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Bulletstorm, Toy Commander, and Skylanders


On 04/15/2017 at 11:06 PM by KnightDriver

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News:

I played some more Bulletstorm today. I did some Echo challenges without any progress. Then Mark and I played the online multiplayer survival mode called Anarchy. You have to score a certain number of points to get to the next wave. The best way to do that is co-operative kills. There’s a whole new set of skillshots centered on co-op. It was pretty fun for a while. Each level has a variety of unique environmental hazards too that are a lot of fun. After a while, it got a bit repetitive though, so I went back to achievement hunting.

I was determined to get the last few skillshots for the “all skillshots” achievement. I had three secret ones and two general ones. I looked up the secret ones because I didn’t want to play the entire game again trying to guess at what I’d missed. They were pretty easy ones that by some freak chance I didn’t get in my previous two runs of the game. The last two general skillshots were easy too. That achievement being done (and I was very satisfied with myself), I started to look for the last four Electro Fly swarms I needed. Luckily the game tells you what collectibles you have on each level, so I was able to find them pretty quickly. I played all this campaign stuff on normal difficulty, and once the skillshot achievement was over, I used only the pistol to snap off tons of quick headshots. "Bam, bam, bam, SPLAT!" So satisfying. 

Memory:

I’m thinking about Toy Commander for the Dreamcast. Out in 1999, this was a pretty unique game where you control real toys in rooms of a house. The story was that Andy had gotten some army toys as a gift and he favored them above all his other toys. Well the other toys didn’t like it and tried to get rid of them. Your task as the player was to use the army toys to fight the old toys. I remember flying toy planes around a kids room in this game. Mark and I played the multiplayer a little bit but the controls weren’t perfect, so we stopped. I like the idea of controlling toys in a game. I always wanted those Army Men games to be good, but they rarely were. The toys-to-life genre is similar but the settings aren’t real world places like in Toy Commander. Chibi-Robo is a more similar game in terms of setting.

Photo:

Team water from Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure.

skywater

Gill Grunt, Wham-Shell, Zap, Slam Bam

Gill Grunt is a Gillman (half fish, half man). He joined the military in search of adventure. One day he came across a mermaid at a lagoon in the clouds. He told her he’d return after his tour of duty. When he did, he found out pirates had kidnapped her. Now he fights evil and searches for his lost mermaid.

Wham-Shell is a crab. He was king of an underwater kingdom that was attacked by oil drilling trolls. With his trusty mace, a powerful heirloom of the kings of his kingdom, he defeated the trolls and now fights to prevent such events from happening again.

Zap is a water dragon. He was of a royal family of water dragons but was washed away by a riptide to another sea where he was brought up by electric eels. He is a very fast swimmer and uses electricity for his attacks.

Slam Bam is a Yeti. He used to live alone on a glacier. There he ice surfed and made ice sculptors in peace. Then Kaos destroyed the glacier, leaving him stranded on a floating iceberg. He came to Eon’s island and was made a Skylander, turning his ice skills into weapons to defend all Skylands from evil. 


 

Comments

Super Step Contributing Writer

04/15/2017 at 11:22 PM

Toy commander reminds me of small soldiers for no other reason than both involve toys.

KnightDriver

04/15/2017 at 11:31 PM

Yea, that and Toy Story, sort of the ultimate living-toy idea.  

Matt Snee Staff Writer

04/16/2017 at 02:49 PM

I like those toy backstories.  must be a weird job, writing that shit. 

KnightDriver

04/16/2017 at 08:44 PM

I thought that too. There was even more info on wikia like what each personality is like and sometimes development stories. I guess they had to give each character a backstory and personality partially for the voice actors. Each character has a voice in the game. I forgot to mention those, but I'm going to dig into that next time. There's some interesting voice actors on these games. 

Matt Snee Staff Writer

04/16/2017 at 08:57 PM

it's funny how toys can have this weird lit to them. One of the things I want to buy off AMazon is this really cool Encyclopedia to Characters and Locations of He-Man. I mean, it's just a stupid toy right?  But the lore is so interesting.  

KnightDriver

04/16/2017 at 09:32 PM

Someone got hired to make it all up. I wonder if kids really pay attention to that stuff.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

04/16/2017 at 09:34 PM

I think they do. I was into Transformer lore when I was a kid.  It probably depends on the kid, the age, the show, etc

KnightDriver

04/16/2017 at 09:37 PM

I never got into the novelizations of tv or films when I was a kid. I kind of saw reading and watching as two seperate things. 

Matt Snee Staff Writer

04/17/2017 at 11:04 AM

I'm trying to think if I did. I did read the Robotech books, but i didn't watch the cartoon really. I think when we were kids they weren't so interlocked like stuff is now.  I've been kind of thinking about this, cause I'm thinking of expanding my stories into different mediums, like I'm planning on doing a picture book spin-off of my Crumbling Sky series, and maybe a visual novel that ties in with my DND game / novelization. I like the idea that there are different mediums to explore this stuff. Like, for instance, you play Halo, and then read the Halo novels.   I'm trying to do the same thing, but on a smaller, indie scale. 

KnightDriver

04/17/2017 at 11:33 PM

I remember novelizations of Star Trek episodes and the Star Wars novelizations. I was strangely not interested in them even though I read a lot of scifi. I liked the covers of the Star Trek ones though. I used to collect them. 

 I wonder if a Skylanders book has been done?

Matt Snee Staff Writer

04/18/2017 at 01:51 AM

I tried to read some Star Wars ones. Some people love them but I couldn't handle it. I think it's the idea i'm more enamored with rather than anyone's execution of it. 

KnightDriver

04/18/2017 at 06:35 PM

Everybody raves about the Thrawn series by Timothy Zahn. I read the first one a few years ago and liked it. I just saw a new Thrawn book on the shelves at Barnes & Noble by Mr. Zahn. I was like, meh. 

Matt Snee Staff Writer

04/18/2017 at 06:44 PM

I wasn't into them, but Thrawn is on that Rebels TV show now.

KnightDriver

04/18/2017 at 08:11 PM

He's like blue, or something. 

Cary Woodham

04/16/2017 at 08:32 PM

I THINK the guy who started the GamerDad web site actually wrote the Toy Commander strategy guide.  I never played that game though.

KnightDriver

04/16/2017 at 08:37 PM

Oh cool. I'd like to go back and play it. It's escaped my collection though. 

Cary Woodham

04/16/2017 at 08:43 PM

Oh I also forgot.  In the Chibi Robo games, you can talk to toys.

KnightDriver

04/16/2017 at 08:45 PM

Oh man. I want to play those. 

goaztecs

04/26/2017 at 11:03 AM

Hey Toy Commander! Yeah the controls were funky, and I didn't get far into the game because of it. 

KnightDriver

04/26/2017 at 11:23 PM

Yea, something about the controls wasn't quite right. A shame. 

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