Toughest Tasks in Gaming History - Volume Six

Caution: These five new gaming tasks are not for the weak-spirited! Some gaming tasks are so challenging, so deviously difficult, that to complete them is to be considered a true achievement in this hobby. That's where "Toughest Tasks in Gaming History" comes in with five more daunting gaming challenges that will make many weak in the knees and--for some--in the stomach, too! 

Before or after checking out Volume Six's menagerie of challenging gaming tasks, be sure to look at the past five installments with these readily available links!

Volume One

Volume Two
Volume Three
Volume Four
Volume Five

Beating Ultra-Nightmare Difficulty - DOOM Eternal (PS4, XB1, PC)

Anyone who has played DOOM Eternal (such as myself) can tell you that even on the easiest difficulty, if you don't have the basics mastered, don't keep moving, and don't ration your ammo well, you're gonna die. The demons of Hell are no slouches, and they don't believe in playing fair. They'll gang up on the Doom Slayer at any time, overwhelm him with an arsenal of attacks, and dish out immense damage.

When it concerns the game's most challenging difficulty, Ultra-Nightmare, you need to be on the very top of your game to survive even the first encounter. You need to have mastered the brutal yet elegant ballet of running, gunning, chainsawing enemies, and keeping your ammo levels in check to clear each and every tough combat encounter DOOM Eternal throws at you. Death comes fast in DOOM Eternal's Ultra-Nightmare, and dying in this mode ends a given run in its entirety as our favorite Doomguy only has one life to live. DOOM Eternal's "one error and you're dead" mode is one that's not for the feint of heart, and one that will give plenty of players who try this nightmare of a mode many restless nights!

Become a "Cast Master" - Animal Crossing: New Horizons (NSW)

We move on to a game that is decidedly QUITE tonally different from facing off against the demon hordes of Hell. It's Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the zen-like experience that has players doing a myriad of otherwise mundane tasks in real life, but in the world of Animal Crossing, they're therapeutic and fun. Really, Animal Crossing a series is all about rest and relaxation in gaming form, and New Horizons continues that trend to perfection.

...Well... almost. In the game, there are achievement-like tasks that reward Nook Miles for completing them. Some are as simple as collecting or making a certain amount of furniture, watering enough flowers, or logging in to play a specific amount of days. Those are easy enough, but there's one Nook Miles task that is head and shoulders above the others in its level of challenge.

That Nook Miles challenge is none other than "Cast Master", a task that can be a "reel" pain in the tuchus. It requires the player to catch a certain amount of fish without missing any. It's basically a successful fishing streak. The highest amount of fish to catch in a row in Cast Master is 100. That means you can NOT, under any circumstance, let a fish go either by pulling up your rod too early or too late, or else you have to start over from 1 fish all over again. Believe me, it's absurdly easy to psych yourself out and mess up your streak. Plus, some fish nab the line so quickly and retreat, resulting in a sad, pitiful end to your streak as well. It's especially painful to witness your streak end in the 90s... Yep, that be me with that blemish on my otherwise perfect fishing record. Sure, the reward for Cast Master is only some Nook Miles, but the personal achievement you'll get for completing this tough task is reward enough in this player's opinion!

Clearing Every Time Trial with a Platinum Relic - Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy (PS4, XB1, NSW, PC)

Three games with a multitude of levels in them, and in each game--Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, and Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped--there is a trophy for getting all of the Gold Relics in each level in each of the three games in the trilogy. That's difficult enough, as the Crash Bandicoot original trilogy is notorious for being a challenging one. Having to rush through levels--all of which contain no checkpoints in time trial mode--make death-defying jumps to successfully cut precious seconds off your time, and do so all while evading enemies and other deadly obstacles is certainly not for the timid of platforming fans.

