A few weeks ago I wrote a little bit about the point and click adventure games of old. Since then, I have been happy to discover that LucasArts are again raiding their (impressive) back catalogue in the form of a re-release of Monkey Island 2 (original pictured above), with the same additions as last year’s brilliant re-release of the first game (voice acting and a graphical overhaul). I (obviously) welcome this move!
I seem to spend a lot of time on this blog harping on about XBLA and PSN games, and this next few months promise to be no different, with Monkey Island 2 being joined by an XBLA version of the N64 classic, Perfect Dark, and by the release of Sonic 4 this summer. I will certainly be playing all three of those.
I am really looking forward to Perfect Dark because, although I was an N64 owner, I never played it. I was obsessed with Rare's own GoldenEye (Perfect Dark's predecessor), but Perfect Dark tried to get every last possible effect out of that old hardware and the result was a really blurry, hazy and (in my view) unplayable game. I am in the minority here, as it was really enthusiastically received upon release in 2000 (just realised that's 10 years ago now!), but I couldn't stand to look at it (a problem I now have with all N64 games). However, I find the idea of playing a new sharpened-up, HD version of that game very appealing indeed (it will certainly be better than Perfect Dark Zero, the over-hyped and underwhelming 360 launch title).
Below I've put a before/after videos of N64 Perfect Dark and the new graphical overhaul on XBLA (run them both at once... go on). Enjoy. The game is out on the 17th of March for 800 Microsoft Points, whilst Monkey Island 2 and Sonic 4 are just "summer 2010" releases for the moment.
Gameplay footage of the N64 original, Perfect Dark:
A trailer for the improved HD version running on XBLA:
I was going to ramble on about why I don't like Perfect Dark, but instead, I'll just say that I really can't stand Perfect Dark.
ReplyDeleteIt's only redeeming feature was the addition of AI bots in the multiplayer; at a time where broadband, internet, multiplayer wasn't the standard, it meant you wouldn't have to get a bunch of friends 'round to give it a go. The downside was that the game was next to unplayable: in Bierton, FPS terms, it ran at an approximate 2.3 FPS and even lower than that when any particle effects were present.
Maybe I didn't enjoy the single player because of how hideous the game was to look at, but I think it was probably because the level design was boring; none of the levels had the character that Goldeneye's levels did. There's no Facility here. There's only "Pointless Horror #3" with flashing, awful, blinding lighting effects.
It's not good. If I could see anything going on, maybe it is.