As a huge
Indiana Jones fan, I was immediately addicted to the ZX Spectrum version of the
Last Crusade released after the premiere of the movie, back in 1989.
This new
Indiana Jones adventure was available for practically every single 8 and 16 bit
systems available, and, on a few 16 bit computers, there was also a graphic
adventure edition that I consider to be one of the best point and click adventure
games ever made. One of my first videos was about the DOS and Amiga versions of
the point and click graphic adventure of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,
so, if you’re interested to see one of my early reviews, just click on the
rectangle.
I’ve, just
recently, played the Megadrive/Genesis action game of the Last Crusade that was
released 3 years later. It has some
pretty nice tweaks and little details that differ from those home computer
ports from ’89.
So, let’s
start it up and have a taste of Indy’s whip!
Produced in
1992 by U.S. Gold, it’s an obvious adaptation of the third Indiana Jones movie
that I consider to be the best, and it was adapted from that older home
computer video game that was released about the same time as the movie itself and
took advantage of that. The Action Game of the Last Crusade can be really
frustrating and extremely difficult when we try it for the first time, but if
you’re an Indiana Jones fan like me, you just won’t quit easily! And, if you
love the movie as much as I do, you’ll also enjoy this game!
Indy can
punch or use his trustful whip to stun and get rid of all the enemies that
prowl in all the five levels of the game. So, we’ll be searching for the Cross
of Coronado in Utah, also in Utah try to escape a chase on top of this circus
train avoiding the thugs and all the animals, explore the catacombs in Venice,
ascend Castle Brunwald in Austria and, finally, get the Holy Grail and rescue
Indy’s father from certain death.
Graphically,
the megadrive/genesis version of the Last Crusade is simply the best.
Sprites of
the enemies and even of Indy could be a lot better for a game that was released
3 years later that the original. But I can live with that, ‘cause the action
just compensates that! As for the backgrounds, I found them pretty good and
follow the scenes of the movie quite well and with a nice parallax scrooling
that was absent from those early versions from 1989. That rain effect on the
fourth level in the Castle of Brunwald is nicely done and, again, a better
approach to the scenes of the movie.
Now, as for
sound and music, some bits were adapted directly from the soundtrack of the
movie but with a pretty bad result, and there’s some other tunes that have
little or nothing to do with an Indiana Jones adventure. And Sega’s 16 bit
console was surely capable of a lot better. As for the sound effects, those are
nicely done and just do their job.
So, this
multidirectional platform game is quite enjoyable, but for Indiana Jones fans
only. It doesn’t bring any newer of fresher stuff to the genre. On the
contrary, it brings new stuff to that 1989 original Last Crusade video game
released for home computers. So, for this, I consider the megadrive/genesis
version the best of them all.
I forgot to
mention that in the end of some levels there’s a tougher enemy to kill, and if
you’re willing to try it out and need some help to advance to the next level,
there’s this combination of button strokes that will provide just that: when
the LucasFilm logo appears, press A, B, C - B, C, A - C, A, B, and you’re good
to go!
The game is
not too bad as most gamers say, but there are a hell lot better platform games
for you to enjoy! And, if you want to play an excellent game with Indy, try
Indiana Jones’ Greatest Adventures for the Super Nintendo.
Luis Royo
is a Spanish artist, responsible for many astonishing fantasy illustrations
published in so many media formats that range from art books and magazines all
through music CD covers and video games.
So, in 1987
and in that last area, Dinamic Software hired Royo to create the artwork for
their latest title that was about to be released: Game Over.
Adverts on
magazines, not only in Spain but also in France and the United Kingdom, was all
around and, in this last country, the drawing had a huge negative impact
because of the offending portrayal of this awesomely gorgeous girl that was
showing more than it would be probably allowed. The game was being published by
Imagine Software and it caused a huge controversial wave of negative feedback
that also helped selling the game!
Game Over
is an amazing action run and gun platformer by Ignácio Ruiz, also know as
“Snatcho”, where we play as Arkos, a mega Terminator once faithful to the
beautiful and evil Princess Gremla, yes, that one! Our mission is to kill her
and put an end to her cruel and oppressive leadership. To do that, we need to
fight our way through this linear prison planet called Hypsis engaging these
hordes of enemies and reach the end where a ship will transport us to the next
planet.
