Not Your Ordinary Button Masher’s Delight

Why is a terrific fighting game so addictive? Does it make you feel like Ali (Muhammad or Laila)? Does it get you in the zone so that time passes in the blink of an eye? Or is it more than that? The truth lies in something Ali once said, “Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.” Fighting is about being all-too-human, about one’s own mental failures and genetic flaws and primitive anger banished by finding the right way to win. It’s also about brushing yourself off when you lose and trying to come back.

TEKKEN: DARK RESURRECTION is a nearly seamless fighting game that fits the PSP like a glove. With complex fighting moves, console-like graphics and an alluring story mode, it’s no mere button masher’s delight. Sure, it’s a lot like Tekken 5. But due to the way it fits on the PSP’s wide screen, it’s arguably even better. Heck, even the load times (to get the game to play) are really quick.

Here’s a well thought out game with a deep story, so deep it reminds of the best of the console fighting games, Soul Calibur. The story appears almost juvenile at first. Your character has to win something called the Iron Fist Tournament 5. Each of the almost 30 outlandish characters (including a powerfully aggressive female panda) has his or her own reasons for winning the championship. These back stories are revealed with anime and with comic book-like panels that look nothing like graphics of game play. For me, that difference adds style and panache. There’s mystery here due to the unintentional poor English translation of dialog and due to the intentionally unhurried unveiling of each character’s tale.

You’ll be fighting on 19 stages, some of which are unlocked as you play. The detail on some of the stages varies. For instance, one background takes place on a creepy pirate ship, full of piles of doubloons which scatter like daffodil petals when you’re rudely knocked into them. Another stage seems to be in a girl’s room with giant-sized stuffed animals and huge heart balloons flowing down around you. Others stages seem to not have enough detail like a graveyard stage which could use more animations and general eerieness.

If you say, well, this is nothing more than a port of the console version of Tekken 5 to the PSP, you’d be mistaken. Here, you can customize your character with twice the items you had in the fifth iteration of Tekken. Gold Rush mode allows you to earn coins when you win. And these, in turn, allow you to change your character for the better.

There is one big disappointment to the game, however. You can’t play against others wirelessly over an Internet broadband connection. How much fun it would have been if Bandai Namco would have added such vital functionality. Yes, you can still play wirelessly against a friend who’s in the room if he has a PSP and doesn’t have a game (he’ll work off your game). But the ability to play against those folks you don’t know from around the world is sorely needed and acutely missed.

Even so, Tekken: Dark Resurrection is the just the thing to take with you on the road this summer. You can choose to play for just a few minutes while waiting for grub at the truck stop. Or you can play all night by the light of a lantern in the tent. There won’t be any blood. There won’t be any hospitals. But there will be hurt—if you lose. So just play it again, bucko. You’ve got it in you. And in the dark of night, no one will know you switched to Beginner Mode.

• Check out reviews of all the latest and greatest games (updated every week), along with past faves in NYC Guide.

Prey
Publisher: 2K Games

Developer: Venom Games

Turn on, tune in, shoot ’em up. If Timothy Leary and HR Giger spawned a video game, they surely would have come up with something like Prey. That’s because Prey is like one long night with various entheogens courtesy of the Mazatecs of Mexico—with a dash of Alien to add some horror-rich paranoia.

Certainly, first person shooters can be more boring than watching reruns of The Simple Life. But when it comes to Prey, the creepy, long-delayed game from developer Venom Games, the action comes fast and furious.

And like your mother’s fanciest birthday cake, the level of detail and care here is impressive. In fact, in the first hours of the game, you’ll be awed. You’ll even get a War of the Worlds panic attack as you listen to real-life radio talk show loon Art Bell as he takes calls from freaked-out Americans.

The premise? Everyone has been sucked up into a mammoth, living spacecraft, the blue whale of UFOs, bigger than anything you’ve ever seen.

That’s not so different. So, why was Prey worth the decade-long wait? For me, it was the promise of a complex story. Yes, Prey conjures up thoughts of the Alien movie series since it takes place in a spaceship filled with monsters. But there’s a spiritual tale here, too. Tommy, the Native American garage mechanic you play, is an anti-hero with a mystical side. As Tommy, you’ll be armed with a Hunter Rifle, the first weapon you’ll use. The rifle has long range ability and, with your sniper scope, you’ll aim with the precision of Jesse James. Other weapons are, well, alive. Grenades are actually crabs, for instance. Strange, but the idea works.

Tommy has a Spirit Walk mode which allows him to separate from his body and move along the environs in a way that enemies won’t notice. But stay away too long and your flesh and blood body will be attacked. At times, you’ll need the help of Tommy’s grandfather, a wise teacher named Enisi. You’ll have to give up the ways of the new and be open to the ways of the ancients in order to learn from Enisi.

