My Gaming History, Abridged

I have recently discovered that it is mentally impossible to be sad while the Super Mario World overworld theme is playing (wait about 40 seconds for the Yoshi bongos).

See? I told you.

I can't remember which was my first experience playing video games, or the year, but it was about 1991. I do remember having two babysitters growing up; family friends with kids of their own. One family had an NES while the other had an Atari 2600. Eventually the second family bought a Nintendo and a year later my brother and I were given one. Its the only time I can remember my dad actually playing video games with us: the Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt combo game.

I went through having an original Game Boy, a Game Boy Pocket, a Game Gear, a Nomad, a Genesis, and a crappy computer. These were the systems that I grew to love gaming on and would borrow games from friends and vice versa.

My brother and I always hoped to be the first one home after school so we could play whatever new games we had on whatever console we had then. I was rarely obsessed with the games I had but ones such as AAHHH!! Real Monsters, Vectorman, MUSHA, and even Bubsy (I was young, don't judge me) always captivated my attention.

I remember being obsessed with Pokemon in 6th and 7th grade. I would always look forward to waking up on weekdays before school just to watch the Pokemon cartoon. I had the comics from Nintendo Power, I had toys, I had plush dolls, the strategy guide, and the cards. Still do. They're in a box in my closet. A little while after going to a meeting for the Pokemon card game I just gave up on it all. It must have had something to do with the old-looking guy that was sitting around playing a card game with a bunch of kids and being serious about it.

A demo of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater came about via a Pizza Hut promotion and I was instantly captivated with the sport. I credit the Pro Skater series with turning me towards gaming even after going through a phase of being a skateboarding poser. After seeing how skateboarders treated each other and how no one was willing to teach me to ride one I delved into gaming more.

Some time in the summer before 10th grade I bought a Gamecube and for a year I only had Super Smash Bros Melee to play. I discovered EB Games and unfortunately sold off most of my collection, which included almost all of my PS1, NES, GameBoy, Genesis, and some PC games.

A year later I bought myself an Xbox when I read that if Monolith were to make a Shogo 2, it would be on that console. Shogo: Mobile Armor Division was the first PC FPS game I ever played. Not Doom, not Quake, and to this day it remains in my all-time favorites. I played on a crappy, over-priced, underpowered Gateway computer that could barely run flash games well enough. A friend loaned me some RAM and from there things got better. I could finally play games in a slightly higher quality. I also got interested in computers and fixing them. I had to otherwise the computers we had would succumb to viruses. But despite my best efforts they would always get ruined. I don't know how many times I've had to reformat the computers we've had but it was a pain to lose my saved games after pouring hours and hours into them.

My childhood hero was Sonic the Hedgehog. I had a plush doll, still have it in fact, that I carried around with me everywhere for over a year. I never took it to school because I was afraid of it being stolen or ripped by some other kid. Ironically that didn't help because the neck ripped open while it was in the wash. I watched the SatAM cartoons near-religiously, I had a couple of comic books, I had the Tiger handheld, I have a VHS tape of the cartoons, I had toys galore. Eventually I just grew up and Sonic lost his attitude when the Dreamcast came around.

I remember being in middle school and a friend of mine would always badmouth the Dreamcast for whatever reason we could find. We were Sony fanboys and we were dedicated to the console. Yet, whenever I looked and read about the games being released I was secretly envious of it. Oh how wrong I was to look down upon the console. A few years ago I bought a used DC and a few games for it. I can't believe how ignorant I was back then.

The original blue blur will always be one of my heroes, not this green-eyed poser you see in today's games that can't do anything right.

My favorite game of all-time is Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 on the Dreamcast. The graphics are superior to the other consoles, even PC, and it just had this overall feeling of completion. It's the definitive version of Pro Skater 2 in my mind. Neversoft asked fans what they wanted and they implemented those ideas into the game. The level editor, the create-a-skater, an expanded soundtrack, Spider-Man as a secret character, and a couple more pros added to the already amazing line-up made THPS2 the perfect way to do a sequel. I own almost every version of Pro Skater 2 with the exception of the Mac and iPod versions.

I'm a collector with a preference for the old school. My current collection total sits at over 400. Lately though I've been feeling that its all for nothing so my collecting has slowed down significantly.

I have some rare gems in my collection such as M.U.S.H.A. and Legend of Dragoon as well as a few others.

I was never really into RPGs and RTSs. They seem to be clones of one another. But I'm coming around: I've been playing a few of each and, although I'm not awestruck by them, they can at least hold my attention.

Sim racing is my favorite genre. It takes more skill than arcade racing and has helped me with driving in real life. 

I don't consider myself a professional, and I'm certainly not an amateur. I'm not hardcore or casual. I don't dispute console faults and advantages. I'm a gamer. I find the best of each and play them as equals. Fanboys are the most annoying, ignorant, and selfish beings on the internet.

