LO2: Comparison of Reviews

When reviewing games there's no definite set of what's right and what's wrong, a lot of formats can be helpful in getting the reviewers point across and what they choose is essentially up to how they feel comfortable. Two of the most widely use formats to review games however are through articles and through videos, the former being usually found in magazines or online on niche websites specifically for that sort of thing and the latter can be pretty much made by anyone and uploaded to a site such as YouTube for the world to see. Not only can the format be different but the formality of it can be too, a twinge of humour can be used to emphasise points or just make the review more memorable then simple words on a screen or paper. Let's take for example this Walking Dead review by Empire Magazine as our first example of a text and picture based review (as seen below) and pick it apart before comparing it to another review of a different nature.

EMPIRE

Format wise the review itself looks like a review, you can open the page and know it's a review without looking at the great big honking arrow that's at the top left hand of the page. The text is all neatly laid out at the bottom of the page - or pages, rather - and is in typical column format and in a rather trimmed formation to keep everything somewhat in unison and to not have words and text flying all over the place. The title itself sticks out and is distinct to grab the readers attention, the subheading is in bold to indicate where the review begins and there are pictures to go along with the text to further showcase the game and to also perpetuate some of the points raised in the article, which include a picture of one of the former survivors, for example, as the article makes notes that the actions the players took in the previous season will affect what happens in this one, a picture of Clementine, now that she's the main character of this season and the typical horror aspects one expects from the game, with a walker gripping onto someone's arm. Content wise the review isn't terribly long, only spanning about a third of the way across both pages, but for a shorter article it does cover a lot of points. The author leads in with a synopsis of the game and a little bit of background to the company and the first season knowing this is essentially a sequel, and then goes on about the fundamentals of the gameplay (surviving, decision making, all the drama) and then about the improvements that have been implemented (dialogue trees and combat), though they don't necessarily note any examples of this other than the specific topics, though they may be leaving the actual content itself for the reader and/or potential player to find out. The style of writing isn't exactly formal either, it's somewhat colloquial and easy going for anyone to simply pick up and read. At the end the review gives a list of what systems the game is now out on and essentially backs up their statements by mentioning that the first episode of the season is out, so anyone who is interested from the review can go about finding out how to download the episode if their curiosity has been piqued.

ZERO PUNCTUATION

Now we delve into the world of visual media, and there are a lot of things people can do with a video review. The most important thing to remember, however, is video reviews require visuals and audio instead of the simple visual aspect that belong to written articles. Not only do you need something there to keep the viewer engaged, your voice also can take on a different tone instead of relying on people to use their inside voice to narrate the review themselves. Turn your attention to Zero Punctuation, a review style set up by one Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw, a snarky british-australian reviewer who has a very  distinct style of humour and an even more distinct way of reviewing games. As the name may suggest, Yahtzee rambles excessively on about the game with little to no breaks between, leaving them as one massive rant of sorts, though despite his tendencies to be harsh on some games he can be quite forgiving with others. Format wise it takes on a unique style of his, with having caricatures and little minions visualising his humorous points frame by frame in a sort of half animation, though everything else is much the same as any other review, with his commentary overlaying it, albeit it a quick one, though he doesn't show any actual gameplay from the game itself, possibly giving it a backseat to his animation instead. One thing to note is the animation is, uh, quite vulgar at times with certain pictures, and his commentary isn't exactly any better, but it does get the point across, it's not just for the hell of it. Content wise he goes into a lot of detail, though he doesn't make it entirely distinct when he's going into it, especially when he's on a roll. When the actual criticism of the game kicks in he first starts off with a synopsis of the game, explaining that it's more so based around the aspect of relationships with other people (who get along like 'six velociraptors in a tent with only one sleeping bag') more so then merely running around gunning every single zombie down in an apocalypse setting, and that all your decisions will have an impact. He does criticise the mechanics and the moral binary choice, however, and shows examples of the decisions that both he and his friends made, which turned out to be the same, and carries on to explain that there are puzzles but they're not exactly engaging ones, saying that 'they're more like devices to make sure you're paying attention'.  Yahtzee picks apart the combat aspect and the controls by saying the typical way to move around (on PC) is the WASD keys and then the mouse initiates talking, so when any sort of combat happens it's time for a quick time event. Finally he does praise the game by saying that the core mechanic of the game is setting the player up for very hard decisions and the game does that very well, both the quick reactions and the slow planning situations equally. He does say the game is absorbing and tense but despite all of that he doesn't necessarily want to see how the rest of the episodes will turn out because he feels the genre has been overdone. 

COMPARISON

It's sort of hard to try and compare two reviews that are in entirely different mediums but it can be done, but whether or not you prefer one or the other is entirely subjective. The Empire review does what it was intended to, to provide a quick review in a magazine that is potentially full of them to potential players in order to give them a brief oversight and an incentive to play the game. Yahtzee also attained his goal, which was to produce yet another snarky video for people to watch and laugh at, alongside actually learning aspects about the game. The Empire does go into depth about some things (synopsis, fundamentals, improvements) but considering the length of it there isn't much detail you can shove into that small space, but Yahtzee's review is around about five minutes long, and goes into the whole concept of the game, the mechanics, the pros and cons of this, the puzzles, the controls, the combat and the core mechanic of the game, but does also praise it. It's interesting to note that the Empire Magazine is on a neutral basis and doesn't exactly pan or praise the game too much in either direction, but Yahtzee's style has him taking the negatives to an extreme and yet the praise to a neutral level, possibly to keep in touch with his character of sorts as it's come to be expected of him. With the magazine one has to read it in their own voice and certain things may not be read the same way as the author intended, yet with the video you have audio, so Yahtzee himself is speaking exactly as he was intended to be heard. Accessibility wise the video is much easier to get a hold of then the magazine, though the video itself isn't to everyone's tastes. It's vulgar and of course there's swearing, so those who want a more formal review might want to take the magazine option over this one, though I prefer the video itself.

LO1: Analysis/Review #6 - Epic Mickey

Platform: Wii

Genre
- Epic Mickey is an action/adventure platforming game which, unlike other Disney licensed games, adopts a dark and otherwise dismal atmosphere in an ambitious attempt to reboot Mickey Mouse's iconic status. Yes. I just used the words Disney, dark and dismal in the same sentence together. Be afraid. Like other games of the genre it's designed in such a way that platforming is a necessity and the game is littered with enemies to kill and bosses to defeat which gains it the label of an action game, with a progressive story for an adventure status, too. In comparison, though, the game stands out entirely for it's own reasons, and was done in such a way no one would have ever expected it. Perhaps the darker, more surreal style was a must for the story this game holds, but for something endorsed by Disney it's somewhat of a surprise, and that alone set's it apart from it's competitors. It also adds in a new dynamic with your main attack which is the basis for most of the game, using a magic paintbrush with either paint or thinner to take care of your enemies or solve several puzzles, some of which have two different ways to complete them which will ultimately affect your Karma meter. The game also throws in several level changes your way, with some being in the 3D environment that takes up most of the game and some otherwise being in a semi-2D perspective that act as bridges between certain parts of the game, which are both a throwback to the old Mickey Mouse cartoons and the old 2D sidescroller games that came before Epic Mickey in all it's twisted glory.

