Skies of Arcadia

"Impossible is just a word people use to make themselves feel better when they quit." - Vyse



Ah, the Dreamcast. What fond memories I have when I think back on that console. The Sega Dreamcast was home to some truly wonderful games. While most of the goodies from the Dreamcast have since been ported to either Nintendo's Gamecube or Sony's PlayStation 2, I will always remember them as Dreamcast titles. Among the worthy titles on the system some shine brighter than others. Titles such as Sonic Adventure, Phantasy Star Online, Grandia II and even odd ones like ChuChu Rocket are games which I recall fondly, but there is one title which shines brighter than all of those. I speak, of course, of Skies of Arcadia.

I'll get started on this one by stating that Skies of Arcadia is the first game that I lost near a whole day on. I mean a whole day consecutively. I forget what day it was. I do not know if I even knew what day it was the day I did this. Anyway, the story goes something like this: I woke up one morning just earlier than 7 a.m. I had nothing in particular to do that day, so I threw Skies of Arcadia in to my Dreamcast and fired that bad boy up. So anyway, im playing Skies of Arcadia when I get a phone call. A friend of mine just got home from work and wants me to come hang out. I found this to be quite odd as I knew that there was no way that he would be off work so early, but I decided that I should probably get up and hang out with my friends. It was at this time that I realized that it was 7 p.m. I had been playing this game for twelve straight hours without even noticing the time that had elapsed. If that doesn't say it all, then perhaps I'll go in to more detail.

Hell. I'll go in to more detail anyway.

From vast blue seas to lush green tropical islands and even desolate arctic tundra this world doesn't differ all too much from the real thing with only one exception: It's all floating high in the sky! In the world of Arcadia the continents and islands are all suspended in mid air, floating high above the planet's surface. While there is a “ground” so to day, nothing but a few extremophiles are able to live there. The lowest points in the world of Arcadia are known as “Deep Sky” where the air pressure is so high that it will crush anything which is not suited to such pressures. As for transportation, the peoples of Arcadia traverse the skies themselves in ships much like the water faring vessels of our own world. And of course, in any open sea there will be found pirates.

Skies of Arcadia's story centers on a young pirate named Vyse. Vyse belongs to a class of pirates known as the “Blue Rogues” and is himself a bit of an egotistic and ill mannered rapscallion. Blue Rogues live by a code of honor which prevents them from assailing unarmed vessels. One might think of them as sort of the “Robin Hood” type. Anyway, enough about that. I'll leave the disclosure of story line details to the game itself.

Skies of Arcadia was one of the most graphically breath taking games I had played at the time it was out. Mind you, this was the days when the N64 was still current, and the PS2 was fresh out of the gates and still very much in short supply. Skies of Arcadia's visuals were really something. The dungeons are lush with detail and the colors are wonderfully vibrant. The fully 3-D environments were a welcome distraction from the forest of pre-rendered backgrounds of most other titles in the genre to date. The world itself bled beauty. There was a zone for pretty much every imaginable ecosystem. My personal favorite was Horteka, the tropical forest section of the world of Arcadia. The zones in this area, I thought, were the most beautifully designed in all the game. The ruins, particularly in the Horteka area just screamed mystery and filled me with a sort of Indian Jones-esque intrigue. I just cant get over how well I feel that the world in this game was designed.

The music in Skies of Arcadia was also something to take in. My favorite track in the game might be no surprise after reading the previous section, but what can I say aside from how awesome Horteka is. The boss fight music in this game is notable from other games in that it changes depending on the flow of the battle. As I remember, there are three different triggers for changes in music during boss fights in Skies of Arcadia: If the player reduces the boss' health in to the critical range, the music will change to a more up-beat triumphant tune; if the player finds himself in dire straights then the music will change to a more down-beat piece; and if the damaged player, or damaged boss recovers health to return to a safe range, the music will return to its normal track. I found this to be a bit interesting and definitely fun. It also serves as a way to gage how close one is to winning a boss encounter, and it can also serve as a reminder that you are in danger if you often find yourself forgetting to pay attention to your health meters.