I've been expanding my gaming horizons lately and have played some Magic the Gathering.

I also want to start a DnD group, but I can't find anyone willing to delve into the adventures with me.

This is part of where I stand when it comes to gaming. I hope, if you've been paying attention to my blogs any, that you get a general sense of who I am gaming-wise. Without video games, I don't know where I'd be. They've been there through rough times and they've also caused some great moments (double kill headshot with a single bullet in SOCOM:Combined Assault. No one else will ever see that). I feel like I'm a part of something big and that's how I like it. Gaming crosses so many cultural boundaries and is being pushed forward by people with bright ideas. I enjoy those ideas. I wish many others would as well.

Keep Playing.

An Honest Review: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD

I can't write this coming from a passive angle. The Pro Skater series of games are among my favorites and Pro Skater 2 is not only my all-time favorite but its the one I cut my teeth on when it came to calling myself a gamer. So you can understand my utter disappointment when I say that Pro Skater HD is quite possibly the worst of the worst of the Tony Hawk games. Worse than even Ride and Shred. At least those two attempted something new. Pro Skater HD has us believing that it came to fruition to fix all the wrongs of the past few games. A revisiting of what was once greatness. An acceptance to the fans that the games can still hold their own.
Instead it cements the hopeless resurrection of the franchise.
At this point, Robomodo just needs to exit the gaming business. Their constant failures of games means meager profits for parent company Activision and they've wasted so much money on doing the wrong things. I find it funny how Tony Hawk himself was kind of "meh" about the whole idea of returning to the roots. Yes, it is what fans wanted, but we never wanted this. The amount of pros that signed up to return can be counted on one hand. The rest are amateurs that somehow got popular enough to make it in. I guess the others knew this game was going to suck so they all stepped away from it.

While I love the Unreal Engine 3, its versatility is completely wasted here. When I first heard the announcement I figured it would be a few levels from the first two Pro Skaters with just  HD re-skins. Instead the entire game is built from the ground up using UE3. This translates to a wonky, glitched, and pathetic remake. This engine is best suited for real-life physics and shooter games, not the arcade action of the Pro Skater variety. Had the original Pro Skater 2 engine just been used it would have been understandable and would have made for a better game overall.

I'll get the graphics portion out of the way and say that while its awesome to see the old levels get a facelift they're still the same. No new areas, no hidden secrets, same old, same old. If you've played the first two then expect de ja vu. Yes, there are a few small variations added to some of the levels but adding a kicker or planter doesn't make it more exciting.

Outright frustrating, the controls have suffered the most, making it nearly unplayable at times. Automatically snapping to rails when grinding or not grinding at all, rag doll bails that can sometimes force the character through the ground, unachievable heights due to a change in controls, and the glitches... OH SWEET TAP-DANCING JESUS. THE GLITCHES. The game is playable for the most part until you find your skaters foot stuck in a rail somehow after what should have been a normal grind. Then you start to realize that the game is seriously screwed up on an engine implementation level.

One major thing missing is the beloved Create-A-Skater from Pro Skater 2. Instead, for the XBLA version, we get our Avatars to skate around with. Create-A-Park? Just a memory. Couch co-op? Nope, its online only.

The soundtrack is pieced together with some old favorites from the past and some really horrible indie stuff from today. Its a sad mixture that lets you know that the hardcore, punk, do-it-yourself, push-the-envelope skaters of the olden days have disappeared and whats left are teenagers with flat-brim hats, Monster energy drinks, and piercings thinking they're evolving a sport that has been stagnant since Hawk landed the 900. (Yes, I know, a kid has landed a 1080, but I don't see him winning competitions left and right.) Let's face it, the skateboarding craze of over 10 years ago has cooled and this game does nothing to relive those memories.

I've played through Pro Skater on PS1, N-Gage, N64, GBC, and Dreamcast,. I've played through Pro Skater 2 on PS1, DC, GBC, GBA, PC, N64, and Xbox (when I say my all-time favorite, I mean it). I've gone through the levels so many times I know them by heart. Here, playing through Pro Skater HD is just a chore. Its boring. Slow. Uninteresting. Non-challenging in the sense that the only thing holding the player back are the bad physics.

I can't go on.
I'm usually good with words but now they just fail me. 
This game is horrible. That's all there is to it.
You're better off spending $15 buying the first two Pro Skater games on any available console than wasting your money on this. At least you'll get more content, entertainment, and value from something from the past.

Keep Playing.

A Second Look @ Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (GBA)

(All images are taken from Gamespot)

If you've played any of the console versions of Pro Skater 2, you should have high expectations already. The sequel takes everything fans love about the previous game and cranks it up to 11. The same holds true for the GameBoy Advance version. I want to avoid using the word "port" since this is far from it. It's Pro Skater 2, to be sure, just mini. Same levels, same pros, same tricks. However that might not be enough to afford attention from someone who prefers the console versions.

