Retro gaming: Who Dares Wins II

Forget about Dragon Age II, because today we'll talk about Who Dares Wins II, an old game by Steve Evans (credited in the C64 version as Tommy Atkins). Who Dares Wins was initially a shameless Commando clone which was released two weeks before the real Commando. Elite sued WDW developer Alligata, so the game was immediately pulled from distribution... until Evans rearranged the content and the game was re-released as Who Dares Wins II.

WDWII was one of the first games I ever played, renamed for Spain (in the cover art, not in the game) as "Mercenario". The 8-bit Commando was a much more visceral experience, and insanely enjoyable, but WDWII was a great piece of design. Let's see why:

Amstrad CPC version < --- The one I played back then

Commodore 64 version < --- It looks similar, but it had scroll!

At first glance it looks like another Ikari Warriors-type shooter. You push forward with your soldier shooting all the enemy soldiers and throwing some grenades. (You can't ride a tank here, though) But after a while you realize that you are expected to make some tactical thinking.

-Enemies are limited. No infinitely spawning baddies, which is actually good. You can memorize the enemy placement so you won't suffer a nasty death. That was great to get a little further each time you played.

-There are some special rules: trenches stop bullets, water and almost invisible quicksand (you can see how it looks here) will drown you, you can only shoot entrenched enemies while they are peeking out (like in a modern cover shooter!), soldiers behind barricades and tanks flee when you are close to them, and you have to clear the last screen of enemies before reaching a new stage. It feels fair and it motivates you to plan your advance. Staying for a couple of minutes in a single screen trying to get rid of a few strategically-placed enemy shooters is as Un-Commando as it gets.

-I love the extra touches like the possibility of saving prisoners who are about to be executed or destroying passing vehicles. That was completely optional, but at the time you had to do that to "play right" (also, the extra points were useful to get more lives). I don't care about that style of playing too much anymore, but back then it was really important, probably because games only offered gameplay and not much else.

WDWII was an unexpensive game (being released seemingly as a cheap Commando knock-off), but it was legitimately great, and I would play it again in a heartbeat. Maybe I should try the C64 version to check out the scroll!

Sources:
Retro Gamer Magazine
Retroview (Spanish)

CCG's Game Of The Year 2009!

And our game of the year is...

PLANTS VS ZOMBIES

Why? We all agree (and "all" means SuperViv, JR and me) that Plants vs Zombies surpassed all our expectations and gave us lots of hours of good, solid fun. This game wasn't hyped to death, but word of mouth has made it a success. JR found this game and told me that I just had to play it. He was right! Then I bought this game for my brother, and he really loved it! And SuperViv was told that she just had to play this game... by a friend from Israel! Yes, everybody around the globe loves Plants vs Zombies. Just because it looks like a "small" game, this doesn't mean that PvZ is worse than any of the Big Names.

In our words:

Such a simple idea. Yet, the execution is perfect. The graphics, the writing (the descriptions in the zombie guide are just hilarious), the gameplay... The difficulty is so finely tuned that you get the feeling that this game was playtested to death. (Danda)

Plants vs. Zombies is very addictive. It's not particularly difficult, but it gets slightly more difficult in every level, which makes you want to progress further and further. After every level, you end up with a new item that you just quickly want to try - so that 45 minutes later you're still "just quickly trying" a new item. The game is simple and really goofy in an endearing way. They paid a lot of attention to detail, too. The graphics are nicely cartoonish, the different types of zombies are funny, the music doesn't get on your nerves even after an hour or two, and the whole game sounds good from every shot and explosion to the zombies' muttering of "brains!" (SuperViv)

PvZ is quite cool! It may be less addictive than Defense Grid but it's more entertaining and varied. It's a really nice game and as you progress in the game you find a lot of hilarious stuff the makers put in the game. It's also very varied because it has a ton of minigames. I think it's a good purchase. And it's perfect for girlfriends! (JR)

So that's it. Oh, and my runner-up is...

UNCHARTED 2

That game is just perfect. Everything about is carefully built up to be great. OK, the story may be a little shallow if we compare it with a (good) movie, which is what it would like to be, but for the usual videogame standards, the script in Uncharted 2 is Shakespeare. But this is not like Metal Gear Solid 4: if you skip all the cutscenes (like I did on my second playthrough), you still have a dozen rock-solid hours of game.

And my definitely-not-game-of-the-year is...

MODERN WARFARE 2

Why would I pay extra to play the same game from 2007, all over again? No way. I only played this game because I managed to find, amazingly, a new copy for 17€.

I guess I'm supposed to find the airport level shocking (the game even offers to skip it), but the most shocking thing was the ending for that level. I was thinking "that's what you deserve for shooting the wrong people, you moron". Was I supposed to feel that? I'm not sure.

So, what about the "new" stuff? Oh, yes: I had to rescue hostages at an oil rig. Didn't I already do that in the early Rainbow Six games? Of course I did. And the snowmobile? Didn't I already do that on No One Lives Forever 2? Yes! Then, what about fighting on American soil? Oh, you mean, like in Resistance 2? And defending a diner from the ceiling? I think I already did that on that weird Area 51 kind-of-sequel, Blacksite.

Derivative, that's the word. Even the music is not as good as in COD4. Zimmer, you lazy man! Did you even write it, or did you just put your name on it?

And I don't care if you don't agree. It's just my opinion.

Danda

Tex Murphy weekend!

Hi SuperViv,

Remember when I gave you that "Tex Murphy: Overseer" DVD game, hoping that you would play it some day? Well, I firmly believed that the Tex Murphy games are awesome (I still do) and I wanted to "spread the word". Well, now all those games are officially available again, sold online in XP/Vista-compatible releases, on the great site www.gog.com. And this weekend only, they offer a 30% sale!

http://www.gog.com/en/page/tex_promo/

There's one irony about this, though. The DVD version is so problematic that they are offering only the (slightly inferior) CD version. So you can still keep the disc that I gave you!

Later
- Danda