Poor Sumez - the one time you aren't trying to sell us on an, ahem, unique opinion you still think I'm out to get you
Well, maybe I am!
Nah, I was referring to a short ranty post from the previous page. The shooting gallery games are good fun. Aiming for high scores are a must; you've got to fill out those bottlecap collections so you can spam the chainsaw sisters screaming! It's incredible how a game so long delayed and retooled ended up with so much content even its its original release.
Time for some reports:
Nightmare Creatures II: Thanks to the developer of Flycast this one should be getting improved FMV performance soon. Unfortunately, this is another extremely disappointing sequel - and the Dreamcast version seems almost completely unenhanced, keeping an exactly PlayStation-like draw distance complete with the fade to black over a few meters. The original design plan was for a two-character epic like the original Nightmare Creatures, perhaps with switchable characters or in RE2 mode. Instead it was whittled down to the story of a dude, his axe, a very badly paced collection of cutscenes imitating a story, and irritating mazes full of backtracking and too few cues. The original Nightmare Creatures seemed to have a bit of ambition to play a like a free-roaming Mortal Kombat and allowed free use of extensive combos and items; this title seems to have a very small number of combos which appear like minor variants of the basic attacks. I also think there was ambition to do some Tomb Raider style platforming; there's swimming, ladders, and the ability to climb ledges from only very precise locations. Kalisto also thought it helpful to offer distinct combat and exploration modes and to automatically switch; the computer usually waits until you're already being attacked to switch over to combat. Even with the limited number of buttons on the Dreamcast controller, it doesn't feel like much of a help. Where and how did Wallace get an axe in his padded cell, anyway?
This may not the worst game Kalisto made - The Fifth Element and Castleween both look really shaky, and neither have Rob Zombie, but even the harsh reviews from back in the day were pretty generous scoring NCII above 50%. Kalisto's New York Race looks like it could be fun; maybe Dark Earth has some of that old Nightmare Creatures charm. Now that this one is done I'm considering trying out Deathtrap Dungeon and Die By The Sword / Draconus.
Van Helsing, Xbox: Finally goes back ingame in the latest build of Xemu! First menu to ingame transition a bit jank but looks and sounds good otherwise. A very promising sign for getting more Xbox exclusives going.
Scooby-Doo Mystery: A random thrift find some years ago, I'm fond of this silly American exclusive platforming/adventure game hybrid. It doesn't really nail the basics of adventure gaming, and it's even worse at platforming with jumps of faith, hard-to-follow room layouts, an inventory that quickly gets clogged with Scooby snacks, and hard-to-use projectile weapons that you can use a limited but hidden number of times. The controller layout is bizarre. Face buttons control running, jumping, throwing, and, of course, sniffing out clues with Scooby. Still, the graphics go a good way towards selling the game. TCRF has notes showing certain puzzle sequences were planned to be more extensive, which explains why the game makes some odd shortcuts here and there, especially in the carnival boss trapping scene. The final version is not OSHA compliant as you have to stand in a certain distance in front of a cannon to load it by throwing the powder and ball in - and all that to "catch" a guy already stuck in glue. I'm just glad I'm not playing the ghastly Rocky & Bullwinkle.
Cold Winter: A PlayStation 2 FPS @ 30FPS. Viewed as a cult classic for some reason. It has some Ideas but still feels a lot like dozens of other "totally not Great War On Terror inspired" games. Vaguely tolerable for the sake of over-the-top cutscenes (early on we are treated to a scene of the Big Bad executing an underling for dropping a box, which is even more hilarious than it sounds) and hacking yourself in an unlimited supply of 40mm grenades.
Speaking of humor and cutscenes: Crime Killer on the PlayStation. Not far enough in to have a real verdict on the gameplay but as a vehicular rehash of some themes from Robocop it seems to hit the mark.