Resistance: Fall of Man (Playstation 3, 2006)

 

I wanted to revisit something from the late 2000's, early-HD, Brown AF, Playstation 3 Generation. I mentioned this game a few times as being Sony's answer to Halo, so it immediately sprang to mind. It really doesn't have that much in common with Halo besides that they're both first-person shooters against an alien foe. Rather than a futuristic game with laser weapons and so forth, this is an alternate-history 1950 story, with era-appropriate weaponry. It posits the question: What if WW2 never happened, and everyone had to band together to repel an alien invasion instead?

It's an interesting game, and covers my PS3 era nostalgia well enough.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (Nintendo DS, 2006)

 

In my continuing quest to figure out what the best of the big eight Iga-Metroidvanias is (the six portables, plus Symphony and Bloodstained), I've got two left and this is one of 'em. It's definitely a major contender. And I'll say this, Circle of the Moon isn't going to win, probably because it's the Iga-Metroidvania that doesn't even contain Iga.

Regardless, this game is freaking fantastic, and is a direct sequel to Castlevania Bloodlines.

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (Playstation 2, 2006)

 

This is the end of the PS2 trilogy and also the end of the original series. The next game is a what-if and the one after that reboots the continuity. That's right, this is the culmination of the original MK story and it's for all the marbles.

Not to be confused with that MK Annihilation movie, but I could see people mixing them up. In short: This game is good, that movie is a turd.

Mega Man ZX (Nintendo DS, 2006)

 

On the tenth day of Christmas... MORE MEGA MAN. This is the followup to the Mega Man Zero games. It's sort of MMZ5, but not. Plays similarly, but on newer and stronger hardware. Unfortunately this game has a lot of problems. I played it once before, in 2010 or so, and it depressed me.

Mega Man: Powered Up (PSP, 2006)

Today I'm taking a look at something that I've never covered on here before. It's a PSP remake of the very first game in the series, and... it's pretty weird, to say the least. This had tons of potential to start a new franchise, giving us a Mega Man Powered-Up 2 and so on; unfortunately the problems with it likely doomed it to not continue as a series. That or Capcom just lost interest. Who knows with these companies these days.

In any case, this is a very easy game, especially for this series; it can be finished in two hours on a first go and one hour on a repeat run. It's essentially the Kirby's Dream Land of Mega Men. It's fun, though, and that's what matters.

Samurai Warriors 2 (Playstation 2, 2006)

 Samurai Warriors and I go way back. In 2008 or so I played the first game in the series and enjoyed the hell out of it. This is basically the Japanese version of Dynasty Warriors, featuring mythical Japanese characters instead of Three Kingdoms era Chinese characters. All things considered, I prefer Samurai Warriors a bit because the soundtrack is more my liking (less anachronistic rock and roll, more atmospheric stuff). I was excited to finally get around to the second Samurai Warriors, but I couldn't have foreseen the abysmal black hole that awaited as I progressed in the game. Read on.

Game Review: Metroid Prime Hunters

Nintendo DS, 2006

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Nintendo Software Technology

Time to Complete: 7 - 9 hours

I noticed that there was a hole in my Metroid post lineup. I've written about every main-series Metroid game except one, and it's time to do something about that.

Game Review: Mega Man ZX

Mega Man ZX

Where Mega Men go to die


Nintendo DS, 2006

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Inti Creates

Time to Complete: 3-8 hours

Mega Man ZX is the first semi-traditional Mega Man on the Nintendo DS. Following in the footsteps of Mega Man, Mega Man X, and Mega Man Zero, this is an action game through and through. Like the X series and Zero series, this is a fast-paced game with lots of dashing around and elemental-themed mecha-animal bosses. The problem is that the Mega Man X control setup and formula has gotten worse with every successive iteration, and at this point I don't think Capcom really knows what they're doing with it. Still, as someone who loves Mega Man games almost as much as most of my generation loves pretending they're tough because they sometimes watch UFC, I had to give it a try.