2 Arcade games.

I'm not feeling super great today. That's OK, at least sitting in the studio is better than sitting in an office when you're sick, for whatever reason.

I beat Shank the other night. It's a pretty good side scrolling beat-em-up. It's pretty short and by the end I'd had enough, which might be saying more about the genre than the game. Overall it was pretty enjoyable, the combat has a lot of variety even if the enemies don't. But it left a bad taste in my mouth because the last boss was really frustrating. I had a hard time beating him, and even when I was doing fine, it just took forever. Then I'd die in the last moments and have to start ALL over again. Blah. Maybe I was doing it wrong or something...



Overall, it was a cool game with showy animation that occasionally gets in the way of game play. If I had to recommend it, I probably wouldn't at it's current 15 dollar price tag. 10 bucks seems more reasonable.

But a game I CAN recommended is Dead Rising: Case 0. I wrapped it up completely yesterday and I totally loved it. At 5 bucks, it's a gimme for anyone who's ever thought that maybe they should give Dead Rising a try.



It's the way Dead Rising should be: 2 hours long. Which isn't the amount of gameplay the game offers, it's just the length of the story.

Allow me to explain: the Dead Rising series whole "thing" is that you're on a strict time limit. You've got certain objectives (in this case: build a motorcycle to escape before the military shows up, save your daughter from becoming a zombie, save a bunch of survivors, etc) to complete before the clock counts down to zero.

The survivors are optional, for the most part, and you are always gaining XP (or PP, since it's a Capcom game) and money. When you die, fail your objectives, or just feel like giving up in the middle of the game, you reset the story but not your stats and money. So it's almost a rouge-like.

On your first go at the story, you probably won't build the motorcycle, which means you can't really 'beat' the game. But after playing a couple times, you'll start to know where to go, who to help, and how to get things accomplished.

That trial-and-error BS doesn't fly when it's a 8-10 hour game, but when it's a 1 1/2-2 hour game it actually works wonderfully.

I had a blast and got every achievement in the game, which for me is a rare occurrence.

Here's the weird thing: Case 0 is marketing. It's a slice of the Dead Rising gameplay, introducing you to it's main character, it's weapon-creating mechanics, and it's (quite honestly) bizarre narrative structure. The 5 dollar price tag, and ability to carry over your leveled up character to the main game is obviously a way to introduce people to the full-retail priced Dead Rising 2 (available at the end of the month).

While some people were skeptical of Case 0 being a glorified paid demo, it's actually a well-rounded, full-featured, bite-sized game, worthy of standing alone. It's got a complete story (taking place 2 years after Dead Rising and 3 years before Dead Rising 2) with several endings, a unique environment (as opposed to recycling from one of the full priced games), it's own achievements, voice acting, etc.

The funny part is, despite the fact that I beat the crap out of it, played through it about 3 or 4 times to see everything and I loved every minute, it made me pretty sure I don't want Dead Rising 2.

Case 0 was kind of exactly what I wanted. Although it's supposed to wet my appetite for Dead Rising 2, instead it gave me a fix just big enough to make Dead Rising 2 obsolete...

What I'd prefer is Case 1, 2 and 3. More small, bite sized Dead Rising experiences. The game is about experimentation and retrying things, and on a large scale that doesn't sound appealing.

Maybe I'll give Dead Rising 2 a try just based on how much I enjoyed Case 0. It just might not be for a while.