Once
arrived into this new world, the planet Sckunn, the challenge is bigger and not
as linear as the first one. Gladly, instead of grenades, we managed to get a
giant laser which destroys all that crosses our path. Unfortunately this laser
is limited. We can only use it twenty five times.
Planet
Sckunn is divided into two stages: the Forest and the Palace. We must be very
careful not to drown in the first one, so we must avoid the lakes at all costs.
Once arrived in the Palace, there are elevators that takes us, you guessed it,
to different floors. Be aware of mines that are scattered around the palace and
will obviously explode when touched!
But, before
we slain the evil Princess, let’s take a deeper look into her controversial
portrait. That original artwork appeared, 3 years earlier, on a cover of Heavy
Metal, an American science fiction and fantasy comics magazine that is around since
April of 1977. Because of its “adult illustrated fantasy” content, there was
never any type of fuss around its covers’ possible visual disturbance. But,
when that same drawing ended up on an inlay of a ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, MSX
and Commodore 64 video game, intended for kids, and with Imagine’s quality
seal, the negative impact was huge! Nonetheless, it also helped to sell lots of
copies!
Something
had to be done quickly to reduce that negative impact that Game Over’s cover
made in the United Kingdom, even after a huge poster had been offered to the
readers of issue 21 of Your Sinclair magazine. That meant that almost every
bedroom in UK had a Game Over poster with Princess Gremla in all her glory!
Retailers
demanded that cassette and disk inlays started being printed with Dinamic’s
logo on top of the offending nipple and, as well in some covers with a
screenshot of the game itself. At the same time, art editor of Crash Magazine,
Oli Frey, was working over the original Luis Royo artwork placing a kind of
steel plate putting an end to the controversy.. kind of.
Game Over
ended up winning the award for best advert and best video game cover of the
year by readers of Crash Magazine.
The game
was also available for DOS, but only in Spain. This port was developed by Pedro
Sudón and has graphics taken directly from the ZX Spectrum version.
I’ll soon
be covering with more detail this topic about video game cover art from mid-eighties
to early nineties that was, for me, the most incredible and competitive Era
with so many great artists leaving their mark in the video game industry.
Let's take a look at my new T-Shirt & the 22 video games, and other gaming related stuff, that I've added to my collection over the last three months! There's stuff for the PC, original XBOX, XBOX 360, PlayStation 2, Amiga, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and the Amstrad CPC!
Let's take a journey through time and watch the 2nd Part of Pixel THING's E3 retrospective. In this one I'll be covering years from 2006 to 2015.
On last week’s episode of It's a Pixel THING:
• A
silhouette on a window of a shaking cabin;
• Summer
arrived in style;
• The
War of the Worlds meets the Terminator;
• And
a guy shoots this dude for riding is skate.
2006
Xbox 360,
PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii were the most coveted items of 2006’s E3.
By that
time, Microsoft’s console was the only one that was already available in stores
and its main weapon were the exclusives Fable 2, Halo 3 and Peter Moore’s
announcement that Grand Theft Auto IV would have exclusive future episodic
content through Xbox Live. Obviously, those were later also available for
PlayStation 3 and Windows PCs.
However,
all the attention was towards the Nintendo Wii. Huge lines, with up to four
hours of wait time, formed just to try out this revolutionary console. Even
Steven Spielberg wanted to test this motion sensitive controller that the Wii
is best known for! It was, without any doubt, the center of all game related
things at E3 that year. Wii Sports, a Wii adapted version of Legend of Zelda:
Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3; these were Nintendo’s highlights.
They’ve also announced the Nintendo’s DS Lite availability in US territory,
never mentioning Wii’s price. This was reserved for later in the year, closer
to its launch.
Microsoft’s
press conference was all about games and, also, featured Bill Gates’
announcement of the Live Anywhere service that would bring closer together their
7th generation console and PCs via the upcoming Windows Vista
operating system.
