Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing, the lovable simulator of blinding debt, and the fulfiller of simple dreams of owning your own home in a town filled with talking animals. To this day Animal Crossing has garnered a rather large popularity with as of the post two sequels and a third poised to be released in the near future; but did you know that Animal Crossing is a sequel in itself? Animal Crossing is the sequel to the game Doubutsu no Mori (Animal Forest). Now Doubutsu no Mori believe it or not was a game for the Nintendo 64, and surprisingly enough had similar graphics to that of the GameCube sequel. Graphics aside that’s where the games start to get different, Doubutsu no Mori was more or less caked in Japanese culture and as such wasn’t viewed as being fit for American audiences, as such the sequel was heavily localized with many things being changed to suit American audiences. The localizing however by no means made the game unwieldy or awkward to play, the game was reinvented for western audiences with items and holidays being changed to be more familiar for the public.

The game has no plot, it’s a game which in theory never ends; you play the game as either a boy or girl and buy a house, from there you go about paying off your house loan and actively striving to get all the furniture and fish/bugs/fossils. The game runs on actual time working off the internal clock of the GameCube and the clock saved onto the memory card with your town. This adds a great deal depth to the game as during different times of the day you can encounter different bugs/fish and the people of your town will over the course of the day perform their own rudimentary day to day tasks. Over the course of the week certain special people will visit your town and by interacting with them you can usually obtain rare pieces of furniture, or items.

Oh and a singing dog pops up every Saturday evening.

Animal Crossing has much to offer in the ways of things to do, you can catch bugs or fish, dig for fossils, or run errands for the people in your town. Though the more interesting option would probably be to collect all the furniture and upgrade your house. There are over hundreds of different furniture items in the game ranging from modern furniture to show pieces with little features like the Master Sword that plays the item finding theme and even to full NES games which you can play at any point in time. You can also find clothing ranging in over hundreds of designs with which you can customize your character aside from just buying clothing, you can also design your own patterns and you can wear them or use them to make umbrellas, wallpapers, or signs.

There's a lot of stuff in this game.

Now if just collecting furniture isn’t your thing there are other things to do, like work on expanding your towns museum,You can go about doing this by donating bugs, fish, paintings, and fossils you find. This doesn’t just give you a great museum it also helps to attract more people to your town increasing its population over time. Another thing you can do in the game is plant/cut down tree’s and flowers, you literally can completely change the landscaping to your will, by doing this you attract more people and if you can get the town to be perfect for a few days you will be awarded with the coveted Golden Shovel.

Which you can use to do the exact same thing you were previously with.

Animal Crossing also contains a secret which you can only access if you have a Gameboy Advance and a Gameboy to GameCube link cable. If you hook the cable to your Gameboy and talk to Kapn’ by the dock, he will offer to ferry you to Animal Island. Animal Island is a small island you can access from your Gameboy where you can get items of varying rarity, exotic fruits, and you can even have the islander(s) potentially move into your town. The best part is that when you unhook your Gameboy you can still access your Island as it is available for you to mess around with until you shut your Gameboy off in which the island is saved onto the Gameboys ram. You can go back and forth as much as you want as many times as you want (it’s an easy way to get coconuts).

Many fun times are to be had.

When I got this game back in the early 2000’s I recall spending my afternoons blissfully catching fish and shaking tree’s for fruit to pay off my house. The day I got my first NES game in it (it was Excite Bike) I nearly exploded with giddiness, and fervently checked Tom Nooks store every day hoping to find a NES game there, unfortunately only Crazy Redd ever seemed to get them once in a blue moon… naturally I bought them.

I firmly believe that I can trust his face.

Animal Crossing is a game is a game that can be played either casually for about a half hour or an hour. or you could spend your entire day playing it. It is the kind of game with no end, so you can play it without stop. Since the game operates according to real time even when you aren’t playing it the people in your town will still go about their day to day lives; also since the game moves according to real time if you don’t play for a while your town will inevitably suffer (Weeds EVERYWHERE!!11!1!111!?!/1). The game has an infinite amount of replay value (so long as you are into reality simulating games) and as such holds up well to its sequels seeing as only in the first game can you find full NES games built into furniture, travel into a special island town which can be saved to your Game boy, or partake in holidays that are exclusive to the original Animal Crossing game.

Tote’s bro.

Viewtiful Joe

It also goes by the alternate title “Greatest Side-scrolling platformer in the universe!”

