Player One: Staff Member #716
It\'s the holidays again. You know, the gift-giving holidays, like Chanukah or Decemberween or whatever the hell you celebrate. And if you\'re the type who likes video games, I can make a pretty safe bet as to what\'s at the top of your wish list. You want an Xbox 360, right? Yeah, well, who doesn\'t?
God help you if you were one of those psychos who waited in line all night for your chosen video game retailer to open on 360\'s launch day. Sure, I did that when the Nintendo 64 came out. Das Bork waited for the PlayStation 2. Jeremy Scott did it for the GameCube (and for Star Wars toys every three years...). But I think we\'ve all come to the conclusion that investing that kind of time and energy into getting a new game console before any decent games even come out for it is just stupid. So if you\'re one of those unlucky bastards who braved freezing rain for twelve dark hours outside your local Best Buy only to find out that they only got ten systems instead of the twenty they were expecting-- or worse, spent $400 on one of the unnervingly-high number of defective units that were sold-- good! I\'m glad your November 22nd sucked. You should know better.
Defective hardware? Seriously, could you imagine unwrapping an Xbox 360 on Christmukah morning, only to have it spout disc-read errors and melt its own power cables? I\'d imagine that\'d be akin to opening a brightly-colored present to find a giant, ravenous snake... you know, like that one in The Nightmare Before Christmas. (Yes!!! Killer segue! High-five!) While those idiots were out there mugging each other over defective hardware, me and Bork were playing through Oogie\'s Revenge for the trusty ol\' PlayStation 2.
Honestly, this game is a shining example of how you don\'t need high-powered graphics processors when you have superior art direction. The game\'s visuals are a nearly perfect recreation of the style set by the cult-classic holiday movie, from the ludicrously-spindly movements of protagonist Jack Skellington to the textural details on every surface of every playable area. By the time we made it to Spiral Hill Road, modeled after one of the most iconic locations in the film, we were blown away by the tactile qualities of everything. You can practically feel the subtle etchings in the clay of the original movie sets as you explore. If you\'re a fan of the movie, this game is worth playing just for that.
It makes me wonder, though: if a game can look this good on a five-year-old console, just what will we see in the next few years on the new generation of systems? If a game designer were to apply Nightmare\'s level of coherent visual direction to a game backed by the as-of-now unrivaled power of the Xbox 360, they would definitely grab my attention. Until then, though, my $400 are staying in my bank account.
But hey, if you are one of the lucky stiffs who made off with a working 360... is Perfect Dark any good?
Player Two: Das Bork
How cool is it to play as badass Jack Skellington in the new Nightmare Before Christmas game? Jack fights off the henchmen with his Soul Robber, which is a green, sticky, shape-shifting whip. Playing through the game unlocks more powerful attacks and new identities for Jack, such as the Pumpkin King (who spits fire) and Santa Jack. I especially like the Pumpkin King-- very cool looking-- although I don’t remember him being that in the movie.
The story is that Jack leaves town and, while he was gone, those brats Lock, Shock, and Barrel sew Oogie Boogie back together and cause some major problems. As a result, Jack has to run around town fixing all the problems Oogie created.
It was fun to hear songs from the movie with new lyrics to go with the game\'s story. There are also some entirely new songs, such as in the boss battles. This fact brings up a cool feature: by collecting notes from bosses, you can launch a special musical attack. To do it, you have to hit the prompted button on the screen at the right moment to the beat of the song. It\'s pretty fun, although it\'s something I have been seeing a lot of in games lately. And it can get me a bit frustrated if I screw it up.
So, #716, no, I’m not going to buy an Xbox 360 Cubed Squared Times 3000 anytime soon. With games like this, SOCOM 3, and other great titles, I’m still happy with my PS2.