The Best Game Overs

Because I'm bored and need something to do, I've decided to make another post: The Best Game Overs. These feature from some of the oddest, to most ridiculous Game Overs. Right, let's get started, shall we? (As a note, these are in no particular order).

• Grange Hill (ZX Spectrum): The Drug Dealer.

As you may or may not be aware, Grange Hill was a Teens' show, which was also part of a large anti-drugs campaign called "Just Say No". And, as you probably would have guessed at this point (or by the sub-heading), there is a Drug Dealer in-game. If you get Gonch, the main character, to say "Yes", you get a very detailed and descriptive game over:

"You see a shifty man in a Leather Jacket.

"Hey, son. Want to buy some of this?"

The man offers you a small packet of white powder.

He is a pusher.

...

There is an empty look in his eyes as he snatches the money from your hand. His face is pale and drawn, his body thin and unfed. He steals to keep his habit, and makes addicts of children. He is dead, and soon you will be too."

• Sonic CD (MEGA CD): Waiting

Sonic is a fast Hedgehog. He is also naturally impatient. Very impatient. So impatient, in fact, that he will end your game if you make him wait around long enough. Harsh fellow, isn't he?

Make Sonic stand still for 3 minutes, and it's instant Game Over. That's not you lose a life, or get to use a continue, it's over. He literally jumps off the screen and buggers off.

For God's Sake, use the pause button...

And, coincidentally, this is actually the first time Sonic ever spoke in a game. There is a short clip of Sonic saying "I'm out of here" as he jumps off...

• Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (Gamecube): Subservience

During the course of The Thousand Year Door, you get a few moral choices in the game, normally something good and something bad. If you choose the bad option, your partner will disagree, and you will be forced to do the good option. However, the last of these choices is slightly different. Just before the final boss of the game, you are given a choice: Fight, or Serve the Dark Queen. If you choose "Serve", then it's game over. No corrections; it's game over.

Earlier on in the game, there is another, more subtle choice, which can also result in a game over. You are asked to get a diary for a ghost, but are warned not to read it. I dare you to read it.

Also, in Super Paper Mario, you are oddly enough given the option to save the world at the beginning of the game. Continuously refuse, and it's game over.

• The Matrix: The Path of Neo (PS2): The Blue Pill

The Path of Neo is a game directed by the writers of the Matrix. Obviously, they wanted to make it seem as if you were playing as Neo, and got to do everything he did. That includes the choice right at the beginning of the game, of whether to take the Red Pill or the Blue Pill. The Blue Pill does nothing, the Red Pill pulls you out of the Matrix. So, guess what happens if you take the Blue Pill?

• Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox/PC): Kill the Captain

Right at the start of the game, you have to rush to the Bridge of the spaceship "Pillar of Autumn". During this time, you are defenseless. When you get to the bridge, the Captain gives you an incredibly serious mission. What does he give you to fight the onslaught of aliens? An unloaded pistol.

You wander along, and come across some ammo conveniently just before your first proper Covenant encounter. So, what happens if you go back to the Bridge and shoot the Captain for being so stupid?

Cortana sends out a message saying that the Master Chief has gone insane. Invincible Marines come in to kill you. There is no escape.



And so ends my list of odd game overs. Some of these are probably well known, and there are probably more out there. But these are the ones that I've encountered.

Drathmoore's Games you have to play

Right. I'm Drathmoore. Student, Musician, Dictator-to-be. I've signed up to do reviews, but due to a lack of money that may be difficult. Instead, I fell I'll tide you over with this feature: Games you have to play (which is just really a cheep way of reviewing old games...). Enjoy.


Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer


Okay then. Spyro was, and still is, one of the long standing faces of Video-Games. And, similar to Sonic the Hedgehog, has gone downhill in recent years. However, Spyro went into the rubbish for different reasons. You see, Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer and Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon were all developed by Insomniac. After that, Universal took the rights away, and gave them to various different companies, such as Krome Studios (makers of the "Legend of Spyro" Series), Digital Eclipse (who made the GBA Spyro games), and others, but none of which were ever as good as Insomniac.

Nowadays, you couldn't have a game like this. Mainly for the humour. The Spyro series, while childish and cartoony, has some dark humour, of which is most apparent in Spyro 2. Some of the cutscenes in Spyro 2 openly involve or strongly suggest death, but it is presented in such a way that a child would laugh. Come on, tell me that those cutscenes from Colossus aren't freaky. And the animal cruelty issues these games have... Insomniac really seemed to hate sheep. The sheep got their ownback in Spyro 3, but that's a different matter (and those were "Space sheep").