Sadly the music in this game suffers from what I can only assume is a poor compression scheme. The music, while well composed, sounds very dull. The voice overs suffer the same fate, though they are hardly an integral part of the experience. While the problem with the music is quite noticeable, it hardly detracts from this wonderful title.

Another low point in the game is the horrendously high random encounter rate coupled with the long load times when entering fights. Another notable problem with the game is that you always know when a random encounter is about to begin because you hear the drive accessing the disc just before the encounter begins. This combo of flaws caused me to develop a little of bit of a nervous tick every time I heard my Dreamcast accessing a disc, be it Skies of Arcadia or otherwise.

However, in this game it seems that there is a redeeming quality to accompany each flaw. This isn't to say that there are all too many points in the game that need to be redeemed, but I can say that the ship on ship encounters were very much a redeeming quality for how annoying the random encounters could be. In these ship encounters you have to face off against massive monsters, enemy pirate ships or imperial war vessels in a bit slower paced but much more strategic combat. The problem with these fights is that they can drag on for quite some time. But I'll be damned if I wasn't having fun for the entire time.

Skies of Arcadia even featured a couple of nice bonuses which could only be afforded by the Dreamcast hardware. Well, I suppose one of them could be done on the original PlayStation hardware, but lets face it, the PocketStation's lack of support made it into a very lackluster peripheral. Anyway, enough idle chit-chat. The awesome bonus stuff in Skies of Arcadia included 3 pieces of DLC –something pretty much unheard of for console games at the time-- and a VMU mini game which actually afforded you bonuses in the main story mode.

The DLC consisted of a new island hidden high in the skies above the forboding Dark Rift. This new island harbors an item required to attain one of the characters ultimate weapons; a new boss to do battle with aboard your pirate ship; and a new weapon for two of the main characters in the story. The VMU game titled “Pinta's Quest” put you in control of a strange critter named Pinta who you meet at the traders post “Sailor's Island”. You control his ship in a series of mini games to increase his stats and find treasures. The treasures you find will go straight in to your party's inventory in the main game the next time you resume play. The items you can find in this VMU mini game are nothing to be scoffed at either.

Another fun distraction of the main story is the large list of discoveries to be made throughout the world of Arcadia. This part of the game really grabbed my interests, as I am one of those guys who has to be sure to get every last little thing in a game. To sum up my attitude in this regard, I'm that guy who never sells his old weapons and armor just so that I can have every item in the game whenever possible. Many of these discoveries must be made before you progress to certain parts of the story, however, as a rival explorer might find them before you if you proceed too far in to the story. Also, I suppose that it doesn't hurt that the faster you find these wondrous places, the more the explorer's guild will pay you for your hard work. And finally, as with every other Dreamcast game I have ever played, there are some nice easter eggs on the discs if you insert them in to a CD-Rom drive or a CD audio player.

Skies of Arcadia was first release in the United States on the thirteenth of November 2000. It was later re-released for Nintendo's Gamecube – much like many other great Dreamcast titles – and was slated to be released for the PlayStation 2, but was cancelled. The Gamecube version, titled “Skies of Arcadia: Legends” has added content including all of the DLC from the Dreamcast version and includes a lowered random encounter rate and faster load times. While I dearly love the Dreamcast hardware, I recommend that anybody interested in playing Skies of Arcadia seek out a copy of Legends. It will definitely save your teeth a little wear from the constant sound of the CD drive's encounter early warning system.

On a side note: The three main characters of Skies of Arcadia make guest appearances in Sega's recent PlayStation 3 title Valkyria Chronicles. They look awesome and their voice casting is pretty much dead on. It also doesn't hurt that they are pretty good units to take in to battle. I highly recommend that game to any PS3 owners out there.

Worms Armageddon

While not the first game in the series, Worms Armageddon was the first time I ever experienced true multiplayer mayhem.

Worms is (in most cases) a 2-D side-view turn-based strategy game. Were there enough hyphens in that sentence for you? In case you have never played a game in the Worms series before, the game goes something like this: between 2 and 4 teams enter into a death match. The action is turn based and you have X number of seconds to complete each turn. Your “worms” can walk sideways and jump over obstacles. Once you have selected a position you open up a weapons menu and choose your means of destruction. You lose when all of your worms have had their health brought down to 0 or when they have all fallen into the water.

