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Oni Action Shot

Oni is a 3rd person action game for the PC and PS2. The game is focused on hand to hand combat with some shooting elements as well. I think it is easily the best 3rd person hand to hand combat action game that isn’t a fighting game for the PC. The controls are very intuitive. To punch you left click the mouse, and to kick you right click the mouse. You move around with the standard, WASD controls. I am a big fan of 3rd person shooter games so I was really happy to play Oni. The enemies have good AI when you fight them in hand to hand combat. They will try to block your attacks and if you try to block too many of their attacks by standing still (that’s how you block, by standing and facing your enemy without moving) they will simply grab you and throw you. The game is very cool because each of the different enemies have different looking attacks and throws. Some enemies will suplex you or do other cool throws.

The game is about the main character Konoko, is a TCTF officer in a dangerous future. TCTF stands for “Technological Crimes Task Force.” It is basically like a heavily armored SWAT Team that has detectives. You are on a mission to find out what is going one with a criminal Syndicate and the construction and distribution of illegal weapons. But the story takes a twist because you learn about yourself and your special nature. There is a helper officer who is called Shinatama. She gives you mission objectives and helps you navigate to the different parts of the stage by updating your compass data. She has a very cute voice and she has pink hair and so Shinatama is a great addition to the game.

Oni Screen Shot

In Oni, you get to use your fists and guns to defeat your enemies. What is interesting about the game, is that you are only able to carry one weapon at a time. This makes the game more realistic than many 3rd person shooters that let you caryy a veritable arsenal. Oni makes sense because there is no way a hero would be able to carry tons of heavy guns. So since you can carry only one gun at a time you need to use your brain when you pick up a weapon. There are two different types of ammo in the game: Ballistic ammo, and Energy Ammo. All of the guns that use ballistic solid ammunition are able to be reloaded by the ballistic ammo packs (red ammo packs) that you find in the game. This works from everything from your basic pistol, to the sub-machine gun, to even the grenade launcher and sniper rifle. The same goes for the energy weapons. The plasma rifle, the screamer gun (this is a cool slow moving heat-seeking weapon), and others like the Phase Stream Projector all use the energy ammo packs (Green Ammo Packs). So whenever you find a gun, think for a second and ask yourself if it is really a weapon worth reloading, or do you want to use the ammo quickly and swap the gun later for a more powerful weapon. This strategy is really helpful in later mission when you get to use the sniper rifle called the Mercury Bow. The Mercury Bow can kill almost all regular non-shielded enemies in one hit. But it only gets two shots per ballistic ammo clip. So if you are on a stage where you know there is going to be a Mercury Bow, then you should consider saving your ballistic ammo and forgo reloading weaker weapons like the Sub Machine Gun. Another tip is that when you fight an enemy, if you disarm them before they get a lot of shots off, there will actually be more ammo left in the chamber of their weapon. So when you fight, try and use your jumping kick attack to quickly knock the gun away from an enemy. This way you will have more ammo when you steal their weapon.

Another good thing about Oni, is that the game rewards you for exploring the level thoroughly. There are oftentimes power-ups like healing hypo-sprays, and ammo clips, and even sometimes you can find energy force shields lying on the ground. Also if you explore enough, you may find civilians who want to help you if you press the “ctrl” key on your keyboard when you get near them. The civilian will usually talk to you and then when they are done talking they will more often then not, give you an item like a hypo-spray or an ammo clip.

The fighting system in Oni is excellent. The combat that you have with enemies is exciting because they might attack you by throwing you, or they may try and kick you in the shins to stun you. You have to try and guess what the enemy is going to do in order to block. But I find the best strategy is to be offensive and use your special moves for crowd control. The throws are great because you not only hurt the enemy you are throwing, but you also damage bad guys that are unluckily in the way of the guy you’re tossing. There is one move where you run at an enemy and throw them by doing an acrobatic flying-neck-snap attack. This move hurts the guy whose neck you’re snapping and you also kick anybody who is nearby at the same time. The triple punch combo I find is one of the best opener attacks in the game. It come out fast, and you do good enough damage to knock down your opponent, which you can follow up with a jumping somersault kick. As you progress through the game you unlock new fighting abilities, for example, the neck snap attack doesn’t come until later in the game. While the triple punch attack combo is unlocked around stage 3 or so.