As for
Sony, they’ve announced PS3 prices and revealed the SixAxis motion sensing
controller that was later dropped off and swapped by the version 3 of the good
old DualShock with vibration capabilities.
Besides all
games mentioned before, there were others that also deserve some recognition: God
of War II, Guitar Hero 2, Assassin’s Creed, Crysis, Battlefield 2142, Gears of
War, Red Steel, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin and Ratchet & Clank: Size
Matters.
July of 2006
was also stage for two awfully sad announcements by the ESA, the Entertainment
Software Association: the transformation of the Electronic Entertainment Expo into
an invite-only event, to reduce crowd; and the banishing of booth babes.
2007
So, 2007’s
E3 moved to Santa Monica and was consequently labeled as Media and Business
Summit, dedicated to a restrict group of journalists. In consequence, after the
60 thousand visitors of the past year, 2007’s E3 had only 10 thousand people
walking through these corridors during those 3 days.
Events and
press conferences took place in various hotels in Santa Monica, rather than at
a specific central location, and small independent developers were hampered and
stifled by the big boys. This fact was highly criticized by Maxis’ co-founder
Will Wright.
Spite these
changes and controversy, E3 was stage of a few good video game announcements by
Sony and Microsoft: MotorStorm, that would come bundled with a new 80 GB PS3, Halo
3 and Halo Wars, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Fallout 3, Silent Hill: Origins, Metal
Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Bioshock, Gran Turismo 5, Call of Duty 4: Modern
Warfare, Resident Evil 5 and Soul Calibur IV, to name a few.
On the
Nintendo side, there were some peripheral announcements for the Wii: the Wii
Wheel bundled with the brand new Mario Kart Wii, the Wii Balance Board and the
Wii Zapper. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Metroid Prime 3:
Corruption were also demoed and deserve being mentioned.
2008
Second year
of the new E3 format that only had around 5000 attendees, 50% less than 2007’s
event.
Again in
LA, and apart from all that criticism, an exclusive Nintendo DS Grand Theft
Auto game was announced – Chinatown Wars – that is still considered the best
title for that handheld! It was later also available for the Sony PSP and other
portable devices, such as Apple’s iPhone and iPad, and Android based
smartphones and tablets.
Nintendo
also announced the Wii Speak and the Wii MotionPlus expansion device, for more
accurate movement. Also a Wii Music demo was presented, along with some other
goodies: Animal Crossing: City Folk, The Conduit and Wii Sports Resort.
Besides
announcements of big updates for Xbox Life and for the PlayStation Network,
news from Microsoft and Sony were basically in the form of sequels for their
greatest franchises: Resistance 2, Fallout 3, Fable 2, Ratchet & Clank (future): Quest for Booty, Gears of War
2, Resident Evil 5, Saints Row 2, Final Fantasy XIII and a tiny sneak peek of
God of War III.
2009
The old E3
is back! (Booth babes)
And, with
it, awesome game announcements: Assassin’s Creed 2, Forza MotorSports 3, Gran
Turismo and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for the PSP, teaser trailers for Crysis
2 and Halo: Reach, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and New Super Mario Bros Wii, Uncharted
2: Among Thieves, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Heavy Rain, Castlevania:
Lords of Shadow, The Beatles: Rock Band, with the presence of Paul McCartney
and Ringo Starr themselves on the stage of Microsoft’s press conference, and
Red Dead Redemption.
It was also
the year for unveilings of motion sensor controllers: Project Natal from
Microsoft and Sony’s PlayStation Move. Sony also revealed their new PSP Go
handheld.
This year,
UbiSoft and Electronic Arts had also press conferences of their own and was the
first time we’ve had a glimpse to The Last Guardian, the spiritual sequel to
Shadow of the Colossus.
Now… where
were we? (booth babes)
2010
Two days
before the beginning of the actual 2010’s E3 event, Microsoft’s press
conference convinced the audience with its presentation of the Kinect, formerly
known as Project Natal, and various demos were presented live on stage: Dance
Central, Kinectimals, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved and Kinect Star Wars. If that
wasn’t enough, a new slimmer version of the Xbox 360 was also unveiled and the
upcoming Gears of War 3 was announced.
