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          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">- <a href="../index.html">Contents</a><br>
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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 26</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC"> 
                </font></b></font></p>
              <p>  <p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono"><b><font color="#339900" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today 
                in loonygames:</font></b></font></p>

<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">New!!</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> The Archives have been cleaned up, fead links fixed, and printable versions restored! Also, don't miss the new comments <a href="../../../index.html">on the front page</a>!</font></p>
              
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        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8"><b><a target="" href="../../columns.1"><font size="-1">From 
          the Mouth of Madness</font></a><font size="-1">:</font></b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+3" color="#0022A8"><br>
          Overrated</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+3" color="#0022A8"><font size="+1"></font></font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
          Jason &quot;<a target="" href="mailto:jason@loonygames.com">loonyboi</a>&quot; 
          Bergman</font></b></font></p>
        <p align="right">&nbsp;</p>
        <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Riven</font></b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 
          (PC)</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I decided to do these two 
          games separately, because with <b>Riven</b>, perhaps even more so than 
          <b>Myst</b>, people praised the game’s visual design. It is my belief 
          that the games are ultimately a failure in this regard as well. Yes, 
          technically, the games’ images are well made. No question there. It 
          takes some real skill to create those pictures. However, they show a 
          distinct lack of any artistic style (see last week’s Guest Editorial 
          for more on that) as they are simply photorealistic. And of course, 
          then there’s the claim that <b>Myst</b> and <b>Riven</b> are &quot;surreal&quot;. 
          Sorry bud, but I’ve seen surreal before, and these ain’t it. Showing 
          me pictures of mountain ranges with some pretty pipes while new age 

          music plays through my speakers is hardly what I’d call surreal. In 
          fact, I’d call it pretty dull. You want to see <b>Myst</b> and <b>Riven 
          </b>style games done right? Go play <b>Manhole</b> or <b>Cosmic Osmo</b>. 
          That’s back when the boys at Cyan had some original visual flair. Now 
          they’re much better at writing novels, not making games.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Rampage</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Man, can you believe people 
          actually played this game all the way through? I did, and I’ll tell 
          you something, never before have I felt like such a complete fool. For 
          those who never played the original (or its recent &quot;remake&quot;) 
          the basic concept is this: you’re a giant hulking monster-type thing, 
          and it’s your job to crush buildings. Over, and over, and over, and 
          over again. For over 100 levels. <i>Ugh</i>. The game had a certain 
          novelty in it, because you could play with three people simultaneously, 
          but jeez…after about ten minutes or so the whole thing got really boring, 
          and you found yourself having more fun beating on your friends than 
          crushing yet another freaking building. If ever there were a game less 
          deserving of the term, &quot;classic&quot; this is it. Let it die, people…let 
          it die.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>X-Men vs. Street Fighter</b>, 
          <b>X-Men: Children of the Atom</b>, and <b>Marvel vs. Capcom</b>, <b>Marvel 
          Superheroes</b>. (Arcade, various home versions)</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Let me just state for the 
          record that I’m a huge fan of the <b>Street Fighter</b> series. I love 
          the damn games…I play <b>Street Fighter Alpha 2</b> religiously. But 
          these three (I’ll call them the fearsome four) bare so little resemblance 
          to that game that they shouldn’t even carry the Capcom logo. Here’s 
          the problem. These three games have taken the fine art of fighting titles, 
          and completely ruined it. Instead of the finesse it takes to excel at 
          such games as <b>Virtua Fighter</b> or <b>Tekken</b>, in these games, 
          you pretty much just mash buttons until your hand starts to bleed. Or 
          you actually win. I’ve actually played a game of <b>Marvel Superheroes</b> 
          where I won repeatedly, but I hadn’t the foggiest clue how I did it. 
          All I did was pound buttons until crazy crap started to happen and my 
          opponent went down. This is fun? Not to mention the fact that in these 
          games so much is happening on screen that it’s difficult to tell what 
          the heck is going on, let alone which character is yours. And yet, people 
          <i>love</i> these games! It’s a complete mystery to me, I’ll tell you 
          that much. Give me the slower (<i>much</i> slower) fighting of <b>Virtua 
          Fighter 3</b> or even <b>Street Fighter 3</b> any day over this crap. 
          It’s fighting for the hyperactive kid. This one will pass, thank you 
          very much. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Castlevania: Symphony 
          of the Night </b>(PSX)</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Jeez…talk about a yawner. 
          The <b>Castlevania </b>series was always known for a certain level of 
          depth at the expense of serious gameplay (best illustrated in the incredibly 
          slow moving GameBoy title, <b>The Castlevania Adventure</b>) but <b>Symphony 
          of the Night</b> attempted to pass off more of the same ho-hum style 
          gameplay in an era where <b>Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus</b> was breaking 
          new ground in platform games. I played through a giant chunk of this 
          game, and it seemed like serious work…frustrating, painful, and irritating 
          work at that. And yet, I constantly read glowing review after glowing 
          review. The game offers pretty much the same visuals we’ve come to expect 
          from the series (pretty sad, considering it looks only slightly different 
          from its SNES predecessors) and despite the addition of &quot;experience 
          points&quot; it’s still more of the same. <b>Dracula X</b> is a far 
          better game (the <b>PC Engine</b> version, that is) and it’s a crime 
          more people missed that one. Don’t waste your time with this hack…go 
          get yourself a genuine classic.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well, that’s enough ranting 
          for this week. Tune in next week when I’ll make my list of the <i>strangest</i> 
          games ever made. Can you afford to miss this? I don’t think so. :)</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">(Again, send all feedback 
          to <a href="mailto:jason@loonygames.com?subject=feedback">jason@loonygames.com</a> 
          with the subject &quot;feedback&quot; if you want to be in our MailBag 
          for this week. Anything <i>without</i> that subject is assumed to be 
          personal correspondence, and therefore confidential.)</font></p>
        <p align="right">&nbsp;</p>
    
        <p align="RIGHT"><i><font size="-1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">- 
          Jason &quot;loonyboi&quot; Bergman is the editor-in-chief of <b>loonygames</b>. 
          He has a lot of pent up anger.</font></i></p>
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp;</p>
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      <p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"> </font></i><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Credits:</b> 
        From the Mouth of Madness logo illustrated by and is &copy; 1999 Dan Zalkus. 
        From the Mouth of Madness is &copy; 1999 Jason Bergman. All other content 
        is &copy; 1999 <a target="_self" href="http://www.loonyboi.com">loonyboi 
        productions</a>. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited, so 
        don't do it...or we'll just forget about you. Let's see how <b>you</b> 
        like it.</font></i></p>
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