Super Hexagon looks simple, but plays hard. All you need to do is rotate a triangle around a spinning, pulsating hexagon, and avoid all of the moving walls that are racing towards the center. In this simple concept there is such a depth of gameplay though, that you can joyfully play this game for hours on end, day after day. There is little to the graphics, there is no storyline or exposition, yet I find I Super Hexagon more than most other games I own. It's enjoyably difficult. The challenge is so great that I notice my performance changes based on how much sleep I've had, or whether I've had a cup of coffee. It's that sensitive to changes in your attention. I can use my time scores as a metric for how alert I am for the day. It's like a meditation exercise simply to play the game because it forces you to pay attention completely, both near the center of the hexagon, and along the outskirts, in all directions. You will find yourself transfixed. It's strangely relaxing and energizing at the same time. It's utterly hypnotic.
This review is about the gog.com version of this game. Before I get into the pros & cons of the gog version, let me begin by saying that I am a big fan of the Street Fighter series and I think Street Fighter Alpha 2 is the best of the three Alpha sub-series games. That being said, there are problems with this version of the game available on gog.com. Though I would give this Street Fighter Alpha 2 a 5-star rating in the arcades, I only give it 3-4 stars for the PC version on gog.com. 1. This is not the arcade version of Street Fighter Alpha 2. This is the version that was released on PC back 1998 that was a port of the 1996 Playstation version. It is therefore not as spectacular of a game as it could be. If you buy the Street Fighter Alpha Anthology for Playstation 2, which is a port of the arcade version, you will see that this PC release is inferior in almost every way possible. The most notable problem is that the character animations are choppy in this version. In the arcade and PS2 versions, the animations are much smoother and speedier. This allows for more expert play because the difference between winning and losing each hit in a fighting game often boils down to just a few frames of animation. 2. The keyboard config does not work. I set my bindings, saved, and started a new game and my punches and kicks were still not associated with the keys I had assigned them to. The joypad configuration did work, however, for my Logitech controller, but I bought this game specifically to play on a laptop during bus commutes, some I am disappointed that the keys do not bind properly and I am going to have to do more work now to make that work (using xpadder or something). I cannot play fighting games that screw up the keyboard/controller configuration. The defaults on this game are particularly terrible in this version and are not set to have movement in the obvious spots of either WASD or up/down/left/right arrows. 3. The GUI is awkward. There is no way to configure buttons during gameplay. You cannot click on menu options with your mouse. You can accidentally mess up something in your button config to the point that you no longer have a way to revert it. There is no special move list that you can refer to during gameplay (though this is also true of the PS2 version). 4. The move input feels off. I played my PS2 version and the GOG version one after the other. I had more difficulty in consistently pulling off my special moves on the PC version than I did on the PS2 version. This could be a controller issue, but it felt like it was due to the game itself. 5. The soundtrack is better in other versions. This is based off of the arcade soundtrack instead of the Playstation release, which makes this a somewhat superior version to the Playstation version. Thankfully you get a soundtrack bonus for this gog.com edition that you can listen to on your own, but the instrumentation and quality of the tracks is still not quite as good as the Playstation 2 Alpha Anthology version. 6. The graphics are generally not as good in this version as the arcade or PS2 versions. They are more pixelated, and as mentioned before, the animations are choppier. The pixilation I could live with, but the animation problems affect gameplay. 7. In case you were wondering, there is not online play. This is not supported in other versions either, to my knowledge. Despite these complaints, this is still a fun release, even on this port. Street Fighter Alpha II is one of the great fighting games and added features such as a 3-level super combo gauge for power moves, alpha counters/reversals, air blocking, fall breaking, and a custom combo system. It’s really a fantastic fighter and despite my complaints about this version, it is still very playable. The bottom line: If you want an accurate arcade port of this, get the Street Fighter Alpha Anthology for Playstation 2, or consider emulation. If you are nostalgic for the handling of the PC or Playstation release, this is a good option. This is also good if you want to just own the soundtrack from the GOG bonuses. This is also the first game Capcom has released on GOG, so you might want to simply support them in joining the ranks here at GOG. This isn’t the best version of SFAlpha2 though, so be forewarned. Yet it is still a strong enough game to be playable and enjoyable even in this lesser port.
