Bumpy Trot/Bumpy Trot impressions!

Locit · Post by **Locit** » Mon May 29, 2006 9:57 pm

I just picked up Bumpy Trot (Bumpy Trot to those in the know) and it's really very fun! As far as gameplay goes it can be likened to a very, very friendly Grand Theft Auto. It has that sandbox kind of gameplay reminiscent of GTA, but the overall world setting is reminiscent of an old fashioned RPG, with a little city, a port city, a big city, a lake area, a desert region, a beach region, etc, etc. It really has an atmosphere of Hayao Miyazaki throughout, with technology being really creaky and old fashioned but way cooler than whatever we've got, because it uses steam power.

The story is actually pretty fun because you've got amnesia (in a good way!) and can make it up as you go along. For instance, as the game progressed I 'figured out' that my character used to be a 'pimping, righteous fisherman's son' before the amnesia inducing accident. The story is actually pretty fun to follow, and the love interest choices are different enough to warrant a second playthrough, along with the different ways to play your character (good, bad, greedy). Additionally, the translation is really top-notch. I was surprised by how much voice was in the game's manual alone, and all of the voice actors do a decent job of portraying their respective characters. For those that care the English VA of Shinji Ikari from Evangelion plays Vanilla Bean, the protagonist, and he does a pretty damn good job of it. He's really upbeat if you play the good path, which is a nice change from masturbating to comatose girls and hating himself.

The gameplay itself is fairly normal while just walking around on foot, but when you enter your trotmobile it becomes something along the lines of Katamari Damacy meets Virtual On. It's actually pretty intuitive, and after about ten minutes I was dashing with the best of them. I might've missed it, doing a 180 always comes as a hassle when trying to track a sporadically moving enemy. A big draw of the game (for me at least) are the customization options. Legs, arms (and weapons), back attachments, main chassis, and even sunroofs are customizable, with another option for primary and secondary colors on you trot, as well as liscense plates which are more like customizable pictures for public display around the crotchital area of your mech than anything. So, yeah, if you really want to you can draw a penis there and chuckle your little head off at the anatomical correctness of it all.

Delving into career paths, you can be: a farmer, a taxi, an archaeologist (fat lootz!), and an arena battler, among others. Money can be spent on anything from food (you get hungry) to fuel (you run out) to a pretty pink dress that seemingly doesn't do a damn thing for your love life at least where I am right now anyways. Dammit.

Overall, definitely worth the forty-odd dollars I paid for it, so I thought you all ought to know. Go out and buy it!

Zeta · Post by **Zeta** » Tue May 30, 2006 4:36 am

I was with you till the "you get hungry" part, I've never played a good RPG where that happened . . . so now I'm wary.

Menander · Post by **Menander** » Tue May 30, 2006 7:41 am

The hunger thing is really inconsequential. If you get hungry, you walk slower. If you're piloting your robot at the moment it doesn't even matter how hungry you are. Also, food is really cheap and doesn't spoil. I've only had to stock up once or twice and I've played the game for at least eight hours.

It's a really good game! The Megaman Legends 3 comparisons flying about are somewhat accurate, especially when you get to the dungeon sections.

This is one of the most lovingly translated games I've ever played. The little jokes in the manual are great.

Baba O'Reily · Post by **Baba O'Reily** » Tue May 30, 2006 12:33 pm

Wow, I've got to check this out.

I've always dug the sandbox-style of gaming, and a fantasy element would be refreshing.

j-man · Post by **j-man** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:12 pm

I absolutely adore anything steam powered. It's kind of like my on-switch. What platform is this game for? It piques my curiosity in oh so delicious a manner.

Yes, indeed.

WhoopA · Post by **WhoopA** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:56 pm

PS2 if I heard correctly. I have other on switches and I have been recommended this game for those reasons... but what are they? That I'll let you wonder about.

Zarathustra · Post by **Zarathustra** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 11:32 am

How I hate you, Locit. You say "Hayao Miyazaki", "Grand Theft Auto", "Katamari Damacy", "Virtual On", and it's even a PS2 title. Now I must go and buy this game.

All because of you!!! ||(

Baba O'Reily · Post by **Baba O'Reily** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 12:27 pm

Zarathustra wrote:||(

What in the fuck is that supposed to be? Is that LeVar Burton, enduring another depressing convention? Is it Cyclops of X-Men, remembering how much everyone hates him?

jenkins · Post by **jenkins** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 12:36 pm

Star Trek! Huzzah!

Sadly, I still haven't watched any of the acted X-Men movies. I suck.

