Daily Ten: Platformer Games With Attitude

In honor of Crash Bandicoot making a return later this year with remasters on the Playstation 4, I thought I'd take a look back at other platformer games that had some WILD and ZANY characters that were no doubt the result of the same focus group testing that gave us Poochie. As we go through, you'll notice that most of these games are actually pretty good just suffer from a complete failure to stand out from the crowd.

10) Aero the Acro-bat - SNES/Genesis

Released in 1993, Aero the Acro-bat was one of the many anthropomorphic mascots that followed the wake of Sonic's success. Despite what you may think, Aero was actually pretty cool! No really! He's a bat, that works as an acrobat! How is that not awesome!? 

It helped the the plot was simple (save the circus), the levels were absolutely massive and well-designed, taking full advantage of tight platforming controls. Aero has some success with a sequel and a spin-off (Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel). These days, Aero is available on the Virtual Console but is otherwise forgotten in the dustbin of 90's platformers. 

9) Pandemonium - Playstation 1

Pandemonium was a cool platformer with a strange, Medieval dream-world type of aesthetic to it that also gained good marks from critics of the time for the top-notch character design of the two leads. In fact, the game was a bit of a hit and warranted a sequel that resulted in....

.....a 90's makeover! 

The whole sequel suffered from a horrible case of "Trying-to-hard-itis". Which is a shame, as the first game is really good and worth your time to hunt down for a snapshot of platforming at the dawn of the CD era. 

8) Chuck Rock - Genesis 

EXTREEEEME CAAAAVVVEEEEMANNNN!!!!! 

If you remembered Chuck Rock, and the sequel, Chuck Rock 2: Son of Chuck before reading this, then congratulations, you've made the same sort of poor life choices as I have. Chuck Rock is a perfectly competent platformer that features dinosaurs offering their assistance to Chuck as he rescues his girl from evil caveman Gary Gritter. While you can't tell from this cover art, Chuck Rock was a rock'n'roll caveman with ATTITUDE. So much attitude, that he actually became a company mascot! 

What company? Well maybe you've heard of Core Design. No? Well then I'm sure you heard of the mascot that replaced Chuck, a British character by the name of Lara Croft. 

7) Radical Rex - SNES

What better way to follow up a caveman with attitude, then with a DINOSAUR THAT LOVES TO SHRED!? Can you feel the focus group testing that resulted in Radical Rex? Are you snickering a little that this was published by Activision? Yeah, they made some poor choices in life before Call of Duty helped make them a very, very rich company. 

As with most video game dinosaurs, Rex can not only shred but he also breathes fire. I'm okay with a skateboarding, radical T-Rex but breathing fire? That is just too far. I question the level of research that went into designing this game. 

As always, for the rest of the list, hit the jump and make sure to bust out a 720 while you do it! 

Daily Ten: Reader's Choices For Awesome Openings

Last week after the Daily Ten of Awesome Video Game Openings went up, I immediately got comments from readers that I missed some great ones. Which is true, there's so many awesome things out in the world that it's impossible to capture them all in just one list. Presented here is the Reader's Choices for Awesome Openings, in no set order:

10) Soul Edge - Playstation 1

9) Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 1 - Playstation 1

8) Borderlands 1 + 2 (Xbox 360, Playstation 3)

7) Suikoden II

Hit the jump for the rest!

Daily Ten: Regrettable Superheroes

That whole "librarian by day" part of my bio is true. No matter what gamertag I'm under at the moment (NuPhoenixX/Dog of Thunder), I love books, I love reading, I love knowledge. While giving a tour of the library I work at to a student yesterday, I happened to see a book on the shelves that I just had to check out:

The League of Regrettable Superheroes by Jon Morris.

How could I possibly resist!?

Join me as I look at some of the Regrettable Superheroes selected by Jon Morris, and just what makes them so....regrettable.

10) Doctor Vampire 

Doctor Vampire. He's a doctor that fights vampires. This is a thing that happened. 

Pre-dates Dr. Acula from Scrubs by 50 years, so he's got that going for him, which is nice. 

9) Speed Centaur

The only survivor of an earthquake that devastaed his home city in the Arctic Circle, Speed Centaur is taken in by a friendly trapper. Once he's old enough, Speed Centaur moves to the City of Rackets, where he uses his mighty strength, lightning speed, flight and an ability to disguise himself as a regular horse. Speed Centaur's secret headquarters, in a museum on Nob Nose Mountain, includes a portal to a medieval kingdom where Speed Centaur reigns as a jousting champion. 

I was unable to find any explanation for why he is suplexing a horse. 

8) Fatman, the Human Flying Saucer

Created in 1967, Fatman is possibly the result of copious amounts of drugs. Amazingly, C.C. Beck and Otto Binder, two of the men behind the creation of Captain Marvel (or SHAZAM~!), are also the creators of Van Crawford, a fat guy that happens to be nearby when a spaceship crashes and thus gains the power to transform into a UFO. 

I am just as shocked as you that his power is NOT being fat. In fact his main power is being a world-class athlete! Turns out the athletic fat guy thing was done way before Bob's bulk destroyed the Tekken competitive scene. Who knew? 

