Round 6: Cerberus

[Claytone]

I feel comfortable with a couple of my votes this round, but I'd like to fire up Berzerk and see what it's all about before I vote. It should be easy to emulate, so I'll give it a look and get back to this one.

[Sharecrow]

I feel comfortable with a couple of my votes this round, but I'd like to fire up Berzerk and see what it's all about before I vote. It should be easy to emulate, so I'll give it a look and get back to this one.

Hearing this makes me happy. Even if you don't end up voting for it. Have fun!

[Sharecrow]

Since I don't think I'll get another chance to give Shinobi props in a poll where it actually is, I'd like to reiterate that this is, by far, the best ninja video game I've ever played. It is fast and fun and quite difficult. For those who don't know, your sword is cursed and if you don't feed it blood fast enough, it'll take yours by killing you. It gets hungry pretty fast, too. It forces the player to kill and it literally makes you fight like a blood-thirsty, ferocious, murdering bastard (which happens to be my play style in action games to begin with).

The game is difficult even in normal mode. But it has several harder modes that really raise the bar on the challenge. There's collectible coins throughout and you cannot collect them all without playing it in the hardest mode. The enemies' fighting becomes much more aggressive and they're much stronger, which forces you to refine your technique to stay alive and to succeed. What you did to beat the game in normal won't work in hard. And what worked in hard will need to be refined even further to survive super or extreme or whatever it's called. It pushes you to improve and seek perfection in your fighting style.

Also, some of the later levels hardly have any floors at all. I mean that - no where to stand. You can't cling to walls, but you can run along them. You have to be able to make it through those levels without really screwing up (if you miss a step, you fall and die....if you get hit while you're wall running or jumping, you'll fall and die). It gets even more complex, though, in that you still have enemies to kill to not only feed your sword but to advance through the level. So you're wall running and jumping gets complemented by doing dash attacks to flying enemies - basically using your sword on them to keep you in the air or to allow you to reach another wall or tiny spot to stand on. It's devious but works so well.

I completed this game and was "rewarded" with a new level that is even more insane than the regular game. By then, though, I was good enough that what would have been impossible for me to figure out when I first got the game was just another level at that point.

Thank you, Sega, for creating this masterpiece.

For anyone who has the nerve and has a PS3, it is on the store as a PS2 Classics.

[Jordan]

I liked Rune Factory 4 a lot myself, and it's a great relaxing game, but I'll have to think about whether I want to vote for it here. I'm impressed it's gotten so much support. I figured it had flown under the radar like all the previous ones (and - let's be honest - RF3 was the first really good one, and none of the console ones have been).

It got 3 votes and then disappeared into oblivion. It won't advance to the next round.

RF3 was the first good one, but I didn't think RFF was terrible. RFF could have been great if not for the godawful runey system which ruined everything. ToD had a lot of good ideas, but suffered from lag issues, bland design decisions and dumbed down mechanics. It was a mediocre, but not terrible game in my opinion.

I would still like them to revisit a console rune factory though. RFF almost had it right...if only they had not implemented that stupid runey system it would be one of my favorite Wii games.

I'm actually still playing through RF4 currently, and right now am pushing through Rune Prana. I played through the entire game on hard but had to set the difficulty back to normal just for this dungeon. There's too many rooms with narrow corridors and swarms of fireball flinging sorcerers. I think it's probably impossible to progress through them unless you are vastly overleveled/equipped.

[Niahak]

It got 3 votes and then disappeared into oblivion. It won't advance to the next round.

RF3 was the first good one, but I didn't think RFF was terrible. RFF could have been great if not for the godawful runey system which ruined everything. ToD had a lot of good ideas, but suffered from lag issues, bland design decisions and dumbed down mechanics. It was a mediocre, but not terrible game in my opinion.

I would still like them to revisit a console rune factory though. RFF almost had it right...if only they had not implemented that stupid runey system it would be one of my favorite Wii games.

I'm actually still playing through RF4 currently, and right now am pushing through Rune Prana. I played through the entire game on hard but had to set the difficulty back to normal just for this dungeon. There's too many rooms with narrow corridors and swarms of fireball flinging sorcerers. I think it's probably impossible to progress through them unless you are vastly overleveled/equipped.