Narrative
- The story begins with our titular protagonist, Mickey Mouse, sleeping in his bed, when he is promptly woken up by the mirror in his own room which seems to be beckoning to him. Upon entering the mirror to a totally new environment Mickey peeks around the corner into one of these newfound rooms to suddenly spot the magician Yen Sid putting the finishing touches on his new creation, a world known as the Wasteland in which all the forgotten, unused and rejected Disney characters go to live once their time is up. As the magician, satisfied with his current progress, retires for the night, Mickey takes it upon himself to take a closer look and add a simple touch of his own with the magic paintbrush laying nearby, attempting to create a statue of himself which promptly turns into an ink like substance and melts. Confused by this, Mickey bulks up the creature using an insane amount of paint, which in turns releases a shadowy abomination known as the Shadow Blot which sends the mouse into a panic. In this scuffle Mickey accidently knocks over the thinner, which spills onto the model of Wasteland and hearing Yen Sid returning our hero runs for the mirror once more and dives on through to escape unseen but most definitely not unheard. As Yen Sid sees the destruction caused to his world it's too late, and it's several long, long years that go by before Mickey is suddenly wrenched back through the mirror by the Shadow Blot and into the world that he helped destroy. The impact of the fall knocks our protagonist out, and soon enough Mickey awakes on a makeshift operating table with the Mad Doctor controlling the machinery above him as he is tormented with several instruments before eventually being attacked by a plunger, of all things, which is actually used for ripping people's hearts out of their chests, on the basis that hearts are needed to return to the real world. Managing to break free Mickey is suddenly confronted by the Shadow Blot once more, but is scared away by the paintbrush. From here the Mad Doctor escapes using a hatch, and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, who has been hiding, is spotted by Mickey and attempts to follow in the Doctor's footsteps by going down the hatch. He accidently breaks the machine, however, and turns the robot frenzied as he escapes through the door, and from here the game begins. Considering this is an adventure game the gameplay is going to be centred around the narrative very closely as you progress through the game, and along the way you'll meet various characters which you can interact with in different ways depending on the choices you've made during the course of the game thanks to your Karma meter. This game seems to be a game people either love or think it's nothing special, but it's more than likely appealing to those who like platformer games and want something different, and, depending on how you look at it, Disney fans may or may not be satisfied with this new, more darker take on Mickey and the entire situation he's in, taking a little trip away from the norm.

Production Process
- The game was developed by Junction Point and was released in 2010 using an engine known as Havok in conjunction with Gamebyro. When it came to actually making the game it wasn't exactly an easy ride, with the original concept of the game being made all the way back in 2003, but the rights to Oswald were no longer held by Disney and the game couldn't be produced at the time. When the rights were eventually returned three years later Disney Interactive studios could not secure a developer for the game until a year later in 2007 when Disney soon acquired Junction Point Studios. It was meant to be released on both the Xbox and PS3, but since the idea of a Wii port was said to be unachievable, it was suggested that they dropped the other ports entirely to focus all their efforts on the Wii version instead, which is what we ended up with in the end. From the very start of development the game was suggested to be a very dark version of the world and characters we all know and love, though those who followed the game from the beginning probably felt a little disappointed that this wasn't the ultimate surreal and corrupt retelling that we were looking forward too. I remember way, way back when this game picked up a ton of attention when a single piece of concept art depicted Goofy in a ravaged, almost zombie like style, with gears and poles replacing his limbs and his eyes are apparently missing, and it only makes us wonder what the game could have been like if the developers had seen just how much they truly could have got away with. Of course, being that it's Disney, there had to be a line drawn somewhere.

Originally, depending on your Karma meter, Mickey's appearance would change depending on how it was influenced, especially if you used too much thinner. Thinner Mickey would originally make you seem more rat like and your skin would ooze so much ink off in places it would seem almost blank, but this was changed and made into Scrapper Mickey, which would only make you seem more malicious in appearance, but both these ideas were scrapped thanks to Disney saying that it would ruin Mickey's status as a hero. Oswald was also supposed to be the main villain in the end, resulting in a rather terrifying final boss that we can only see now thanks to the wonderful joys of concept art. The creators definitely knew their stuff, and it shows off in the end. The Gremlins were actually from an unused WWII cartoon and the old Basketball court that you could find inside the Matterhorn is actually in the game, hidden in a level known as Mickeyjunk Mountain which contains an obscene amount of Mickey Mouse merchandise. You can also unlock Walt Disney's firehouse apartment in a level known as Mean Street, too. The Moonliner rocket? Important plot device. The creators even referred back to old cartoons for individual barrel designs, and if that's not doing their homework, I don't know what is. I could list out all the references, but I'd be here forever. You've probably noticed the clock face up there, too, and some of you may even know where it comes from. In several Disney Land theme parks the "It's a Small World" ride was often accompanied by a smaller show on the exterior, where a ticking clock would tilt it's head from side to side and open it's doors to play a small portion of the song as a number of dolls would appear and walk along a specified path, and, once it was over, another set of doors would open to show the time. This happened every fifteen minutes, and to many people both the clock tower and song were a part of their childhood, being very iconic and nostalgic for a lot of people ever since they saw it as ki-...

... No. It's okay. I don't see any problem with turning a part of numerous childhoods into a twisted, alternate version that finally snapped after hearing that song play over and over again for years on end, but it doesn't get a break, considering the boss music is a warped version of the "It's a Small World" song, just without the lyrics. Even the dolls make an appearance, perched at the edge of the platform in which Mickey has to dodge it's robotic hands, because apparently it can't take it's anger out any other way and will smash anything it sees, including our iconic little mouse. Truth be told this has to be one of my favourite bosses of the game and probably of all time, too, just because the developers had enough guts to go through with this idea, and it makes it even more awesome knowing Disney must have agreed to the idea to have it put in there. As I said before, the music, though amazingly creepy, doesn't have the lyrics in there due to copyright issues during development. I can only wonder what it would have been like if it had been any different...

Characterisation
- Being that this is a Disney game people are going to expect Disney characters to be in there, and there are plenty to go around to keep anyone happy... or at least intrigued, because this game isn't exactly the definition of happy now, is it. Also take into account that the entire game is based around unused and obscure characters and worlds, and as such the more iconic characters may be absent, with the exception of Mickey. Donald, Goofy and Daisy do make an appearance... albeit being robotic versions of themselves that Oswald made in order to fill the void that Mickey left on him after he faded away into obscurity as his brother gained all the lime light. Yeah. One thing to note about this game? It's depressing as anything. Seriously. Oswald was originally the ruler of Wasteland and worked together with the Mad Doctor to create machines known as the Beetleworx that helped run the entire world, but was stabbed in the back when the Shadow Blot turned up and destroyed it all after Mickey caused the thinner disaster, as if he hasn't done enough harm to Oswald already. The Mad Doctor joined the Shadow Blot and Oswald promptly teamed up with the Gremlins and others in the world against the Blot in what's now known as the 'Blot Wars'. It didn't work. With Wasteland in ruins the entire resistance was forced into hiding, not to mention Oswald's girlfriend, Ortensia, was petrified in an attempt to save him from the blot and was taken away from him as a result. The rabbit literally lost the will to fight and fell into a depression in which he couldn't get out of no matter what happened. How long has poor Oswald suffered through this never-ending personal nightmare? Eighty years. All the while Mickey has become more and more famous without a care in the world. Ouch. Being that this is an adventure game you need a protagonist and you need an antagonist, being both Mickey and the Shadow Blot in this game respectively, but even then there are several changes of heart that occur within the game, more specifically Oswald as he puts his resentment aside to work alongside his brother in order to save his own world and return Mickey to his. The characters in this game, to me, are pretty strong. You have your own personal input into what Mickey does, but it still fits his personality, being that Mickey was a sort of anti-hero back into the thirties and slowly progressed into being a hero in the decades that followed. Oswald has a good enough reason to resent his brother and you feel sorry for the poor thing after everything that's happened, it's actually incentive to finish the game so you can save Wasteland and restore things back to normal. Both the Mad Doctor and more specifically the Shadow Blot are promising enough antagonists, with the latter being the most prevalent and the most badass in terms of design, which makes for a pretty good final boss fight. Everyone else fits into the run down world that they currently live in and all fit the criteria of being forgotten or unused, with some inhabitants being Horace Horsecollar, Henrietta the Cow, an unused version of Smee from Peter Pan and let's not forget some of the levels either, being based on old Mickey Mouse cartoons such as Mickey and the Beanstalk or Steamboat Willie.