Now, the Gold Relic times are challenging enough as they are, but the Platinum Relic times are even stricter with the times needed to earn them. They require you to make perfect runs through levels, performing dangerous shortcuts, throw caution to the wind, and nail pixel-perfect jumps while memorizing every platform and facet of each and every level in the game. Sound difficult? Well, I wouldn't have this on a "Toughest Tasks in Gaming History" edition if it wasn't! Thankfully, if you want the Platinum trophy on all three games in the trilogy, you need not aim for the Platinum Relics, but if you do, you'll be undisputed as one of the better platformer players in the hobby.

Complete the #Ego99 Challenge - Super Mega Baseball 3 (PS4, XB1, NSW, PC)

Super Mega Baseball 3 is a sensational baseball game that skillfully blends simulation qualities with an arcade game feel. It's easy to jump into a game and quickly get accustomed to the controls and the various features of the game.

One such feature is the Ego system, which allows you to ramp up the AI up to level 99 to determine the difficulty. The game even has it where you can ramp up specific aspects of the AI, such as pitching, hitting, and fielding, for instance.

So, what is the #Ego99 Challenge, and what makes it so arduous to the point that few players have been able to actually complete it? With the #Ego99 Challenge, a player has to play and win an exhibition game against a computer team of all Ego 99 players, the absolute hardest-hitting, exceptionally difficult AI around in any baseball game that I've played. This team demands perfection against their opponents, and if you don't have it, you'll find yourself severely struggling against them.

Plus, if you think you can bring custom players into the fold to help "even the odds", you're mistaken. The #Ego99 Challenge must be completed with standard teams, so no customization is available as an option. I was definitely taken out to the ballgame, as well as to the cleaners when I attempted (and utterly failed) this tremendous challenge.

Mastering "Dark Agent" Mode - Perfect Dark Zero (360)

Our final tough task of this volume of Toughest Tasks in Gaming History takes us back a generation to the launch of the Xbox 360. (It seemed like a good opportunity to bring up a launch title with a new generation of gaming consoles coming out tentatively this year, after all. I do have a method to my madness.) With a new Halo nowhere to be found at the Xbox 360's launch (for obvious reasons), the first party first-person shooter offering from Microsoft was Perfect Dark Zero, a prequel to one of my favorite shooters of all time.

Heck, just trying to live up to the original Perfect Dark is its own kind of "tough task in gaming history"--which PDZ failed to do--but in the game itself, we're talking about another difficulty-related achievement. That would be clearing Dark Agent mode, the hardest of difficulties in Perfect Dark Zero.

As you can expect, Dark Agent is an even more dastardly and dangerous version of Perfect Agent difficulty, which is an already-hard mode. Dark Agent increases the damage delivered to Ms. Joanna Dark, ups the accuracy of enemies, and makes it so there are no armor pickups to give some much needed security to Jo at all. Unlike other difficulties in Perfect Dark Zero, the lengthy levels are only made deadlier by a total lack of checkpoints, save for the very first mission. As you can probably imagine, Perfect Dark Zero's Dark Agent difficulty rounds out to be a particularly daunting achievement to go after, even in co-op (which is a separate achievement anyway).

Top Five Rare-Developed Games Since Being Purchased by Microsoft

It was exactly fifteen years ago today when the studio of Rare, known for its close partnership with Nintendo, officially was bought by Microsoft, thus making Rare a 100% Microsoft-owned studio to help a budding new Xbox brand build, grow, and gain momentum right out of the starting gate.

Throughout Rare's continued and close relationship with Nintendo, the Stamper brothers, the founders and then-primary owners of Rare, sold more and more of their stake in the company to Nintendo. By 2002, the Stampers wanted to sell Rare and turned to Nintendo first to fully hand over their stakes and ownership of their company. Nintendo did not agree to purchase the Stampers' stake, so the bidding war for ownership eventually came down to Activision and Microsoft with the latter becoming the purchaser of Rare for $375 million.

Now, an argument regarding whether or not Microsoft got its money's worth from Rare happens to this day, but that's really not the focus of this special article. Instead, SuperPhillip Central turns to Rare's output post-Nintendo and in the Microsoft era. Which five games from the new Rare shine as brightly as a Jiggy from Banjo-Kazooie or are as sensational as a strike in Kinect Sports' bowling? Let's find some answers (well, SuperPhillip Central's answers at least!). Note: As Rare Replay is a compilation title, it is not eligible for this list.