I’d think twice before throwing most enemies over a ledge. It’s true, you get a free kill when they fall off the ledge. But sometimes enemies will drop hypo-sprays which greatly increase your health, so it’s better to fight it out and see what items they drop. The overall best weapon in the game is the Mercury Bow because it’s an instant kill, but the standard pistol does good damage also. The plasma rifle is good but, the enemies can dodge the plasma balls that come from your gun. Be careful when using the Screamer Gun, because if you get too close to the tracking bullet, you can get killed by your own bullet. So it’s best to use the Screamer Gun from a distance against enemies that are hard to get to. It is especially effective against enemies that are perched on a rooftop.

Another great hand to hand combo to do, is to kick an enemy, kick them again, the dash forward toward them and press forward + kick at the same time and do a throw. Then follow up with a crouching kick attack which is like a tripping spin kick or else use the jumping somersault attack. Remember you can weaken enemies that are running at you by shooting them a few times with the plasma rifle and then holstering your weapon and then punching them a few times. Later in the game you get a move called the, “Devil Spin Kick” where if you hold crouch (“Shift”) for a second and then release the key and then right click the mouse quickly you will do an area-of-effect damaging attack while jumping in the air. This move is great if you are being surrounded. It also does good damage.

Here’s a tip when you are trying to move quickly. If you tap “W” twice and then hold “W” (W is the key for moving forward) you can dash. But what the game doesn’t tell you is that if you jump while dashing and then keep holding “W” you will hit the ground running and continue to dash. This is extremely important to know in the stages where you need to run across an electrified area, because you need to jump over rings of energy quickly. So if you jump over a ring of energy while dashing when you hit the ground if you keep holding “W” or forward you should maintain your fast run speed.

Oni is a great game and the graphics are good but the real fun is in the gameplay and fighting. I’d recommend this game to people who like fighting games and 3rd-person shooters. This game is longer than Heretic II but then again most games are! I’m playing through it for the 2nd time now and I’m having a blast. It seems to work OK on windows Vista, but on my computer there sometimes are issues with the textures of the ground. I’m not sure if that is because my computer basically has NO VIDEO CARD. My video card is some kind of generic thing. If you have issues running the game please let me know by leaving a comment.

-Tyler

Click the picture for facts about Strider (NES)

There were many 2D side-scrolling action games for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) but one game in particular combined action elements with role-playing skill upgrades as well as an evolving plot with mystery and adventure. This game is called, Strider. It is a killer game. In this game you play a character named Strider Hiryu. Your character is a powerful Ninja-Secret Operative who carries a big sword. You get your missions from the control room in your orbiting base called the “Blue Dragon” (Thanks to Wikipedia for that tidbit of information). It is cool because the control room looks like something out of an Anime or high budget science fiction movie. When you use your sword it makes a slash-effect that cuts enemies that are in front of you. You can slash very quickly so if there is an enemy that takes more than one hit, you can slash repeatedly and dispatch them pretty fast. Also when you kill enemies there are usually cool death animations like exploding blood splotches, or else the enemy can fly backward a ways. You can also stab enemies by holding up on the control pad. I didn’t find myself using this move very much until the end of the game where you need to do it in order to use your fireball combo attack.

The gameplay is probably the best part of Strider. You can slide under things, triple jump across walls, jump into transport tubes. And later in the game you can even get some magnetic boots at walk on walls. You don’t have a tremendous amount of health points. So you need to be careful when getting into combat with enemies. I usually find myself ducking a lot in order to avoid gunfire and waiting and watching for enemy patterns in order to choose the best time to strike. But in some cases the best thing to do is just avoid combat all together by jumping over bad guys (which you can do if you get enough momentum down a hill and jump at the appropriate time). Your slide is a great way to get underneath small areas, also it can be used to dodge enemy fire when timed properly. Strider is realistic in the sense that you can’t touch enemies by jumping on them or running into them. If you do so you will get hurt and will bounce backward.

The settings in the game are great. Each level is a different part of the Earth. You can fight in the dark, Sci-Fi urban areas of Kazah, and also visit the deserts and pyramids of Egypt. Strider does a great job of making each level look different. And if you explore each stage completely, you will encounter people that will talk to you and give you information that you need in order to complete your mission. Sometimes talking to people will also give you special abilities or computer disks which you use to visit new areas. You also can LEVEL UP by talking to people and that increases your health points and energy points. It is very rewarding from a gaming perspective to talk to people in the game because it gives you a short break from the action and it makes you really feel like you are in a mysterious situation doing the work of a ninja.