Gameplay
- Considering this game is rated E for Everyone and anything labelled with Disney is going to attract any kid within a ten mile radius the challenge isn't the hardest it could be, but at least the game makes you think and lets you solve puzzles for yourself which someone younger may or may not find challenging. Let's also not forget that various enemies pose a threat with the different ways in which they attack and bosses are serious hazards if you don't know how to deal with them, too. It's engaging in enough itself because there are various ways in which to take care of these obstacles and the puzzles it presents you with are enough to make you think and solve out for yourself in the best way possible by either using paint or thinner depending on how you want your Karma meter to be influenced, or both if you don't really care either which way Mickey ends up. Which leads me onto the games main mechanic: the paintbrush. You can use this magic brush to either shoot out a stream of paint (blue) which repairs or creates walkways and objects in which you can walk over or interact with, or you can shoot a stream of thinner (green) which can destroy the things you paint and other various things and people littering the wasteland. If you're going more towards being a hero then paint is the one you want to use the most, or, likewise, if you want to be a jerk, you can use thinner to go the other way, but you'll never be able to stick to one solely, as most places and puzzles will require you to use both paint and thinner to get by. Depending on how much you use you can also attract things known as guardians, which are either blue (Tints) or green (Turps) and can either befriend enemies or cover them with thinner. You'll also get refills to your paint and thinner meters by picking up cubes of the same colours and if your bar is less than a third full it'll refill automatically so you'll never run out for good. You can also collect E-tickets that can act as currency in some places as well as pins and unlockable content, but keep in mind your initial playthrough will never be 100% no matter how hard you try or even if you know where everything is, because you can only kill certain bosses and do certain things one time before it's a definite decision. You'll get the reward for that option but to get the other reward you'll have to play the game through again and choose the opposite method, which adds to the replayability of it all. The game does not let you turn back also, and auto-saves after you leave an area. The developers said this was so you couldn't change your actions, which does make sense in a game that takes into account a morality system. As per the story you'll now have to control Mickey through the Wasteland and set things straight, either cleaning up the world (or making it worse), ultimately helping to defeat both the Mad Doctor and Shadow Blot as well as setting things straight with his older brother in the end. These puzzles and the difficulty levels do progress along with the player the longer the game goes on, so you'll have to pay attention, otherwise you'll get left behind.

Target Audience
- The target audience for this game seems to be children mostly, despite the overall dark mood, and it seems to have no definite gender divide in which I could pick up on, although those who are both a fan of Disney and/or more surreal adventure games may find some or maybe a lot of appeal in a game like this. The main reason why I say children are the target audience is purely down to the fact that this game is made by Disney, who are pretty much gods when it comes to kid's entertainment, plus the fact that the game was rated E and as such kids are allowed to play it, but since it's E for Everyone it's also for those of an older age who may or may not get the references that are thrown into the game which would be otherwise by unknown to those younger than them that played it. It's appealing enough to those who wanted a more darker Disney game and to children if it's entertaining enough to keep their interest, but as I've mentioned before, the final release of the game wasn't full of the eldritch styled abominations that we all saw in the concept art which was a little disappointing in comparison, but that doesn't mean everything that was in the game was light-hearted and cheery, oh no. There were a lot of 3D platformer games by the time the Wii came out and the real reason I think this game stood out among the rest was not only because of the Disney license but also because of how different it was from your usual Disney endorsed games. It was nice to see a change, and those who were curious enough to get sucked in more than likely found it either an enjoyable surreal experience or a warped vision which supplied endless amounts of nightmare fuel for weeks to come. Or both. That's always fun.

Platform
- Knowing that the ports for both the Xbox and PS3 were scrapped the game was only ever released on the Wii, which allowed them to focus all their efforts on this, and it does make a little bit more sense in that the Wiimote is used in a similar way to how Mickey uses the paintbrush in game. You'll require both the Wiimote and the Nunchuck in order to play the game. The A button is used for jumping and pressing it twice will allow you to double jump, as well as interact with objects and characters when the prompt appears on screen. Tapping the B button will allow you to splash things with paint whilst holding down the B button will send out an entire stream. The C button will allow you to centre the camera, but the camera seems to be a main complaint within this game whenever it's brought up, in places it often gets stuck and you cannot no matter what you do centre the camera, and in a game which relies on platforming especially in a 3D environment having a camera with a mind of it's own or one that simply refuses to cooperate can be torture sometimes. The control stick on the Nunchuck is used to move Mickey around and the Control pad can also be used to move the camera also. The + button can be used to select Sketches and the - button can be pressed to use the sketch while aiming with the pointer. Using 1 will allow you to switch to first person perspective and the 2 button will display the pause menu. Tapping the Z button will spray thinner everywhere and holding it down will send a barrage in the direction of anything unfortunate enough to be in the way. Shaking the Wiimote will also make Mickey spin and if you have guardians present you can control them using the Wiimote, too. Holding your Wiimote upright will show you the way forward, but if you flick your Wiimote in this position you can send your guardian flying at the enemy. If you hold both the Nunchuck and the Wiimote upright and flick them you can launch all of your guardians at your enemies as well.

LO1: Analysis/Review #5 - Bio-hazard Battle

Platform: Sega Genesis/Mega Drive

Genre
- Bio-hazard Battle is an auto side scrolling Shoot 'em up game that takes a different spin on a genre that was extremely popular at the time, combining both action and science fiction to create a fresh little concept for a fun but challenging game. Much like other games in the genre the entire game revolves around the idea that you'll go through various levels and take down as many enemies as you can, hence the name, whilst trying to accumulate as many points as possible and ultimately stay alive. You can collect power ups and extra lives if you're lucky enough to find them, but the meat of the game will always boil down to how good you are with your reaction times, whether it be to gun down an approaching enemy or to dodge incoming projectiles. It's well known that these games were ruthless and unforgiving, so the only way to beat this game is through sheer perseverance alone. To be honest it stands out pretty well from the other games of this genre, it has an interesting storyline which obviously had a lot of thought put into it, and whilst the level designs aren't exactly anything new with how most of them are linear, the backgrounds, the enemies and everything else are imaginative enough to get your attention and the action is great and the controls are tight. It's also a refreshing change to play as something living within a Shoot 'em up rather than taking control of a machine instead, fighting fire with fire, if you will, to take back your home world. It has a certain charm about it, but that may only apply to me because this game was... well, my childhood, really. Me and my brothers used to play this game for hours when we were younger, and even today I get all warm and fuzzy inside just thinking about it.

