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Reviews in Altered States Double Feature By: PoisonRamune, the Apathetic Lizardman Due to a recent DS game sale at Toys R Us I ended up picking quite a few games that I would have never tried had I been made to pay full price. However, I found that 2 of these games not only exceeded what little expectations I had for them, but were also a blast to play while drunk or high. While the sale may have passed, I’m sure your penchant for drinking/smoking while gaming hasn’t. Perhaps I can pique your interest with this installment of games to play while faded. This time the reviews will be a little different as I’m not going to be covering games from the classic era, but rather 2 games that came out in the last year (late 2007 - 2008). Also, due to the nature of these games I found one to be more fun to play while drunk and the other to be more fun while smoking the herbs (but not while on both). Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures While I never played the game's predecessor, Lego Star Wars except for a brief 5 minutes on some game store’s demo console. I had read and heard very good things about the Lego movie series. The one thing that I didn’t hear about the games was the fact that they’re totally geared for children. Now, perhaps that’s obvious with the fact that this is a game series using plastic toy figurines and blocks to re-enact scenes from the famous movies, but I didn’t think the games were going to be so easy that there’s absolutely no way for you to die in the game (yes, you do die by taking too much damage from enemies or falling off platforms, but the consequence is so negligible it doesn’t matter at all).
In this game you play as Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones Jr. and the myriad of supporting characters from the movie. This in itself was a huge treat as not only could you be the standard cast such as: Marion, Henry Jones Sr., Short-Round, and Sallah. But you also have the chance to play as more obscure characters such as: a thuggee cult member, Rene Belloq, and even Captain Phillip Blumburtt. You are also given the option to “create a character” by mixing the hats, heads, and bodies of each of the characters in true Lego style. The only character I’ve made so far was Short Sallah Sr., a bastardize mix of: Short-Round, Sallah, and Lego Sean Connery (which I made more to explore the levels for 100% completion, as they each have a special skill to access certain parts of the level map).
The gameplay is pretty linear with some minor side branching. You have the option of picking one of the 3 movies in the 1980’s trilogy to play in and from there each movie is divided into 6 “episodes” (levels) each one following a key point in the movies plot. In each of these episodes you must transverse from point A to point B: on foot, by plane, via mine cart (my personal favorite level), and by other means of travel used in the film; collecting Lego studs (used as currency) and other bonus treasures along the way. While the levels are straightforward enough as to not make the younger players hopelessly lost, there are certain side routes and objectives you can follow in order to get a better score in the game (thus adding to your completion percentage). Even though beating the game’s story mode is incredibly easy, the task of obtaining a 100% completed save file is somewhat of a decent challenge for any veteran gamer. The controls are very solid for 3-D platformer. Everything from whipping to fighting is very tight and responsive. The one thing that I do find gimmicky and unnecessary is the touch screen controls for certain actions. Thankfully most of these actions have a button one can use as an alternative, however, the hand crank and turning pages on manuscripts are only controlled by the touch screen (both of which are quite annoying and time consuming gestures in and of themselves). The music is spot on and taken right from the original John Williams’ score. Both the music and sound effects set up the mood of each episode and makes it feel more like I’m playing a movie (albeit with cartoony toys) rather than playing a game. For a DS game the visuals are clean and nicely designed. Everything has a nice rendered feel to it (even though I’m sure the characters are mapped as sprites in the DS version), the Lego blocks look solid and their “built” forms are clear representations of their real world object counterparts. The cutscenes in the game are superb as they’re like watching a pantomimed version of scenes from the Indiana Jones movies. However, the scenes are somewhat censored/watered down as to not disturb its intended audience (most notable are the removing of Nazis/Nazism in the game, the way certain characters die in the cutscenes, and certain scenes that were dark and somewhat disturbing in the film have now been made whimsical and lighthearted). All in all they still tell the story of the heart throb professor and his amazing adventures of “fortune and glory.” However, one blaring problem with the visuals is the nonadjustable camera. This may be only the case with the DS due to its hardware limits, but at times I found it hard to figure out exactly where to land my jumps due to poor camera placement.
Playing this game while drinking adds a whole dimension of fun to it; maybe it’s only due to the fact that you’re playing just as sloppily as the children this game was intended for. Though, I also think the alcohol makes the game more bearable, as it does get somewhat repetitive with the similar level: patterns, objectives and implementations (I’m sure playing this game in a sort of beer fueled zombified marathon didn’t help the repetition either. Further reinforcing the idea that this game is meant for kids who have school, little league games, karate practice, and homework to keep them from playing the game from start to finish in one sitting). As I’ve mentioned before, the game’s difficulty also makes it great to play while drunk. I came to point in which my motor skills were incredibly delayed, yet was still faring pretty well. It eventually became like the sessions of Mortal Kombat Armageddon’s Konquest mode (the one player, action-adventure campaign mode) that Josh and I would partake in while incredibly drunk or in some hungover stupor; a game that your sentient brain didn’t really care about, yet your reptilian reflexes enjoyed working through. While I’m not saying that the game was bad/unplayable, it’s just not geared towards a veteran gaming audience. Final verdict: Space Invaders Extreme While Space Invaders Extreme uses the same sprite designs and a similar layout of its previous incarnations, it actually plays incredibly different. Even though you’re still shooting the multitudes of invaders in those classic grid formations, you’re also doing it with a colorful music twist. Gone is the static dead noise of a soundtrackless Space Invaders and in comes an array of fast techno beats accompanied by some very instrumental sound effects. The result is classic Space Invaders mixed with Rez or a game from the Every Extend series. The visuals in the game are also very bright and “trippy” like a kaleidoscopic orgasm on the screen. The generative music game aspects, colorful fluid fractal pattern backgrounds, and amazingly fun but simple shooter gameplay all work together; making you feel like you've been smoking weed.
The game shocks and awes you not only with an amazing audio-visual display that’s reserved for some sort of rave, but they also bombard with you with ever changing play modes within the level and bizarre bonuses & “micro-games.” The sheer amount of things thrown at you will cause mild sensory overload and perhaps even a false positive on your next drug test.
The gameplay is very straightforward; you move laterally along the bottom of the screen and shoot down those familiar invaders. However, along with your standard gun you’re given new bonus weapons like: the multi-shot (five bullets stacked side to side), bombs (which not only kill your target invader, but also the invader in the following row), and an arpeggio beam (basically, a laser that makes one of the coolest keyboard riffs when fired). The game also has several “micro-games” that are triggered by satisfying various conditions within the level. The micro-games are based on the core engine of the Space Invaders Extreme; however, their objectives often are more frantic and/or yield even trippier audio-visual results than the game's "main levels." The visual presentation is amazing; I simply can’t say it enough. The backgrounds are vivid and fluid in their animation, yet they don’t obscure the playing field in a distracting way. The selection of colors was well picked and gives the game a very acid visuals sort of feel. Even the interface and information hub were clean and easy to read/interpret, yet was very stylized at the same time. The soundtrack and the ambient effects were also very well produced. While some of the music in the game is the typical 2/4 count gabber (hard house) style electronica music. Some of the tracks take a nice break from such; going into a more bossa nova and even lounge style electronica. The sound effects in the game are made to synch right up with the background music, sometimes making it as fun to deliberately miss invaders as it is to shoot them down.
The desire to play this game while high should be a given. Naturally, after smoking, one’s hearing and visual senses are heightened along with an appreciation for music. Even though playing the game while sober can make the player feel somewhat stoned, the added effects of cannabis smokes creates a bizarre synergy making for a truly awesome DS gaming experience. Final verdict:
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