Bargain Basement 17
Welcome to the seventeenth installment of a semi-regular feature here at GameCritics.com—the Bargain Basement.
It's as sure as death or taxes that anyone who takes up videogaming will find themselves rooting through a bargain bin and scouring the pre-owned shelves sooner or later. For those that do, few things feel as satisfying as saving hard-earned cash and getting a gem of a game at the same time.
The titles covered below can usually be found online or in any brick-and-mortar shop, often for $20.00 or less. Keep in mind that the selections in this feature may be older and not on the latest hardware, so it's assumed that the technology isn't bleeding-edge. The final scores for each title are based on a modified scale taking this into account, and doesn't compare them to today's visual standards—gameplay is what we're talking about here.
Happy hunting!
Bargain Basement 17 – Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams
I've played through every installment in Capcom's samurai-flavored tales of swords and sorcery, and I have to admit that I was leery of taking a fourth trip to the well after the developers had sworn the series would end as a trilogy. Oddly enough, my fears were misplaced since Dawn of Dreams turned out to be the best of the lot, at least in terms of craftsmanship.
The main villain driving the first three adventures had been defeated for good at the end of Onimusha 3: Demon Siege, so Dawn of Dreams finds itself taking a detour from the overarching plot elements. In doing so, it gives itself the freedom to introduce an all-new cast of characters and sets up a new mission-based structure that previously wouldn't have made sense.
Both of these additions are what give the game its legs. Besides the sword-wielding hero there's a nimble female ninja, a staff-user, and a huge boxer who relies solely on his fists. This is a pretty good cast with lots of variety, but my personal favorite was Ohatsu, the rifle-toting romantic interest. Not only was it a kick to bring a gun to a sword fight, but she eventually upgrades to laser-powered weaponry. Don't try to think too hard about it, just sit back and enjoy the scent of zombie foot soldiers sizzling.
With regard to the new mission structure, Dawn of Dreams is divided into small, discrete sections, and it's often worthwhile to revisit old missions after switching teammates. For example, in some sections there are small holes that the ninja can fit through, but it's pretty common to have anyone but the correct teammate the first time. After reaching the end, every area is available to be played again with a different partner for those secrets and also to level up towards unlocking new attacks and combos. It may sound a little bit like busywork, but it's rewarding since the fighting engine is tight and the differences in each character's fighting style adds flavor.
It may not be the most original or inspired product I've seen, but there's something to be said for nailing the content and pulling it off beautifully. Fans wanting the continuing adventures of the old cast won't get much to chew on (though there are certainly nods and references), but those who can appreciate the feudal setting and fast-paced swordplay get an adventure that incorporates all the bits that worked minus nearly everything that didn't.
Bargain Basement 17 – Chibi-Robo
Although the GameCube suffered from a thin, underfed library that paled in comparison to the competition's, a few unappreciated gems still managed to slip through the fingers of software-starved players. Out of everything that I've spent time with on the GameCube, I'd say that Chibi-Robo was hands-down the best effort that no one knew about. Even worse, I'd go so far as to rank it in the top five titles on the system as a whole, making its lack of presence among ‘Cube fans even sadder and more disturbing.
Although initial appearances would lead most people to believe that Chibi-Robo was a cutesy, brightly-hued and simple-minded affair, only the first two claims are true. Once past the day-glo exterior and saccharine character designs, the game reveals a surprisingly complex structure and thought-provoking, offbeat, and consistently entertaining style of play.
Two inches tall and dragging an electrical plug behind him, Chibi-Robo is free to roam the Sanderson household as a combination errand-runner, marriage counselor, dustbuster and all-around majordomo. Although the entire adventure takes place within the confines of an average-size house and backyard, the developers have done an amazing job of keeping things fresh and engaging by making sure that the player always has a healthy array of tasks that can usually be tackled in any order. Although most of these jobs boil down to being fetch quests of one sort or another, the hook is that every member of the household has their own dramatic plot arc which is revealed to Chibi bit by bit as he fulfills his duties.
When I got tired of trying to help the dehydrated frog in the backyard, I'd spend some time trying to reconcile the estranged mother and father. When I had done as much as I could for them, I'd move on to raising the spirits of the shipless pirate in the basement, or try my hand at being a messenger-robo ferrying love letters between two toys. Most of these jobs are fairly straightforward, but some can only be activated at certain times or under certain conditions, and a handful of objectives are so devious that they require serious detective work and conjecture to unravel. Chibi-Robo may look like a kid's game, but that couldn't be further from the truth.
