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Gaming: A couple quick Sony PSP game reviews, posed as haiku
Mon, 18 Sep 2006

Perhaps I'm onto something here - that all reviews should be preceeded by a summary haiku? After reading on, there will be a resoundingh No! I am sure..

Read on for quickie reviews of Bomberman and Ultimate Ghouls and Ghosts for the Sony PSP.

Bomberman (for Sony PSP)

Cold cold shower
Because the mind is fri-ed
Watch water spiral

Yes, I know, there is barely even a reach towards the style of a real haiku; introduce something sharp, then have a long but hanging line, and finally something profound. Really that is the best that can be done within the shell that my living mind has receeded into after attempting to try this title. It is important to note that I've not really played many of the Bomberman titles over the last 20-odd years the franchise has been around.. though I did get highly addicted to the TurboGrafx (PC Engine) version of Bomberman '94 as I was fiddling with emulation, and I even implemented my own Bomberman game. When you've implemented your own game to model another, one can suggest you have over-indulged. I think I can safely say that I really like the earlier titles I've played, but this latest PSP edition - although looking fantastic in top-down 3D is just more of the same. Hudson has managed to avoid the trap of betraying the original and compelling design, yet also delivered something carefully crafted to be ... brown. Multiplayer, check. Billions of mazes, check. Power-ons, check. Just whats the problem?

It is hard to really put my finger on what bores me so.. but firing up the title and.. ah, there it is -- I run around and bomb the wicked denizens of the first maze (yay!) and now have to find the exit to the level.. here I have a full level of bricks and walls and no enemies, and I just get to walk around, one at a time planting bombs to eventually reveal the exit. Thats not fun.

Maybe I managed to get the least optimal route through the maze, but in bomberman 94.. there isn't any such thing. Theres always something on the go. OKay, fine, I'm missing 'it' so fire up the 'battle arena' type mode with 3 AI players and myself (no one was around to play against).. run around, blowing things up, get caught by an AI and now.. wait for the AIs to kill each other. Aha, neat, theres a little bomb-launcher platform I can move around to try and catch an AI off-guard.. cute. Too bad, I'm still bored.

I dunno, maybe I've just not slept enough (which is very true), but for this particular title.. it is so well a recreation of the earlier games that I would just prefer them. Perhaps its the fun music in the earlier titles, or perhaps that the 2d titles will let me forgive something.. that a $40 3d-enhanced title will not permit me to overlook?

At any rate.. PSP's version of Bomberman has a perfect feature-sheet, but just didn't turn the crank.

Ultimate Ghosts n' Goblins (for Sony PSP)

Jump! Watch for my lance -
Eek! Foul monster touched me -
Now I am naked.

That verse is more fitting I think.

This is the opposite of Bomberman above -- sure while that title is more action puzzler while UGnG is pure arcade platforming crazyness, both are attempting to revive stalling franchises, to airbrush something old and classy to restore her to new heights. Here, beloved Capcom have suceeded, excelled.. translocated.

UGnG is not a remake per se - the levels are all new and many new powerups are to be found. The style is certainly borrowed and I should say the themes and design are very much inspired from those earlier titles.. but Capcom has instilled so much more energy into the game. It is fast paced and gorgeously animated, with bright contrasting colours and intricately moving sprites. Some action role-playing elements have been added -- the ability to carry multiple items around, platforms that switch around as buttons are pressed or bosses killed - to great effect, yet the difficulty has been ratcheted down for those of us who are both sad at gaming, and on the move. You can save in many places, turn off or pause anytime, and when you die you respawn at the same screen, so no annoying redo's. For sure the difficulty can be cranked up, and you'll be eaten alive the first few times you find any given screen, but you can quickly dust off and get going and keep having fun, seeing new things and locating new windy passages each time.

Ultimate Ghosts and Goblins is fantastic -- one of the best games on the platform, showing the wonders that can be wrought using 3D to do 2D for good old school action fun. Sweet stuff.

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