The GHZ Forum

Christmas is just around the corner folks, and unless your Jewish (or any other religion that doesn't believe in Christmas) you can enjoy the family, the turkey and, of course, the presents. Anyways, I was wondering what you guys thought of some of the games I'm thinking of getting- any suggestions and (topic-related) comments would be appreciated.

GCN
Phantasy Star Online and Adapter
Paper Mario
Donkey Konga
(Thinking of Twin Snakes)

PS2
Sly Racoon
Klonoa 2

GBA
Mega Man Zero 2
The new Legend of Zelda game

I have some of the good GCN games (Sunshine, Double Dash, Prime, Wind Waker, the Sonics and Smash Bros). My PS2 collection is laughable. Don't suggest Prime 2 becuase I just learned that I don't like FPS after I bought the first game.

Firsthand opinion: Donkey Konga is fucking sweet. I've heard good things about Paper Mario and LoZ:Minish Cap, and Twin Snakes isn't too bad. I got bored of PSO in 2001 personally, but still, good Christmas collection. I'm thinking of asking for Paper Mario myself.

Klonoa 2 is fucking awesome if you can find it. Sly Cooper isn't, and I await the ferocious battle with Gibbon for that comment.

If you don't have Ico for your PS2, buy that. Same with Katamari Damacy. Metal Gear Solid 3 comes out next week. Or this week, whatever.

Don't bother with PSO on the Cube. It's really not worth it these days, especially on the Cube where you'll have to splash out on an network adapter you won't use ever again after 2 weeks. Donkey Konga is good, but not worth paying... what, $50 for? $60? I feel like I got my money's worth out of mine, but only because I paid £10 for it.

Animal Crossing will last you a while.

smiths32 wrote:and unless your Jewish (or any other religion that doesn't believe in Christmas) you can enjoy the family, the turkey and, of course, the presents.

Because we all know non-Christians are incapable of enjoying any of those things.

Metroid Prime is not a good representation of a FPS. However if you didn't like the first one you probably won't like the second one.

Psxphile wrote:

smiths32 wrote:and unless your Jewish (or any other religion that doesn't believe in Christmas) you can enjoy the family, the turkey and, of course, the presents.

Because we all know non-Christians are incapable of enjoying any of those things.

Infidels don't deserve such things anyway.

Christmas is commercial at this point.
Yay for universal marketing!

The only three of those I've played are PSO, Klonoa, and Sly. PSO might be worth investigating if you've never played it before, but it really is no longer worth the price you'll end up paying for it.

Klonoa 2 and Sly are both excellent. I'd go with Sly over Klonoa, as it's the less conventional of the two. (You may disregard Dache's advice, he probably didn't play beyond level 1-2. He also has a vagina.) That's the original Sly I'm talking about, though, the sequel's a huge disappointment.

Before you even think about any of those, though, you absolutely need Ico and Katamari Damacy, both of which can be had for $20 or less, so there's simply no excuse to not own them.

smiths32 wrote:Christmas is just around the corner folks, and unless your Jewish (or any other religion that doesn't believe in Christmas)

We have not heard of Chanukah, then?

Also, it's you're, not your.

Green Gibbon! wrote:Before you even think about any of those, though, you absolutely need Ico and Katamari Damacy, both of which can be had for $20 or less, so there's simply no excuse to not own them.

I second AND third that.

Psxphile wrote:Because we all know non-Christians are incapable of enjoying any of those things.

As soon as I read the first word of this thread, I knew a post like this was coming.

I'm psychic!

I think I'm getting KOTOR and KOTOR 2. I'll probably get MA2 shortly after as well.

Green Gibbon! wrote:(You may disregard Dache's advice, he probably didn't play beyond level 1-2. He also has a vagina.)

Nah, it was at least the 3rd area, or whatever, I think. It was a long time since I played it now, but since a lot of people were raving about it, I gave it a good go in the vague hope I'd eventually start to like it.

Dude, the desert casino area was sublime.

I... I thought you made a post earlier saying that you liked Sly 2?

Green Gibbon! wrote:Dude, the desert casino area was sublime.

Mehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I haven't played Sly. All I know is that it has the most hideous character design ever, ever.

Yeah, that was one of the reasons (of quite a few) I was put off. The sniping-cannon minigame with the hideous pink hippo made me want to die.

Thanks for the advice guys, and sorry for the awful grammer (I'm a failing Higher English pupil). I think that I wont bother with PSO, since it will cost me around £60 for the whole shibang- a game you all say is sub-par, and a device that has one use, and one use only (I know it has others but I dont think anyone is going to bother with that LAN shit). Now excuse my immerse ignorance, but what the hell is Katmari Damacy and Ico? I know I've heard you lot jabbering about them before, but I can't say I've ever bohered to listen. I think I'm pretty definate on Sly and Klonoa, since the original Klonoa on PS1 ruled, and I enjoyed playing Sly one time in Toys R us.