I can't praise the structural work and the interconnecting quests enough. I was sincerely impressed not only by the sophistication of the design, but by the way I wanted to go above and beyond the level of effort I usually put out in order to make sure that everyone received the happy ending they deserved. Going for absolute, 100% completion is something I've only been motivated to do a small handful of times over the course of my gaming career, but Chibi-Robo absolutely had the addictive magic that so few titles capture.
Bargain Basement 17 – Trapt
Back before Tecmo was known for overrated ninja games with dysfunctional cameras or beach excursions with surreal bouncing physics, they made quirky titles that were light on eye candy but heavy on originality and gameplay. One of the most unusual was Deception—a game that tasked players with murdering people by laying gruesome traps in order to resurrect the devil. Needless to say, it was in a happy little genre all by itself.
Though that game was good times, it was heavily flawed. Two sequels followed after, each enjoyable, but neither made it through development without picking up a new set of problems. Trapt is now the fourth attempt to get this formula right, and I'm happy to say that it's still not perfect but definitely the best one yet.
Although the camera is ridiculously slow and unresponsive (an intentional choice to alleviate the motion sensitivity Japanese gamers are so prone to?), it's as sickeningly entertaining as it ever was to lay down a giant bear trap, snap it closed on an approaching attacker, shoot him full of electrified spears and then drop a giant flaming boulder on his head, laughing as the whole mess explodes.
Certain elements of the game have been pared down and menus are now extremely clear and streamlined, giving the game a speedy, quick feeling. In fact, a player could fly through the story mode in two to three hours, but that's not a complaint. There's a lot of replay offered via multiple endings and the feverish desire to unlock every trap. Some are pretty nasty and some are just for laughs, but mixing and matching them for the most effective (or comical) killing strategy is guaranteed to provide a few hours of good, clean fun.
The story may be as dull as dirt and the graphics may lack a satisfying level of detail, but there's no denying that Trapt (and its three predecessors) provide a crazy sort of skewed gameplay that simply can't be had anywhere else. Very few projects actually make me laugh out loud with maniacal glee, but this was one. It's too bad that most of the attention Tecmo's developers get these days are for games I find woefully unsatisfying... in my opinion, their eccentric side is what made them such a notable development house, and Trapt is a prime example of where I'd like to see them focus their efforts.
Bargain Basement 17 – Aeon Flux
Stylish and stylized, Aeon Flux is one of the more unusual additions to the Basement since it's an extremely rare animal—a licensed game that succeeds thanks to developers who took the time to understand their subject before crafting a gameplay experience that's the perfect interactive extension of the characters and world it's based on.
I've never seen the film starring Charlize Theron, but I'm intimately familiar with the series of animated shorts that served as its inspiration. Peter Chung's work for MTV's Liquid Television starred a leather-clad super-agent in a dystopian, confused future. True to the original series, the game is broken up into surreal, non-linear episodes which don't have plot continuity. It might be disconcerting for people who aren't familiar with Aeon to see her die at the end of nearly every chapter, but it was immensely satisfying to see the developers zero in on the enigmatic, ambiguous qualities that made Chung's work so memorable.
Being quite satisfied with the intellectual content, I was extremely surprised to see the game mechanics were an equal match. Like an impossibly agile spider, Aeon Flux clings to walls, performs stunning acrobatics and threads up and down dizzying heights on a spy-wire. This physicality was one of the hallmarks of the TV series, and it's perfectly translated here. Like a harsher Prince of Persia or a more ruthless Lara Croft, Aeon skirts danger and cuts through the superb environments like a glinting black blade. Sailing up and down, and leaping in way that could almost qualify as flight, half the entertainment to be had is from putting Aeon through her paces and effortlessly defying gravity.
Although the animation and framerate aren't as optimized as they could be (one of the qualities common to Terminal Reality's other titles) and some of the combat sequences can occasionally be frustrating, looking past Charlize Theron's digitized face reveals Aeon Flux to be finely in tune with its animated soul—and a darker, more artistically challenging thrill ride than players are usually privy to.
Disclaimer: This review is based on the Microsoft Xbox version.