Tag Archives: ps2

Atlus To Reprint Both Raidou Kuzunoha Games For The PS2

Even though the PS2 is dead, its legacy lives on as sources tell Siliconera that Atlus will be reprinting both Raidou Kuzunoha games on the PS2. Devil Summoner Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Souless Army and Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon were both released near the end of the PS2’s lifecyle, 2006 and 2009 respectively. And since these were Atlus games, they became very rare to find, especially the second game that came with the Raiho plushie. They’ve also gotten mighty expensive.

Some are wondering why reprint them instead of making them PS2 classics. Well, it’s kinda hard to pinpoint an answer as both have their strengths and weaknesses. Releasing it as a PS2 classic could make the game much more available to everyone, but some might want a physical copy considering how hard these two are to come by. With a physical copy, people will get a second chance to get these games, but might prefer to play them on a PS3 as a PS2 classic (since these are the original PS2 games and all later models can’t read PS2 discs). There’s also the fact that PS2s are no longer being made.

Regardless, now’s your chance to get these games if you missed out. Both will be $30 each. Unfortunately, you get no second chances to get Raiho.

Raidou Kuzunoha Returns, Atlus Is Reprinting The PS2 Devil Summoner Games [Siliconera]

The Wired Fish Podcast S4 – Episode 3

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“Live In Your World. Play In Ours.” That was the slogan for much of the PS2’s lifecycle. While the PS2’s time was long over, that thought was only subjective as games were still being made for it well after its time supposedly passed. Games like Persona 4 and Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier were showed that the PS2 still had a beating heart, but it was obvious that it’s days were numbers (or were in fact up). Finally, Sony stepped in to confirm that manufacturing of all PS2 systems had ceased in all territories earlier this year, marking an end to an era. Not since the Japanese Famicom have we seen a console stay in production this long, even after support for the game dropped to near zero. And thus we look back on the era that kicked off the new millennium, the Playstation 2.

Timestamp of Contents after the break.

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The Breakdown – Shadow of the Colossus

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System: Ps2,PS3/Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment/Developer: Team ICO/Players: 1/Initial Release Date: 10-18-05

Over time, you see something in videogame development that turns the tide. Suddenly everyone wants to ride that wave. Then we get used to it, almost to the point of conditioning. Everyone expects a game to have a feature. Think two genres, the Hack n Slash, and the Platformer. In the hack n slash, you expect huge waves of enemies, crazy combos, and some riddles you might solve. Now think about platformers. You expect crazy level design, tricky jumps, and a spin attack. These have become essentials to their respective genres. And then Shadow of the Colossus comes in and dares us to change our perception of these genres. Defying the usual conventions of game design, it dared to do away with a few essentials to drive forth its minimalist approach and to engage the player in a way that hasn’t been since in a long time. How did it work out?

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Night-Time Listenings Wrap-up: Week of 9/3/12

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This week was all about intro themes. We flipped dimensions in Chrono Cross. We retold a tale with Soul Blade. We traveled the wasteland with Wild ARMs 3. We schemed with Ishtar in Ninja Gaiden II. And finally, we got all our items with Metroid Prime Trilogy.

If you want to see the music as it goes up (and not wait every Saturday for these wrap-ups), remember to go to our Tumblr page and follow it. Music for Night-Time Listenings goes up every weekday at 10PM

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The Breakdown – ICO

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System: PS2, PS3 (reviewed)/Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment/Developer: Team Ico/Players: 1 (2 after beating game)/Released: September 21, 2001, September 27, 2011

Picture if you will, the beginning of a console. From the moment it’s in its concept stages to when it’s finally out the door and into the homes of consumers, the company that makes it wants it to be successful. It does everything in its power to prove that the console is worth your hard-earned dollars. Features, controls, ergonomics, power… all of these are important to the console. But most of all, the games make the console, and it is the games that will shape the future of your console. And so, the company picks from a bushel of games to showcase around the launch period to show the public. You want to wow these people to buy your product. Since this is a new console, everyone’s going to go on about the graphics. Well, here’s a game that can wow you, while doing a few nifty things on the side. This was the reality back during the PS2’s early life when ICO was released. 10 years later, do those same enamored feelings still hold true for ICO? After the jump, I break down ICO.

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Gamer Review: Shinobi (PS2)

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Hotsuma is going to show the moon what happens when planetary bodies get mouthy him...

Games are meant to fulfill a variety of “enjoyment types”, so to speak. Some of them are meant to evoke strong feelings of relation to the characters that populate its world, like JRPGs. Others are meant to simply pull feelings of joy and happiness from you (*coughKatamariDamacycough*). And still others are meant to inspire a mad devotion to learning the intricacies of a complex, involved system of gameplay styles.

There are literally dozens of others I can think of right now, but the subject of this review caters to one very specific aspect of the gamer psyche: the thirst for a challenge. Any game worth its salt is going to involve a modicum of difficulty in its structure. Be they through difficult puzzles, tough enemies, difficult bosses or even a world that requires more thought than just “You are here. Go over there”, games present us with obstacles to overcome to add that necessary sense of satisfaction.

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Gamer Review: Bujingai: The Forsaken City

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Wow, Asia finally made a game set in Detroit!

