Fuck the fuck off, ScrewAttack

| | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I went to that old site, Gametrailers, in search of the latest GTAIV trailer from last week, which I had missed and was dying to see. All I wanted to see was the fucking trailer, but I noticed a feature on their main page, from those bonercore assholes at ScrewAttack, featuring my favorite NES game of all time, The Punisher. If you're not familiar with ScrewAttack, don't become familiar with them. They're a bunch of unfunny 20-something piece of shits with a hard-on for retro gaming *ahem* I mean profiting from ad views based on producing "Hey, remember that shit!?! HA HA HA" videos for witless fans of retro gaming. They did hire one semicool guy, but that's neither here nor there.

Their "feature" (tough to even call it that) is from their ongoing series, entitled Video Game Vault, in which some nameless, gutless limpwrist spends about 60 seconds shitting on a game. Usually, yeah, they pick some pretty boner games and have some legit beefs. THAT'S GOING TO INEVITABLY HAPPEN WHEN A FUCKING GAME IS 20 YEARS OLD. Picking The Punisher was just the wrong sauce for this salad, Gus. The game is an on-rails gallery shooter, it's designed fairly well for that type of game, it's neither frustrating nor confusing, and it satisfies everything it's supposed to satisfy for a game of this genre, in this timeframe.

From my perspective, I had a blast playing the game. The goal, though unstated, was to attain 100% in every level, by killing every gang member, in order to attain the bonus supergun, thereby decreasing the chances of a single criminal surviving the next level when you receive, for your use, said bonus. I guess it defined the early twitch gamer in me -- I happen to LIKE games where you smoke everything that moves (especially drug dealing CREEPS!) -- and it even managed to be hectic and challenging, at times. Now if you're going to h8on all that, you can c'mere and get me my fuck off by wearing my balls on your chin. Let's analyze the "feature":<br>


If you didn't know, The Punisher is a bad-ass. He's a vigilante who considers killing, kidnapping, extortion, and threats of violence as good methods of crimefighting.

Ha ha, you're right! I remember him! HA HA HA!

Oh, yeah! That's what I was thinking when I bought [The Punisher]; man, was I let down!

Yeah, you definitely weren't thinking, "Hey, I need to review another old game to justify my nonsense job! This one looks good!" I know you were expecting a fully-realized use of the Punisher license from a 17-year-old 8-bit game.

[footage of the intro screen]When I hit the intro screen, my first thought was that my NES had cut out. [screen flashes to show Punisher firing two machineguns from 2nd-person perspective] Then I realized it was some great programming.

I think more 60-second retro reviews should pad out 10 seconds nitpicking the fucking INTRO screen. (which is actually an effective intro screen, BTW)

[continuing] Let's talk about the music: there's hardly any! You have the intro screen, the game over screen, and randomly throughout the levels is a dude on the streets playing the sax.

Yeah, sax guy is a little weird. The reason there's no music is because of hardware limitations; Punisher and his enemies firing furiously at one another is the soundtrack. Nothin' beats that sweet-sweet sound of the Supergun mowing creeps like tall grass! And, Nitty Nitlicker: if you were any good, you'd note that there's bad-ass scoring for the end credits, and you're also just being tendentious by not mentioning the music for Punisher's narrated passages and all boss fights.

In any case, this is panning out to be a shoddy, conveniently mendacious edition of Video Game Vault, so far!

The funniest part of this game is when you accidentally -- or intentionally -- shoot [sax man]. When he dies, the music sounds like it's dying. That's hilarious...

HA HA HA! So funny!

...and quite possibly the greatest thing in this game.

You're not qualified to do this.

The game is a shooter -- a very boring shooter -- the bad guys sound like they have cap guns, and it's almost easier to just move The Punisher to dodge bullets and not even shoot 'em!

Saying it's "a very boring shooter," while failing to adequately explain why you believe that is, doesn't make any case for your points at all. You're bored with it, maybe, but it's actually pretty good compared to similar fare published at the time, especially in the 8-bit on-rails shooter club. Again, you have quibbles with the sound hardware, and it's technically NOT almost easier to move The Punisher and dodge bullets without shooting, as you gain health, ammo, health-bar upgrades, weapon upgrades, explosives, and extra lives by shooting the enemies. You can't advance in the game without shooting at the enemies, so there is no case to be made (even jokingly) for avoiding shooting at enemies as a good strategy for winning the game.

I guess The Punisher hates where all the bad guys are; you destroy everything in their neighborhoods, even street signs. Not even innocent people are safe where The Punisher goes.

I guess Mario hates where all the koopa are; you destroy everything in their neighborhoods, even bricks. Fucking get some real points, assfuck.

I hated this game.

I hated you. And, BTW, what did you expect, going in?

There are newspapers that give you obvious hints, stages that look exactly the same, and it's boring as hell.

1. Don't shoot the newspapers, then.
2. And this was never a complaint with almost literally all other NES games?
3. Again, why? I could say anything is boring as hell, but that doesn't tell anyone anything. Don Giovanni? Boring as hell. Schindler's List? Boring as hell. Buying groceries? Boring as hell. Watching half-doped, disingenuous, ScrewAttack bullcock when I should be watching the GTAIV trailer? Boring as hell.

Why couldn't they make this game more like the arcade [show footage of The Punisher for arcade hardware]?

Easy answer! Because it was made to be profitable by LJN Toys for 8-bit hardware, and the gameplay format they chose for the project was an on-rails sidescrolling gallery shooter. Furthermore, it was released 3 years prior to the arcade project, so it probably hadn't occurred to them they should faithfully port THE FUTURE you fucking cunt.

This game is an embarrassment to The Punisher.

LOL, don't take this shit so serious, dog! I can't believe, also, that you think a game, where you kill 120 criminals walking around on the streets over the course of one 8 minute level, barely ever taking your finger off the trigga, is somehow antithetical to the spirit of The Punisher. You just don't get out much, do you?

Categories

0 TrackBacks

Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Fuck the fuck off, ScrewAttack.

TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.adamdanger.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/10

Leave a comment

About this Entry

This page contains a hot blog entry by Adam Danger that he done spitted on July 2, 2007 4:45 PM.

Lucidity was the previous bloggins.

Pre Eee Three: Holy fuck! is the next bloggins.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to get all of Adam's best shit in one damn place.

Powered by Movable Type 4.0