5) Perfect Dark Zero (360)

We begin with one of Rare's two launch titles for the Xbox 360. Perfect Dark Zero might not have lived up to its predecessor as many would have liked. After all, Rare went from cool and sophisticated British secret agent in the original PD's version of Joanna to American brat Joanna with Perfect Dark Zero. Regardless, the solo campaign remained similar to the N64 game in that missions contained plenty of objectives to complete before being able to finish the mission, albeit many levels were much more linear in design. The multiplayer remains to this day a fantastic experience with massive maps, an amazing amount of players (whether real or bot), enjoyable modes, and kill streaks that will have the announcer screaming "Killharmonic Orchestra!" It's by no means the Perfect Dark sequel that fans and gamers wanted, but all to its own self, Perfect Dark Zero didn't really miss the mark all that badly.

4) Kameo: Elements of Power (360)

If there is one game from this list that I really want to see a sequel for, it's the other Xbox 360 launch game from Rare, Kameo: Elements of Power. This action-filled adventure packed a memorable punch when it debuted alongside the Xbox 360. Looking at the impressive depth of field, textures, and other amazing visuals was one of my first HD generation moments, and it's one that sticks with me to this day. There was so much going on visually, but more importantly, the gameplay and design involving a fairy named Kameo, who can transform into various creatures (with the amount rising throughout the journey), was exceptional whether if it was the astonishing set pieces, the incredible boss battles, the clever puzzles inside the intricate dungeons, or the excellently crafted controls. Kameo: Elements of Power was Rare's original character in Rare's Zelda-like epic.

3) Conker: Live & Reloaded (XBX)

Continuing on from Rare's first offerings on the Xbox 360, we turn to one of Rare's first offerings while being under Microsoft and the Xbox brand entirely. Conker: Live & Reloaded began development at the drop of a hat -- just as soon as Microsoft purchased Rare. The single player campaign is a remake of the Nintendo 64 game, Conker's Bad Fur Day, although a more censored version curiously enough. While the single player pretty much remained untouched, the multiplayer received a serious upgrade thanks to Xbox Live functionality, allowing up to 16 players to blast one another in to bloody blobs of fur across a range of well made maps. There's a good argument over whether the Nintendo 64 game's original multiplayer or the Xbox game's multiplayer is superior, but forget that! Conker was back and was in beautiful, excruciatingly good detail. So good that the game is visually impressive to this day.

2) Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (360)

Ah, another franchise of Rare's that debuted on the Nintendo 64! Just to clear up any possible confusion, if you recall just over a week ago, I mentioned that Banjo-Kazooie's most recent entry, Nuts & Bolts, was one of the most disappointing video game sequels of all time in SuperPhillip Central's third edition of the recurring segment of articles. That was merely due to the game not being a traditional Banjo game which at the time of release, the 3D collect-a-thon platformer was a rarity. However, as I further explained in the article, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts otherwise is a fur-frickin'-tastic game. The primary game had Banjo and Kazooie creating contraptions out of various customizable parts to assist them in completing goals in the game's five major worlds to earn Jiggies. While many of the goals within the missions were a bit samey and repetitive, the different tactics you could go about accomplishing them was really terrific. Not just a great game, but Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is certainly an underrated one in the Xbox 360 library.

1) Viva Pinata (360)

Of all of the new franchises Rare created under ownership from Microsoft, Viva Pinata is the one with the highest quality under the Xbox branding. Viva Pinata is not just the best new franchise from Rare during the company's Microsoft era, but I argue that it's the best Rare game period post-Nintendo. The main goal of Viva Pinata was to raise and grow a garden to lure new pinata animals in to. For example, a firefly pinata would be attracted to a torch placed in the player's garden. Through satisfying the second condition, the firefly pinata would then make its home in the garden. However, the happiness of each pinata was necessary, and one would have to be careful upon which pinata are in the same garden at the same time, lest fights break out and cold, cold death was the end result for one pinata. With so much to do, so much to accomplish, so many pinata to befriend, and just that Rare calling card of having an incredible presentation, Viva Pinata is SuperPhillip Central's pick as Rare's best game as a first party of Microsoft.