You’ll manipulate computer-like consoles to solve puzzles. And you’ll eventually have a kind of space shuttle at your disposal, too. The hazards in the game are occasionally, well, disgusting. Growing in the ship are Vomiters which spew nasty acidic waste. Stay away: these things will diminish your health. The monsters, too, are gross and mutated. Meekly dubbed Hounds look like vicious skeletons with oversized brains, sharpened fangs and long, thick tails.

In some ways, Prey borrows its sci-fi innovation from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Where Alice went through mirrors and fell down rabbit holes to enter her worlds, Prey takes you through different environs via portals that sometimes look like black holes. Portals aren’t there only for your game play. Monsters use them, too, so step lively. If you think you have a good grip on reality, think again. Not only are the monsters in “Prey” occasionally terrifying, the environment often throws you for a loop. And not only do you need quick reflexes to protect yourself, you’ll need to think on your feet. Otherwise, you’ll die. But dying is a kind of sweet sorrow. You’ll be transported to a spirit world where you’ll play a mini game with a bow. Kill the enemies and you’ll be taken right back to where you left off in the game. What a smart twist.

While you wish there was even more story, you’ll get a treat toward the end of the game. Here, the levels are packed with surprises and you’ll be taken out of the usual maze-like passageways into some unusual, dreamlike gameplay.

One word of warning before you play: if you’re prone to a feeling of motion sickness during a game, this one is going to make you pretty ill. If Doom is the roller coaster in the kiddie section of the amusement park, Prey is the scream-inducing, legendary “Cyclone” at Coney Island with a little of the turn-you-upside-down “Enterprise” ride thrown in, too. That’s because in Prey you’ll be walking on walls and ceilings. There are times when gravity seems all twisted or non-existent.

When you think about it, the game makers were wry and ironic when they chose the title. Prey is the perfect name for a first person shooter in which there’s gore and a Mature rating. But, by introducing the spiritual element, the homonym ‘pray’ comes into play. You’ll not only get into the mysticism and religion of Native American culture. You’ll be praying you’ll survive all the eerie things that come at you during the game.

Prey surely has some flaws, especially in its online multiplayer version on the Xbox 360. But at its best, it’s like what Leary described in his 1964 The Psychedelic Experience. It “is a journey to new realms of consciousness. The scope and content of the experience is limitless, but its characteristic features are the transcendence of verbal concepts, of space-time dimensions, and of the ego or identity.”

Urban Chaos: Riot Response

Publisher: Eidos

Developer: RockSteady

What good is a first person shooter, really? Is it like never-erotic masturbating just to get to sleep? I mean, is the real purpose of a shooter to calm you down and to relax you as opposed to the prevailing opinion that a shooter gets you going and makes you violent?

Those of you who peruse this column know that I don’t really care for first person shooters. The reasons? First, we’re in a fake war that I never believed in, and there’s enough shooting going in that to last a life time. Beyond this, most shooters haven’t changed all that much since Doom and Castle Wolfenstein. Even more, they don’t have the full stories I need to keep my attention. With the exceptions of the Halo and Doom series, I haven’t enjoyed a shooter for some time.

Having said that, the next two columns will be devoted to shooters that have gone above and beyond aiming, blasting, and running around. Urban Chaos: Riot Response not only has a good story, it has an intriguing back story. Nick Mason has been sent to the Middle East to fight the never-ending battle on terrorism. He receives a frantic message from his father’s friend: Nick’s dad has been killed in a horrible gang attack. To complicate matters, violent gangs have taken over Nick’s town, which is pretty much like the Big Apple, New York City. Nick is asked to return to the city to avenge his Dad’s death and to rid the place of the marauding gangs. Despite the fact that you’ll question how Mason got out of his military duties without snafus, you’ll understand Mason’s motivation to return and fight on his home turf.

Urban Chaos mimics Halo in the sense that you’ll have a tough-talking superior, Sgt. Adam Wolf, to tell you where to go to accomplish various missions. It also includes TV news bulletins which introduce these missions. Although the emotionless newscaster seems to be on Prozac (she should have watched newscasters in New York on 9-11 or drunk some coffee), the TV setup does get you juiced to join cops and firemen as you deal with the gang violence. However, the web site made in tandem with the game, channel7news.tv, is full of fury and angst including a terrorist video from the leader of the despicable gang, The Burners. With his Jason/Halloween-like mask, he’s one scary guy.

There’s complexity here. Everyone seems to be embattled, from Wolf, whose riot unit is constantly criticized to the city’s mayor, who’s lambasted for his bloated spending policies. All of this makes for a game that’s rarely one-dimensional. There’s satire here, too, which makes Urban Chaos all the more fun to play. Add to this the kind of high-tension banter that occurs during frantic moments on TV’s ER, and you’ve got a real winner.

