neurological dryer lint

couple of things.

one - super metroid is excellent. i never played through it in '94 because i was thoroughly wrapped up in fighting games and never had time for those 'thinking' games. but after hearing opinions on it due to its presence in the title fight brackets, and i have some time to wade through it... see this is how control in a game SHOULD feel. the visuals would have been mind-blowing when it came out, and they still look pretty sweet. better IMHO than fusion or zero mission. i LOVED Prime, too, and i may have to play through it a second time, because it was a great ride.

two - picked up the new ninja gaiden. argh. i guess i believed the hype, and expected a little too much. this is definitely a rental, not a buy. it's just frickin HARD. like stupid hard, not "man i can't wait to overcome this obstacle" hard (like, say, super metroid), but "ok there's absolutely no way i can get past this part besides just playing it over and over til i manage to get a lucky shot or two in, SOMEONE STAB ME" hard. it took me 20 minutes to get past the first boss, and it wasn't due to learning any new techniques or mastering certain skills or combos or defense or ANYTHING. it was just pure stupid luck. stuff like that frustrates the crap out of me. i'm glad there were no doors around otherwise i may have kicked another one in. i saved it right before the second boss who is also like that.

now granted, there are good things. the control's not terrible, although it is inconsistent. when i use an attack, i expect the recovery time from that attack to be the same every time. i'm standing there, i hit X to swing my sword and afterwards i return to my regular position. if i hit the same button again, it should take the same amount of time. it doesn't always do that. well done, tecmo.

it also suffers from camera suckness (i.e. a third person action game's overhead camera getting pointed in the wrong direction and screwing up your view) about 60% of the time. let's take zelda: wind waker. they did it RIGHT. the full time camera stick is just NECESSARY now. gaiden has the right thumbstick automatically give you a first person view. i could just click the right thumbstick and do that, and use it otherwise as needed to move the camera... and yeah i can right trigger to center the view, big deal, that doesnt always help either. i'm the consumer. GIVE ME CAMERA CONTROL.

the visuals are absolutely fantastic and the sound effects are quite cool, but as i said to B earlier, i'm too frustrated to really pay attention to it. and ONE LIFE? haven't we done this one before, people? i thought the foolish game designers that dreamed up that chunk of brilliance had all died off. everyone else in civilized society has realized that it's a stupid, stupid idea to do that.

now granted, maybe i'll feel better once i get past some of the play-it-seventy-thousand-times-til-i-beat-the-section-of-the-level stuff. but i'm HIGHLY disappointed, especially when the 8-BIT SIDE FRICKIN SCROLLER VERSION is better. argh argh.