Narrative
- There's no in-game explanation of the story, so you better have the manual on hand if you want to know why the hell you're playing as a living ship gunning down numerous alien critters that are out for blood. Turns out during the very first bio-war one of these sides used a retro virus in retaliation which in turn unleashed waves of biological weapons which couldn't be stopped, and now your planet, Avaron, is inhabited by monsters of all shape and sizes, but all of them are equally as deadly. The space station O.P Odysseus remains in orbit around the planet which houses the very last of the survivors, frozen in cyrogenic tanks for hundreds of years, until finally they are awakened after so long of being inanimate. Avaron is dangerous, but certainly not uninhabitable. You will now take control of one of the crew members who descends down to the planets surface and through various locations and habitats on Avalon to cleanse them of any creatures living there in order to make it a new, safe home for the remaining survivors. According to the manual this mission takes place in the year 2116, or at least close to that. The only interaction you'll get with the 'characters' in regards to this story is controlling whichever ship you decided to pick through each of these levels, though I suppose if you consider the enemies prominent enough to be classified as characters within this game then your interaction with them would be to blast every single last one of them into smithereens. It also helps that the target audience probably expected that coming from a game like this, I don't think many people would buy it without knowing what they were getting themselves into. Those unfortunate enough to make that mistake... well, the odds were against you from the very start.

Production Process
- It's pretty common by now to know that when a game is ported over to a different console there's going to be some changes, but the same can also be said for games which aren't ported over to different consoles and are instead changed depending on what country they're released in. Regional differences are nothing new when it comes to video games and it turns out this particular one wasn't left out, either. Crying: Aseimei Sensou is the title that the Japanese version of this game holds. Aside from the obvious name change the differences between the two games are minimal at best, yet they're noticeable if you pay close attention to them. I went through and tried to pick out the details and changes that stood out the most to me whilst playing through the game, it's entirely possible that I missed a few things along the way but, hey, I tried my best. Just to note with these pictorial lists the Bio-hazard screenshot will be on the left of the Crying screenshot which will be on the right. With that being said, let's get on with it.

Nothing extremely major to report here, other than the fact that the TM perched at the end of SEGA there is absent from Crying. The entire SEGA entry has it's own animation, too, where it curves in off screen, so it makes you wonder why they even bothered to remove it/add it in there. I'm not sure why this was changed but, it's there all right.

Probably the most major change that this game is given is the title screen to correspond with the name of the game. Crying certainly cranked it up a notch in terms of design, even as the title fades in we get a little animation of the bio-hazard symbol fading in from black and moving over to the left before the rest of the title comes into view, with the blue background being slightly wavy before it settles down. Bio-hazard Battle's title screen simply fades in, and that's that. The copyright and release date are still in the exact same place and the font style is the same, too. Let's also not forget the box art, shall we?

I had to go lurking around the menus for any differences, just so I could be sure I didn't miss anything. All of the ship graphics are the same on one player mode as well as the two player mode, even the red and blue cursor highlights are there. The font is the same as well. In the options mode both games have the five difficulty settings even though the difficulty in game is still different and there's no alteration in the number of lives either, having three, four or five to start with. One thing that has changed is that Lives has been replaced with Player in Crying. There's also the sound test. The maximum that Bio-hazard Battle goes up to is 48, whereas the maximum that Crying goes up to is 191.

It's not exactly noticeable at first glance, and trust me, I missed it my first time through, but Crying added the letters P, T and S at the end of your point total. You can probably guess what it stands for. A small change, yeah, but it's still a difference nonetheless. It may also be worth mentioning that in the first level in particular I noticed that the background scrolled an awful lot slower in Crying than it did in Bio-hazard Battle as you go down from space to enter the planet's atmosphere. Again, I'm not sure why this is, but it's just another to add to the list.

Full stops after the clarification that you beat a stage. Why not?

Enemy projectiles. I noticed this one straight away and you'll more than likely notice it too with how many there are this time around. Think it's bad in Bio-hazard Battle? Try Crying. It's a fitting name, because that's exactly what you'll be doing by the time you're done with this game. Even on normal difficulty the projectiles seem to have increased, not to mention I'm pretty sure some enemies have doubled in number as well. Enemies that don't seem to fire off any sort of projectile in Bio-hazard Battle do so in Crying. A lot. Have fun.

Characterisation

- Considering the genre of the game players would most probably like to have a character which can at least take a few hits, but this game is not one of said games. At least they make up for it with enemies that take one hit to kill and are sparing with most enemies that do take multiple shots to obliterate, though you'll see more of them along the way with bosses and with how the game progressively gets harder, as if it isn't hard enough. At least your character can dispatch of enemies quickly with your normal projectiles or a charged up shot, as well as the numerous power ups you can collect, so it's nice to know you're not being thrown into this without a fighting chance. Fans of Shoot 'em ups may even like the new abilities that these bio-ships have that they can play around with. With most of these sorts of games the character is mainly just an avatar in which you can place yourself into their shoes, especially in this game when no other detail of the pilot is mentioned apart from the storyline and the manual consistently refers to the player in a way which makes it seem like you're the one taking control of the ship, and you're the one who everyone is counting on to save the day. There's no actual development with these characters that I know of, they're certainly strong in their offense (maybe not so much defense) but personality wise there's nothing considering it's basically you in the drivers seat and these ships are nothing more than that, despite the fact that they're actual living things mixed with machine, which could be an excuse as to why they're void of any personification. They seem adequately equipped to deal with the atmosphere of the planet too, and the manual even says that the reason why you're constantly under attack is because the energy given off by your ship is what attracts them to you. If you do play this game to the extent that I did you may find yourself choosing a certain ship every time you boot it up to play. Every ship is different in it's own way and it gives a little bit of variety and experimentation before you figure out which one is best for you. The red and blue saw-shark like ship is called Orestes, being one of the fastest ships in the game along with Hecuba, modelled after a giant green insect. The other two ships, Electra, the red and green plated creature and Polyxena, my favourite, a gold and purple dolphin like being, are more easy to control, but in return it's harder to get out of the way and react to everything that's coming your way. Upon picking up a yellow energy seed both Orestes and Electra will equip what's known as a Fire Petal, a stream of white-hot fireballs, whereas Hecuba and Polyxena will equip a Spin Laser, twin lasers that rotate. An orange energy seed will give Orestes and Hecuba a Plasma Ring, which bounces off inert matter before exploding upon contact with living tissue, and Electra and Polyxena will gain a Seeker Laser, a red beam that homes in on enemies. Bond (globes of plasma which latch onto creatures and detonate) will be given to Electra and Hecuba upon picking up a blue energy seed and Nova (bursts of energy that travel all over) will be passed onto Orestes and Polyxena. Lastly there's green energy seeds, where all four ships will gain a power up known as Pods, which happens to be the default weapon for the Power Star, that little thing that follows your ship around. These seeds apparently change the genetic structure of the bio-ship, allowing it to fire off all these crazy projectiles.

Gameplay

- In typical Shoot 'em up style your ship will auto scroll through any and all the levels whilst you shoot down various enemies that attempt to destroy you. It sounds extremely simple, and it is, but staying alive... not so much. These creatures are ruthless and come from all directions, stopping for a split second is basically the equivalent of saying 'kill me' and you have to stay on your toes. The challenge in this game is insane. You start off with a default of three lives and ten continues but you'll go through them in the blink of an eye, considering this is one of those games that uses the one hit kill rule and the enemy placement is so clever in the sense that if you dodge something that would surely kill you, chances are you'll run into something else you didn't even see. This game honestly forces you to multitask and you better get used to it if you have any intention of beating this game, me and my brother have only ever managed to beat this game once and that was a long, long time ago. In terms of attacking you can manually fire, auto fire or build up your charge to unleash it as a plasma wall. There are also energy seeds which act as your secondary fire and collecting more of the same colour boosts it up, and the weapons slightly vary for each character you can play as, from homing lasers to projectiles fired off in a star like pattern. The gameplay doesn't exactly change in any way but the game always throws something your way to keep your attention. Extra lives are gained when a select number of points are obtained and you can also find them scattered around some levels, but don't expect there to be a lot of them. Did I forget to mention you can bring in a second player to help you? Nothing like sitting down with a friend or a family member and torturing yourself with a tough-as-nails game that makes you want to claw out your eyes after seeing that death animation a hundred times. Ahh, memories. Do also note that playing on Practice difficulty does not let you play the last three levels, so you're gonna have to get better at this game before you attempt to finish it fully.

