Author Archive
Review: Sonic Generations (3DS)
Sonic and I have had a rocky past. Sure we had our fun in the 16-bit era when I first got my hands on a Sega Genesis and the original Sonic the Hedgehog. As the series progressed to include Knuckles and its crazy snap-on cartridge, I was rapidly losing interest in the little blue guy. Then along came the Dreamcast and Sonic Adventure which hooked me once again. That is until I came across the levels starring anyone but Sonic. When I hit the first Big the Cat section, I left the game for good. I’ve played a few levels from random other entries in the series, but Sonic Generations is the first time since the classic games that I’ve completed a Sonic the Hedgehog game.
I bring this anecdotal history of my time with the franchise up, not to disparage the fans of the game or the franchise itself. I bring it up only because SEGA has made it very apparent that Sonic Generations is for the long time fans of the franchise, and after playing most of the console version, I wanted to see how the 3DS entry stacked up as a modern platformer.
Barrel Roll #143 – “Spyro the Hedgehog”
Spyro is fast, and a dragon!
With the holiday weekend upon us and everyone traveling, visiting family, or otherwise incapacitated, it’s up to Jonah and Jesse to hold down the fort. But that’s OK, because they both managed to play a lot of games this week.
Jesse reviewed The King of Fighters XIII and gives us the full rundown on this edition’s updates (this time there are modes!). Jonah finished the 3DS version of Sonic Generations and compares it to its big console counterpart. Jesse is about four dungeons in to The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and gives a breakdown of the pacing, mechanics, and most importantly, the 1-to-1 bug catching.
Our Let’s Play Together segment returns for a look at Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure and how it is a surprisingly fun game despite that it wants all of your money. We also talk about the very few new releases for the week and the gaming news. There is also a good chance of Skyrim related anecdotes popping up to round out our Sky-trifecta (skyfecta?). All this and more on Barrel Roll #143, “Spyro the Hedgehog”.
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Barrel Roll! #142 – “Innerspace: The Game”
There is only one way to bring about peace in the galaxy on this week’s Barrel Roll Podcast, and that is to go inside. That’s right, this week Jonah, Adam and Jesse are injected inside Martin Short thanks to a shrink ray experiment gone horribly awry.
While all the news is taken up by Black Friday Sales talk (which we skip), there are some new releases of note that we go over. We also take a good chunk of time talking about Rockman EXE: Phantom of Network and the Mega Man Battle Network games in general. Adam has also played through the 3D Classics version of Kirby’s Adventure and gives us his thoughts on the slight update to the NES classic.
Jonah has still been sucked into the world of Skyrim, but peeked his head out long enough to bust some caps in Saints Row The Third. It turns out the secret to its success? Infinite parachutes. That sounds kind of familiar…
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Jesse completed Super Mario 3D Land‘s main worlds and moved onto the much harder bonus worlds. He also played more on Ace Combat for Babies, or Ace Combat: Assault Horizon as it is better known. There was also some Uncharted 3 punch-time explosions involved.
All this plus more on the latest episode, Barrel Roll #142, “Innerspace: The Game”.
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Barrel Roll #141 – “Draculelf”
Adam Anania returns for our one-hundred and skyrims-skytacular. Skyrim.
Sorry, I was distracted there for a second.
On our one-hundred and forty-first episode of Barrel Roll, we are joined by Adam Anania who has not been playing Skyrim, but has actually been playing Kirby’s Return to Dreamland and Star Fox 64 3D. Jesse has been playing some Otomedius Excellent, which he swears was borrowed from a friend, and we aren’t really sure if that makes it any better. Jonah and Jesse have played Sonic Generations and give their impressions on that, and Jonah has been playing some of The Old Republic beta (don’t worry, he only talks about stuff that is already public knowledge) and, you might have guessed, Skyrim. He seems to be enjoying it.
We also cover the new games dropping this week and the news, all on this, a very beefy and Draculelf filled episode of the show.
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Barrel Roll! #140 – “Smooth Jams”
On a very smooth one-hundred and fortieth Barrel Roll, Jonah and Jesse are once again joined by Wesley for one fine episode. Jesse and Jonah have both entered into free time killing hobbies, what with all the remix contests and novel writing. Wes has been busy too, we assume.
In our games played section, we discuss the return of our heroes from gaming’s past with Kirby’s Return to Dreamland and Sonic Generations. Wes has sold his soul to Uncharted 3 and Jonah actually played a game this time for reals you guys. He grabbed the current Humble Bundle, The Humble Voxatron Debut. From that he has been playing the Voxatron alpha and also the disturbing but addictive The Binding of Isaac.
There might not be a ton of news this week, but the guys do get into a discussion of Resident Evil Chronicles HD having played both Umbrella Chronicles & Darkside Chronicles on the Wii. All this, plus a discussion on the new games dropping this week on Barrel Roll #140, “Smooth Jams”.
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Barrel Roll! #139 – “Which One Do I Shoot?”