7) Brother Power, The Geek 

Created in 1968 by Joe Simon, the same Joe Simon that made Captain America famous, Brother Power is a mannequin brought to life when a hippie's wet clothes are placed on the mannequin which is then struck by lightning! The mannequin is dubbed Brother Power by the hippies and he soon goes to live with his lazy, slacker buddies. Unlike the hippies though, Brother Power has ambition and soon starts running for Congress! While campaigning, Brother Power has time to foil the evil Lord Sliderule, before being shot into space on a rocket. The whole series lasted two issues. 

I swear none of that is made up and Jon Morris' book is amazing. 

Hit the jump for the rest of the Regrettable Superheroes. 

Daily Ten: Awesome Video Game Cinematic Openings

A cinematic opening is something of a lost art these days. I'm not talking about the actual opening segment of a game, in which case The Saboteur is one of the best, but rather the movie that plays when you first insert a disc, leave the main menu on the screen for awhile, or first press the 'play' button. Usually these are done in an anime style with some sort of J-Pop music playing over scenes that either have nothing to do with the game or involve characters wistfully looking into the middle distance.

I'm a complete sucker for these. If I missed any good ones, just let me know in the comments, and I'll definitely check it out.

10) Lunar Silver Star Story Complete - PlayStation 

First off, how may times can they repackage Lunar Silver Star Story? Sega CD, Playstation, iOS, Gameboy Advance, probably some other formats I'm missing. I'd be more accepting of the re-releases if Lunar Eternal Blue needed more then just the two releases. Regardless, the opening for Lunar Silver Star Story is exactly what I'm talking about with the lost art of the opening cinematic. 

Random shots of characters in the game? Check. 

Possibly poorly translated J-Pop song? Check. 

Wistful stares into the middle distance? Check. 

Does it get you PUMPED UP TO PLAY THE GAME!? CHECK~! 

9) Chrono Cross - PlayStation

The PlayStation was clearly the Golden Age of the opening cinematic. Witness Chrono Cross, a game best known for "not being Chrono Trigger", and the GLORIOUS intro. Starts off gentle with text that hints at some large, epic destiny and then launches into the anime! CG-style, as that was the style of the time, but it's still anime!

Random shots of characters in the game? Check.

Possibly poorly translated J-Pop song? Check.

Wistful stares into the middle distance? Check. 

Does it get you PUMPED UP TO PLAY THE GAME!? Sort of. 

It did remind me of the not-Harley Quinn jester though, so that's something. 

8) Ninja Gaiden 3 - NES

The worst of the original Ninja Gaiden trilogy is still a really good game. The original was actually the first use of a cinematic opening, but it was the third entry in the series that pushed the envelope. Irene Lew, your intrepid sidekick in the previous two games, is killed by someone that looks exactly like Dead or Alive combatant, Ryu Hayabusa. 

Random shots of characters in the game? Nope, clearly setting up story.

Possbily poorly translated J-Pop song? Nope, just some killer MIDI tunes. 

Wistful stares into the middle distance? Check. 

Does it get you PUMPED UP TO PLAY THE GAME!? Only if you scream "MENDOZA!" at the sight of Irene falling off of the cliff. 

Hit the jump for the rest of the Daily Ten! 

Daily Ten: Awesome Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Models

In honor of last night's Total War: Warhammer stream, I thought I'd devote today's list to some of the awesome Age of Sigmar/Warhammer Fantasy models that are out there. Warhammer Fantasy, as a game system, stopped getting support from Games Workshop about two years ago when it was transformed into the Age of Sigmar. Gone are the movement trays and massive blocks of infantry. Instead, we have unit cards, streamlined stats and gameplay that's more on the level of a skirmish. That's not to say that Age of Sigmar is a bad game, it's actually really cool and keeps growing after the initial stumbles out of the gate.

This time out there's not really a ranking as any of these models would be excellent showpieces for a tabletop army. Let's hit the list!

Daily Ten: Games That Turned Out To Be Disappointing

Yesterday I managed to stay positive with games that turned out to be much better then I had expected, well, today is the opposite: Games That Turned Out To Be Disappointing. There's some games that for one reason or another, get built up and turn out to be either not exactly what we expected or just a complete flaming turd.

For the sake of argument, I'm sticking to games from previous generations, and I also never played No Man's Sky.

HIT THE DISAPPOINTMENT~!

Daily Ten: Games That Turned Out To Actually Be Good

Sometimes a game can surprise us. Back in Ye Olden Times, every Friday my parents would take my brother and I to the local gaming store to rent one game each. Now, when you're 8, this is the single most important decision of your week. What if you pick up a crappy game!? You're stuck with it until the next magical weekend when you can pick up something else.

For every time you grab Spider-Man and X-Men: Arcade's Revenge, which is a horrible game that will be covered later, you get a game that defies all expectations. For the inaugural Top Ten list here on Positive Nerdery, we're going upbeat by running down my personal Top Ten Games That Turned Out To Actually Be Good!