As your selected ship is launched from the O.P Odysseus you will now have to guide them through eight levels in order to restore peace to Avaron, the very first of them being your re-entry into the planet's atmosphere. Don't worry, the incredible heat generated by this has no adverse effect on your ship. Flying creatures from flies to squids will attempt you fend you away from their current home planet, so watch out. The second stage is set in the ruins of a once bustling metropolis, now reduced to rubble, but the computers within the city are still active and many robotic obstacles will stand in your way to take you down. This stage introduces the first boss of the game, a giant slug like creature with a mirrored pillar on it's back. Yeah. Bosses. As if you didn't get the shit kicked out of you enough during the stage, now you have to go up against some massive monstrosity that'll go through your remaining lives faster than you could throw the game cartridge out the window in a blind rage. The third stage takes place within the humid jungles that the manual refers to as being in Asia... either Avaron is a renamed earth or this planet so happens to have a country with the same name, but in either case you'll have to get through this mess of insects and other beasties that fly all over the screen to reach the end, where you'll face off against a serpent-like being covered in flesh and bone. Moving on to stage four it seems that this particular cave, or Bauxite Mine as it's called, isn't one of the places spared from the nasty creatures that dwell within. You'll have room to maneuvor but you're not going to get out of there unscathed. The boss of this level is a rather strange looking shrimp which uses the slime on the walls of the overrun mine to cover itself in armour, and only by destroying it will you be able to harm it's occupant. Stage five drops us down deep into the ocean, with fish, urchins, mantis shrimps, jellyfish and whole other variety of sea enemies attempting to send you to a watery grave. To finish off this stage you'll have to take on a hybrid of manta ray, barracuda and angler fish all rolled into one big ball of oceanic rage that can apparently fire lasers out of it's mouth. Awesome. Stage six? Even more awesome. This has to be my favourite level of the entire game because it makes a huge difference from the cluttered mess of the other levels with the open sky and the clouds whizzing past your ship. It turns out that an automated warjet, once used in the first biowar, has seemingly reactivated, and is now patrolling the sky, capable of destroying any colony that you've now cleared the way for back in the earlier levels with it's immense power. The whole stage is now based around taking down this massive ship and once you destroy the first part of it's defenses you'll realise why this retired ship has risen once more as the wreckage breaks away: the entire interior of the ship has been taken over by a biological growth. It's actually quite terrifying that this problem has got to the point where these creatures are smart enough to control a huge warjet but at least it makes for an amazing boss fight as you chip away at the outer shell to expose the core. Inside the very lab that created these hazards (of the biological kind) is where stage seven will take place. It won't be easy as the defense mechanisms are still in place, and trust me, there are monsters everywhere. To say the least the boss of this stage is... interesting? I think? I can't even make out what they are, they seem to be grey shapes of some unknown entity that swarm around you and... that's pretty much it. It's one of the weaker bosses in the game, honestly, but the weakest one is the final boss. Yeah. After going through the toughest level possible, sacrificing your remaining lives to get to the end of the stage and finally see the last boss they throw some... orb like thing at you. Granted it is pretty cool that when you defeat it it's shell breaks open and a ton of creatures pour of out it, plus it's also pretty neat to see it have a second form which is even harder, but in a game that's entitled Bio-hazard Battle I was expecting something living for the final boss. I can't gripe too much considering it's still a good final fight but, it's a tiny bit underwhelming in my opinion. The ending probably doesn't make up for all the cheap deaths and rage-quits but, when you take into account you just beat one of the hardest games you'll probably play in your life, it makes it a whole lot better. The ending also leaves it ambiguously open for a sequel, but one was never made.

Target Audience

- I'd say the target audience for this game would mainly be boys, more than likely young ones too who would have had an awful lot of time to spare in order to beat this game. I'm pretty sure the only reason as to why I played this game initially was because it was bought for my brothers, and since I was constantly around them when I was younger we ended up playing this a ton, sparking my love for it. It may very well be the one game that got me into gaming itself, knowing I played games a ton back then and I still do now, it really wouldn't surprise me. Let's also not forget that this game was obviously intended for those who are fans of the Shoot 'em up genre, if you know what those games are like and you do enjoy playing them chances are you're going to be pretty good at them. This games offers a huge variety of weapons to mess around with and different ships to play as with multiple difficulty options as well, so there's a ton of combinations to try out which will make any fan satisfied. It's appealing because it's both old and new at the same time. The gameplay isn't any different from others in the same genre. Move right and shoot. Wow. However, the premise, the story, the ships, the enemies, the levels, the power ups, the actual lore carried through the manual and everything else makes this stand out so much more from it's competitors, and it does compare pretty well to others, but sadly it was under the radar, so to speak. It was overshadowed by a ton of games and it seems pretty unknown to most people, but that's alright. It'll always have a special little place in my heart.

Platform

- The game was originally made on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in 1992 but was ported over to the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console in 2007. It was also released on Steam in 2010, leading the total platforms that this game can be played on up to three, but none of them would ever live up to the feeling of playing the game on that old Sega console, the one it was best suited to. You can control whichever ship you chose by pressing the D-Pad in any of the eight directions available, the A button is used for firing off projectiles and the B button is used for charging up one huge, powerful shot should you hold it down for long enough before letting go. Pressing Start will allow you to pause the game. A also is used for selecting options on the menu and B is used for going back or cancelling things. The D-Pad in this menu state is used to move and highlight what you want to alter, as well as pressing left or right respectively will change the options available should you end up selecting it. You also use the D-Pad to highlight your character. There is no way to configure your controls in the options menu, but you can change things such as the difficulty, the number of starting lives you have or, interestingly enough, you can mess around with the sound test. Normally sound tests are things you have to unlock or use a code to get to, but here it's just sitting there for you to mess about with. Most of them are just normal sounds you hear through the game, but if you've ever wanted to sit there and listen to the music in a stage without the constant sound of you dying distracting from it all, you can do so here. Unless you're totally masochistic I advise you to turn your difficulty down to Practice or Easy and pump up the number of lives until you eventually get used to how evil this shoot 'em up can be. Good look beating the game. You'll need it.

LO1: Analysis/Review #4 - Monster Party

Platform: NES

Genre

- Monster Party is a side scrolling adventure game which also acts as a platformer, with themes of horror and comedy thrown into the mix. It acts more of a parody of sorts to the former genre and is quite cartoony and interesting within it's design, giving the game a very unique charm. Much like other games Monster Party progresses through the storyline by moving the main character to the right in various levels, with the exception of one in which you have to ascend the level vertically, with the simple actions of jumping into the air and swinging your bat around being the only means of offense that you have at your disposal. In comparison to all the other NES side scroller games (trust me, there was a lot of them) it doesn't exactly stand out as much as some of the other, more popular ones, but it does stand out in the sense that this game is really strange. It's just weird. It has a bizarre sense of humour and the designs are quirky at best, especially when it comes down to the bosses. The dialogue is very lax and not exactly serious, which only further pushes and reinforces the parody label that this game has been granted. Another thing to note in this game is the use of blood. Whilst it's tame by today's standard back then this was probably the goriest NES game out there, even though it's depicted in this goofy sort of style. A pretty good example of this would be the round start screen, which shows six skeletons and hands rising up from a lake of blood as it drips down from the backdrop as well, it's over the top and cheesy, sure, but they certainly were not afraid to put it in there, and many more things within the game are on par with this balance between slightly offsetting and laughably excessive.