Viewtiful Joe is the loving creation by Team Viewtiful a group working for Capcom Production Studio 4. They later would become Clover Studios before being shutdown by Capcom and going off to form their own game making group Platinum Games, which have made quite a few modern gems (Madworld). Prior to production the game was intended to be a rush job in which they had no more than 12 months and a five man team to finish the game. However over time the team progressively grew in size and the finished product took 21 months to complete. This game was thought up by and produced by Hideki Kamiya. You may know him for his other games, Devil May Cry, Okami, and God hand. Viewtiful Joe was incredibly well received by everyone and won numerous awards over the course of its lifetime for its innovative design and both its quirky cast and story.

There are two versions of this game, the Gamecube version and the PS2 version. The Gamecube has nothing particular special as it was the original version, however the PS2 version contains several extra characters; they include Dante and Trish from Devil May Cry each have their own original stories as well. In both games you have the ability to play as quite a few characters though they need to be unlocked in order to play as them, each of the unlockable characters have their own respective stories adding a great deal of playability to both versions.

Cameo’s as far as the eye can see!

The game is a 2D side-scroller though it is nothing like its predecessors, Viewtiful Joe is something new, it combines beat em’ up action platforming with some simple and amusing puzzles. Joe can only move in four directions and back your enemies will come at you from all sides including the foreground and background. At your disposal aside from the typical punches and kicks are three abilities that you unlock throughout the game; the first is “Slow” which allows you to slow the passage of time to increase the damage of your punches or to effect your surroundings to fulfill a puzzle. The next ability is “Mach Speed” which speeds up Joe and his surroundings when using this Joe’s attacks are lightning fast and after a while of punching he glows red as his attacks gain fire attribute and he becomes immune to fire, it can also be used to move fast as the name would suggest. The final ability Joe gains is “Zoom in” while using it enemies on screen are stunned by Joe’s coolness, also Joe’s attacks become much stronger. These three abilities can be used in combination with each other to make strong combo’s.

Mach Speed in action!

This game stars Joe, an average fellow who happens to like super heroes, comics, and old movies. One day while going to see a special run of a classic super hero movie with his girlfriend Silvia tragedy strikes as a monster from the movies reaches out from the screen and snatches her away. From there on Joe begins an epic quest through Movie Land to save his girlfriend and all of Movieland from the evil Jadow.

Some people just don’t appreciate the classics.

Each level in the game is based off a certain genre of movie ranging from Horror to Sci-Fi. The Stages are beautifully done and work amazingly well with the Cel-shaded style of the characters and enemies. Viewtiful Joe is essentially Double-Dragon or River City Ransom mixed with the most iconic movies of all time and stirred together with several gallons of awesome creativity. Aside from the movie references rife in the stages there are allusions to famous real life personages and companies throughout the game. Just to make the game even better it has a great soundtrack with music ranging from rock to techno that always fits the mood of each level and changes to reflect what's going on.

Case in point; Hulk Davidson

Now to use these abilities you use your VFX gauge (pictured below). If you use up your VFX then Joe goes from being a Hero back to being Average Joe. The VFX gauge refills over time and once its recovered he transforms back into his Hero Self. Now the difference between the forms of Joe aside from the awesome powers is that Average Joe takes more damage and deals less, while Viewtiful Joe is the opposite. The VFX powers are all useful and are consistently used throughout the game to platform and pass through puzzles.

You can use them to kick butt. . .

. . .Or solve puzzles.

The story of the game follows Joe, as he adventures through Movieland after his girlfriend Silvia is kidnapped in front of his eyes during a date at the movies. Joe leaps through the Movie screen to try and save her where he meets his hero Captain Blue who tells him that he needs to unlock his secret potential and become the greatest hero ever, Viewtiful Joe! Joe then proceeds to travel throughout the entirety of Movieland fighting the forces of Jadow as he searches for Silvia. He fights Jadow’s many bosses and even the mysterious Other Joe. . .

DUN DUN DUN!!!!!!

After plowing through all the forces of Jadow and reaching the climax Joe fights the Evil King in Six Machine to free Silvia and save Movieland.

The story of Viewtiful Joe is a serious rescue the princess and save the world thoroughfare combined with a cast of characters who have original personalities and are rife with individual quirky humor such as a shark who has trouble remembering, a bat who talks to much, and a Thunder boy who needs to stop reading from the script. The fact that Joe takes nothing he’s doing seriously makes the game even greater as he catches all his foes off guard with his blunt statements and comic/movie logic he imposes on his adversaries. Also the consistent movie and television references add some extra fun to those who can identify them.

See if you can count the allusions to movies and old peripherals.

This game is loads of fun and is a gem regardless of what system you get it for, I would highly recommend this game to anyone who likes platforming and even more so to people who like characters that know how to be fun regardless of how serious the situation is. Also for those who liked the Devil May Cry series, there’s a certain character who will ring a few bells. . .

See what's in his hand? Yeah he’s the spirit in the sword.