Opinions About Video Games and Roleplaying Games
Archive for June, 2008
Buying Video Games New or Used
Jun 24th
When I go out to buy a video game, I walk over to the shelf, grab a copy, and bring it over to the counter. Inevitably, I’m asked “Would you like to buy it used and save some money?” or something similar. If I have a new copy in hand, then no, no I wouldn’t.
First off, the difference of five dollars or so just isn’t that much. If I could get it used for half price, I might consider it. But for five dollars, the risk that something might be wrong with it, or something might be missing from the case, or anything else could be wrong with it isn’t worth it. Besides which, if the game doesn’t work, I’ll likely have to drive back to the store to exchange it, using up enough gas that I may as well have not bothered saving the five dollars. Plus, even not taking that into account, the hassle isn’t worth it. And I’ve managed to buy a few games that don’t work buying used before.
In addition, if I buy used, the company who made the game doesn’t see any of the money I just spent on it. The money for used game sales goes straight to the store. I actually want to support a company that’s putting out games that interest me. That way, they’ll continue making games that interest me in the future. The extra five dollars I spend there is completely worth it.
Of course, that isn’t always the case. Sometimes there will be a game I want to try that I’m really iffy about. For instance, Shadow the Hedgehog springs to mind. I love a lot of what Sega has released, but this game caught so much flak from so many people, that I decided I might be best going used on this one. And waiting for the price to drop. I got to try it out, I spent very little money on it (about $8), and, as I suspected from what I’d heard, the game wasn’t that good. Certainly not worth supporting.
Another time I buy used is if the game is old, rare, or otherwise hard to find. Sometimes, if this is the case, the only way to find it is buying used. It’s unfortunate, because a lot of times I’d like to support the people who made the game, and I just recently heard about it and wanted to try it out. But if there aren’t any new copies around, then the company won’t be making any more money on it anyway.
If I do decide to buy a used game though, I always make sure the place I’m buying from has a decent return policy on used games that don’t work. Fourteen days is good to me, more is better, a week is barely acceptable. Likewise, refunds are best, but store credit is still pretty good. Exchange only, I can deal, but really, this is pushing it. If they don’t allow returns of used games at all, I won’t even consider them.
Likewise, if I buy used games from a place and consistently have them not function, I’ll stop buying them from that retailer. In fact, I’ll likely find another retailer for new games as well. There’s no reason why stores can’t test these games out before putting them on the shelves if they want to sell used games. At least run the the first level or first 15 minutes of the game to make sure it looks like it’ll work. There’s no reason any game that doesn’t boot at all or load anything past the title screen should be on store shelves anywhere.
So, given all of that, it should be obvious I prefer buying new for quality, convenience, and support of the companies making games. However, buying used certainly has it’s uses, and sometimes is the best way to go. Feel differently? Something I overlooked? Let me know in the comments!
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 Review (PS2)
Jun 21st
I know Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 has been out for a few months, but I only got my hands on it recently. With that said, here goes.
To begin, this is a fun game, but it’s not on the level of games like Soul Calibur or the Super Smash Bros. series. For me, some of the appeal comes from the use of the Naruto license, as I’m a diehard fan of the series. However, ignoring that, the game is still pretty solid, if a bit on the simple side. However, playing it more shows there is some strategy and thinking to be done, it’s just a little difficult to find it at first. If you don’t find the strategy, you will lose to better players, which is a little frustrating until you pick up some of the nuance of the game.
Like previous games in the series, each player chooses a fighter, and then you go to fight on a variety of maps that have a foreground and background that can be moved between at will. Other than that, it’s straight 2d fighting goodness. Thankfully, they’ve seen fit to remove the analog stick twirling and button mashing from supers, keeping the ordered button presses as the default method of using them effectively. For those who liked the other methods, you can still choose to use them by selecting them while customizing your character. In addition, by doing significantly better than the attacker during the supers, a defender can actually stop a super from landing now. This is a nice touch, as I think supers are way too easy to land without this. They’re still moderately easy to land, as they should be, but now the defender at least has some chance of stopping it.
I really liked what they did with the story mode Hero’s History, in which they go over some of the highlights of the story from the show rather than every little bit of it. This is, of course, not ideal for people unfamiliar with the show or manga, but for fans of the series, it means we don’t have to sit through the slow parts again. Your mileage may vary on this point. It’s also nice that the Japanese voices are available in this installment. I much prefer the subbed version, though I don’t doubt there are many who still want English voiceovers. For those people, I also have good news. You will not hear one utterance of the phrase “Believe It!” In fact, before I thought to check if I could switch the voices, I played in English for awhile, and it was surprisingly good compared to the other games.
Also, for the most part, missions are way better than in previous installments. The requirements are much more skill based, rather than things like just hoping to see the ability to perform a screen switch come up. This movement towards skill over luck is much needed. Also, kawarimi’s are much easier to perform when you want to, making the missions that require them less of a pain.
However, I do have a complaint about Ultimate Contest, the game’s non-canon story mode. If you want to do everything, you’re going to have to play some truly irritating mini-games multiple times in order to do so. The worst offenders are by far the push-ups and squats that Guy and Lee challenge you to. Unfortunately, they’re also the games you’ll play the most. Luckily, they’re easier than the push-up game of last installment, but they’re still just as lackluster. Mini-games where you just repeatedly mash one button are not fun. Please, any developers out there, get this through your heads.
On a better note, the poses you’ll also go through with Guy and Lee are better. It’s a rhythm game in which you press buttons at the right time to mimic the ridiculous poses of Guy and Lee. Moderately amusing. Also, the tree climbing mini-game is decent, though some of the short branches seem to jump out at you without warning. These branches really need to be made more clear, as running into something because I can’t see it is irritating.
Finally, we have Tenten’s Target practice, by far the best of all the mini-games. It’s actually legitimately fun. Basically, targets pop up with a button on them. Pressing that button launches a shuriken at it. Then, there are targets dressed like allies, and hitting them lowers your score. You compete with Tenten for a high score, which is easy enough to do, but still quite fun.
Now, I’ve gone into these mini-games because, as I said before, to fully complete the game, you will play them multiple times. This detracts from the game a little for me, because only one of the mini-games is actually really fun to play. If they were completely optional, I wouldn’t mind so much.
Finally, let’s talk about the roster of fighters. This game has 42, and only two of them are filler. Basically, every major character before the three year jump is here, and there are even a few not so major and even truly minor characters as well. Also, characters’ ultimate forms have finally been integrated into the main character selection, so there’s no more clone characters cluttering character selection, such as having Nine-Tailed Naruto alongside Naruto. You can still select ultimate forms once you’ve unlocked all the characters if you wish, but at least they don’t register as separate characters anymore. One gripe I have about the ultimate forms is the unnecessary splash screens that come up after you’ve done your super to do the transformation though. There’s no need to see Curse Mark Mode II and similar names with a static picture on the screen. I just watched him transform in the cutscene, and it really kills the action to have the still screen come up before returning to play.
So, with all of that said, if you’re a fan of Naruto, pick this game up. If you aren’t, but you haven’t played the other games in the series, this one is the superior of the three, and isn’t a bad choice if you’re looking for a fighting game different from the norm.