Going back through my years as a gamer, I realize how much things have changed. Not in the industry, but in my own approach to the acquiring of them. Nowadays, like many, I can’t simply go out and buy any game that looks cool. It needs to have good scores, and enthralling gameplay videos, and all that good publicity stuff. Granted, I am not quite a slave to such things; I frequently take chances on lesser known gems and will ignore scores for certain games (*coughDynastyWarriorscough*), but the days where I would prowl the aisles at game stores and simply grab whatever caught my eye are long gone.

Rewind to 2005, when this habit was still very much alive, and was alternately screwing me or paying off gloriously. The time itself bears noting, as 2002-2005 was kind of a golden age for smaller, more oddball games coming to us, both in our country and from foreign shores. Some, like acid-trip classic Katamari Damacy, hooked their claws into gamers of all kens and became a known fixture. And then there are others that didn’t quite make it, like the subject of today’s review, Bujingai: The Forsaken City, an excellent example of the best (interesting gameplay, unique appeal) and worst (immensely flawed mechanics, sad excuse for a plot) of this age of legends.

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Gamestop, You Bastards Made Me Real Mad Today!

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My day began in a sleepy stupor, being asked by my sister to accompany her to the Gateway Center Mall in The Bronx. At first I refused since I was tired. But when I became fully awake, I decided to go with her. So I’m thinking that maybe I should try to see if the Gamestop there would probably have Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga. I’ve been searching quite a bit for that game. Yeah, I could get it online, but I still don’t have the means to buy stuff online (and by “means” I mean a method of instant payment via debit or PayPal). So I go to the Gamestop and look around. From the looks of things, the small Gamestop has an even smaller PS2 section, and nary an old used game in sight. While passing by the Wii section for the hell of it, I see the case for Sin & Punishment: Star Successor on the shelf. The price: $19.99! I’m like “Whuh! Shit, if they don’t have DDS, I’ll go ahead and get Sin & Punishment.” So, after waiting for some hood lookin’ chick to finally sell all her games, I as the clerk if they have Digital Devil Saga. Since it’s a pretty old PS2 game, I told her exactly that. She looks in the drawer of used PS2 games. “No, we don’t have it.”

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Gamer Review: Gitaroo Man

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And this cover is the most normal aspect of the game.

Ah, the rhythm game. Nowadays, everyone knows the “Modern Music Genre” games like Guitar Hero or Rock Band. But there is a certain sense of sadness that washes over me when I remember the pre-Guitar Hero days. The sense of experimentation and new-ness that permeated the then-small genre is all but gone now, replaced by big plastic instruments and woefully similar sounds.

This is, of course, not to say that I don’t like them. I have had many a good time playing Guitar Hero (it’s almost a tradition to go a few rounds with my friends in III every year on my birthday), but consider the trailblazers of yesteryear: Parappa the Rapper, Space Channel 5, Samba De Amigo. So much creativity in every one of them, be it through strange play styles or just plain odd music choices. Today, we are going to talk about one that has both: a strange and challenging gameplay style and a selection of songs that must be heard to be believed. I am talking about the early 2000s cult classic, Gitaroo Man.

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Gamer Review: Crash Twinsanity

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I'm sure I saw a Hentai like this once...

Crash Bandicoot. Merely saying the name will send many a gamers’ mind on a trip back to the 90’s, that golden age of platformers. From Croc to Spyro, the PSOne era was a cavalcade of platform hopping, level running, thing-collecting goodness. But not a one of these were as famous as Crash Bandicoot. Tight controls and an overabundance of personality made Crash stand out from the crowd, and even to this day, many will proclaim Cortex Strikes Back and Warped (the second and third games in the series respectively) to be among the finest games ever made in that venerable genre.

The story was simple enough. Doctor Neo Cortex is trying to take over the world, and thinks he’s found the perfect plan for acquiring help: to genetically modify a bandicoot named Crash. But Crash, as is typical of a heroic marsupial, decides instead to impede Cortex’s plans. With help from his brilliant sister Coco, and his magical tiki mask guardian Aku-Aku (it was the 90’s, don’t ask) Crash stands in the way of Cortex’s plans time and time again.

Luckily (or unluckily) Cortex has help on his end, in the form of a colorful rogues gallery of mutated monstrosities including: Tiny, the not so small mutant tiger, Ripper Roo, a clinically insane blue dog in a straight jacket, and Dingodile, an Australian dingo-crocodile hybrid with a penchant for flamethrowers. Cortex also had a revolving door of right hand men including the brilliant Doctor Nitrus Brio, a meek biochemical engineer with bolts in his head who becomes an off-and-on again ally to Crash, and Doctor N. Gin, a short unstable little scientist with a nuclear missile lodged in his head. Later on, an evil tiki mask (and evil younger brother to Aku Aku) named Uka Uka joins the fray, and brings even more strange underlings into the mix.

It was these memorable personalities that made the Crash games so fun to play. But, time marches on, and like most of the idols of that lost time, Crash faded into obscurity. His license was sold off and original developer Naughty Dog moved on to other things, such as Jak and Daxter and, more recently, the Uncharted series. But unlike the others of that era, Crash still survives, and his games are still coming out with appreciable regularity. As one would suspect, several of the games after the sell off sucked horribly, but something unusual happened in 2004. Travellers Tales, then the ones developing the games (not to mention existing in a time before they became slaves to the “Lego” series of games) released Crash Twinsanity to extremely low expectations.

And what was the response? The game was…actually kinda fun. Actually, it was pretty damn good (well, according to some reviewers). Crash wasn’t back to set the world on fire, but he did have the privilege of starring in one of the more solid and entertaining platformers of the post-Playstation era.

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