There are passwords that you use to save your progress in the game. And this is a good thing because the game is pretty long. It takes more than a few hours to beat it. The levels have multiple areas and the dialogue parts take some time. Even though you get to use passwords to save your game, I recommend playing this game when you have a good amount of time on your hands. This is because if you are pretty good at action games you will do well fighting through the stages and will want to proceed on your adventure without stopping. Strider is a compelling game that flows well from area to area. Even though there is a decent amount of exploring in each stage, you will find yourself completing your objectives without a whole lot of frustration. And fighting bosses and difficult areas pumped my adrenaline a great deal and it made me want to play the game more and more.

Mega Man 2 - Air Man Stage

The Wii Virtual Console is really an amazing invention. It lets you download old-school games directly to your Nintendo Wii. One game that you really need to play if you haven’t already, is called, Mega Man 2. This game is very awesome. In Mega Man 2 you play the character of Mega Man, a robot created by Dr. Light. You are an interesting kind of robot, because you can gain the abilities of other robots that you defeat in combat. In this game you also get certain upgrades and a robot helper, named Rush the robot dog. This is cool because Rush helps you move around the game, either by turning into a giant springboard, a horizontal moving jet, or a hovering platform. The music in this game is amazing. It sounds like some high-energy progressive rock music with electronic themes. Each stage is great, because the levels have a specific look and feel that is related to the boss you are going to face. This is great for the setting. It gives the game a very immersive feel.

Here are some hints when you play Mega Man 2. First of all you should be shooting as much as you can. The reason for this is because certain enemies can drop items. These items include bonus health, added ammo for your special weapons, or even in some cases there is a small percentage chance that a dead enemy will drop a Mega Man face, which is actually a 1UP or free life. So if you are in an area where there are lots of smaller enemies that spawn frequently and you are low on health or ammo. Go ahead and blast them over and over again and try and see what they drop. Another tip is that 1UPs respawn (reappear) when you die. So if you are able to pick up more than one 1UPs in a stage and you are close to dying, it is ok to die if you remember to grab the 1UPs over again. Another important thing to remember is that there are “E” energy tanks in the game. You can use them by hitting start and selecting the “E” tank. These energy tanks will fill your health to the max, so be sure to pick them up as often as you can. These items don’t respawn if you die so be careful. The one good thing is that even if you die, the tanks stay in your inventory. A good stage to start the game on would be Air Man stage, this level is pretty easy to beat and you can kill Air Man with only your primary weapon if you are careful. Once you play the Metal Man stage and defeat Metal Man you will get the special weapon called the, “Metal Blade.” This weapon seriously owns and you can shoot it in all 8 directions and it does excellent damage. I recommend getting this weapon as soon as you can.

The bosses that you fight in Mega Man 2 are very fun to battle against and the fights are usually intense. It may take you several tries to defeat a boss and the best way to fight them is to try and memorize their fighting and jumping patterns. Sometimes the best way to fight against a boss is to be evasive and jump over their attacks and avoid them. This will give you openings to get a few shots off. But other times you’ll find that the best tactic is to take a hit from a boss and blast them as much as you can in order to inflict more damage to them then they do to you, and then destroy them. Defeating an enemy boss is very rewarding and satisfying because the music is cool and you basically teleport to your base and get upgraded. The whole upgrade sequence is nothing short of rad, and you will feel good when it happens.

Overall Mega Man 2 is challenging but not impossible to beat. I think it is easier than Mega Man 1, and it has good replay value, mostly because of the music. One important thing to keep in the back of your mind while playing Mega Man 2 is not to let yourself get frustrated. And when you die, just try and remember the patterns that lead you to your death, and try not to repeat them. Mega Man 2 makes you use your brain and is more than a simple action game. It helps you to memorize patterns, which is good for building intelligence. Remember that some areas like certain spots that have power-ups are only accessible if you use your Rush Dog robotic helper. Also some places like the large ravine in the Heat Man stage that can be completely bypassed by using the Rush Jet. If you like action platform games, then you are going to love Mega Man 2. Leave a comment if you have beaten it before or if you are stuck in an area!

