Nippon Attack Inbound!

Well, St George's Day passed without anybody actually noticing. It's funny that St Patrick's Day is the talk of the town, but when our own Patron Saint's Day arrives, no-one really gives a toss. And correct me if I'm wrong (which I invariably am), but St George killed a big fuck-off Dragon (see pic, taken yesterday) and wore cool looking Knights Templar style armour...whereas all I'm aware St Patrick did was drink Guinness and swear at kids playing football. Speaks volumes really.

However, that's all academic.

What isn't academic is my stop/start progress in Shenmue. If anyone is still contemplating buying this game, please first ensure that you get your attention span surgically lengthened. See, since I got hold of the ever-elusive Shenmue 2, I have promised myself that I will not jump the gun and have a go on it (even if it is just to see how much better the visuals are) until I have finished the first installment. It'd be like watching the 3rd Harry Potter film before even seeing the first one, not having a clue what is going on and then branding the whole thing 'shite.' Which is what I did. Shenmue shall not go the same way - I am determined to play through it as it was intended...although those goddamned sailors have once again scuppered my progress - all because I missed a trickshot at a game of frigging pool.

*Sigh*

I spent another couple of days wandering around Dobuita trying to figure out what to do next...and then inevitably lost interest again. Bah.

So my interest wandered - but it didn't get far. Oh no my friends...not far at all. I may have mentioned that I also got hold of Zombie Revenge (which is quite frankly a hideous little game) and another by the rather dubious title of MDK2. I always thought MDK stood for Murder, Death, Kill - but it actually stands for Max, Dr Hawkins and Kurt - the three heroes you get to control in this unbelievably good 3D action adventure (above). And while the last sentence may sound like a press release for Interplay, I can assure you that when I say this game is incredible - I comes from the innermost caverns of my cold, dead, coal-like shell of a heart. Oh yes.

It's so original, features great stylised visuals and storyboards, and each character has a truly individual style of gameplay. Bear in mind that I only played the first two levels, but I was hooked and only the absurd difficulty I encountered in one section made me stop playing. A review will follow shortly, but I can't recommend this game enough. Zombie Revenge on the other hand, as described above, is akin to finding that your kitchen has become over-run with ants to such a level that they are in your bread, cereal and teabags. And as much of what is written here is based on real life experiences, Zombie Revenge must be described as sickening. However, smearing the box with Nippon Ant Killer (pictured) WILL NOT remedy the problems of sloppy graphics, poor graphics or atrocious voice acting. It WILL, though, make you very ill if you don't wash your hands after using it. Hmmm...

Finally, just a quick note to apologise for the lack of updates - Blogger wouldn't let me publish for about 2 days.

5 comments:

Animated AF said...

Don't get too excited about Shenmue II's graphics as they are about the same as the firsts, although the places you go to in the sequal are much, MUCH bigger.

Tom Charnock said...

Really? That's disappointing news man. Have you ever played the Xbox version? If so, does it stand up to that graphically?

Animated AF said...

The only differene with the X-Box version is that the voices have been dubbed (DC version is subtitled). Besides, Shenmue II was originally meant to be part of Shenmue I but it was split, remember? So the graphics wouldn't be much different. As I said, though, there is a lot more to see in thisgame, with much more beautiful locations.

Anonymous said...

I played Shenmue 2 first and it kept me enthrawled for months! Then I played 1 and it was a bit disappointing due to cap yank dialogue as opposed to the cool Japanese speaking 2 which allowed you to become immersed in the virtual orient. Not having hours and hours on my hands to play my DC, I used a walkthrough for parts that seemed impossible and also to access hidden gems like the duck race. Whilst this may be sacrelige to real gamers, completing the game in a sensible time frame kick started my Gagaman-like obsession/compulson with DC. I now collect anything and everything DC, with prized posessions being my seethrough green DC and controller, my Treamcast, seethrough red VMU - now fully loaded with much played Chao game -light guns, fishing rod and brand new (sort of) boxed up unused DC - its all good! DC rocks Shenmue being the best way to understand the awesome potential of this mightiest of consoles! Keep living the dream! (cast)

Tom Charnock said...

Send us a pic of your stuff and i'll post it! I've not actually got around to starting Shenmue 2 yet...the task seems so mammoth that I've been too afraid to begin...