If you’re using today’s ADD-riddled Madden-playing jock’s standard for graphics, then this game looks TERRIBLE! There are no polygons, no bump mapping, nothing but beautiful pixels. The colors are very vibrant and the level landscapes are always full of amusing objects. The game is very well animated, with a facial expression or body movement for about any situation that could possibly arise. The sound is another fun aspect, your worms talk while you play. Yelling simple phrases like “Take this!” or “Die you zombie bastards!” (Okay, so I made that last one up) really add to the flavor of the game. There are even speech settings on a per-team basis for your worms so that they have different accents and phrases based upon the dialect you choose.

Single-player mode is fun and all, but this game really shines when you play multiplayer death matches with your friends. As previously stated you can have up to four people playing in a single round. This makes for all kinds of chaos when choosing which worms to take out and when. Do you go after that guy on the red team who shot your worm into the water at the beginning of the game, or do you partner up with him to take out the green team who still has all four of their worms at high health? You have to remember to be careful though, as any competitive game like this can result in physical injury as well.

This game is incredibly fun and incredibly frustrating at the same time. Fun while winning, but the tides can quickly turn and you may find yourself at the bottom of a large pit created in the landscape after a super-weapon has been detonated. Then the other teams take turns lobbing grenades down into your pit and taunting you because you can’t get out. That’s when things start to get hazy and you wake up in a strange man’s house with blood on your hands and the taste of day-old rum in your mouth… But maybe that’s just me. Hmm… Where was I? Oh! The Worms series is pretty awesome and shouldn’t be too hard to find. So get some friends together and try not to kill anyone!

Illusion of Gaia - SNES

“Normally people have five senses: sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. Will's abilities seem to be a sort of sixth sense.”

From time to time a gamer will trip across a rare gem which he never forgets. One of those titles which leaves a permanent mark on the mind of the player. Whether it be the game's setting, plot, or just the good old fashion fun factor, some games just seem to really stick. Through its mature subject matter, enthralling world of ancient ruins, and simple yet effective and addictive game-play, “Illusion of Gaia” for the Super Nintendo proved to be one such title for this player.

The first time I played this game I was only eleven years old. The genre, while not entirely new to me, was, in my experience at the time, fairly limited in scope. Certainly other games offer the same, or even better game play; some games offer a higher quality of graphics and many are more well recognized. However, one thing which no other title of the genre offered at the time was a story which was as gripping, albeit somewhat cheesy.

At this point in my gaming career I was only a year or so in to my lust for all things RPG, and was grasping frantically at any game which chose to represent itself as a fantasy title. Needless to say, the box art for this game, with its stone cut lettering and background depicting a beautiful blue and green planet was enough to hold my attention fast. Lucky me, the contents of this box were more than enough to live up to the outward presentation.

Anybody who was young during the SNES days can attest: the sight of a fresh, unscathed grey cartridge, complete with dust cover is enough to excite. However, there was one immediately noticeable and wonderful difference about this game. Unlike most other games of the era, this one came packed with an exceptionally thick instruction booklet which doubled as a sort of mini-player's guide. Certainly short of the glory of the Final Fantasy series, which at the time was packing in maps and other such goodies, this booklet was welcome deviation from the usual fare. I was always one who enjoyed flipping through the instructions of a new game.

As for the game itself, Illusion of Gaia was fantastically gorgeous. The settings were really something to take in. Whether it was a town on the coast, complete with seagulls flying overhead and secrets tucked away in every available nook; or a captivating ancient ruin, rife with blood thirsty critters, the visual aspect of the game never grew old for me. Certainly the graphics were not the most technically advanced for the time, but it was clear to see the attention with which the settings were crafted.

The music in the game, as I recall, was largely successful in setting the mood for the scene. Whether it be a calm tune to convey a sense of safety, or a harsh, rapid beat depicting urgency, the music rarely failed to deliver. This was a key factor in the emotional connection the game made with me, and this sort of connection is something I have rarely encountered in video games to this day. My favorite track in the game must be the Sky Garden track.