-Tyler

Bionic Commando is a rad game for the NES

The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) had many amazing games to its credit. But if you are looking for something to play that has top-notch gameplay then you should try Bionic Commando. The game is supposed to be a spin-off of Commando, but it is nothing like this game. Bionic Commando is a Side Scrolling platform game that focuses on shooting action and the use of your bionic grappling hook. The game takes place in the future and basically you are soldier on a mission to rescue a dude by the name of Super Joe from the original Commando game. There is an evil group of soldiers and people that are trying to resurrect a very evil bad guy from the historical past. The bad guys use this insignia for themselves that looks like an albatross or eagle or something. Things that make this game great is that you get to have a gun, a special item that you select at the beginning of the mission and a grappling hook.

You enter stages that are filled with strategically placed enemies that either shoot you or drop bombs etc. In order to get around the areas you need to use your grappling hook to swing from place to place. This is because you are unable to do a standard jump in the game. When you use your grappling hook the entire map seems to swing with you and it feels very fluid. You can grapple things directly in front of you. You can crouch and grapple things. You can grapple straight up above your head at a 90 degree angle. And you can also grapple on an 45 degree angle in front of you. Overall you can use your grappling hook in more than enough ways to give the gamer a ton of control over movement. And after a while you will completely ignore and maybe even forget the fact that you can’t jump. Another cool thing that you can do with your grappling hook is that if you hit an enemy with it, they will be temporarily stunned and sometimes they will bounce backward. And you can also use your grappling hook to grab items from a distance. Especially like the bullet canister things that enemies drop when they die. Collecting these little things are important because if you get enough of them your health bear will increase by 1 health point. This is vital for the game because when you get to the boss areas you will need all the health you can get. It’s all about, “Vitality, Vitality, Vitality!”

Bionic Commando Box Art for NES

When you explore and infiltrate an enemy zone there are certain areas with large communication equipment and monitors. From there you can tap into enemy communications and get important information for your mission. And also you can use the enemy equipment to contact your allies, and they will give you tips on where to find stuff and they will also warn you about things. Another cool thing about the game is that there are certain areas called Neutral Areas where you can interrogate people and find secret items. But be careful not to fire your primary gun because that will alert the base and you will find yourself under attack by tons of people.

A throwback aspect of the game which tips its hat to the original Commando game, is the in between stages which you access by running into an enemy truck on the world map. You can do this by choosing to “Transfer” instead of “Decend” when you go to a numbered square. Eventually you will run into a green truck and you will end up fighting in a top down perspective mini-game. These mini-games are actually important to play because certain enemies in the middle and end of the zone will drop a shiny albatross token when they die. If you pick up the albatross (or eagle, whatever it looks like to you) and if you survive the stage you will be able to have a continue when you run out of lives. This is key because it gets pretty easy to die as the game progresses.

If you want to be successful with the game then I suggest you practice swinging your grappling hook in the early stages. If you are timid with your grappling hook and only like to do a little swinging, you will be overwhelmed by the grappling that you will need to do in later stages in order to traverse long gaps, or avoid spiked (instant death) areas. Also be sure to pick up the bullet containers that enemies drop when they die in order to pump up your life bar. HERE’s a TIP: If you are almost out of life and 1 more hit or so can kill you, and you are far in a stage so you don’t want to die and be taken back in the level; you can farm kill enemies until you get enough bullet containers to bring your health pods to the next level. When that happens you get a full life bar plus an extra life pop representing your new health level. You can check the status of your bullet gathering by pressing either select or start (I can’t remember which one).

If you play the game without taking a lot of breaks you will be able to beat it in about 3 – 5 hours. But it gets hard near the end at spots and there are certain areas that require that you use a specific weapon in order to bypass a security measure, or to kill a boss easily. Most boss areas are a central power node that needs to be destroyed and there is almost always an enemy boss dude that is protecting it. It isn’t always easy to figure out how to kill the boss and so sometimes you need to just avoid them and focus on destroying the energy node.

Bionic Commando is an overall great game that is very unique. The different types of guns that you can get in the game cater to your specific playing style. For example later in the game you can get a triple-shot gun that shoots in three directions at once. So you grapple the ceiling, and then pull yourself close to the platform without climbing up to the next level. And then shoot through the above platform at an enemy with your triple-shot gun, and you will not even run the risk of being hurt. It is a total stealth and skill tactic that makes the game feel like you are really on a mission with powerful weaponry at your disposal. If you like a game with amazing unique gameplay, and lots of challenge, as well as good graphics, then Bionic Commando is the game for you.