Time ghosts.
Welcome to another lengthy episode of Nerds Without Pants! Come let us keep you company for half the workday as we talk about bad video game endings, “Not E3”, and witness a Tetsuya Nomura mirror match!
Competent kart racing with a light dash of Nickelodeon paint.
Five minutes with Nickelodeon Kart Racers and it’s very clear that Mario Kart 8 acted as not only an inspiration to the game, but in many cases as a blueprint for its design. As it turns out, that’s not a bad thing at all and helps make this a very competent racing game with some nice features and even a few things that help set it apart. But like any facsimile, it’s not nearly as crisp, pristine, or flawless as the original.
Being a delivery boy has never been so much fun.
It’s not often that a game does something that completely surprises me, but The Messenger managed to catch me totally off guard. What appears to be a modern 8-bit take on Ninja Gaiden suddenly morphs into something more at the halfway point of the game. Its once linear levels branch out and become a Metroid-like maze, with hidden secrets abound. Not only that, but the graphics and sound boost into 16-bit and the world takes on an extra level of detail. While this gimmick was incredibly cool, the tight gameplay and intricate level design is what makes The Messenger a truly special experience.
Tecmo Ninja
When I hear the word "ninja", one thing immediately comes to mind- the 80's. It was an era that was very friendly to ninja culture and the kids that embraced it. Meanwhile, video game developers where busy cooking up games of the same nature in the arcades. Tecmo was one of those developers, and in 1988, they released a brawler of sorts called Ninja Gaiden. A year later, they ported the game over to the NES, but changed the style of gameplay to better fit the style of home console gaming. They replaced the "beat 'em up" theme with a simple action/platformer approach with a bigger emphasis on well-timed jumps and using awesome ninja skills. Tecmo also added a deeper story and a new way to tell it.
