Civ Rev, Skies of Arcadia and Skylanders

On 04/23/2017 at 10:42 PM by KnightDriver

News:

I played a very satisfying game of Civilization Revolution today. It took five hours and got me the “Domination win at King difficulty” achievement and the “win without changing governments” achievement. It played out so well too. To get the Domination win you have to capture all the other player’s capitals and hold them for one turn. In single player there are four A.I. opponents. In the final rounds I was cranking out bombers and using them to soften up the cities so my tanks could defeat the last of their forces and take over. While I was attacking the last capital, I acquired a nuke. So I used it and defeated all the forces there. Then I moved my tank army in and I got my win. It was kind of epic: the ICBM flying through the air to a city surrounded by bombers, then the tanks charging in to take over. It was glorious, from a military point of view.

What I learned this time was that paying attention to your workers is essential to victory. The default setting has them working a balance of all the resources available to them, but it makes things go much quicker if you prioritize certain resources when you need them. Like, I would start out prioritizing food and science. Then, when research gave me a new building, I would switch my workers to production and money to finish it.

I put this new knowledge to good use when I started a second game in order to go after the “win using only one city” achievement. I had to save it for later unfinished, but the new strategy was working great; I was gaining new technologies and money so much faster than I used to. I can’t wait to get back to it.

Memory:

This is the last one from 2000, Skies of Arcadia, on ye olde Dreamcast. I never beat this game because it got too hard for me, but I really loved what I played. You’re a sky pirate fighting a kind of organized oppressive regime. You have land exploration, dungeons and sky ships. It’s a turn-based RPG and its visuals are gorgeous. There’s also a mini game on the system’s VMU cartridge built into the controller called Pinta’s Quest. You had five mini games you could play to gain gold. I always wanted the Gamecube remaster but never bought it ‘cause it was always more money than I wanted to spend. Luckily I kept my Dreamcast version so I can go back and play it again.

Photo:

Meet team magic from Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure.

skymagic

Double Trouble, Spyro,Voodood, Wrecking Ball

Double Trouble is a sorcerer who once lived alone in a tropical rainforest. There he looked for plants to aid in his magic. One day he found the Whispering Water Lily and thought eating it would multiply his spell power. Instead, it multiplied him and he now has three small clones of himself, who being cute, are also highly explosive. Master Eon thought this would be useful and made him a Skylander.

Spyro is a rare purple dragon. He has a photographic memory and can learn any skill very quickly. He can control all the elements but prefers to control fire. I didn’t know this, but, his story in Skylanders continues vaguely from the previous Legend of Spyro series. This isn’t the Spyro The Dragon series on PS1, but the three Legend of Spyro games on PS2, Wii, Xbox and X360. In Skylanders Master Eon teleports Spyro into his realm (from the Legend world seemingly) and asks him to help defend Skylands. Spyro agrees and joins the other Skylanders.

Spyro is voiced by Josh Keaton who has been in a ton of animated tv shows and video games. What jumped out at me was that he did the voice of Hal Jordan (Green Lantern) in a number of different animated TV shows.

Voodood is an Ooga warrior Orc. His tribe was vexed by orc eating Dragons so he dove into the Cave of Trials and brought out it’s prize, The Axe Reaver. This was a dragon slayer and enabled him to chase off the dragons. Then The Darkness came. He led his people to defeat it but only he survived. Without a people, he joined the Skylanders.

Wrecking Ball is grub worm grown 20 times larger by being put in a wizard’s stew. He can devour things to regain health, attack with his sticky tongue, do a roll attack or a burp blast.

Cary Woodham

04/23/2017 at 11:49 PM

The original voice of Spyro was the same guy who voiced the Taco Bell dog.

KnightDriver

04/24/2017 at 09:07 PM

According to wiki, Carlos Jaime Alazraqui did the voice for the Taco Bell dog. I know him from Reno 911 as the Garcia character. Oh yea, he did the original Spyro the Dragon games as Spyro. Interesting. In Skylanders he does Hot Dog and Fiesta. Cool! He has a very long list of voice credits in TV, film and video games. Thanks for making me look him up.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

04/24/2017 at 07:18 PM

I love Skies of Arcadia, but I didn't finish it either. I bought the remaster for Gamecube a couple years ago, and played a little but then got distracted. I should really hook it up sometime. That would be cool.

04/24/2017 at 08:45 PM

If I ever get some kind of stable job that I dig, I'll set up a room with all the retro systems ready to go. Right now, it's just Mark, I and XBO and it's really hard to do anything else. Just not enough time. Come to think of it, "Mark, I and XBO" sounds like a tv show title. Maybe "Mark, XBO and I" sounds a little better. I basically stick with whatever he's playing. On my own, I try to do some gaming but I always run out of time.

Phantasystar77

04/24/2017 at 10:01 PM

Great stuff. The Skylanders series is so much fun to play. It may be aimed at kids and I may be close to 41, but I don't care. I play games to have fun and there's a lot of fun to be had with those games.

04/24/2017 at 10:25 PM

Yea. I'm a little bit older and still enjoy them. The whimsical and colorful designs are, I guess, a formula to appeal to kids under 12 or so (that's when my nephew stopped following it). I guess I should be a serious male adult and go find a good cash flow to take part in. Bah! I've always been an artistic type. There's no accounting for me in the mainstream.

Halochief90

04/27/2017 at 07:30 AM

I've always wanted to play Skies of Arcadia, as a big fan of that era of RPGs. Sega should rerelease it at some point. No idea why not, since they seem keen on rereleasing nearly every other notable game of there's over and over.

04/27/2017 at 07:39 PM

It's strange it hasn't been rereleased. The characters have been in all sorts of other Sega games. Apparently the game didn't do well financially when it came out.

goaztecs

04/27/2017 at 12:09 PM

Never played Skies but I always dug how the game looked. It was also one of those games I used to come across all the time, but never picked up because it was a little too pricey for something I wouldn't play, or the disc looked like it was used on gravel. Now I can't find it or any DC games.

The VMU stuff is awesome. Shame more games didn't have more mini games on that thing.

04/27/2017 at 07:24 PM

I don't know how I got it. I wasn't buying expensive games. Just like you I was always looking for deals and cheaper stuff. I guess I got it at just the right time.

I didn't play any other game that used it.

PixlBit