Storywise, the game isn't bad. It takes off a little while after Spyro 1, where the "Dragon Worlds" (and their inventive naming) have seen a torrential downpour. Spyro decides to go on vacation, and so with his friend Sparx the Dragonfly sets off through a portal to Dragon Shores (told you the naming was inventive). Meanwhile, in Avalar (not to be confused with Avalon, the island in Arthurian Legend), a Mole, a Faun and a Cheetah, by the names of The Professor, Elora and Hunter respectively, are trying to catch a Dragon. And they do so by going to Glimmer and setting up a portal (thus the name "Gateway to Glimmer"). The reason why they need to get a Dragon is to scare off Ripto, a Dinosaur-like dictator who has started to take over Avalar. They catch Spyro (of course; there wouldn't be a game and/or a reason for me to have been telling you all this). Ripto comes along, with his two minions Crush and Gulp (more inventive naming for you there). Ripto sees Spyro, and proceeds to get angry (thus the name "Ripto's Rage", of which this game was called in non-PAL regions). He runs away, you need to chase after and kick his butt, while going through elaborate levels collecting Gems, Orbs and most importantly Talismans (which are symbols to say you've just gone through the level). Alright, it's not a J.R.R.Tolkien masterpiece, but it's meant for kids, what do you expect. Do you watch kids' tv shows for double-entendre and sex jokes? Well, if you watched Animaniacs, then I presume that you did (see here for details). The characters are nicely fleshed out, you really start to hate Moneybags (the real villain - he's the one that gives Ripto everything he needs, and then promptly gets his butt kicked by the dinosaur with "short-man syndrome"), and the voice acting is actually pretty good (listen hard enough, and you can even hear Spongebob Squarepants. Try finding him in Hurricos).

As for the gameplay, it plays rather well. If you've played Spyro 1, then adjusting is easy; Spyro can jump (as usual in any platformer), glide, and now hover (by pressing Triangle mid-glide, it gives Spyro a small bit of extra height). Also available are new abilities, such as Swimming (in Spyro 1, water killed you. Quickly. Like lava), Climbing (he's a Dragon, and didn't know how to climb?), and the Head Bash (think of the Ground Pound from Super Mario 64, but with your head. And on Rocks. Ouch). You can't roll anymore, but instead you get power-ups. Remember the Supercharge from the first game? Well, there's that and more. The way Power-ups work is that there will be two tall pyramidic posts close to each other. In between the to posts will be a number. This number is how many enemies you have to kill (another reason why you won't get a game like this nowadays; it encourages the killing or random creatures. With a flamethrower). Once you kill the amount of enemies necessary, you can unlock Supercharge (just running fast), Superflame (Fireballs in other words), Superspring? (a power-up unique to this game; thrusts you upwards), Invincibility (do I really need to explain?)... etc. The aim of each level is to reach the end of it, normally reaching some sort of objective and helping the local residents along the way. Doing so will earn you a Talisman. Get enough of these Talismans and you can reach the boss: the first being Crush (who tries to kill you with a club. Inventive considering his name), then Gulp (who fights you by CHARGIN' HIS LAZAR!!! Yeah. Sorry about that. Anywho, this is inventive, considering his name), and then finally Ripto in an epic duel (who fights using magic. But you get to use magic, so it all evens out). There are an assortment of Sub-bosses in the levels, but I won't cover them at the moment, mainly because I can't be arsed.

What else is there... Music! Yes, the music is calm, ambient, and nicely fits in with the game. A little bit of repetition in the songs being used for levels, but that doesn't really matter. The bonus level is very fun (basically think of a theme park. Then make the attractions out of your enemies. Odd considering that the employees of the theme park are enemies from the first game. Maybe they don't like each other?).

Spyro 2 is very enjoyable. Aimed at kids, but fun for all ages. Look, I don't need to explain it anymore, it is simply a Game you have to play.

Mentos.

I'm in a gun slinging mood, so I've decided to review a game in the field of Bullet Hell, which is Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil (if you don't know what TouHou is, look it up.) I'm finding this game incredibly fun but questionable in places where I am I just going to sit back wide-eyed and say,"What the fuck?" Before I go on about the game, I should give a crash course on Bullet Hell.



That is Bullet Hell. Shoot everything that is (or isn't) in sight and just flood and spam bullets away in a fashionable pattern that makes the player say, "Good God, I died horribly, but the colors are so pretty..." Dodging requires an extremely precise method of pixel-to-pixel movements. Did I also mention that one shot kills? Of course I forgot to mention that, as well as mention that the screenshot up there is shot in-game; at normal difficulty. The difficulties in the game range from easy to insane, which is scary. How to react to all this constant attacking? Well, I suppose you could use your special attack, you know? You just have it lying around, and stuff...



