Deadpool: Mouthing Off 1

Part 1 of 2

After sinking 3 to 4 hours in it, I think I'm qualified (by Internet standards) to talk about the new Deadpool game that dropped this Tuesday. I walked out of GameStop with a copy of the PS3 version, stopped at Chick-fil-A (sorry, no chimichangas), and plopped down on my couch to get reacquainted with the Merc with a Mouth.

The first little section of the game serves to do just that, teach the player about this masked madman by exploring his apartment. I was laughing the whole time, especially while Deadpool made fun of achievements by giving me the first and second ones for "free," I'm glad Deadpool shares my opinion on trophies and achievements.

Once out of the crazy-filthy apartment, it was sword-swinging, gun-toting, tutorial time. At first thought, I'd call Deadpool a hack n' slash game with a bit of platforming, but that's because I didn't want to use my guns, like ever. I guess I have more fun slicing and dicing enemies; even when the enemies were poised for a duck-and-cover shoot-out, I would run head-first into enemy fire (what's the point of a healing factor if you're not going to use it) and stab, stab, stab.

The non-shooting combat is easy to learn and the enemy AI is pretty dumb. And, oh I forgot about the teleport dodge: it makes the sword combat and countering very over-powered. I had honestly forgotten that Deadpool had that teleport technology. Where's Weasel when I want to thank him? Anyway, it was later into the game when I realized I was in trouble for not using/upgrading my gun arsenal.

The "heavy" baddies are much easier when Deadpool is dual-wielding shotguns. Maybe that's the case for all the baddies. Still, I get bored with third-person shooting faster than I do stringing together bloody-bladed melee combos. The melee gameplay is no Arkham Asylum, but I still enjoyed it. I like my Deadpool with his blades; I also like the sai, but I haven't used them much. The swords are fully upgraded, the sai are newly unlocked, and the hammers, well, I haven't purchased them yet.

Most of the glitches that I've seen have occurred during combat, but nothing has made me want to eat my controller. Occasionally an enemy will end up on top of Deadpool; sometimes my hits connect with the displaced enemy and sometimes they don't. Meh. Deadpool points (DP) don't always revert to the previous amount if you die and then continue from the nearest checkpoint. Last, but not least, enemies can deal lots of damage to each other; I've always thought friendly fire is a stupid concept, so when a "heavy" baddie clears all the normal enemies for me, I wonder if that was intentional.

Even though the game is linear, I'll praise the level design and variety. From Deadpool's apartment to the mucky sewers to the catacombs of Genosha, the scenery is a sight to behold. I'd also like to get my hands on some concept art, especially the final level in Genosha. Floating platforms as far as the eye can see. Again, thank you Weasel for the teleportation.

Speaking of teleportation, BAMF over to Part 2

Cartridges: Our Link to the Past

While currently trying to ignore whatever pops up about Aliens: Colonial Marines, I need something to write about. Luckily, something interesting happened this week that hasn't happened for a long time: a friend and I swapped game cartridges.

Yeah, like totally old-school. I brought my copy of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for the the GBA to the office and he brought his copy of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for the GBA (the one with the Four Swords multiplayer thing). We traded, identified save files that we didn't want overwritten, and agreed to return them as soon as we had finished. School yard ethics dictate that I name my save file PENIS or something, but still, how long has it been that you and a friend exchanged games? And cartridge games at that?

This single act has made me look over my collection of emulators and roms and think: "Wow. This is the future."

I remember when that cartridge was a key, unlocking a little portable world. I used to guard them with my life, especially if it was a borrowed cartridge, because that meant it was a game that my parents didn't want me to play. I had Tetris and a chess game for the Game Boy (not high on the school yard trade list), so I relied on the good graces of my elementary classmates to take one of my crappy games hostage so I could play their infinitely better TMNT or Mario game.

Now, these games are just zip files on my hard drive. Games that I would have begged to borrow are purely dismissal. I'm having fun playing A Link to the Past on my GameCube GBA player, but I've had that rom on my computer for years, and I've never touched it.

I guess that's the magic of cartridges and nostalgia. Back then, the first thing I did when I borrowed a game was pop it into the old Game Boy and give it a spin.

It's Turtle Time, Again

As a childhood fan of the late '80s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon (and later the comics), I always pay attention to the goings on of the Turtles.

A couple weekends ago a new cartoon dropped on Nickelodeon. Being a little jaded because of the re-makes that seem to be popping up everywhere, I wasn't excited about the 2012 Nickelodeon Turtles. The 2003 re-make did get me excited about watching Saturday morning cartoons again, even though I was still in high school. That excitement quickly faded after the first season and I completely stopped watching sometime in the second season. But being a college student also had something to do with that.

Anyway, I realized while watching the 2003 Turtles that I like my heroes-in-a-half-shell goofy. At least while they're on TV. The one good thing that came out of the 2003 series was Turtles Forever. A crazy mash-up of all the TMNT universes, Turtles Forever brought the 1987 crew and 2003 crew together with the comic book crew. Twelve turtles. Count 'em. Twelve. The coolest part was seeing all the different art styles mesh together. But the 1987 Turtle Van is the best Turtle Van so far. I will argue that point to the death.

I haven't seen a Turtle Van in the 2012 series yet, but they have alluded to it. "That means we have a van!" says Michelangelo while he and his brothers are staking out a rooftop. And I laughed. I laughed a lot, actually. The two-part, first episode was funny. The same goes for the third episode, "Turtle Temper" that aired this past weekend. I don't think we're going to get Bebop and Rocksteady, but so far, the 2012 series is goofy. I actually watched the first, two-part episode with a good buddy and fellow Turtles fan on Saturday. We both had our gripes. But we both enjoyed the show.

Donatello is still my favorite of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; he is one of the reasons that I was (and still am) so interested in technology. I'm glad he's remaining nerdy and goofy in this newest installment. For now, I'll keep watching.