The history of video games has been plagued with numerous mediocre titles featuring popular characters, doing things outside their comfort zone. Well okay, they haven’t ALL been mediocre; generally the ones with Mario in the title are worth taking a look at. I can’t say the same for Dr. Robotonik’s Mean Bean Machine or Link’s Crossbow training, though.

Mega Man, a character held near & dear to the hearts of most of the Wing Damage crew, has starred in several lackluster spin-off titles. In this month’s “I Am Error,” we take a look at three of ‘em – Mega Man Soccer, Mega Man Battle & Chase and Super Adventure Rockman.

If you have played any of these titles in the past or have access to play them now, please do and email us or comment with your thoughts. We’ll read your missives on the next edition of the “I Am Error” podcast, which will be available for consumption in just a few weeks.

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“2 Player Reviews” is a series of articles in which two members of the Wing Damage staff separately review a game, so as to give our readers multiple perspectives on the subject matter.

Player 1 – Jonah “spambot” Gregory

Have you ever played a game that is actually playing you?

That is the claim that Silent Hill: Shattered Memories makes when you first boot it up. It starts with a “Psychological Warning” that the game will be profiling you as you play it. It is an interesting way to open a game, and is the developers way of letting you know you are in for a unique experience.

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Almost every gamer I know has one. Especially those who are collectors.

That stack of “must play” titles that you never actually got around to playing. You may have started most of them, but never played more than half. It isn’t that you don’t like the game. In fact, you were enjoying it quite a bit. There are just too many games to play in a day and you have a real job/family/school work/etc.

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You might say I’m a little late to the party, having just now finished a game I started when it first came out in December 2001. I would say, “No, you are!” in a childish manner and then run away. As it turns out, I have a very bad habit of starting games, getting really far in the them, but never getting around to finishing them.

Around the time I got my PS3, I decided to pick up “Final Fantasy X” again. I debated starting over, but the last time I had done that, I found that I was only a few plot points from the end, and this save file was even farther than that one had been.

So how does the game hold up by today’s standards?

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"This Is the City..."

In popular entertainment, one aspect many look for is immersion. Feeling sucked in by a good book or movie makes you really feel like you are part of the action. They can transport you to another time and place, and whole new world (cue the song from Aladdin).

One style of game that excels at this for many gamers are “Open World”, or “Sandbox” games. While they do have an over-arcing plot, most of them allow you to play at your leisure. Often there are a lot of mini-games and side-quests to keep you occupied. If they are well designed, many players spend hours just exploring.

Here are a few good open world games with brief overviews.

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"Jacob's Ladder? Really? You just went there?"

I trick Luke into playing a harmless little Star Wars game and he responds by unleashing a horror of biblical proportions upon me.  If you were to take all that was terrible in the “Mario Party” and “Fuzion Frenzy” games and then distill them down to the point that all that was left was pure bile, and then throw in a couple of bits of Bible trivia you would have “The Bible Game.”  Now I am in no way against the Bible and I am in no way against games. If I thought that this was an honest attempt to teach kids about the Bible, I would be all for it.  Instead, this game is simply a cheap ploy to get church goers to fork over money.

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"Archer vs. Shark... need I say more?"

Something about commanding units over a miniature landscape in a turn based fashion gets me very excited. In my younger days, I even created multiple tabletop games. I think my earliest attempt involved moving Star Wars action figures around on a paper grid I had spread across the floor. Those basic ideas evolved into a game where both units and customizable elevation were squares of paper placed on a gridded poster board. One of the games I was working on actually used figures made of bakeable clay with their stats carved into the bottom of the base. Yes, I am a nerd.

But when I found that there was a genre of videogames that could do all the math and pleasing aesthetics for me, I was in heaven. Final Fantasy Tactics really helped instill a love for strategy RPGs withing me. From there I moved on to games like Front Mission 3, which gripped me even more. But nothing could prepare me for that fateful day when I would discover Disgaea.

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"Here we go again... AGAIN!"

Awhile back, Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix + was announced for Japan. It was a 2 disc set containing a version of Kingdom Hearts 2 with several new boss fights and extra scenes, as well as a fully 3D remake of the GBA between-story, Chain of Memories. For whatever reason, Japan decided we had not saved up enough “cool points” here in the states and decided to only give us a localization of the second disc containing Re: Chain of Memories.

This is, by and large, the same game you played (or didn’t) on the GBA. If I had actually beaten the original, I probably wouldn’t have even bothered picking it up. I had quit about 3 quarters of the way through on the GBA version because the proper sequel was about to release. I ended up reading the game script for that last quarter of the game and considered myself ready for the release of Kingdom Hearts 2. I was pleasantly surprised when I did finally pop in Re: Chain, though. Adding a third dimension did more than just improve the aesthetic; it actually made it both more accessible and more fun to play.

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"Nice to EAT you!"

Just about every game has a weapon of some kind, most are interchangeable, some are entirely forgettable.  However, there are some weapons that stand out, that people talk about long after the cartridge has gone into the closet and the disc is all scratched up.  These are the weapons that transcend their utility to become works of art.

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