Nintendo
centered its conference on the new 3DS system and the re-release of classic
titles like Donkey Kong, not forgetting the usual announcement of a new Zelda game:
Skyward Sword for the Wii, but, due to wireless interferences, some technical issues
occurred.
After Gabe
Newell’s statement that it was “a waste of time” to develop games for the
PlayStation 3, he made an appearance at Sony’s press conference to announce
that PS3’s Portal 2 was the best console version! Another awesome moment was Kevin
Butler’s inspiring message to all gamers (video)…
There was
also time for Konami’s disastrous presentation. I’m not gonna comment this.
It’s so freaking stupid!
Let’s just
forget that this happened and watch some highlights of a few of the most
important video games present: Mafia 2, God of War: Ghost of Sparta, Call of
Duty: Black Ops, Test Drive Unlimited 2, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings,
Fallout: New Vegas, MotorStorm: Apocalypse, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and the
reboot of Twisted Metal. As you can see, reboots and remakes came a long way.
2011
Another
year for portable systems from Nintendo and Sony, leaving Microsoft a step back
and completely loosing that year’s E3. But, spite weak Kinect demonstrations,
the brand unveiled Halo 4, Forza 4 and the final release date for Gears of War
3.
Sony’s brand
new handheld, the Vita, was announced and a partnership with AT&T was
received with laughs by the journalists present at the brand’s press
conference. However, this was probably the most impressive piece of technology
present at E3 that year.
As for Nintendo’s
Wii U, it was the first 8th generation console to be announced. It
was also Nintendo’s very first high-definition system that features this unique
gamepad with an embedded touchscreen that can, in supported games, be used
independently of the main display. Aside from a bunch of Wii U demonstrations
and the celebration of the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda (trailer of Skyward Sword), the 3DS also
had their own spotlights: Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7 and Star Fox 64 3D.
This was a
year of other big video game announcements: remember Duke Nukem Forever? It was
finally released later that year! Battlefield 3, Mass Effect 3, Batman: Arkham
City, (The Elder Scrolls V) Skyrim,
the reboot of Tomb Raider, BioShock Infinite and Uncharted 3: Drake’s
Deception.
2012
This was a
quiet year. People were expecting major console announcements from Sony and
from Microsoft. Nintendo, on the other hand, completely lost the opportunity to
really stand out and only showed a slightly improved version of their U
console, with some tweaks to its controller and main unit. However, three
titles did impress the crowd: New Super Mario Bros. U, Pikmin 3 and Rayman
Legends.
So, the
main attractions were the games! And, the one that made people’s eyes pop out
was Watch Dogs, with its unique style of gameplay in this beautifully designed
open world environment.
Besides
Ubisoft’s innovative game, other amazing products were revealed: Beyond: Two
Souls, Resident Evil 6, Forza Horizon, The Last of Us, Dance Central 3 – with a
special demonstration by Usher (Microsoft
Press Conference) –, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Assassin’s Creed 3,
Crysis 3, God of War: Ascension, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch and Far
Cry 3.
2013
Finally,
the 8th generation arrived in great style.. at least, for Sony!
2013’s E3
was one the most anticipated ever. But Microsoft’s recent announcement of DRM
implementation and always-online requirement for its new XBOX One console
automatically opened the doors to Sony’s PlayStation 4 ascent to victory, not
mentioning Xbox One’s 499 dollars starting price against PS4’s 399.
Nintendo
also had a bland E3 with few attractive moments. A new Pokémon (X and Y) for the 3DS and, for the Wii
U, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, Bayonetta 2, Super Smash Bros.,
Super Mario 3D World and Mario Kart 8.
Nonetheless,
Microsoft should be proud of their own Xbox One launch titles presented: Dead
Rising 3, Ryse: Son of Rome, a brand new Halo (5) game and the reboot of Killer Instinct as a free-to-play title
that has all game modes available but only one playable character. Its
presentation, however, was stained by an unfortunate comment made during the
on-stage demonstration.
Konami also
celebrated its 40th birthday and showed off some titles like, for
instance, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom
Pain.