As soon as the main menu wheel shows, you'll understand how much attention went into this game to be just like the bigger versions. The game contains a Career Mode, Free Skate, and Single Session. Upon first seeing the character selection, one might be disappointed by the pixelized pros. But don't be fooled, they stand up just as well as one should expect.

It will take some time to get used to the default control scheme, but if it becomes too difficult it can be freely changed in the menus; something that feels more natural to the player would be the best route to take. Things such as entering the nollie stance is done by pressing the same button used for kick tricks. The shoulder buttons, as well as the d-pad, rotate the skater left or right in the air. These can't be changed but there is no button interference when playing.

When you stick to it all the way through, you'll find the usual bonus characters, Officer Dick and Spiderman, on the character selection screen. One new addition is Mindy, not the same one from American Wasteland, added to replace Private Carrera.

The 45-degree angle that the game is presented in takes some getting used, eventually it becomes something the player just ignores and accepts. It works, and that's fine.

The biggest, and possibly only, gripe one might have with this game is the lack of character creation. It's understandable that it would have to be cut from the GBA, but we could all do without a few cheats, Mindy, and one less song. A simple character editor would be ideal. Change skin color, hair color, clothes color, and add a board from one of the pros and that would satisfy. I suppose having that option would be too much to put on a GBA cart though.

Pay close attention when performing a trick, you'll see the animations have practically been copied frame by frame from the console versions. The animations, such as Tony Hawk's 900 or Rodney Mullen's Casper to 360 flip, are excellent to look it. They're never just "rotating to 900 degrees" or "a manual that ends with a flip." Each trick is detailed to look exactly like the bigger versions.

Large areas such as the School in Florida and New York City have been shuffled around a bit to make it compatible. Others such as Marseille, France and the hangar in Mullet Falls are the same. As a slight bonus the Warehouse from Pro Skater 1 has been added, with only a few minor changes to level layout. Each change isn't enough to get angry over, it just takes some getting used to.

The sound is the best I've heard in a GBA game so far. From the main menu wheel to a skater hitting the pavement, it's all the same from the console versions. The only thing different from the consoles is the music: the midi-file music is similar, yet at the same time it feels as though it's best suited for this game alone. You still have that SoCal rock feel to it as well as a few hiphop basslines.

The replay value takes this game to about 10 hours, with breaks. Once you get used to getting 100% with one skater it becomes easy to get the rest of the careers complete. Achieving 100% game total, however, will take effort. Mindy can't be unlocked unless you find all gaps (up to Skatestreet anyway). Even after completing the game its still fun to take on-the-go and play every now and then, its something that sticks with you.

If one started with Pro Skater 2 on the GBA and never touched the console versions, there would be no need to fret. This IS Pro Skater 2, just smaller. It's the cherry on top for any fan of the series. Its an excellent game that's worthy of any addition to one's collection.

Keep Playing.

Random Blog #2: Why all the hate?

When Tony Hawk's Ride was first announced, the masses silently booed, which rose to an audible "Durr... wut r dey thinkng? We dun need no mo' periferrals...."
I for one wanted Tony Hawk to go back to the arcade roots, be different from skate. Return us to what the series once was.

And now it has. It just took me a few months to realize it.

The skateboard peripheral that it introduces has been done before. Example 1:


I'm sure plenty of you have seen this piece of carbon in an arcade before. It's Sega's Top Skater. During the demo it'll spew out random phrases such as "Radical!" "Awesome!" and other phrases that died with the early 90's. It was a straightforward, downhill-style game (and ironically, a Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam on the Wii and DS are of the same style. But that's another part of this situation I don't want to get into.)

And speaking of arcades, Tony Hawk's first game, believe it or not, was in the arcades. The aptly named 720° (Degrees is pronounced when saying the name, btw) was brought about after Tony Hawk landed the, you guessed, 720° rotation.



Although he was never mentioned in any part of the game (at least I don't think he is) the credit goes to Hawk for inspiring it.

The Tony Hawk games have been all about pushing the limits, inventing new ways to play. Albeit Project 8 and Proving Ground were overcooked (Nail the Grab? Seriously?) Neversoft developed it's own thing once again.

So to those haters who say Tony Hawk needs to quit: Stop whining. The man has done so much for the sport of skateboarding and skateboarding video games meanwhile the only thing you can do is try to guess a kickflip from a heelflip. I would dare to go as far as to say that if it weren't for the TH games, skate. wouldn't exist.
I also want the haters to recognize this: have you ever compared Need For Speed Underground to Gran Turismo? If you did, hand over your Gamercard now. They are two seperate genres: arcade racing and sim racing.

Tony Hawk games = arcade skating.
skate. = sim skating.

Am I getting through to anyone?

Keep Playing.