Kri. I didn’t play a lot of this game but it it isn’t as good as Kri.

 

 

Test Drive: This wasn’t a bad racer. The story was a bunch of rich folks were racing and you were sponsored because you could kick some major behind. I can’t remember if there was a story to it. Soul Calibur II: I started getting back into fighting games and I bought this game. It was fun button mashing but actually learning moves made it more enjoyable. I do wish the guy from Tekken was replaced by Kratos, but I played through this version anyways, but the X-Box was my favorite because it had Spawn. Once again I should have bought the Gamecube version for Link. Street Fighter: I bought this at Circuit City while waiting for a cell phone I bought for my Grandpa to be activated. I eventually bought the Chun-Li fight pad for it so I could have an easier time of button mashing (relax it was a joke, I know some of the moves.)

 

The last pic are disc only games. I had a rule that I still pretty much follow about only buying complete games, but these were something like 70-80% off at GameStop. They still have a bunch but I don’t want to spend a morning there looking through a list.

 

 

I do have a couple of copies because I didn’t know I already own them like Spartan Total Warrior, and AC/DC. These games are going to be my placeholders until I find complete copies.

 

Well Pixlbit that is Part II of my PS2 library. I think the original Playstation will get the same treatment, I just need to take pictures of them. Anyways have a good Monday!

 

That’s all for now, more tomorrow!

-Chris