PixlBit

So after CTR, I was stoked for the next real Crash adventure. Unfortunately I'd have to wait a while for it with Crash Bash coming in between, a game I never tried. I could give it a spin now, but it looks like a party game best suited for multiplayer and after Nintendo Land, every game like that seems like ass. Seriously, Nintendo Land is fucking amazing if you can get two to four people with you. But once Crash's next adventure landed, it took a while for me to eventually get the game (until I had an Xbox), but when I did, I was impressed....at the graphics.

So Crash was at the height of his popularity and Naughty Dog did the only logical thing: Stick him in a cart racer. And boy did they succeed on this one. CTR kicks every Mario Kart game's butt, with the possible exception of Double Dash (mainly because that one was so different that you could easily prefer what it did over what standard cart racers do). Why it kicks so much 

Crash 1 was good. 2 was great. Warped is one of the best platformers ever made. It's a lot like the NES Mega Man games in a way, while it didn't quite make the leap in quality 2 did, the improvements it did make were for the better, where the game felt just right. It was also the first game I ever got really excited for, I knew by the end of Crash 2 that Dr Cortex wasn't finished, otherwise they would have shown them. And when I saw what to expect in the commercials, I was stoked. Dinosaurs, motorcycles, dogfights, it just felt like Naughty Dog knew what I thought was awesome and stuck it in the game.

Crash Bandicoot 2 improved on the first entry in almost every way. It perfected the controls, it increased the location variety as well as improving the level design. It introduced some new gameplay concepts that each worked very well. It's just such a great game and my second favorite game of the PS1 era (number one should be obvious). 

There are three things I noticed I tend to like a lot more than the average gamer: Bioware, Pokemon, and Crash Bandicoot. And while the first two get their critical praise, remain relevant and receive high sales, Crash has been mostly irrelevant for a little over the past ten years. But you know what? I still fucking love this guy.

So from what I've heard the Robocop remake sucked. It was pretty apparant it would when you heard the movie wouldn't be as wonderfully gory as the original. But, enough negativity, let's do something positive. Like my all time favorite remakes of video games. Which, unlike the film industry, can actually be pretty damn good. I'm more avoiding the fresh coat of paint ones though, so I can get real remakes though. Ones that take the basis of the original and revamp them for something more modern. Basically, they don't just look different like Halo Anniversary, they play and feel different too.

Rising is a strange spin-off. In many ways it's the exact opposite of what people expect from Metal Gear Solid. But in other ways, it shares a lot in common with Metal Gear in how bizarre it is. From Raiden stabbing himself to prove how nuts he is to the final boss against professional wrestler Glenn Beck, this game is weird in so many good ways. But it's a different kind of weird, the Platinum Games weird. Yet, it actually fits really well with Metal Gear and ended up being second only to 3 in the series for me and my favorite of Platinum's games.

Peace Walker is pretty much the opposite of 4. While 4 was about wrapping up the story, Peace Walker's about unlocking as much content as you can. 4 had near flawless controls, Peace Walker had aiming with the face buttons. 4 pushed technology to a new level, PW was a portable game. 4 had a weird crossover with Assassin's Creed, PW had one with Monster Hunter.

Busy day today, so just thought I'd pop in and give some awareness towards Energy Hook. One of the few Kickstarters I backed, it looks really good. The Kickstarter's long over, but the game's coming onto PC, PS4, and Vita. So here's why I'm excited:

I never thought I would ask "What the fuck?" more than when I played Metal Gear Solid 2. Then I played Metal Gear Solid 4. I don't even know where to start with this game. Wrapping up all of 2's plot points was a no lose battle. If they tried and failed to in one game, they'd get shit on for that. If they spread it out between games, they'd get shit on for making things more convoluted (which, considering this is Kojima, was inevitable). Yet neither happened, and they performed god's work by wrapping up everything in 4. No matter what I say after, this game deserves ridiculous praise just for that feat alone.