These are very, very, very useful. Why, do you ask? Well, a) It turns almost every single bullet/blade/knife/crystal shard/anything small that harms you into points. Scoff at this now, but look at the figure at the top of the page and you'll be desperate to use these (the giant laser just tends to be a close favorite). Death is certain, you will die at least once, unless you're a God descended from above who knows everything. Honestly, just shoot, kill, and dodge, and you might make it to the "final" boss (notice how I said make might, because even the likelihood of someone making it depends on how well you play, and all bets are off). Even through the amount of continues you have (I believe 3, if I remember correctly), you will lose and die horribly, unless you've become very good at the game. I'd even go as far as to say that if you master this game, you can pretty much beat any shooter game guaranteed, because this game is that hard. It's so hard, that if you master it, everything else will just become easier.

The small conversations between each boss is... odd, to say the least. I'm more inclining to blame it's translators instead of the actual game. Also, I hope you realize that every single girl has a body composure of a 14 year old (which is fine by me, they land in my age group, but I just can't help imagine some, somewhere out there is playing this game and thinking: "Hot DAMN these chicks be fine I'd do 'em in a heartbeat!" And also be 56 years old. *shudders*) The music is amazing, especially the boss fight theme of the unlockable final boss (which I must wanr you, must involve a feat of miracles by beating the whole game in Normal or higher without a continue, and combine this with the thought of 1 hit kills and the image way at the top of this post. Yeah.) which can be downloaded somewhere out in the internet. That's all I have to say. To end it;

DO DO DO DOOO DO DO, DO WAAAAAAH.
IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT COMES,
FRESH GOES BETTER IN LIGHT,
WITH MENTOS FRESH AND FULL OF LIFE.
NOTHING GETS TO YOU,
STAYING FRESH, STAYING COOL,
WITH MENTOS FRESH AND FULL OF LIIIIFE!
FRESH GOES BETTER, LIVE SO FRESHLY,
FRESH GOES BETTER WITH MENTOS FRESH AND FULL OF LIIIIIIIFE!

Mini-reviews

Link

Hey there people.

Guess what? My name is the Animator, and I've decided to introduce myself. I'll mostly be here to bother you with reviews that involve rambled opinions that people might listen to or just heed me as a fool without any taste whatsoever with occasional games that I play and enjoy (or not), based solely on what I interpret on what the definition of 'fun' is. Along the way, there will be cheap petty jokes and the occasional screenshot or two. I hope you enjoy.

In fact, to kick off this little party I'm thinking up in my head, I'm going to go ahead and talk about a small, incomplete game made by Konjak called Ivory springs, which involves a blond girl that lives in a realm where mechanics are hunted, persecuted, and killed. You have a gun, a wrench, and a potato sack full of dreams. The incomplete game features 2 bosses and the usual glitch (because, you know, it's incomplete), but even then, it's still beats a lot of games out there. This incomplete, glitchy game has better graphics, music, and feel overall than most games out there, which is terrifyingly dissapointing because it's incomplete! It's supposed to be crappy! And yet, by some odd standard of life, it's not.

It's almost hilarious how the characters act in the game, too. After you beat the first boss and come back to your hut, you get interrogated good-cop/bad-cop style by 2 people of the opposite ends of the social spectrum (an agressive, upbeat character, and a bitter, de-animated always-in-pain girl). You have to see it to believe it. It also centers on a religious theme, this all-benelovent goddess of the Ivory Spring (hint, hint) that has the authorities acting under her will.

One conundrum I find is that the soldiers in the game are outfitted with technological weapons, and there's even that robotic boss straight from their arsenal. I ask you this; how can you make that thing when mechanics are a complete sin and are not allowed to exist in the first place? Then again, I look at ourselves and I'd just slap myself in the face for saying that. Oho, and the ending. Keep in mind, it's an incomplete alpha that will never be finished, but the ending. The puzzle elements are simple enough, it's like that time in Sonic and Knuckles when you'd have to push these stones in order to open a door, and that door would just slowly move down until you escape. Imagine that in a more upbeat and complicated fashion (albeit not badly executed, sometimes it's a pain to time just right, especially that part when you're just pixels away from being able to get the ledge above you, but it's still to high to reach, and you -still- need to rely on the doors. That's just plain mean.)

This video should tell you what's expected. Don't be fooled by it's fast speed, it's much more harder.

If you want to get a good idea of half the part of the game, honestly, just pay attention to the door-opening parts. Imagine this with a wrench, and with actual twisting involved. A bit more of a puzzle element involved. The rest is kill-everything-you-see and then some. That's all I gotta say, though, try it out, it's fun for an incomplete scrap game that will never be expanded. Link.

Last word, the ending will bug you. Forever.