The Most Disappointing Video Game Sequels - Part One

We all have them-- games we very much enjoyed but then their sequels came up short in some way. The six games featured on this inaugural edition of The Most Disappointing Video Game Sequels fit the bill precisely. Now, they might not be bad games by any stretch of the imagination (though, some definitely are), but they did have to disappoint in some aspect of the game. Maybe they weren't as fun or creative as their predecessors, were rushed out to market, or some other reason. After scoping out and reading through SuperPhillip Central's picks, feel free to bring up those sequels that you wish turned out better than they actually did.

Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3, 360, PC)

One of the times that critical acclaim and its Metacritic score just bewilder the hell out of me, Grand Theft Auto IV was a massive disappointment compared to the PS2 and Xbox's San Andreas. For one, IV lacked so many features that were present in San Andreas, some due to GTA IV's greater focus on realism over actual fun. The handling of cars felt extremely wonky in IV, the mission variety was limited at best and boring at worst, the almost complete lack of customization was highly disappointing, the map was all city and too segmented to be enjoyable, and the abundance of annoying phone calls by people who wanted to hang out were tedious to respond to. Perhaps if just taken as an open world game and not comparing it to past GTA games, Grand Theft Auto IV wouldn't have chafed my opinion on it so much, but as it is, GTA IV was a tremendous disappointment which would be thankfully remedied with Grand Theft Auto V's variety, customization, and more.

Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, 360, PC)

The structure of Final Fantasy XIII confuses me as a player and someone interested in game design. Generally, a game starts out with open expanses and then when budget constraints eventually come in, the game becomes much more linear in design to make up for lack of funds near the end of development. With Final Fantasy XIII, the opposite happened design-wise. The first half of the game is devised up of extremely linear dungeons and areas that occasionally fork (and that's being generous) for a side path to get some treasure. The second half, however, is very much wide open once Lightning and companions reach Gran Pulse. Instead of leading with the game's best foot forward, Final Fantasy XIII forced players to agonize through boring, linear dungeons before getting to the real meat of the game. For many, the multiple chapters of doing this made for quite a sense of tedium. Yes, XIII is as beautiful as any other Final Fantasy game has an enjoyable battle system, but those alone do not make a great RPG. The entire package does, which Final Fantasy XIII did not reach its full potential.

Devil May Cry 2 (PS2) 

As we've seen already, a game can be a disappointment to some and still perform fantastically commercially. That was indeed the case with Capcom's Devil May Cry 2, but for many fans of the original and the series in general, Devil May Cry 2 is seen as the weakest game of the Japanese-developed entries in the franchise. Between weapons that seemed to have zero major differences between them and bosses that required little to no strategy, the overall difficulty of Devil May Cry 2 was made much easier, which ruffled the feathers of many a player. Levels went for more of an open approach, sacrificing graphical fidelity in the process, which also made the level designs not as compelling to play through,  Then, there is Dante's total change of personality, which made many miss his cocky demeanor from the first game. With all these problems, Devil May Cry 2 wasn't as an enjoyable sequel for many Devil May Cry fans with some even calling the game a total failure. Thankfully, Devil May Cry 3 very much righted the ship for the franchise-- well, before it went off course again with Ninja Theory's entry.

