Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (PS2)

Developer:

Ubisoft Montreal

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Release Date:

2003

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Systems:

PS2, GameCube, Xbox, Win (HD on PS3)

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This week on Super Adventures I'm playing the fourth of the legendary Prince of Persia games, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time! Okay technically it's the fifth of the games, but no one ever talks about Prince of Persia: Harem Adventures and I'm sure there's probably a reason for that.

Sands of Time is the second 3D Prince of Persia and the first of the Ubisoft trilogy, which lasted for four games in the end (after being interrupted by a temporary reboot part-way through). Ubisoft still owns the franchise to this day, but we haven't gotten a new Prince of Persia out of them since 2010. They got a bit distracted after a planned sequel called Prince of Persia: Assassin became too powerful, took on the name Assassin's Creed, and launched its own series.

By the way, my gimmick on Super Adventures this year is that I'm only playing games which have appeared on someone's 'top 10'. Well it took some serious research, but I finally found Sands of Time at #8 on stuff.tv's 10 faithful video game to movie adaptations list! I have the feeling it's probably on a few other top 10 lists too, seeing as it's got 92 on Metacritic. It's in the top 2% of PlayStation 2 titles!

Alright, this isn't my first time playing the game but it might as well be. I tried it out for 20 minutes or so back when it was new and didn't really feel a need to keep going with it. This time around I'm going to try to stick with it a little longer so it has an actual chance to win me over... or give me a real reason to quit.

Resident Evil 4: Ultimate HD Edition (PC) - Part 2

Good news, this week's Super Adventures has been extended with bonus content, as my quick look at Resident Evil 4 has turned out to be a little less quick than I expected. This is definitely the final part now though, and you can click this link to check out PART ONE.

Despite the title, Resident Evil 4 is actually the sixth mainline Resident Evil game... I think. The first three RE games started off on the PlayStation, then there was Code: Veronica, which launched on the Dreamcast first, and Resident Evil 0, which was a GameCube exclusive. So if you were an impatient RE fan who wanted to follow the story you needed a Sony console, a Sega console and a Nintendo console. Resident Evil 4 was announced as GameCube exclusive too but fortunately it went multiplatform with a PS2 release later that year, and I'm sure all the fans who bought a GameCube because of it eventually got over it. Especially as the GameCube original is apparently the better version.

The game did something else to annoy fans: switching genre to a third-person shooter. RE4 has a much more modern gameplay style and made a lot of people feel like the series would never return to the awkward survival horror gameplay they loved it for. Fortunately Capcom did eventually return to Resident Evil 2 and 3 and gave them big-budget remakes... to make them more like Resident Evil 4. Someone must have liked them though as they sold enough for Capcom to start working on Resident Evil 4's remake! Wait, hang on, what happened to the Code: Veronica remake?

Resident Evil 4: Ultimate HD Edition (PC) - Part 1

Developer:	Capcom Production Studio 4	|	Release Date:	2005	|	Systems:	GC, PS2, Wii, Win, iOS, Android, Zeebo
	HD Edition -		Release Date:	2011 (2014 PC)	|	Systems:	Win, X360, PS3, XBOne, PS4, Switch

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm going to be hating on another beloved Resident Evil game! Perhaps.

I mean there's no doubt that it's beloved, you can find the game on all kinds of top ten lists (often just behind Ocarina of Time), I just don't remember liking it much myself. Other people considered the innovative over-the-shoulder aiming to be a big step forward in third person shooters, but I was left wondering why I couldn't move and shoot at the same time like I could in Max Payne 2. I also remember finding the aiming to really awkward for some reason, maybe because I had to use a controller to do it. You've got to be accurate in a hurry and that's not an analogue stick's strength.

But I'm willing to give games a second chance... that's why I went back to it again right after beating Resident Evil 5. I played it up to the lake and got sick of it; it just seemed really awkward by comparison. But I'm willing to give games a third chance, especially if I haven't written about them yet.

Anyway I've already said too many words, but I have to mention that I'm playing the Ultimate HD Edition with the higher resolution visuals, on PC. I wish I could do my thing where I compare all the different versions, but have a glance up at the list of systems on the top right, there's about 10,000 of them! Windows actually got two ports and I don't even know what a Zeebo is! All I know is that the first PC port had... issues.

Need for Speed Games Part 4: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, Need for Speed: Underground

Today on Super Adventures, I've reached the end of the first decade of the Need for Speed games. We're in the EA GAMES TRAX era now, where every time a new song comes on, the TRAX box slides onto the screen to let you know who you're listening to. Even on the title screen.

This also means we're in the licenced soundtrack era, and the sixth gen console era! And Underground brings us to the era of perpetual twilight, where daytime is banned. Unless it's literally set underground, I don't think they ever say.

Anyway this is it, the last part. After this you won't be reading about any racing games here for a long long time, so enjoy it while it lasts (or endure it for just a little longer). Earlier parts are here, here and here.

(If I don't mention what system a screenshot came from, it's from the PC version.)

Metroid Prime (GameCube)

Developer:

Retro

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Release Date:

2003 (2002 NA)

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Systems:

GameCube, Wii

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I'm trying to figure out what the game's moody title music reminds me of. I think it might actually be Deus Ex, but I feel like it could turn into Perfect Dark at any moment. Not a bad place for a theme to be.

This week on Super Adventures I'm playing Metroid Prime, the sequel to the legendary Super Metroid! Well, kind of. It came out the exact same day as Metroid Fusion and I think that's considered to be the older twin (it even claims to be "METROID 4" when it starts up.) So I guess this is Metroid 5 then?

It's definitely not the fifth game in the timeline as they've slotted it in between Metroid and Metroid II for whatever reason. I didn't realise the Metroid games had enough of a story to require making interquels, but that's probably because I rarely finish the things. Plus it's been six years since I've played any of them and my memory's pretty fuzzy. Though at the time this was released fans had actually been suffering through an eight year gap between games, as the series skipped the N64 era entirely. The series also skipped the Wii U afterwards, fading away again despite the run of continuous Metroid Prime sequels and spin-offs.

Developer Retro Studios were responsible for the three main Metroid Prime games but after putting out the non-HD remake compilation Metroid Prime Trilogy for the Wii in 2009 they've been keeping themselves busy making Donkey Kong Country sequels instead. Though it was announced last month that they're taking over development on Metroid Prime 4! Is that a good thing? I wouldn't know, I haven't even played this first one yet.

Okay I'm going to play Metroid Prime for an amount of time somewhere between 'barely giving it a fair shot' and 'enough to bore the hell out of everyone reading', and take screenshots along the way. There will also be writing under these screenshots because... I don't know. Maybe I like writing about video games? No, that doesn't seem right.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (Game Cube) - Guest Post

Endless Wednesday posts are high in content and feature an extreme amount of words and images, to a degree that some readers might consider excessive. You have been warned.

In 2000, Nintendo showed off a tech demo at Spaceworld. The following year, they announced Wind Waker, and the fanboys started slinging shit because of the game's cel-shaded style. I was a bit disappointed at first, having seen the Spaceworld demo myself, but I quickly changed my mind after playing the demo included on the pre-order disc. So, in we go!