This October's Rant bought to you by....

Blah Blah blah, school, wedding anniversary, new job (career?), I have been busy so I missed updating September. Well, on to games!
I got a lot to say so it’s another one of those smorgasbords of thoughts month’s.

1. So I picked up a relatively rare game for the DS called Infinite Space. I have a love-hate relationship with this game so far. It’s about space travel and combat, and you do get to build your own starships in it, almost from scratch. Little things like placing officers in specific roles to give the ship bonuses to measuring the fatigue of your crew to watching your fleet of sips traverse through space make this title intriguing indeed. You know what doesn’t make it intriguing? The bare bones, phoned in plot. Seriously, for a supposedly 40 hour RPG (I am only 6 hours in and so bored with it) this story better bring it’s A game in the second half. Boy goes on adventure through space, recruits friends along the way, blah blah cookie cutter RPG story.

Also, the combat is a real let down. When you create and build a fleet from the ground up, you expect to have a plethora of combat options to make the game more interesting. Nope. The combat boils down to a timed game of rock-paper-scissors, or as Infinite Space calls it, Barrage attack, Normal attack, and Dodge. Barrage’s do heavy damage, but if Dodged, they are easily avoided. Normal attacks do…well…normal damage, but if the enemy Barrage’s you, you’re screwed. And Dodge works well against Barrage, but does nothing against normal. Oh, and you can move in on a linear battlefield to get into or out of weapons range. There, I just explained Infinite Space’s entire combat system in five sentences. That was seriously all there is to it. When a game lets you build your own starship fleet, exclusively for use in space, then it stands to reason why a simplistic combat system might not be what I signed up for. One day I will complete it, but lately I have had to work up the fortitude to sit down and play it.

2. I have been on an old-school game kick. I beat Metroid, then Metroid II, now Legend of Zelda is on the docket along with Zelda II: Links Adventure. Ahhh the benefits of buying a 3DS on launch day. So Metroid…
On this month last year Nintendo and Team Ninja decided to collectively insult every Metroid fan in the world by releasing Metroid: Other M. It is still the worst one in the series…wait shut up, YES, it is worse than Metroid II. I liked Metroid II: Return of Samus and I think its mechanic of killing every Metroid on SR388 is not only the most important plot element for the entire series. That, and the game is damn fun. Other M did do what no other Metroid game did before it; it gave Samus a voice, and a terrible one at that. It also gave her a personality, and a terrible one at that. You know, let’s skip talking about Other M, I really didn’t like that game…
But the first Metroid game, there is a classic right there. It’s you, as Samus, alone on a fortress planet and you must kill Mother Brain. This game is challenging, but fair. Graphically inferior, yet still way ahead of its time. Small tip for everyone that hasn’t beaten the gae yet: Ice Beam. Once you find it, keep it. Fu** the Wave Beam. The Ice Beam actually makes Ridley the easiest boss in the game.
Metroid II: Return of Samus, as I mention, is a small masterpiece. It doesn’t make you want to jump for joy at any particular element, and the music is the worst thing ever, but the game is still solid. Samus has a large character model, gains some mainstay weapons and items in this game such as the Spazer and Plasma beams, Space jump, shoulder-padded Varia suit, Spring Ball and the rarely visited Spider Ball all make their first appearance in this game.

OTHER M SPOLIER

If you were ever wondering why Samus jumps into the Queen Metroid’s mouth near the end of Other M play this game and use that tactic to kill the Queen Metroid in this one. Works wonders

Spoiler Over

3. Star Fox 64 3D! Yay!!!! Wait…it only supports LOCAL wi-fi play with multiple 3DS’? Back to Gamestop you go, Yayyy!!! Come on now, Nintendo, you can’t keep pulling that crap. It’s 2011. Everyone has an Xbox Live account because online play has proven to be “cool” and “convenient” and “smart”. Hope on the bandwagon already. While we are on the topic…

4. Monster Hunter 4 for the 3DS…looks pretty good. The slide on analog pad for the 3Ds…is kinda gimmicky, but if it does retail for $20 I suppose I could live with it. Now, hows about a US release date, eh?

5. Battlefield 3? Skyward Sword? Arkam City? Skyrim?! And AC:Revelations?!!! ALL IN THE SPAM OF TWO MONTHS!!! Where the fu** was all these games during the summer! Now I feel like I have to take out a bank loan just to…OMG SW: Old Republic gets a release date and it’s in December!

-Dear Game Companies: It is not a good idea to oversaturate the market like that, because believe it or not, I am only going to buy two games on this list. Yes, I wants them all, but the demographic this games are being marketed to have primary responsibilities and time constraints, what with our jobs and such. Like the whole thing with two companies releasing Battlefield 3 and Modern Warefare 3 in the same two week period. As gamers that like multiplayer games, we will chose. One of you will lose. Battlefield 3 could have come out in March like Medal of Honor did or vice versa, but noooo. You guys wanna fight it out with your most important asset, your sales figures and customer base. Activision, IMHO, I think you may be surprised…



That’s all I got for this month. Tune in next month when I wax philosophical on how much fun I am having playing Skyward Sword and Battlefield (yes, those were the two).