In other news, is "Star Ocean: Till the end of time" worth getting?

Edit: Ico seems to cost a bombshell new but maybe I could get it used if it's that good. Was a PAL Katamari Damacy released? Cause I sure as hell can't find it on the net.

The search function is your friend. I'll admit that GG!'s penchant for wacky subject headings doesn't make it easy though.

<a href="http://www.nathantsui.com/ghzforum/view ... ">Katamari Damacy</a>
Also, my <a href="http://www.gamiko.com/showthread.php?t= ... mpressions at Gamiko</a>, where for some reason I forgot to mention that it has the best soundtrack ever.

<a href="http://www.nathantsui.com/ghzforum/view ... =427">Star Ocean</a>

I didn't find anything for Ico. Just get it... or look on another site.

I thought you made a post earlier saying that you liked Sly 2?

My initial impressions were okay, but if you read further down the same thread (after I'd played further in), I reversed that opinion.

All I know is that it has the most hideous character design ever, ever.

Where are you getting off? Sly's awesome with his retro Saturday morning cartoon style. If you want to talk about hideous character design, you must be thinking of Jak & Daxter or Ratchet and Clank.

The sniping mini-games sucked, and they interrupted the overall flow, but it didn't detract from the brilliance of the platforming stages. Hey Smiths, don't let these lesbian jew Brits discourage you from picking up such a phenomenal game. In addition to the usual running/ jumping/slashing routine, you've got this brilliant "sneak" button that lets you interact with the environment in a number of ways. You're climbing all over pipes and neon signs, running along ropes, slinking and swinging on chandeliers, hopping along spires, etc, and it's all done with a single button, so it flows beautifully.

Of course Popcorn hasn't played it at all and Dache didn't even get halfway through, and he'd already decided he wasn't going to like it before he even started it. Hell, I'd decided the same thing... when I first encountered it at E3 a few years ago, I scoffed in disgust and didn't even try it. The difference between me and Dache, evidently, is that I was man enough to admit I was mistaken. And I'm the only one who actually finished the game, plus I have testicles, unlike these rather unjustly opinionated naysayers.

This is going to get interesting.

But yeah, you do need to get Ico and Katamari Damacy before you can even justifiably consider anything else. There's a topic called "Sex Ed with Ico" which is the last time we discussed the game in any detail, though I don't think there's much technical information on exactly why it's so awesome. There's also a topic on Katamari called "Fatal Attraction", but again, it's pretty much just all of us creaming our pants over how awesome the game is. I've been meaning to write up a technical review explaining exactly why the game is so amazing, but I've never got around to it partially because gushing reviews are not as fun to write or entertaining to read as reviews of any other nature. But you need it, I think it's the one game we've ever discussed that everybody here agrees is phenomenal, which means there's something cosmic happening with it.


The new Star Ocean is exactly like the previous ones... some people love it, some people hate it. Personally, I'm one of those people who hate it, as was the case with the previous Star Ocean games. (I have a fairly thorough review which Silver has linked to, but you might want to borrow it from somebody or something and try it for yourself.

Sorry to interupt your dispute, but you wouldn't mind telling me if I should or should not get a used Ico for £40, taht's about $72 and whether Katamari Damacy is availiable in PAL format or not. If Star Ocean's that bad, maybe I'll skip it, those dungeons don't sound very promising...

Edit: Forget what I just said, I forgot to refresh

Oh, bollocks, yeah, you're in PAL Land with us. No, no PAL Katamari Damacy here. Namco thinks we're too cool for it.

Ico is readily available though, and in fact, we got the best version. The <a href=http://www.i-c-o.net/>official site</a> is all Japanese and I can't find any decent fanpages. Your best bet to get it is either your local Game or similar's second hand bin, but if you can get one of the <a href=http://search.ebay.co.uk/ico_W0QQmaxrec ... Z1>limited edition copies</a> then all the better. Poke around <a href=http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/dat ... ml>this</a> if you need to, but you really shouldn't need to. Just buy it. Please.

I just want to say that I recently purchased Katamari Damacy and a used Ico, both of which kick major ass. Katamari Damacy was short but sweet, and Ico is actually pretty hard (or do I just suck?) but also very sweet. I just can't wait for Wanda and the Coloseuss. I actually thought Star Ocean wasn't THAT bad of a game, but I'm an RPG whore so I would probably like it anyway. If you're still unsure, just rent the game or something and see if you like it.