Narrative

- The story told in this game is that our young protagonist, Mark, was walking home from a baseball game when he looked up a saw a shining star. The star wasn't really a star at all, it was in fact, a monster, that fell from the sky and landed in front of him. It turns out this friendly creature goes by the name of Bert, and has come to Mark's world in order to find help in ridding his home land of the evil beasts that have taken over. Apparently Mark makes a good candidate considering he has a baseball bat, and Bert flies off with his newfound ally back to his world to begin their adventure. It's dangerous, Bert warns him, and the two of them fuse together. You read that last part right. Whilst the story isn't exactly the most gripping narrative of all time it at least sets up the criteria for the rest of the game, which involves going through every level and attempting to rid it of the bosses that are hiding within several doors scattered throughout the stage. The only interaction you really have with Bert is that certain enemies drop a pill which will transform you into your other half for a brief period of time. During this phase you can fly by repeatedly pressing the jump button and fire off projectiles using the attack button. Considering a lot of NES side scroller games don't have an in game explanation of the story (more than likely due to memory limitations) it's nice to actually see one kept through this game, including the opening cutscene, the dialogue of the final boss and the ending itself, which is actually sort of ambiguous and left on a cliff hanger. It has enough bat swings to keep anyone who wants a good adventure game entertained and just enough challenge to give a fair experience when playing. The story only really connects with the target audience by giving them a purpose to fulfil, plus I think the actual explanation of the story initially before the game begins will entice the player to complete the game to see what the ending will be like.

Production Process

- Bandai produced and released this game for the system in 1989, and even though the game was developed and made in Japan, it was exclusively released in the US. I'm not entirely sure why this happened or what the reasoning behind this was, but all I know is that this game was never released in Japan on their own Famicom system. Something to note with this is that one of the bosses, a haunted wishing well deep into Round 2 that attacks using plates, is based on a ghost story in Japan known as the Bancho Sarayashiki. No one outside of Japan would be all that familiar with the story to recognise the boss straight away. Several screenshots of the Beta version of the game can be seen online, and through these screenshots the game was discovered to be initially a lot more morbid and darker compared to the light-hearted game that the US got. The title screen didn't have the green slime, and was instead blood dripping from the creature's mouth, and the enemies were designed to be a lot more frightening. Rather than being a slightly odd background in the first level the original concept for it was to be a sunset with a mountain range in the background. The plant boss was also a lot different. Instead of being a purple pitcher plant the flora was originally what resembled a venus fly trap, with a microphone in front of it and a speaker behind it. This boss would attack by firing off projectiles in the shape of a musical note, and the whole set up was inspired and obviously is a reference to the Little Shop of Horrors. In the present game the collision detection for the speaker was actually never removed. If you beat the plant boss and jump to the right of the pot it once stood in you can intentionally stand on the air where the speaker should have been. Eventually a Japanese prototype was discovered of a game that was originally intended for the Famicom known as Parody World: Monster Party. I could be wrong on this, but this version seems to have things in common with the final release, such as the odd background, music and original tile sets in the first round, but it also has elements from the Beta version, such as the bloody title screen and the plant boss. The pumpkin boss was changed to become a reference to Planet of the Apes, being replaced by one of the primates on a horse with a broken version of the liberty statue in the background. With so little information around about this rather curious, obscure game and the history behind it, I really can't say for definite what I wrote up there about Parody World is true. The only reliable source of information I have for that version is this video here of someone who managed to get their hands on it, which is rather interesting to watch. There's also this video too, from the person who originally sold the prototype online showing the working game. Savour them. It's probably the only information you're going to get about this secretive little game.

 Characterisation
- Really the characters are only relevant to the target audience because it fits the natural conventions of this genre, in which there's typically a hero, Mark, or heroes, in the case of Mark and Bert, who go up against an enemy, the Dark World master, and fight his various minions, which are both the enemies and bosses in game. Mark is appealing to the target audience simply because he's capable of taking out enemies and bosses and can suffer a few hits before going down, and he's easy to control, which are things that are pretty essential to a game genre like this. Apart from the opening and end cutscenes, Mark and Bert are really just static characters for you to control, to be truthfully honest they're not exactly that interesting, with the only exception being Bert regarding the final cutscene. It's probably sort of bad that I find the boss characters, or guardians as they're called, more interesting than the protagonists themselves. They don't do much other than pose a threat, mind you, but they just seem so... interesting. I can't really describe it. Every one of them is completely different and they usually say something extremely corny before the battle starts. I've been called 'baby' three times now by a plant, a giant tempura shrimp and a dragon respectively, along with being told to 'Mooove it!' by a green minotaur. "Please don't pick on me" says the pumpkin ghost that almost immediately proceeds to attack me thereafter. Let's also not forget that the corpse of a red, bloated lizard says 'Sorry, I'm dead' as you enter the room and the only way to defeat a pair of dancing zombies is to watch them prance around until they disintegrate and disappear as you presumably sit there confused. Or amused. Or both. There's also a spider which, although it's nothing special, made me laugh. When you find him he'll remark that he'll 'suck all your blood' and proceed to attack you. Then, later on in the game, you'll find him again. Apparently he thought he won last time around, as he says he'll 'suck all your blood again'. I think the reason as to why I love these bosses so much is because they make up a big portion of the game, and they're so silly and fun to fight as well but they also provide a considerable challenge to players. They make it so that you want to know what you'll be going up against next, because if it's as crazy as the last boss you fought, you're in for a fun time.

Gameplay
- As mentioned before the gameplay for Monster Party is extremely simple. You move from left to right along what are known as Rounds and kill enemies and face off against bosses. The only real reason for beating the bosses is because you need to find a key which will unlock the door at the end of the Round, and you'll only acquire said key if you eliminate them all. NES games were a little unforgiving back in the day and they still are now, but the challenge, if you can adjust to it, isn't so bad in the beginning of the game, and like most games the difficulty curve slowly progresses the further you progress into it. It engages the player because they have to keep on their toes and get better as the game goes along, getting used to the controls and enemy mechanics and finding out ways to get around the various hazards within the levels or finding an easier way to kill a troublesome boss. The typical idea of going around beating up any enemy in sight and fighting bosses is normal for any game, really, but it's simple and easy enough to pick up on in this game that it really does help it in the long run. It's not a masterpiece by any means, but it's definitely fun enough, although it can get a little repetitive and annoying at times. At least we understand why we're going around beating the living daylights out of any creature with our bat thanks to the introduction of the story, but it's not mentioned or referred to ever again until the end of the game. Whilst most levels are the same it always seems to offer some sort of variation to at least get your attention, but in terms of variety is not exactly that broad of a subject. I guess the console's limitations could be partially to blame for this, but it's down to the creators as well.

