Arcade

Jetpack Joyride Underwater

HIGH Zoning out while in the zone.

LOW An underwater, generic Jetpack Joyride.

WTF Sisyphus metaphor too obvious, depressing.

My good friend Nathan Fouts over at Mommy's Best Games has just released a new project on the XBL Indie channel called Game Type. However, it's not exactly a game, although it sort of is...

The Drowning Music Still Haunts My Soul

HIGH Chemical Plant Zone is still awesome.

LOW "That looks like a homing shot! Careful, Sonic! That looks like a homing shot! Careful, Sonic! That looks like a homing shot! Careful, Sonic!"

WTF Who's the genius that thought leaving out Launch Base Zone was a good idea?

Four Legs Good, Eight Legs Better

HIGH Getting that "Aha!" moment after stalling out on a tough puzzle.

LOW Not getting that "Aha!" moment on Final Path #8.

WTF Where's the canoe I was promised?!?

No One is Mistaking this for the Real Thing

HIGH Racing through abandoned buildings as poisonous smoke filled the rooms behind me.

LOW Listening to the exact same speech from Patrick Stewart after retrying the same cheap spot for the twentieth time.

WTF Walking around as a corpse when the game failed to properly detect my death.

At long last, we've reached the end. The final boss is actually pretty tough, so I go ahead and use the Rolling Shield on him. After that we've got a very somber ending and then the credits, complete with me struggling in vain to fill several minutes worth of dead air.

I'll be back sometime in the near future with Mega Man X2 and so on, but I'll be taking a small Mega Man break first. Until then, enjoy this last video. It's been fun!

Side-Scrolling in Style

HIGH Realizing that I was good enough to finish on Normal after my initial stumblings.

LOW I don't like straining to see my character in a sea of enemies.

WTF My first Hard Mode attempt lasted a minute—literally.

So, let me guess... You haven't played Rochard yet. In fact, there's probably a pretty good chance you haven't even heard of it—and that's a damned shame, since it's one of the best download-only titles I've played all year. I gave it an absolutely glowing review, but a game like this deserves more. So, in my pursuit of fighting the good fight, I'd like to present this brief interview I was fortunate enough to have with the Lead Level Designer of Rochard, Samuli Viikinen.

The third Sigma Stage is essentially a big boss rush. I have to face the five remaining Mavericks plus the stage boss, D-Rex. While it isn't that bad if you use the Maverick weapons, this stage can be hell if you're doing a buster only run, especially since you have to deal with both Sting Chameleon and Armored Armadillo again.

The next video will be the final stage and ending. Enjoy!

Southern (Physics-based) Comfort

HIGH The final weapon upgrade is fantastically entertaining.

LOW What's up with the evil guardsmen sounding so effeminate?

WTF "Git'er done" is still in use a thousand years into the future?!?