Yeah, Runeys especially ruined RFF, but even without them it was an absurdly slow-paced game. One thing I have a hard time with is when games don't respect my time. It felt like the game plateau'd a dozen times difficulty wise, and the materials to make it to the next area were rare drops from the current one, or materials only farmable in an incredibly dangerous area. The whale not having any quick-jumps didn't help. RF3 and 4 were much snappier.

[Jordan]

I guess it could have been better optimized, but I remember liking the game aside from the Runeys. The Runeys just made everything so aggravating that I gave up mid-way through, though. I could deal with wasting my time elsewhere because generally I felt like I was having fun. But having to go to the clock tower, then go to an area, suck up some runeys and eject them somewhere else felt like a meaningless chore. If not for that, I think I would have rated RFF highly.

Oddly, I think I could have tolerated all the missteps of Tides of Destiny too if not for the lag. That was the sole killing factor for me in that game, because it just made the whole thing feel very mediocre. I do think RF4 is the best in the series though.

[Claytone]

I feel comfortable with a couple of my votes this round, but I'd like to fire up Berzerk and see what it's all about before I vote. It should be easy to emulate, so I'll give it a look and get back to this one.

Hearing this makes me happy. Even if you don't end up voting for it. Have fun!

So I sat down with it for a solid half hour or so and really enjoyed what I played. I'm really quite surprised by its "one more round" allure. I'll have to play it a little more to see if I'd like to give it a vote, but I can definitely say I enjoy it.

[TheGreatNads]

Since I don't think I'll get another chance to give Shinobi props in a poll where it actually is, I'd like to reiterate that this is, by far, the best ninja video game I've ever played. It is fast and fun and quite difficult. For those who don't know, your sword is cursed and if you don't feed it blood fast enough, it'll take yours by killing you. It gets hungry pretty fast, too. It forces the player to kill and it literally makes you fight like a blood-thirsty, ferocious, murdering bastard (which happens to be my play style in action games to begin with).

The game is difficult even in normal mode. But it has several harder modes that really raise the bar on the challenge. There's collectible coins throughout and you cannot collect them all without playing it in the hardest mode. The enemies' fighting becomes much more aggressive and they're much stronger, which forces you to refine your technique to stay alive and to succeed. What you did to beat the game in normal won't work in hard. And what worked in hard will need to be refined even further to survive super or extreme or whatever it's called. It pushes you to improve and seek perfection in your fighting style.

Also, some of the later levels hardly have any floors at all. I mean that - no where to stand. You can't cling to walls, but you can run along them. You have to be able to make it through those levels without really screwing up (if you miss a step, you fall and die....if you get hit while you're wall running or jumping, you'll fall and die). It gets even more complex, though, in that you still have enemies to kill to not only feed your sword but to advance through the level. So you're wall running and jumping gets complemented by doing dash attacks to flying enemies - basically using your sword on them to keep you in the air or to allow you to reach another wall or tiny spot to stand on. It's devious but works so well.

I completed this game and was "rewarded" with a new level that is even more insane than the regular game. By then, though, I was good enough that what would have been impossible for me to figure out when I first got the game was just another level at that point.

Thank you, Sega, for creating this masterpiece.

I just want to say that this is a pretty awesome review of Shinobi.

(I don't know how/why I overlooked the game in my voting choices btw.)

[Claytone]

Voted for Berzerk, Castlevania, and Papers, Please. WipEout is good, but it doesn't quite click with me like F-Zero, so I just can't quite justify giving it a vote at this stage. Meanwhile, I quite enjoyed the time I spent with Berzerk, and I'm glad I tried it. Finding new games to play is what BGE is all about, IMO.

[Sharecrow]

Voted for Berzerk, Castlevania, and Papers, Please. WipEout is good, but it doesn't quite click with me like F-Zero, so I just can't quite justify giving it a vote at this stage. Meanwhile, I quite enjoyed the time I spent with Berzerk, and I'm glad I tried it. Finding new games to play is what BGE is all about, IMO.

You have made this tired, surly, and old wyvern smile.