Round 1 introduces us to the fact that the world is changing when you pass by what's known as a haniwa (a statue often buried with the dead in Japanese culture) as the screen flickers and everything becomes suddenly dark and gloomy, including the music, enemies and the entire tileset itself. You'll find guys on fire and people stuck in the ground here in terms of enemies, but eyeballs and dogs with human faces will appear as soon as the level shifts. Round 2 is a dungeon, although it looks more like a sewer, and this introduces ladders into the game in which you'll need to use to get to higher platforms, presumably to reach boss doors. It's also worthy to note that this is the level in which they throw the tempura shrimp at you in a boss battle entitled Shrimp Attack, where the shrimp will turn into an onion ring and a shish kabob upon taking enough damage. They don't really wait to throw you into the madness, do they? Round 3 takes place inside a cavern whilst Round 4 takes place within what is described as castle ruins, although the interior of the place is decorated with Egyptian themed murals and hieroglyphics. Round 5 is surprisingly peaceful, having only two bosses and one of them you don't even have to fight (lookin' at you, dancing zombies), which is a nice break from the other levels, but Round 6... just, no. It's a haunted house. Alright. It's a maze. Not alright. Mazes can work in games, don't get me wrong, but this one fails in every aspect and is a blemish on an otherwise decent little game. There's no hints whatsoever and you won't have any indication to where you are if you do get lost, and you will, trust me, and end up running in circles for ages and will probably die several times before you even realise where you have to go. It doesn't help that every room looks the same with all the floors and walls being purple in colour and every door is alike, boring and grey, with the exception of the last one, which is blue. The enemies in this stage are seemingly ten times more annoying than usual, with furniture that flies all over the place, sentient pants and drops of plasma or wisps or whatever they are will often fire from the top of the screen and home in on you. Maybe it's the enemy placement going on there, or maybe it's because you've had enough of hearing that awful music play over and over again. It's literally a never ending two second loop of 'ooOOOoo' and the worst part is that every time you enter a door it pauses before starting over. I'd say it's a bad thing because you're hearing the same bit of music over and over again, but it really doesn't help when the entire music track is a two second loop in itself. The only saving grace to this level is that it only has one boss and it's actually pretty cool. The boss room is covered in a mess of bleeding green faces and there are four heads that blend in with the background, and you have to hit the real one to kill it.

Thankfully Round 7 changes it up a bit as you climb the level vertically, but it's not without it's own problems, too, showcasing a rather major glitch. In this level you have three bosses to fight, but to get the key you only have to kill two of them. Killing the third boss takes the key away and renders the game unwinnable because you can't get through the door at the end of the round. It can especially take new players by surprise and can be equally infuriating as well. Round 8, luckily, is the last level in the game, and is fairly straight forward. Just be sure to go immediately left of the spawn point, since the game designers deliberately hid one of the boss rooms back there. After that you fight the Dark World master, and then the game is over.

Target Audience
- I'd say that the target audience for this game was mainly male centric, considering both game consoles and the actual games themselves around the time when this game came out were catered more towards boys with their content and advertising. It can also appeal to anyone who likes these sorts of games and to anyone who likes horror respectively. Mentioning it again, this game was released exclusively in the US. I'm not exactly sure it counts as a target audience though, since it's a pretty broad area of reach.

Platform

- The only platform that this game is available for would be the NES system. It's not suited to any other device and as such only uses one simple control scheme. The A button is used for jumping and the B button is used for attacking, whilst both can be used at the same time to simultaneously do a jumping attack, where Mark will swing his bat in mid-air. The left and right directional buttons on the D-Pad move Mark in that respective direction and pressing down will allow Mark to crouch, or, rather, lay, on the ground. If you also move Mark whilst in this mode you can essentially 'crawl' on the floor, although it looks like you're more so humping the ground and many entertaining moments have come from this animation alone. Pressing up causes Mark to either climb up a ladder or enter a door. Start pauses the game, and select doesn't do anything.

LO1: Analysis/Review #3 - Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis

Platform: PC

Genre

- Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis falls under the category of being a construction and management simulation game as well as a tycoon game in genre, being made in the three dimensional plane with the help of models to produce a whole new lost world to mess around with. Like many other games of it's genre the game runs in real time as you look down from above to manage your own park as you build it from the ground up, working your way from a tiny, not so successful park to the five star attraction that Jurassic Park should have been in the first place, you'll have to manage your money and make quick decisions to events and disasters that happen all over the place, but in the end, it's always worth it. Considering it's nothing amazing by concept the game itself stands out pretty well from the other games that so happened to be competing against it at the time, for one thing they didn't stick Tycoon on the end of their name, thankfully, but they also decided to focus on a subject that a lot of people would surely love. Building your own Jurassic Park. Think back to when you first watched Jurassic Park. Ever tried to imagine what it would be like if nothing went wrong, and the park worked perfectly fine? I'm sure you did. Which is why, by the time this game came out, it was something every fan of the movie would have thought of at least once, and the possibility of seeing that become a reality, not to mention by the hands of you, made everyone all the more excited to play it. I know I was, considering I spent so many hours of my childhood on this game, albeit being on the PlayStation 2, rather than the PC. They also added in a ton of new features and things to do relevant to the movie it was based on, but we'll get to that later.



Narrative

-  I'd talk about any sort of storyline here, but to be honest there just isn't one present in this game, it's more so that you play as yourself, having been hired by InGen, in high hopes that you can create and maintain a successful park. As a self insert the game does a good job with creating that sense of atmosphere, relying on in game tutorials, reports, text and voice acting to create that feeling of immersion by referring to you as... well, you. With the lack of narrative that you would normally have to stick close to you now have total freedom to do whatever it takes to create the park of your dreams, but if you think you're going to get off scott free when you demolish the fence to the Velociraptor pen to unleash a horde of the ruthless carnivores onto the defenceless visitors of your 'perfect' park, think again. You don't have a story, true, but the characters that are there within the game serve as either helpful co-workers or minor annoyances depending on which way you want to play god. You're going to interact with them either way, storyline or none, and how you do so is entirely up to you. Considering this is your time to shine the story will only ever connect to you personally through the fact that it's yours to make up, and everyone's fate rests in your hands. You can be the best park builder the world has ever seen or you can let everything fall into ruin as every dinosaur you own breaks free of their pens, either devouring or trampling your guests to death as you sit there and giggle in delight. Your choice. 



Production Process

- The game was made using an engine by the name of TOSHI, which is a sixth generation cross platform game engine. The engine was actually made by Blue Tongue Entertainment themselves, who were also the makers of the game. Obviously in developing a game things are going to be implemented and things are going to be removed before we see the final product, and interestingly enough Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis was meant to have more dinosaurs than the twenty four species that they included within the game. In an interview Blue Tongue said they originally were wanting to add in forty dinosaur species, but this was cut thanks to the console versions. If you take a look at the game's data, only on PC, mind, you can see they didn't remove the names from some of the files, as in the Eng locale you can still see some species listed within the rest of the lines. In the final version of the game, the list of dinosaurs we could hatch were as followed:

Acrocanthosaurus, Albertosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Camarasaurus

Carcharodontosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Corythosaurus, Dilophosaurus, Dryosaurus

Edmontosaurus, Gallimimus, Homalocephale, Kentrosaurus, Ouranosaurus

Pachycephalosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Spinosaurus, Stegosaurus, Styracosaurus

Torosaurus, Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor

 Taking a look at the files, the one's that were cut from the game were these:

 Alioramus, Apatosaurus, Baryonyx, Deinonychus, Diplodocus,

Iguanadon, Maiasaura, Ornithomimus, Panoplosaurus,

Tenontosaurus, Thescelosaurus, Wuerhosaurus, Yangchuanosaurus

And, with one last thing to add, the only dinosaur on the above list to actually begin development into the game was the Iguanodon. Going back to the Data folder again, if you take a look into the Unit folder you'll notice that there are several files entitled as shorter, almost nickname like aliases for dinosaurs, such as Homalo/Homalo.inx/Homalo.nwt for Homalocephale, or Alberto/Alberto.inx/Alberto.nwt for Albertosaurus. Have a look at the files beginning with I. Yup. Iguan and Iguan.nwt. No .inx file though, but those two files contain the parameters for that particular dinosaur. Pretty neat.

