tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45760766014502965742026-07-27T13:31:25.374-05:00GameArtifactshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07995144228783219972noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576076601450296574.post-48985463070925430232011-05-31T09:45:00.001-05:002011-05-31T09:46:30.381-05:00

Well I haven't been posting much lately but in my defense I've had my hands tied in the one other true passion I have besides gaming - game development. I have a lot of ideas forming for a bullet hell shoot em up, but while those continue to ferment in my brain Ive been slaving away at a bullet manger script for easily creating and managing those complex bullet patterns. I'm developing the

GameArtifactshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07995144228783219972noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576076601450296574.post-75513885271394632072011-05-25T20:47:00.000-05:002011-05-25T20:47:22.544-05:00

I often see people complaining that Rare never comes up with their own ideas and instead opt to create games that refine ideas already presented by Nintendo in their games; such as Banjo Kazooie "improving upon" Mario 64. But Blast Corps proves that Rare more than has enough potential to come up with and establish their own great game concepts. Basically you have a half assed plot that is just

GameArtifactshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07995144228783219972noreply@blogger.com45tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576076601450296574.post-60882521580072268632011-05-18T23:07:00.000-05:002011-05-18T23:07:51.873-05:00

I had no intention on doing a write up on this game. But recently I had a hankering to replay it and figured I'd give it a shot but wouldn't learn anything from it as far as game design goes. But it wasn't long before this humble monochrome GB game proved me wrong. Here we have a game where Nintendo said "what if the arcade classic Donkey Kong was re-released on Game Boy with today's standards

GameArtifactshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07995144228783219972noreply@blogger.com44tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576076601450296574.post-3427987380018215262011-05-16T05:59:00.000-05:002011-05-16T05:59:46.067-05:00

Treasure may not be as well known as Nintendo or Sega, but they have proven their expertise in the platformer genre (and other genres) several times. Immediately upon starting this game its stage/play theme is made apparent. The opening where Headdy is captured and escapes is done on stage and all the characters are introduced. Its made obvious that many characters including Headdy himself are

GameArtifactshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07995144228783219972noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576076601450296574.post-9884818619024533112011-05-10T06:28:00.001-05:002011-05-10T14:38:09.283-05:00

These games need no introduction as many people wouldn't hesitate to call either one the best platformer (or even game) of all time. Fans, not surprisingly, often hold debates on which is really the better game. Comparing how much the series "jumped" in quality and new features with each of these games, SMB3 wins in a  landslide. Consider for a moment that the real SMB2 was just an

GameArtifactshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07995144228783219972noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576076601450296574.post-35812086909295618992011-05-06T02:00:00.000-05:002011-05-06T02:00:01.579-05:00

These days movie games have the stigma of being cheaply made cash-ins, but back in the early 90's when this game was made, movie tie-ins were often of average, if not great quality. I'll be reviewing this game SOLELY as a video game, but I'll say this: the game's levels and progression do a fantastic job of following the movie's pacing and plot structure while maintaining video game integrity (ie

GameArtifactshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07995144228783219972noreply@blogger.com53tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576076601450296574.post-41718393460899894862011-05-04T00:33:00.001-05:002011-05-05T18:02:57.521-05:00

Quest 64 is one the few JRPGS available for the N64, and the scarcity of the genre on that platform probably contributed to its limited success. Not that the game doesn't have some good things going for it, but by traditional JRPG standards it falls more than short on several fronts. I'll start by saying the monster designs are phenomenal. There are over 70 different ones and although they

GameArtifactshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07995144228783219972noreply@blogger.com38tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576076601450296574.post-72656348514183093302011-04-30T04:04:00.000-05:002011-04-30T04:04:05.570-05:00

Today I'm looking at Revenge of Shinobi : the second game in Sega's Shinobi series. This a classic action/platformer that a lot of devs could learn a lot from. Let's see if we can take a closer look and find out why. First off, I don't feel comfortable continuing this discussion without giving a shout out to Yuzo Koshiro, the sound composer for this game as well as the Streets of Rage series. He

GameArtifactshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07995144228783219972noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576076601450296574.post-26612650128737598772011-04-27T05:07:00.000-05:002011-04-27T05:07:37.111-05:00

For my first actual post I'll be taking a close look at the SNES game with a strong cult following - "Illusion of Gaia". Below is the Japanese boxart, I really hate when publishers manage to fuck up an amazing cover art when bringing a game over seas...but that's a story for another time. Ok first off if you care about spoilers and you haven't played this game then stop reading now. Last

GameArtifactshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07995144228783219972noreply@blogger.com94tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576076601450296574.post-75890417998968684412011-04-26T08:13:00.000-05:002011-04-26T08:13:40.609-05:00

Welcome to Game Artifacts, also known as my blog. This is a place to put my thoughts on video game design. I'll be taking various video games from history and analyzing what makes them tick. It will be a lot different and more interesting (I hope) than just reviewing video games, which seems to be all the rage these days. I've spent a ridiculous amount of time playing and replaying games over

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