Perfect Dark Zero (360)

This game, a launch title for the Xbox 360, is one example that shows that a game can still be enjoyable despite it not living up to its predecessor. Indeed, Perfect Dark Zero is an example of a disappointing sequel when compared to the original Perfect Dark, a Nintendo 64 classic that would get its definitive version on Xbox Live Arcade. The original PD is one of my favorite FPS shooters ever made, so to go from that to Perfect Dark Zero was quite the gut check. While the multiplayer and gunplay were rather good, things like the campaign, the story, and especially the horrendous voice acting (Americanizing Joanna Dark and performing some revisionist history on the series were not good moves in my opinion) made for a game that didn't come close to reaching the same highs as the Nintendo 64 classic. While I wouldn't call Perfect Dark Zero a bad game per se, it was, in fact, a poor sequel and huge disappointment coming off of the greatness that was the original Perfect Dark.

Mega Man X6 (PS1)

The first of the Mega Man X series that was truly terrible, Mega Man X6 seemed rushed out of the gate, releasing close to a year from X5, if not less. I remember seeing Mega Man X6 on a store's shelf wondering to myself, "When the heck was THIS announced?!" Regardless, Mega Man X5 was supposed to be the conclusion of the X series, and maybe it should have been considering how poor X6 and then the attempt to bring the series to 3D with X7 were. (Though, X8 was of a considerably greater quality, thankfully.) Between the poor level design (such as facing a mini-boss in Blaze Heatnix's stage no less than 5-6 times in one go), awfully implemented Nightmare System which randomized certain elements of levels to lame effect, and the worthlessness of most of X's weapons, and you have a game that started the X series' slide into mediocrity, one that, again, would not be rectified until Mega Man X8.

Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii)

The Wii's Animal Crossing: City Folk gives us an example in a sequel that is pretty good as a game by its lonesome, but as a sequel it's not much improved at all. City Folk released a couple of years after the Nintendo DS's Animal Crossing: Wild World, and in essence, City Folk is just Wild World on a console with better graphics and a city thrown in. That's pretty much it. Well, don't forget the privilege of paying full price for Wild World 2.0. Not only a disappointment for veterans of the series for how little was improved from past games, but it was a disappointment in 2008 being Nintendo of America's table scraps for more dedicated gamers that holiday season when the focus was on Wii Music. That said, if you've never played an Animal Crossing game before, then City Folk wouldn't be disappointing at all. It's just putting it in a specific context where it does end up being less than amazing.

Underrated Games With Even More Underrated Soundtracks - Part Two

Generally on Mondays, I share five of my favorite themes from video games, whether old or new, retro or modern, popular or less appreciated. This series of articles focuses on the less appreciated. Not just games, but underrated games with even more underrated soundtracks. Perhaps these six new additions to this list will persuade you to try out these games, or at least give you some new soundtracks to enjoy!

For part one of this series of articles, look no further than this link.

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (360)

After Rare's teasing of a new 3D platformer featuring the lovable pair of Banjo and Kazooie, what fans like myself got instead was not what was expected. Rather than a game filled with platforming action, we received a much different game. Not to say Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts was a bad game by any stretch of the imagination. It was actually great, offering vehicle customization with the only limits being one's imagination, and varied objectives that could be handled in a multitude of ways. It just wasn't what fans were expecting of the bear and bird or Rare in general. The music was a welcomed collection of orchestrated Banjo-Kazooie medleys and new material, all done remarkably well.

Showdown Town (Daytime)

Jinjo Challenge

Nutty Acres (Daytime)

Gruntilda's Challenge

Banjoland (Daytime)

Perfect Dark Zero (360)

The original Perfect Dark is my favorite first-person shooter of all time. I dig the old school, multi-layered level design with different approaches available for the different objectives each mission requires. Thus, you can probably imagine how hyped I was for the game's successor, Perfect Dark Zero. Single player-wise it disappointed, but the multiplayer, though not as good as the N64 game, offered expansive, layered maps, awesome team-based modes, a wide assortment of high-powered weaponry, and an announcer that might want to switch to decaf. The soundtrack had a different feel to it as well, whether it was the hard rock of some levels, the trance music inside a dance club, or the Arabian feel of later levels.