Beyond the nicely-presented story, two elements make Urban Chaos a superior game. The first is the precise aiming and targeting technology. It lets you home in on your quarry with such amazing specificity that you’ll be able to hit your man as he cowardly hides behind an innocent hostage. This kind of shooting makes me feel better about gunning someone down. It’s not just shooting to move forward in the game. You feel like you’re saving someone, and that’s a good feeling.

As a member of the riot response team, you’ll be outfitted with a special shield which takes damage as bullets hit it, but also protects you. Plus, you can use it as a battering ram and as a weapon when Burners get a little too close for comfort. You’ll also have a stun gun and some Molotov cocktails. Finally, while you’ll be killing often, this is no mere run-and-gun. Sometimes you’ll have to bring a gang member in for questioning. When he fesses up to authorities, new missions will be unlocked.

Urban Chaos: Riot Response isn’t a stunningly new game. But it’s made with more than enough care and more than enough tweaks to the old shooter genre. It’s a solid, thoughtful game full of action and humor that will keep you going for hours after which you won’t have to masturbate to get to sleep.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

Developer: 7 Studios/Buena Vista Games

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Publisher: Buena Vista Games

Developer: Amaze Entertainment

It’s inelegant and definitely not p.c. to say it. But across popular culture, in the movies, in pop music, and in literature, everyone loves and even admires a cool drunk (except occasionally the drunk himself). Critics marvel at the ludicrous ways of Keith Richard and his death-defying habits that make it seem he’s made a deal with the devil. Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men portrays the cool drunk who gets the girls and spews witty one-liners. Way back when the 20s roared, drink was the stuff of depression and a kind of muse for F. Scott Fitzgerald. Later this week, Johnny Depp reprises his role as the cool, drunk pirate in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, replete with the signature Keith Richard hipness and the Joe Cocker stagger. (Dead man’s chest, by the way, is a phrase from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, which appears as part of the ‘bottle of rum’ song in the second paragraph of the first chapter.)

In tandem with the movies come the games, and this time, Bethesda with its PS2 title swashbuckles against Disney’s Buena Vista game with its PSP title. Who has the cooler, plastered pirate who can gather up all pieces to a treasure map (your goal in the games)? Ultimately, neither. Sure, in both games, the developers get the surprised, alcohol-ridden moves down in their animations, so much so that you occasionally feel that you are Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow. In Dead Man’s Chest for the PSP, you’re not out to rescue the governor’s daughter as in Black Pearl. Instead, Jack Sparrow has his own demons to deal with as he tries to save himself from becoming an undead pirate/slave to the ghoul with the octopus-tentacled beard, Davy Jones.

In the PSP offering, the action comes fast and furious as soon as you start the game. Taking a page from the book of Devil May Cry, you’ll fight against numerous pirates by pressing buttons madly. There are blood-curdling screams and spooky echoes and unsettling rattling which induce anticipation—even fear—as you enter each room to fight your enemies. You’ll climb up ropes and slide down ropes, all of which makes you feel like you’re on a roller coaster ride. Or a Disney ride.

Yet there’s so much hacking and slashing in Dead Man’s Chest, the game becomes repetitive. The developers try to staunch this by having you do some puzzle-like tasks such as carrying a barrel full of explosives to a locked jail door, then lighting it so you can get inside for some loot. And the graphics are particularly nicely rendered with shading and crisp outlines, all done in widescreen format. But the swordplay becomes banal about halfway through the game, and you wish there were more story here. Heck, even in the movie, which is good, the swordplay can become tedious.

There are also camera angle issues here. If you get into a corner, you seem to become one with the wall and you can’t see enemies that are coming at you. By using the buttons on the top of your PSP, you can move out of this predicament. But, really, the software should do it for you—seamlessly.

In the PS2 version called The Legend of Jack Sparrow, you have a similar game of hack and slash. But there are more cut scenes to give you a better sense of story and action. Still, Johnny Depp (yes, they got Depp to voice act) seems somewhat lackluster when reading the lines of a script that’s admittedly not up to the same sharpness as the movie’s screenplay. In addition, the graphics suffer somewhat. Developers know that they can pack a huge amount of detail into the art in a PS2 game in this, the last year of the old console’s popularity. Yet the visuals here aren’t that much better than the PSP game.

If you’re a big fan of Johnny Depp and of the humorously punky pirates based on the famous Disney ride, these may be the games for you. But I began to reread Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island in preparation to see Dead Man’s Chest and to play the games. Just one sentence shivered my timbers more than anything in the software: “On stormy nights, when the wind shook the four corners of the house and the surf roared along the cove and up the cliffs, I would see him in a thousand forms, and with a thousand diabolical expressions.” That’s what the pirates in these games need: more “diabolical expressions.” If only Stevenson were still alive to help out. Heck, if only the game makers—or at least the games’ writers—had read Stevenson.