Post by **Delphine** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 8:15 pm

...they're <i>comic books</i> you know.

Zeta · Post by **Zeta** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 9:03 pm

I played the demo and loved it, now I want it to be mine.

Star Trek! Huzzah!

Sadly, I still haven't watched any of the acted X-Men movies. I suck.

Scary as it seems, there was an actual, certified, Star Trek/X-men crossover novel released in the 90s.

Wooduck51 · Post by **Wooduck51** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 9:14 pm

Zeta wrote:I played the demo and loved it, now I want it to be mine.
Scary as it seems, there was an actual, certified, Star Trek/X-men crossover novel released in the 90s.

What the?......what was it called?

Zeta · Post by **Zeta** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 10:28 pm

From Wikipedia:
Star Trek crossovers

In two instances, members of the X-Men have encountered characters from the fictional Star Trek universe.

In the first, the X-Men encountered the U.S.S. Enterprise crew captained by James T. Kirk, as featured in the original Star Trek series.

In 1998, a crossover special entitled Second Contact depicted a meeting between the X-Men of the time and the crew of the Enterprise-E from the film Star Trek: First Contact. The Enterprise-E crew had been attempting to return to their own time period immediately following the events of the film (in which they had traveled to the year 2063 in their reality), and somehow crossed over into the X-Men's reality and time period instead. The story in this special led into a crossover novel published by Pocket Books entitled Planet X, in which the X-Men were drawn into the Star Trek universe at a period of time which was, from the Enterprise-E crew's perspective, a short time after the events of Second Contact, but from the X-Men's perspective almost immediately followed the comic story. Coincidentally, the cover of this novel featured both Charles Xavier and Jean-Luc Picard; Picard was portrayed by Patrick Stewart, who would play the role of Xavier five years later in the X-Men feature films.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/067101 ... e&n=283155

They're lucky the unverse didn't implode when Xavier and Picard met.

Omni Hunter · Post by **Omni Hunter** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 6:44 am

My mind has imploded though, X-Men, Star Trek, Steambots?

Zarathustra · Post by **Zarathustra** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 6:51 am

Baba O'Reily wrote:
Zarathustra wrote:||(
What in the fuck is that supposed to be? Is that LeVar Burton, enduring another depressing convention? Is it Cyclops of X-Men, remembering how much everyone hates him?

Don't know, just wrote something utterly senseless.

jenkins wrote:Star Trek! Huzzah!

Sadly, I still haven't watched any of the acted X-Men movies. I suck.

Not so. In fact, you're a lucky guy.

Zeta wrote:Scary as it seems, there was an actual, certified, Star Trek/X-men crossover novel released in the 90s.

... There was a Star Trek/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles one, also (only in action figures as far as I know at least).
Fucked times the 90's were, indeed Ã‚Â¬_Ã‚Â¬

Post by **G.Silver** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:49 am

Grant · Post by **Grant** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 11:06 am

What a weird sound effect. "Pinch!"

Brazillian Cara · Post by **Brazillian Cara** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 6:58 pm

This is the greatest thing I saw in this entire minute.

Zarathustra · Post by **Zarathustra** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 11:30 pm

Me too. Spock rox, Wolv sux.

Wooduck51 · Post by **Wooduck51** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 5:22 pm

I posted that picture somewhere else and some one countered with this:http://www.alteringtime.com/features/misc/?p=baggins. Though my opinion of the awesomeness of Spock did not change, my opinion of Mr. Nimoy was slightly altered.

Brazillian Cara · Post by **Brazillian Cara** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 7:16 pm

Yeah, I've heard of that around the game's release. And I'm not going to risk hearing it.

Wooduck51 · Post by **Wooduck51** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 7:48 pm

Brazillian Cara wrote:Yeah, I've heard of that around the game's release. And I'm not going to risk hearing it.

What game? it's a Nimoy music video.

Brazillian Cara · Post by **Brazillian Cara** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 11:35 am

That Ballad of Bilbo Baggins was used in the "The Hobbit" game. That, or I'm really confusing one thing with another.

Locit · Post by **Locit** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 11:42 am

Hey, seeing as this thread isn't really staying on topic anyways, has anyone here played Popolocrois for the PSP? I just picked it up and am having a pretty good time with it, and vaguely remember someone posting about it at the GHZ before.

Light Of Illusion · Post by **Light Of Illusion** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 5:04 pm

Brazillian Cara wrote:This is the greatest thing I saw in this entire minute.

Agreed. "I trust I have made my point." I love how in comic books, they put things in bold all the time so it loses effect almost completely.