The game play is fairly straight forward: Weapon in hand, beat things up. Where this game separates itself from the more popular titles in the genre is the method for doing so. The player has access to three separate identities within the game. The protagonist, Will, is a young boy from the coastal town of South Cape. Joining him, or perhaps more accurately, joining with him are the spirits of two otherworldly warriors: Freedan and Shadow. By swapping between these three identities as the environment dictates, the player is tasked with pursuing the truth behind the ruins scattered about the world.

Through the adventure, the player will have to navigate fictional representations of real world ancient wonders. Incan Ruins, Egyptian Pyramids and even Angkor Wat appear as dungeons which must be overcome in order to reach the fabled Tower of Babel. Along the road the player will be tasked with clearing out many fantastical locations, some based in reality, others not. My favorite dungeon of all of these is the Sky Garden: a floating maze set in flora and stone. The unique aspect of this dungeon was that it was two sided: top and bottom. Actions performed on one side of the dungeon would alter the environment of the other; and to change sides the player must have Will jump from the edge of the dungeon seemingly in to open sky, only to be pulled to the floor on the flip side of the dungeon instead of plummeting to his doom.

By far, however, my favorite aspect of this game was how it handled mature subjects such as loss and death. Around every corner there is danger, and this game does not try to shy away from that fact. Among the first of many such instances is when the player finds the decayed remains of an adventurer desperately grasping a hand written letter. Only later do you come to meet the person to whom this letter was addressed: a woman, anxiously awaiting the return of her husband who left in search of treasure years ago. Other such examples are those of fear, desperation, murder, and even a case of children being sold as slaves. Such content was unheard of to me in those days. This game refused to approach such matters wearing the much employed “kiddy gloves” of the era, and this is one of the greatest sticking points this game has for me.

These are just a few of the reasons I enjoyed this game so throughly. There is a bit more to it than just that, but I think I will leave it up to you guys to figure it out for yourselves. Have fun, people.

Jumping Flash - PlayStation

Welcome to what will hopefully be the first of many reviews for what we consider to be great classic games. We are not trying to be the first, the only or the best classic reviewers around. We understand that we cannot make everyone happy. Bearing this in mind, we’re here to write about our experiences playing these games and can only hope to influence people who have never heard of or played these games to enjoy them as much as we have. So without further ado, we’ll get this started with Jumping Flash.

To say that Jumping Flash was weird is an understatement. The first time I played this game was on a PlayStation demo disc. First-person was still relatively new to me outside of shooters like Doom and Duke Nukem 3D. Nevertheless I was suddenly thrust face-first into a world of floating islands, gigantic frying pans with eggs and a carrot-shooting mechanized rabbit called a robbit. This was an age when jumping three consecutive times was all but unheard of. After my initial shock I was quite pleased to hear that the music was awesome and that exploring the vivid worlds would be an immersing experience, instead of a mind numbing trek through lifeless realms. There are blimps with adverts, dragonflies and even windmills all in the first level of the game.

The background story for the game is pretty strange as well; an evil Baron has stolen large chunks of land from the surface of your planet and is using them for his own nefarious purposes. You must board your mech-like robbit and use it to fight against the Baron and his henchmen to free the ill-gotten land from his floating space-octopus…thing and return it to where it came from.

I can only speculate as to the state of mind of the folks who created this game, but I’ve always imagined that the planning meetings went something like this:

Developer 1: “Hey man, why don’t we put frying pans on top of the floating islands?”

Developer 2: “That’s a great idea! The frying pans could have eggs cooking inside of them!”

Developer 1: “Do you think we should call them skillets instead?”

Developer 2: “Nah, it’s too late for that. Get this down to the artists!”

..Or something like that anyways.

I had all but forgotten about Jumping Flash until a couple years ago. When I remembered how much I enjoyed the game I immediately set out to procure a copy so that I could play it, but was met with defeat time and again as I checked all of my usual used game outlets. Even the shop that usually carried rare (see: expensive) games hadn’t ever seen a copy of the game come through their doors. When I found out that this game was available over the PlayStation Network I glanced down and noticed that my wallet had somehow made its way into my hand. If you’ve never played Jumping Flash before, or just can’t find a copy anywhere, it’s well worth the couple dollars it would cost you to download through PSN.