I bet he's gonna feel that one tomorrow...
I think it was right around the time that wizard chick deep-fat-fried the person I needed to protect for the fourth time after two hours of unsaveable fighting in Fire Emblem that I decided I needed some new games that didn't make me want to eat my own face off. So I went out to the local EB and for under forty buck managed to pick up a couple of older titles that all got really good reviews. Since I know you don't have anything bette to do, I figured I'd let you know what I thin of them all after tooling around for a couple hours with each. So here goes.
The Mark of Kri: Imagine, if you will, a hypothetical situation in which the makers of Disney's Mulan had instead opted to do an animated remake of the original Conan the Barbarian movie, complete with all the blood and gore that that movie contained. That pretty much sums up The Mark of Kri. I guess this makes sense, though, considering that the people that did the artwork for Kri are all disenchanted Disney and Don Bluth employees that were looking to try something new. All the game's characters look like they'd be right at home in a Disney movie, from the gruff but good-natured hero, Raoh, to the dark, mysterious villain. Everything just has that Disney brightness of color, too. But the first time Raoh rams his spear through a guy then stands it up so the man's limp body slides down its entire length, you'll know you're a long way from Disney. I have to say, even though I knew this would be the case before I bought it, I still wasn't really prepared to see guys that essentially look like the villains from Mulan having their heads chopped off, bashed in, or repeatedly pierced by arrows. Okay, so the art-style is quirky, but what about the gameplay? Well, good, in a word. The game uses and interesting fighting engine that lets you fight three (but later six) guys at once by assigning a different button on the controller to each. You press that button, Raoh goes after that guy. Simple enough. The fights do tend to drag a little bit, as the enemies block and parry your attacks just as you do theirs. Nonetheless, it still feels pretty cool when you wittle a seven-man force down to one guy after ten minutes of fighting, then grab the last guy by the head and run him through twice before tossing his battered corpse aside. There are some combos and stuff too, but most of those don't matter very much since you can't really do them when you're fighting multiple guys. The game also quickly introduces a stealth element which plays heavily into most of the games missions. Raoh is usually seriously outnumbered, so being stealthy is to your advantage. However, its never too nerve racking, sinc if you screw up and get seen you can usually just hack your way out of it anyway. The stealth kills all look pretty cool, but I'm still not sure I buy that you can grab a guy right next to another one, and the other guy will always look in the wrong direction. At least most of the time they come looking for you if you shoot one of their friends in the head with an arrow while they're talking to him. I still wince when I see the enemy's body tense up as Raoh, holding his hand over the foes mouth, lines his sword up with the enemies heart. All in all it's an interesting little game with a unique visual style and a fun fighting system. The story is okay, something about cursed spell marks tatooed on people, but nothing jaw dropping. If you've got a couple of bucks (I only paid $6 for my copy) check it out.
Next time I'll chat about Otogi: Myth of Demons and Breakdown.
The Mark of Kri: Imagine, if you will, a hypothetical situation in which the makers of Disney's Mulan had instead opted to do an animated remake of the original Conan the Barbarian movie, complete with all the blood and gore that that movie contained. That pretty much sums up The Mark of Kri. I guess this makes sense, though, considering that the people that did the artwork for Kri are all disenchanted Disney and Don Bluth employees that were looking to try something new. All the game's characters look like they'd be right at home in a Disney movie, from the gruff but good-natured hero, Raoh, to the dark, mysterious villain. Everything just has that Disney brightness of color, too. But the first time Raoh rams his spear through a guy then stands it up so the man's limp body slides down its entire length, you'll know you're a long way from Disney. I have to say, even though I knew this would be the case before I bought it, I still wasn't really prepared to see guys that essentially look like the villains from Mulan having their heads chopped off, bashed in, or repeatedly pierced by arrows. Okay, so the art-style is quirky, but what about the gameplay? Well, good, in a word. The game uses and interesting fighting engine that lets you fight three (but later six) guys at once by assigning a different button on the controller to each. You press that button, Raoh goes after that guy. Simple enough. The fights do tend to drag a little bit, as the enemies block and parry your attacks just as you do theirs. Nonetheless, it still feels pretty cool when you wittle a seven-man force down to one guy after ten minutes of fighting, then grab the last guy by the head and run him through twice before tossing his battered corpse aside. There are some combos and stuff too, but most of those don't matter very much since you can't really do them when you're fighting multiple guys. The game also quickly introduces a stealth element which plays heavily into most of the games missions. Raoh is usually seriously outnumbered, so being stealthy is to your advantage. However, its never too nerve racking, sinc if you screw up and get seen you can usually just hack your way out of it anyway. The stealth kills all look pretty cool, but I'm still not sure I buy that you can grab a guy right next to another one, and the other guy will always look in the wrong direction. At least most of the time they come looking for you if you shoot one of their friends in the head with an arrow while they're talking to him. I still wince when I see the enemy's body tense up as Raoh, holding his hand over the foes mouth, lines his sword up with the enemies heart. All in all it's an interesting little game with a unique visual style and a fun fighting system. The story is okay, something about cursed spell marks tatooed on people, but nothing jaw dropping. If you've got a couple of bucks (I only paid $6 for my copy) check it out.
Next time I'll chat about Otogi: Myth of Demons and Breakdown.