Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles

Frank has died of dysentery.

The 1001 entry for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles mentions a couple of things of note. Firstly it says that the Final Fantasy brand can get attached to some strange titles, but that these spin-off games aren't always to be glossed over. Later on, it says that the best way to play this game is with a party of three people, you and some friends, all with Game Boys attached to a single GameCube.

I don't have that kind of set up. I don't have those kinds of friends. I don't even know what this game is or why it needs extra people to make it worthwhile. This will be as blind a playthrough as you can get, but based on the lengthy introduction video, I can at least say that Crystal Chronicles has something to do with caravanning.

Maybe it's Final Fantasy meets The Oregon Trail...

Freedom Fighters

In Soviet Russia, countries invade U.S.!

Source // Moby Games

When someone says 'Freedom Fighters', someone else replies 'Where's my sequel, IO Interactive?'

A lot of people care about this third-person shooter, set in an alternate history U.S. that has been invaded by the Soviets, full of squad-based firefights, guerilla-war style tactical approaches to crucial objectives throughout the city, and a literal underground resistance movement taking back the streets for the citizens.

If it's not the gameplay that fans love, and it's not the setting, then it'll have to be the music, sung by a Hungarian choir for that foreign feel. Something - maybe everything - about Freedom Fighters appeals to an entire generation of gamers that grew up with the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and PC, and I certainly count myself in that number. This game is excellent. At least that's what I remember it to be...

Has it aged well? Is it still worth demanding a sequel? Should it be left untouched, as a brilliant highlight of the past?

I am looking forward to firing it up again and finding out.

Wario World

Have a rotten day!

I write this with quite possibly the worst cold I've had this year. I groan when I talk, my nose is stuffed, I'm wearing a neck warmer indoors. It's October, sure. Winter is fast approaching. The days are growing darker, life is gloomier, and I'm feeling it - and it's not fun.

What I need is a game to surprise me, and get me so engrossed in what it has to offer that I forget about the real world for a little while. I need a damn good time to cheer me up before I head in for an early night, and roast on the electric blanket.

Can Nintendo's grumpiest of characters, Wario, offer that to me in his first outing, Wario World? Can a platformer beat 'em up grab my attention and turn my day around? I sure hope so...

Bookworm

Words

Word games are everywhere these days. Quick little puzzles that you can knock out in a few minutes, often involving trying to score higher than your friends. You've seen them, you've probably played them, you can probably work out how Bookworm plays because of them.

One part game, one part learning tool, how can we improve our brain with this one?

Donkey Konga

Chump

Source // Moby Games

While I can't see the point in playing games like Amplitude, I can see the point in playing games like Donkey Konga, the rhythm game where you slap a giant plastic bongo in time with the music. Like Samba de Amigo and it's plastic maracas, doing something vaguely similar to the characters on screen seems to add some sense of achievement to what is, essentially, an utterly pointless task.

That could open up a can of worms. Let's rephrase: Playing some plastic bongos makes you feel like you're sitting there on the beach, with Donkey Kong and pals, jamming to the beat of the music for no other reason than to have some fun.

Sure, there are high scores to go after, but that's not the point, is it? The point is to have a good time. Will we have a good time?

Amplitude

Go, Baby, Go go.

Ugh, this again? What's so good about it that I've got to do it twice? Once you've seen one rhythm shooter thing, you've seen them all, right? What could Amplitude possibly add to the formula that Frequency laid down previously?

I suppose I'll have to have a look and find out.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

We're not in Transylvania anymore...

I keep saying that the Game Boy Advance is chucking out so many great titles that I really have to wonder just what an idiot I was when I had one. I used my GBA SP to play Ecks vs. Sever, for goodness sake - that's how out of touch with the handheld's library I was. So it's thanks to this 1001 list that I'm introduced to all the games I should have been playing, with Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow taking the reigns next.

Taking lots of cues from the success of Symphony of the Night, Aria of Sorrow builds upon the PlayStation hit and still manages to squash the action into a Game Boy cartridge. Dracula's Castle serves as our backdrop once more, as we Metroidvania our way through it in search of the big bad guy himself, no doubt.

Will this turn into yet another GBA title that I can't put down?

Call of Duty

So long as there are players, there will be CoD -- Albert Einstein. Probably.

When I embarked upon this quest to play all these games, I knew there would be some key titles of video gaming history that I would get to experience for the very first time. I was always going to tackle the list in order, but I could still get a head start on some of the exciting ones, right?

Near the top of that interesting list was the original Call of Duty. It was hard to ignore. I like my first-person shooters, but by the time I got around to liking the genre, it was for the likes of Killzone and Battlefield, and not the juggernaut that was Call of Duty. I don't know why - they're competent games from what I have played - but I was drawn to the underdogs instead, and so I don't know too much about CoD.

I know it started with the Second World War, and I know it was competing against Medal of Honor. What I didn't realise was just how intertwined those two series' are, with the developers of CoD all having worked previously on MoH: Allied Assault.

What could they get up to in this game then?

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly

Say cheee--eesssus Christ, look out behind you!

It wasn't long ago when we were saving the world as a photojournalist in Beyond Good & Evil. I wasn't a massive fan of the camera mechanics, thinking it slowed down and interrupted the gameplay a little, though I suppose a lot of that was optional, to some extent.

Here, though, our camera really is our weapon of choice. An otherworldly contraption capable of snapping pictures of things people can't even see. A device that can trap the souls and spirits of all the inhabitants of the afterlife. This is Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly.

Cameras at the ready...

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness

Dood.

Source // Moby Games

Sometimes we let things slip. An item on the to-do list isn't seen as necessary right now, and so you put it off and let it go by, perhaps for many months. When it comes time to needing that thing you never got around to, and it's not there... it's not fun, is it? It's not useful, and it's your own fault.

My life recently got in the way of playing Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, which is funny because the slipping of time is a key plot point that gets this tactical RPG going.