Characterisation

- The characters within the game are obviously relevant to the target audience, if they so happen to be fans of Jurassic Park, and you'll see a few familiar faces within this game. John Hammond returns as the CEO of Jurassic Park, who will often contact you throughout the game to report on your performance and park ratings. Alan Grant manages the fossil hunts as the chief palaeontologist that he is, and will notify you whenever the fossil market is restocked or new fossils come in thanks to your dig teams out on the field. Ellie Sattler takes the role of the parks dinosaur manager and will only really contact you if one of your dinosaurs health changes, such as it becoming comatose, sick, or dead. Henry Wu as the lead geneticist is in charge of both the research department and extracting DNA from fossils for your dinosaurs, and Robert Muldoon remains the cautious man as he is, being the park warden and warning you whenever a security breach of some kind is made, usually thanks to a rampaging dinosaur or similar causes. Peter Ludlow is now the financial director and InGen and Ray Arnold is back as a park administrator. The only character that wasn't in either the film or novel of some kind is the public relations manager Jane Powers, but she fits well enough into the atmosphere to make her a believable character. Obviously the game takes it's own spin on the story and neither the film nor game are connected, considering a lot of the characters are either completely different to their film counterparts or, more importantly, they're not dead. Another thing to note is the voice acting, whilst it's not exactly the same if you listen close enough they sound a lot like the people they're portraying, which is impressive to say the least. These characters are pretty strong in my opinion to carry over the personalities from the film and alter them to fit an new criteria, and the fact that they're being helpful is sort of expected in a genre like this.

Gameplay

- Dream it. Build it. Survive it. That's how the tagline goes to this game, and I don't think it could have been any more spot on than that. Despite how simple the game seems just by saying the objective out loud it isn't going to be that easy, and the more your park grows and expands the more challenging it is to maintain. The more you unlock and the more you gain is simply more things you have to pay attention to, but if you keep on top of everything, research items, extract genomes and actually look at your messages rather than sighing at the tenth repeat of 'urgent message from the park administrator', you'll be fine. No pain, no gain. I don't think there was a single moment in the entire time I played this game that I could sit back and think that there's nothing for me to do, the game is always throwing things your way and it forces you to multitask, unless you want all your hard work to slowly fall apart. As I mentioned above, you have to research items. It's a must. The second your current topic is finished you have to choose another and get through them all as quickly as you can considering the game likes to show little to no mercy in the things it hurls in your direction, and you never know what you'll need. Halfway through researching that High Security fence? Sorry, but your dinosaurs are now all infected with rabies and will probably kill one another faster than it'll take to stop your research and start a vaccine on it. If only you'd chosen that one rather than the security fence, huh? It's aggravating sometimes, but it only feels all that more rewarding when you have all six vaccines researched, and the immune from birth programme to go along with it, so you never have to worry about your little reptiles ever being sick again. Bless.

Let's also not forget Fossil Hunts, either, where you can hire teams to go into three dig sites of your choice to uncover remains of the extinct beasties that lie beneath the surface. If these bones are then returned to the Genetics Lab they can be extracted of the DNA they contain to create genomes. The completion percentage increases with each part that's extracted, and once the genome reaches 50% you can breed that dinosaur, but to increase their lifespan and endurance one should keep going until you get to 100%, just to make it that little bit easier. You can also sell off any fossils you find of a species that has 100% completion for quite a bit of money, too. Among all of this you also have to make sure your visitors are happy. Yeah. You managed to bring back a creature that's been extinct for millions of years and someone will leave the park unsatisfied because there wasn't a toilet around. Amazing. Be it placing down benches, kiosks, restrooms or gift stands, along with viewing platforms and vents, safari rides or balloon tours for their own enjoyment, you'll have to look after your people, too. That means activating Emergency Mode and letting them take shelter in the nearest park entrance or visitor shelter when there's a tornado ripping through your island, you heartless thing. There's also Exercises that act as tutorials and missions that act as separate self contained games with set goals. Upon completing them all you unlock Site B, allowing you to hatch a ton of dinosaurs on an island and you can let them roam free. Various characters from the films work on different sectors of the park whilst you work as an overseer, and they'll send you messages about what's going on or if something's gone wrong to help you reach your goal. Again, being that there's no narrative, it's up to you to decide the future of Jurassic Park.

Target Audience

- Primarily I think this game is aimed more towards boys than it is for girls, as dinosaurs have always been associated with boys, especially with things like toys, cartoons, movies and, of course, games. It doesn't mean a girl wouldn't enjoy this game, I adore it, but even if it had nothing to do with gender I can say for certain that fans of Jurassic Park were the main targets here. It was answering a dream tons of people had thought about ever since they first saw that movie, and it gave them a chance to recreate that and ultimately have fun with it all in such a simple but effective way. Everything from the theme to the logo to the characters and the famous tyrannosaurus roar ripping through the island appealed so much to those who loved the film that it made the gaming experience all that more enjoyable. A lot of games back then were male centric and when it comes down to it this game may have got lost in the ocean of them all if it wasn't for the Jurassic Park licence that they acquired, and through that and that alone they managed to narrow their market down to the fans, which came through for them in the end.

Platform

- The platforms in which you can play this game on are PC, the one I went with, the PlayStation 2, the one I used to play, and the Xbox, which is extremely rare. Seriously. It's considered one of the rarest titles for the system and apparently online auctions see the game going for around $100+. Although I've never seen the Xbox game first hand or got to handle it, I would roughly assume that it's controls were similar to that of the PS2 game, with the analog sticks used for movement and camera positioning along with the buttons doing various things such as bringing up menus and selecting certain objects. I wouldn't say the game is any more suited to one specific version of the game since they're all different, but I would go to say the computer has a slight advantage over the others by the fact that the controls are quite intuitive and, if you're struggling with them, you can easily configure and change them to suit your play style better. The mouse is used for moving the camera around by moving the cursor either to the sides to move that way or the corners to pivot in that direction, and it's also used for selecting on a lot of things, which is what you'll be doing 90% of the time, most probably. The scroll wheel is also used for zooming in and out. You can also use the WASD keys to move in each direction and use E and Q to move both left and right, and if this is what you'd prefer you can easily disable the edge scroll in the options menu and use them instead. You also use this set up to control safari cars, whilst using the left click button to take a picture or shoot depending on which mission you're doing. It's also the same with helicopters, yet the left click brings up Shoot Mode whereas the right click brings up Utility Mode. The numbers then select which ability you want to use and pressing L over a ranger station lands the helicopter, whilst just pressing ESC returns the helicopter to base automatically. ESC makes you go back to the main game most of the time, anyway. [ and ] are used to turn objects around and they, along with the directional keys, can also be used to enter cheat codes. Those were the ones that I found out almost instantly whilst playing, but taking a look at the controls in game shows most actions have one or two buttons that correspond to a single action, so it can get a little confusing. As said, you can simply configure them to your liking, and it won't be a problem anymore.