GBA GCN XBOX PS2 PSX PSP

home | games | contact | links | top reviews

Game Party!

Long ago, during the beautiful, stress free summer vacations of old, and on every single weekend, all of us friends would get together to play games. Those were the glory days of games ranging from the original Super Mario Bros. all the way through Star Fox and past! I cannot remember at exactly what age we stopped doing this and instead began spending every night at the bar, but then I don't remember much from that time at all.

Now here we are a few years later and we have long since tired of the bar and respective violence and cash draining associated with it. Once again as the Wheel of Time spins, we find ourselves getting together once again. And what to do on our get togethers? Why play games of course!

It was with great delight then that my buddy called me up last week and we planned a game party for the weekend. Now granted, we never call it a "game party" as such, we just sort of get together, rent a few games and drink a lot of booze.

So it was that we made it over to our local Video Game Trader and managed to snap up a copy of Halo 2 and Mortal Kombat Deception. We attempted, with no success, to procur a copy of Metal Gear Solid 3 and GTA San Andrea but the former wasn't available for rental yet and the latter was most likely rented out the second it hit the shelves.

For our booze of preference, we picked the always faithful Kokanee twelve pack. It should have done us fine, but over the course of the night others joined us, the ladies came back from their makeup appointment (One thing about getting married, the ladies get their makeup done not once, not twice, but thrice!) and we were once again in need of booze. And food.

A quick jaunt over to Boston Pizza settled both cravings handily. Or it should have. After scarfing down a Ciabatta Chicken Sandwich (Excellent!) and draining my third of a team pitcher (basically a bath tub of beer), my buddy came up with an excellent, yet deadly idea. Why not try out those old 2 litre cooler bottles we used to drink when we were 17? Being a tad inebriated, we all heartily agreed.

Now, some would say that one's video game skills should decline after drinking your face off as one's motor skills gradually leave them. Strangely enough, ours seemed to improve. We worked our way handily through the "Konquest" mode of MK Deception and gunned each other down left, right and center in Halo 2.

While both games are pretty fun, I found they both suffered from a few flaws. First off Mortal Kombat. While kicking each other's teeth in was rather fun, in order to get a full line-up of fighters, you have to slog through the "Konquest" mode. Basically it is a fighting game "RPG" filled to the brim with mindless fetch quests and dialogue, boring, predictable tutorials and voice acting up to par with the original Shadow Hearts (I.E. worst.voice-acting.evar!). This can naturally make for a boring experience since only one person can play and watching someone play it isn't exactly what I would call good fun.

Halo 2 on the other hand was kind of a let-down. I realize I didn't play even a shred of what could be played, but to me it seemed simply like the first Halo but with a few new features. Granted I didn't play it online and only 2 of us were playing multi-player, but none of us really got into it. Strangely enough however, we fired up Karaoke Revolution 2 and everyone had a blast with it!

So what is the moral of this story? Perhaps it is that you WILL face a hangover from hell by mixing your liquors. Perhaps it is that Halo simply hasn't evolved enough for me to appreciate it or perhaps I don't posess the necessary tools to fully enjoy it (I.E. a network adapter, 4 controllers, etc.). Or perhaps it is that RPG modes do not belong in fighting games. No matter how you put it, I still love video game parties and I can't wait for the next one!

PS - My apologies for no pictures, my brother didn't bring his digital cam and by the time I realized I wanted it I was too plowed to even think about driving to get it. Here are some screens instead!

Halo 2 Screens (Courtesy of 1up)