It’s a triumphant return to form when Jesse, Wes, Adam and Jonah get together once again to talk about video game related topics.
Adam Milecki (aka Adam 2) has been playing an awful lot of Dark Souls and gives us the rundown. He and Jonah discuss the nitty gritty of it versus its predecessor, Demon’s Souls, at least to the extent that someone (Jonah) can, having tried to play it while watching a nine-month-old. As it turns out, that is not as much as he would like. Not having had much time to play anything, Jonah did at least get to start a Titan’s Quest campaign with some friends, and managed to rustle up a four person team of gladiatorial badassery. Which translates to clicking on things.
Jesse started, and completed, Batman: Arkham City between this and the last show. He goes in-depth as to how it managed to become even better than Arkham Asylum without giving away any spoilers, so calm down nerds. Speaking of spoilers, Wes finally played through Bioshock, and that we do go into spoilers on. Why? Because it came out in 2007 and you should have all played it by now.
All this plus news and new games coming out this week on Barrel Roll #139, “Which One Do I Shoot?”
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Review: Scribblenauts Remix (iPhone)
I remember the first time I saw Scribblenauts for the Nintendo DS. I had heard it was interesting on a few podcasts, so when I found out it was going to be at PAX, I made a point to check it out. Apparently it had a “write whatever object you want and it will appear” mechanic that was blowing everyone’s minds. At the con, there was always a huge swarm around the WB Games booth, and I only got to play around with it for a few minutes.
Sadly, reviews of the retail release indicated that things didn’t come together in the way gamers were anticipating. Or maybe they were just anticipating something that the developers weren’t attempting to create. That is a debate for another day.
Both the original and its sequel Super Scribblenauts got lost in the avalanche of games that we call a modern release cycle, and I never got around to trying out the final retail builds of either. When Wesley informed me that there was now a version for the iPhone that I could grab for a mere $4.99, I figured it was finally time to dip my feet into the Scribblenauts pond.
Barrel Roll #138 – “Jonah’s Ironic Rugby Challenge”
This week on the Barrel Roll Show, Wes joins Jonah and Jesse for some Uncharted 3 multiplayer chat. Jonah and Wes also talk about Diablo 2 and how it holds up.
But before that we get into that, we discuss the games we’ve been playing over the last week. Jesse gave Ace Combat: Assault Horizon a shot to find it a bit of a mixed bag. He also played through Aliens Infestation which it turns out is a pretty good video game.
Wes has once again been sucked into Borderlands and the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned DLC. Perusing the games on his Steam list that he’s never gotten around to trying also prompted him to boot up Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich.
Meanwhile Jonah is flabbergasted by how much fun he has been having with Scribblenauts Remix, even after finishing the game’s 50 levels.
All this plus the new releases for the week and the gaming news on Barrel Roll #138, “Jonah’s Ironic Rugby Challenge”.
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Review: Rock of Ages (Xbox 360, PC)
Sometimes a game comes along that seems like it’s hitting all the right marks. You like the concept, the aesthetics and the music. All the still images and preview videos get you really amped up for the game’s release. But alas, once you’ve played it, it just doesn’t click with you.
I am sad to say that was my experience with Rock of Ages. A game that, on the surface, had enough elements that seemed interesting and unique to me that I thought for sure I would like the game. I was wrong.
Barrel Roll! #137 – “Now With Bears”
A regular Barrel Roll podcast is no longer enough. But what could we possibly do to up the ante? Bears, and lots of them!
This week, Adam Anania is back again, with more tales of magic and wonder. It appears that his 3DS has become self-healing. Can world domination be far behind?
In our “Games Played Over the Course of the Week” segment, Jonah and Wes played through the Rochard demo and found a pleasant mix of 2D puzzles and gravity guns. Wes discovered that he isn’t into the “constantly punch you in the face” genre, and returned Dark Souls quickly after renting it. He did the same with X-Men: Destiny, but for reasons of suckitude, not difficulty. After his 3DS’s miraculous return, Adam grabbed Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins. Both he and Jesse seem to agree that it holds up well. Jesse finished a playthrough of Hitogata Happa after figuring out its unique mechanics, and continued his questing in Solatorobo.
Not wanting to leave any colossi unslain, Jesse and Jonah finally finished Shadow of the Colossus. It only took them re-releasing it in HD for them to get around to it. Jonah also went back to Rock of Ages and managed to get over the weird difficulty bump on the Pestilence level.
The guys also discuss the new games of the week, and the video game news. All this plus more on Barrel Roll #137, “Now With Bears”!
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Videogame Jam of the Day Latest Podcast- Barrel Roll #150 - "I Can't Stop Playing James Brown" January 31, 2012Welcome to our one-hundred and fiftieth episode! This should probably be some sort of milestone, but instead we carry on and talk about video games as per usual. This week we are joined by Mike Bachmann, host of Fistful of Pixels and generally known as a decent sort of fellow. Topics include Dustforce, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Resident Evil: Revelation […]
