Game List Manager Blog

Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne is one of the most amazing, beautiful and intreguing games I have play for any console. The video review below explains everything very well.

I would also like to add that there are 6 different endings depending on the difficulty at which you play the game and the choices you make as you play. The demon fusing system is really cool and can yield some very powerful allies, aside from the VERY wide array of demons and angels that you can befriend in the game, including DANTE from Devil May Cry!!!! There are a lot of amazing boss battles in this game, many or optional that you have to seek out including Lucifer himself at the end of the game in certain senarios, where upon beating him you basically become the new devil.

There are 2 different US releases of this game, one is the normal edition but there is also a limited edition that comes with the OST. This version can be recognized only by the callout on the back cover of the case, the rest of the packaging is identical to the regular edition.

Take my word for it that if you haven’t played this game before you will be more than happy and maybe even slightly obsessed with it (like myself) after you play it.

I just thought I could be informant and present a little bit about obscure Playstation 2 games, since I basically only collect the weird shit thats out there. I was playing Raiden III for US PS2 last night and realized all the games that are out there that most people and even gamers don’t know about. There have been MANY times when someone has looked at my collection and been stupefied about what they are looking at, I have to go through and explain every last game because nearly everything on the shelf is something that they “didn’t know was on the system.”

So here are some games that I have and love that you all might now know about.

Gitaroo Man

Gitaroo Man is about as unique as it comes. It’s a guitar rhythm game that doesn’t use that ridiculous guitar controller. It did in fact come out LONG before Guitar Hero, but then again, Guitar Hero is a direct rip off of Guitar Freaks from Konami, which is far better and no one knows it. Anyways, Gitaroo Man is more of an adventure game where you battle a bunch of different foes that all have their own form of gitaroo. There are other guitars, maracas, singing, trumpets and so on. You each get turns to attack and charge. While the enemy is attacking by shooting their music at you, you have to defend yourself by pressing x,square,triangle,o in time and in order. And when you attack, or charge you have to play the guitar by using the left analog stick and the circle button.

Here is a video of what’s supposed to be Master’s Play on the last stage. I can’t tell if it’s actually in Master’s Play or not, but even on normal this stage is extremely hard to complete.

Take my advise and get this game, you should have it in your collection, there are way too many good reasons that it was re-released just like Disgaea and Rez, which is next…

Streets of Rage 2 is finally out for the Wii Virtual Console. I know I’m a little late with this news, but I actually don’t even have my Wii out right now as I have been getting ready to move for the last few week.

Streets of Rage is the best side scrolling beat em’ up next to Gunstar (if you can even call it that). The music is the shit and so are the controls and the graphics, and it’s certain better than the first and arguably better than the 3rd. If you don’t have a Wii yet, get one. If you can’t find one, get one. And if you really can’t do that then get a damn Genesis or at least an emulator and play some older games for a change, they miss you and they have a lot more character than new ones.

I cant believe that Namco actually thinks that if they keep pumping out Tekkens, that at some point they will end up with a better product than Virtua Fighter. I admit that I am a total Sega fanboy but as far as these fighters are concerned, VF has always kicked the shit out of Tekken.

To start it all off… well Sega did. Sega released the original Virtua Fighter in 1993 and it was THE FIRST 3D fighting game ever made. No one can doubt that is was amazing, and in some respects still is. Soul Calibur is really cool, Tekken is really cool, but they’re only secondary. Virtua Fighter gets nearly perfect scores from all reviewers on all of its editions to the franchise, Tekken cannot say the same.

I just think its hilarious that Namco has to bring out a 4th and a 5th and a 6th, trying harder and harder every time, and Sega just plugs away, improving their product every time, to perfection, every time.

Just as a marker for the sheer impact that Virtua Fighter had and will continue to have on the fighting genre:

“In 1998 the series was recognized by the Smithsonian Institution for contributions in the field of Art and Entertainment, and became a part of the Smithsonian Institution’s Permanent Research Collection on Information Technology Innovation. The arcade cabinets are currently kept at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. “

Here is the link to the wikipedia page for more VF documentation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtua_Fighter

I can’t quite believe what the game store market has become. I used to live in Colorado and there were a few independent games stores here and there, so at least I had a choice. Now I live in southern California, and what game store do I have here to go to? GAMESTOP!!! and thats it, seriously.

I problem that I have with this is that they have strayed so far from the point of playing and enjoying video games that you almost can’t bear to enter those damn stores anymore. Every step of the way they want to sell you something.

Subscriptions, pre-orders, accessories, shit, crap, junk. I came into the store with the intention of buying a game that I have been looking forward to, and is all that I want. In order to get it I have to say no to a barrage of questions designed by the fat bastards that run that corporation to make them more money. I highly doubt that any of those money hungry monkeys even knows what a Saturn is, nor have them heard of stupid crazy rare and awesome games like Shinrei Jusatsushi Taromaru and Alien Soldier, both of which I had in my possession by the time I was 17.

Anyways, the point of this post is to try to make sure that all you real collectors out there are going to independent game stores whenever possible, those guys actually need the business and care about games. SUPPORT THE LOCAL!!!!