Combat Arena

Subway Retrieval (Descent)

Rooftops Escape

Mansion Infiltration (Action)

Trinity Escape

Sonic: Lost World (Wii U, Steam)

Sonic the Hedgehog entered the current generation with both a boom and a bust. Actually, those two words refer to Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric. I'm referring to Sonic: Lost World, a game that once again had Sonic Team reinventing the wheel instead of settling on a gameplay style that had a proven track record (looking at you, Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations). Regardless, Lost World ended up being an enjoyable romp for me, but it's hard to ignore its late game annoyances and control eccentricities. What is also hard to ignore is just how great the soundtrack is, a menagerie of catchy and locale-specific tunes. This is one soundtrack that gets regular plays in iTunes for me.

Wonder World (Full)

Honeycomb Highway

Juice Archipelago

Frozen Factory Act 1

Final Boss (Showdown)

Mario Tennis Open (3DS)

While this game started the "less is less" approach with the Mario Tennis series that recently saw the extreme of such approach with the Wii U's Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, the Nintendo 3DS title Mario Tennis Open offered some attractive tennis action mired for many by the inclusion of chance shots. Chance shots made it so when your opponent relayed a shot of yours, a colored cursor would appear on your side of the court, signaling where the ball would land and what kind of shot you should use to hit the ball back. Though turning the tennis gameplay into something more dumbed down, what wasn't dumbed down was the Motoi Sakuraba soundtrack, consisting of all-new themes and remixes from the Nintendo 64 version of Mario Tennis, my favorite tennis game to this day.

World Open 1st Match

Star Open - Set Point / Match Point

Mario Stadium

Wario Dunes

Penguin Iceberg

Star Fox: Assault (GCN)

This next soundtrack is for a game that gets a lot of flak from Star Fox enthusiasts. It makes sense, after waiting many years for a follow-up to Star Fox 64, what we got was a much more linear game with unwanted out-of-cockpit on-foot sections. That said, I happened to enjoy Star Fox: Assault for what it was, and something that made the game all the more amazing to me was hearing many familiar themes from Star Fox 64 and brand-new compositions given the orchestral treatment, something that was one of the first Nintendo titles to feature a full orchestra at the time.

Mission Briefing

Oikonny's Fleet (Space Battleground)

Katina (Frontier Serenade)

Sauria (Reunion)

Boss: Aparoid Pigma

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (SNES)

A fighting game starring characters from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic series? Yes, there was actually a thing back in the 90's, and it wasn't too shabby either! By far the most impressive part of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters aside from the competent gameplay and sick graphics was the excellently done soundtrack, full of great tunes to rock out and clobber opponents to. Nothing like giving a beefed up Rat King his just desserts while a rocking track plays in the background!

Cafeteria

Sky Palace

Scrapyard

Metal Works

Bonus Game

Multiplayer Madness 2: More of My Favorite Multiplayer Games

The latest highly anticipated and talked about multiplayer game Splatoon was released last week, and the popularity of the game seems to be quite tangible. It seems like a perfect time to bring out Multiplayer Madness for a second edition with Splatoon as the leading game to start us off. These games I have selected are some of the ones I've had the most fun playing with other people, whether online or off. If you missed the first installment of Multiplayer Madness, get yourself caught up to speed with this link. Once you're caught up, you can start reading the next eight games added to my list of multiplayer faves.

Splatoon (Wii U)

The latest game that has consumed part of my life, Splatoon is Nintendo putting its own take on a popular genre, the third-person shooter. Matches don't revolve around defeating other players. Instead, the goal is to have your team use their weapons to unleash paint on more of the surface than the other team before time runs out. The terrific thing here is that as long as you are painting the ground, it doesn't really matter how many times you're splatted (i.e. K.O.'d). Matches are short enough at three minutes, and the tide of battle can change in an instance. Splatoon is wonderfully chaotic, brilliantly executed shooter that has already had me spend more hours on the game's multiplayer than I care to admit in less than a week since its launch!

Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS)

Most of my time with Animal Crossing: New Leaf was spent alone, fixing up my village as the mayor through public works projects, buying new furniture, wallpaper, flooring, clothing, and home renovations, and doing my best to make my villagers happy. However, there was a whole other piece to New Leaf, and that was the multiplayer portion. It was a lot of fun to invite friends over to my town, hang out with them, trade items, head over to the island to play some of Tortimeter's mini-games, and just have a very relaxing go of things. It was a pace that was leisurely, and for once, I was content with that.

Rayman Legends (Multi)

Rayman Legends on Wii U is what I consider to be the definitive version of the game, offering the most intuitive experience around. This 2D platformer shines brightest during the Murfy stages, where one player controls the character Murfy via the GamePad touch screen. You move platforms, tickle enemies, and arrange obstacles to assist the player or players going through the levels. Of course, not all of the game is devised up by Murfy levels. Traditional platforming challenges for up to four players are also available and as entertaining in Rayman Legends as they were in Rayman Origins, the game's predecessor. It's a platforming package that is worth its weight in lums.

LittleBigPlanet 2 (PS3)

We leap into another platformer with a game with less tight controls than Rayman Legends, but it's still an amusing game to play, LittleBigPlanet 2. One of my first experiences with playing online with the PlayStation 3 was hopping online and playing through the game's story levels with total strangers. In the game there are locations that require multiple players to get the Prize Bubbles within. For instance, one player holds a switch to keep a door open while the other players enter to salvage their Prize Bubble bounty. It was also fabulously fun to play user created levels in a party, randomly selecting and checking out creations from the community. While the jumping may be floaty, the fun is most definitely grounded in greatness.

Star Wars: Battlefront (PS2, XBX, PC)

To prep for the upcoming DICE-developed Star Wars: Battlefront, I reviewed the original game. I had played it and its sequel when both came out, but the impending release of the new entry gave me an excuse to return to the games. Even after all of this time, Star Wars: Battlefront for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC is still as fun to play as ever. There is nothing like being a part of a full-scale, highly contested battle, fighting alongside a massive squad of troops, and pushing the enemy back, all the while capturing their command posts. Playing the game cooperatively with my brother was like shooting a phaser-- it was a blast. We'd divvy up tasks and chokepoints to try to control, sharing impromptu strategies during battle. There's nothing else like splitscreen gaming!

Perfect Dark Zero (360)

My first Xbox 360 game and probably the one that I've spent the most hours playing, Perfect Dark Zero may not have been the great successor to the original Perfect Dark that fans or me, for that matter, wanted, but overall the game wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination. The grandest part of the game was the multiplayer, offering multiple expansive maps for over 32 players to play in Killcount, Team Killcount, Capture the Flag, Territorial Gains, and more. Vehicles like the hovercraft and jet-pack allowed for fast traversal over the great scale maps housing little hiding spots and a multitude of pathways. It might not have been "perfect", but this Xbox 360 launch title was a blast from the opening seconds of a round to the final kill.

Diddy Kong Racing (N64)

From one Rareware game to another, Diddy Kong Racing is my favorite kart racer of all time. Part of what makes it so great beyond the awesome track design, innovative adventure mode, and three vehicle types to play as was the multiplayer, offering traditional races against up to three other players, a grand prix mode, and a battle mode. However, the best option available came within using the "JOINTVENTURE" code on the password screen. This would allow you and a friend (or in my case, my older brother) to tackle the adventure mode together. Diddy Kong Racing was just the gift that kept on giving long after you beat Wizpig all by your lonesome.

Mario Party 2 (N64)

My favorite in the Mario Party series, Mario Party 2 did away with the palm and thumb-destroying mini-games that its predecessor possessed. It did receive plenty of returning mini-games with new twists to each, plus a wide amount of brand-new ones as well. While the game was enjoyable enough solo, Mario Party 2 truly shun when you had four players in the room to tackle one of the game's six boards, battling over Power Stars, screwing over your friends and family members, and just having a great old time. More modern Mario Party games don't have the same level of craziness of earlier Mario Party games, and that is a shame, as Mario Party 2's brand of party game is definitely one of my personal faves.