My mind is slipping. I am following murderous orders on my telephone answering machine. I think... maybe it's in my head. Did I really kill all those people? Did I really survive? I feel uneasy. Nauseated. The room won't hold still. There's static in my brain. Colors seem to crawl around in my head. Hideous hues of Pepto-bismal pink, convenient store neon orange, and baby poop green. I sniff hard through my nostrils and fight back the urge to vomit. The only way to stop thinking about the killing is to kill more. In the killing there's no time for remorse, no time for pondering long term consequences, there is only action. My eyes dart around every corner, door, and exit. My muscles twinge in reflex. My brain plans its moves: Shoot. Sprint. Pounce. Stab. Hide. Fire. Run. As I take life, mine is reaffirmed. I am alive. I'm bound tight like a rubber band pulled on both ends, about to snap. But I can only think a few steps ahead. I don't know what lies ahead other than danger. I must be vigilant. I must be aggressive. And when it is all over, I will think I must be sick. Horribly, horribly sick. But there's not time to think about what's wrong with me now. I'm already through the door. The trigger has already been pulled. I'm already in the chase. Guns are blazing. I'm in it. There's no turning back. Hotline Miami is that. It's not just a game, it's a psychological experience that emerges out of the ugliness of the graphics, the head-bending visual effects, the trippiness of the music, the andrenaline fueled gameplay, the tension before opening a door, the horror and quiet of walking out of a room where you have murdered every living soul and their bloodied bodies are in piles. To break it down into gameplay, graphics, sound, control doesn't seem to do it justice. It is killer's instinct, confusion, evil, guilt. It is terror. Surprising calm. It is a disoriented nightmare. It is succumbing to that urge at night to just swerve into the headlights. It is waking up in someone else's blood. It is all your fault
To The Moon is a special game that tells a very sweet and sentimental story that will tug at your heart strings, especially if you're a fan of the story telling of old school RPGs. Though the game itself is more correctly categorized as something between a visual novel and a point and click adventure game, the graphics and sound are straight out of the 16-bit console RPG era. The basic premise of the story is about a business that will fulfill any dying person's last wish by using a high-tech device to go into their memories and alter them so that they get to relive their life (in memory) one last time before they die. Only now they can alter one event based on their wish. To do this, the player is transported inside the most cherished memories of the wish maker to find out how to best fulfill his dying wish. You can only go back further in their history by finding important mementos at each stage of life. You play the role of a team of people that are helping one man named John to go back through his lifetime of memories to help him achieve his final wish of going to the moon. As you can probably imagine from this basic premise, this is a game that wears its heart on its sleeve. I don't want to say anything more about the storyline beyond that because it would be impossible not to spoil the story. Part of the mystery and charm of the game is going backwards through John's life and learning about why he made all the choices he did that led to where he is now in his old age. The story is absolutely touching and heartwrenching, but with plenty of quirky humor. There is not much of anything in terms of gameplay. The game is largely just about having the story unfold, so there is very little "game" to it. Often this sort of thing bothers me because I think that the primary strength of the videogame medium is interactivity, so games that don't utilize that would have been just as well made as a book, movie, or cartoon. Nevertheless, it doesn't bother me that this is the case with To The Moon, and it's not just simply because the story is so endearing, but because it plays to gamer nostalgia. If you grew up on games like Final Fantasy IV and VI, Chrono Trigger, and Earthbound, then you will recognize that there is something special to the presentation of To The Moon. It looks like a 16-bit RPG and it has a beautiful soundtrack that is largely piano driven and provides themes for different characters. This kind of soundtrack isn't used as much in modern games because voice acting clashes with strong melodies, so modern games tend to use more ambient music or orchestral arrangements that don't draw attention to themselves, but still set a mood. To The Moon is made a better story by its melody driven soundtrack. Also, the game's nostalgic graphical style is well-suited to the story about going back in time through one man's memories, especially if you grew up on these old school RPGs like I did. I hope some of you will try this game out if you care about story in games, because this one is really touching.
