Posts Tagged ‘star wars’
Star Wars Arcade (Atari)
There is a surprising similarity between Star Wars Arcade, released in 1983, and Star Fox, released in 1993. For starters they are both 3D graphical on-rails shooters that involve space battle and a predominance toward the cockpit view. In addition they’re all about blowing up things in space while people scream at you with words and phrases that offer no assistance in the gameplay. Okay, so they’re not actually all that similar when it comes down to gameplay (honestly I find Star Wars Arcade to be the better game), but it does demonstrate that the style of gameplay does withstand the test of time.
Even though it coincided more with the movie release of Return of the Jedi, Star Wars Arcade was a vector graphics 3D shooter where you controlled Luke Skywalker as he attacked the Death Star in Red 5 at the end of the Star Wars: A New Hope. The game involved three stages of battle, called “waves” in the game, that they had to overcome in order to complete it. In the first wave you would destroy TIE fighters as you approach the Death Star, in the second wave you would destroy turrets on the surface and in the final wave you would fight in the trench against both types of enemies and take a crack at shooting the exhaust port and destroying the space station. If you did so, you would loop into the game again and receive an extra shield that allowed you to play for longer periods of time. Doing so without firing a single bullet in the trench until the perfect shot on the exhaust port would be considered as a “using the force” run and net you a huge point bonus in addition to your additional shield. Because of these bonuses it was possible to play for a long time on one quarter, which was like finding gold in old school arcades, and one guy even played for more than 50 hours on a single credit.
Suquels: Newer Isn’t Always Better
Okay so the title (pronounced “suck-wells”) is a tad unsophisticated as is the concept it implies, but frankly I’ve had it up to my ears in recent sequels that don’t even remember what made their predecessors great. Congratulations gaming, you’ve now entered into the same dangerous realm Hollywood has where production budgets are so great that the slightest tweak can result in a hit or miss product. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a new problem – ask anyone who was around for the crankfest that was the Mega Man series on the NES and they will tell you that it peaked at either Mega Man 2 or 3 and then tapered into oblivion. Don’t misunderstand me, though, these games aren’t bad by any stretch, they just can’t live up to the quality of the previous game. I know what you’re thinking, you’re wondering how one goes about topping Uncharted 2 within the same series or competing with the achievement of Legend of Zelda. In short, perhaps you don’t. Maybe its high time that publishers, because they are the boss, understand that some games run their course. On the other hand God of War 2 was definitely the apex of that series but thanks to a console generation between the second and the third, it was refreshing to receive a sequel that looked so much better. There’s a formula that works, so stop worrying about your own personal issues or listening to too many focus groups and do your best to capture the magic of the property. Please keep in mind that like the mantra of Scream 2, trilogies are not considered sequels in my eyes and thus are awarded certain liberties as a result. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to rip into the entire trilogy once the third releases if obvious oversights weren’t dealt with.
Gaming History 101 