Other
amazing video games were announced: Need for Speed: Rivals, Assassin’s Creed 4:
Black Flag, Trials Fusion, Battlefield 4, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Infamous:
Second Son, Titanfall, The Crew, The Order: 1868, The Division, Gran Turismo 6,
The Wolf Among Us, the remake of Rise of the Triad and the highly anticipated
Grand Theft Auto 5.
2014
Last year’s
E3 was one of those that I really enjoy watching. So many games displayed, so
many game announcements and so many promises from the main players.
Gamers were
amazed by the quantity, but, mainly, by the quality of the titles that were
showcased. Microsoft and Sony pulled off interesting press conferences with
pretty solid announcements and video game unveilings. As for Nintendo and just
like in last year’s E3, they’ve opted for a pre-recorded presentation of their
novelties and made also some interesting announcements like: Hyrule Warriors,
Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Xenoblade Chronicles X, the next Legend of Zelda
for Wii U, Mario Party 10 and Star Fox Wii U, not mentioning this fever called
Amiibo.
So, I’m
just gonna point out a few titles from a huge list of awesome games that were
announced and others that had a playable version available at the show floor: Call
of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Batman: Arkham Knight, Assassin’s
Creed: Unity, Destiny, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege, Bloodborne, The Evil
Within, Elite Dangerous, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Driveclub, Halo 5:
Guardians, Mortal Kombat 10, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The Sims 4, Far Cry 4 and
Alien: Isolation.
Also a
trailer for GTA V was shown, announcing that a polished version of the game
would later be available for PS4, Xbox One and PC.
Grand Theft
Auto 5 was initially launched in September of 2013 and sold, ‘til 6 of june of
2015, for all platforms altogether, more than 52 million copies. What a feat!
2015
And we’ve
reached 2015. And what a show it was, starting right off with Oculus VR hosting
a pre-E3 press conference unveiling the Rift’s final version and showing off
all its power through some on-stage demonstrations.
Bethesda
also hosted its very first E3 press conference and ended up blowing everyone away
with this DOOM trailer and the official announcement of the release date of
Fallout 4.
But two of
the biggest highlights of the show were Microsoft’s announcement of Xbox One
backward compatibility and Microsoft HoloLens that was also nicely received by
Minecraft fans, in which I’m not included. My thing is more towards this nice
Rare compilation of old gems from the past (Rare
Replay).
Then the
Electronic Arts conference came along and I simply had to grab my nuts from the
ground after this mind-blowing demo of Battlefront. Apart from this, I just
can’t quite remember what really happened in EA’s conference... I remember Pelé
being there trying to say something to the audience, and… that’s pretty much
it!
I really
hope that Electronic Arts had learned something from this year’s Ubisoft
presentation. That was one hell of a press conference, with awesome and
confident hosting from Miss Aisha Tyler that took us all through this journey
of awesome titles: For Honor, (Tom
Clancy’s) Ghost Recon Wildlands and Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, besides
others.
Now, as for
Sony, it just set the whole place on fire: The Last Guardian haven’t died spite
all the difficulties that the development team had while working on it for the
PS3. It seems that Gabe Newell’s previous statement, back in 2010, was real!
Then, the place completely exploded when Shenmue 3 was announced! And that
wasn’t the end of it: Final Fantasy 7 HD Remake was unveiled! Looks like Sony
had been listening to fans! And, to conclude this astonishing press conference,
a rolling demo of Uncharted 4 was revealed. What a ride!
Oh! I
almost forgot about Nintendo! What can I say about that pre-recorded video?
Hummm… it was bad. Nintendo was completely unrecognizable this year. Practically
passed unnoticed ‘cause Sony’s press conference was still in everyone’s minds!
That was probably the biggest problem for Nintendo, from where I’m standing.
Moving on,
other titles must be, as well, highlighted: Forza 6, Dark Souls 3, The
Division, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Gears of War 4, Need for Speed, Plants vs
Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, The Crew: Wild Run, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Deus Ex:
Mankind Divided, Battlefield Hardline, Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst, Mass
Effect: Andromeda and King’s Quest.
