411 Retro Review: Blue Stinger (DC)
Posted by Steve McHugh on 09.05.2006
It's almost porn level acting.
Hello and welcome to the new retro review column. It's exactly the same as the old one except it'll actually be out every 2 weeks as opposed to ‘whenever it's done, which makes my life easier.
So has anything exciting happened in the last few weeks? Umm… no not really. Oh I went to watch Snakes on a Plane and if you haven't seen it go now and watch it. It really is a big dumb action film and its great.
Also I finally got to watch TNA's Hard Justice PPV. I know this isn't the wrestling part of the site but it was a great PPV (apart from the end match) and I think TNA should feel pretty good about the company's direction (apart form JJ). Roll on a second Impact hour.
Oh the gaming front I read a great piece where Sony said they would have 8 million PS3's brought by next March and would take the 1st place from Microsoft. To this I say. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. Sony need to stop saying ridiculous things and concentrate on people actually wanting to buy a machine that costs more then people may be willing to spend.
Also Enchant Arm comes out on Friday and I'm quite excited, not too excited but I have hope that it won't suck. And also Dead Rising comes out on Friday too. Only 5 weeks after its US release… must not complain about this… so hard to keep mouth shut. Now that's a game I'm really looking forward to. Killing Zombies with a large parasol, how can it not be great?
Also I heard today that Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter was killed in Australia. I just want to say that I personally thought the guy was entertaining and he genuinely seemed to love what he did and made did a lot of good to help with conservation. TV is a duller place without him, my thoughts are with his family.
So on we march with this columns review of Blue Stinger. This is actually quite a famous game but not for its actual game play. You see the Dreamcast was released in September 1999. This game was released 9 days earlier then the machine. Yes that's right this game was available to buy over a week before the machine was actually available to play it on. Some great marketing there guys.
Okay plot wise this isn't exactly anything epic but it is a little more interesting then the usual gaming survival horror. Millions of years ago an asteroid crashed on Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs; over time this asteroid formed a small island used to conduct experiments. Now a new asteroid is coming to hit Earth at the exact same spot and all kinds of weird stuff starts to happen. You play as one of two characters (you can switch between them at any time) and try to figure out what is going on. It's pretty much the Mega Summer Blockbuster type material but and if you treat it as such then it's a perfectly good plot.
Now back in the day the reviews for the game were all pretty much along the same line of, ‘its okay but it has big problems with the gameplay that detract from the experience.' So let's see how it holds up today.
The bosses are very impressive.
Graphics
Graphically back when this came out it was really impressive. The environments are in 3D which, back in 1999 was a rarity and mostly still look good today. The enemies also look freakish enough to be impressive and everything moves nicely. This is especially evident with bosses who are awesome to look at and some are genuinely interesting. The giant crab on a car springs to mind.
The character models of playable characters also look really stupid when moving and seem to mince around in a very unnatural way. It's even worse when they get hit and it all looks very…wrong. It's odd because the monsters move okay so I'm confused why they had the playable characters move like some bizarre marionette.
7/10
Ah the old crotch thrust.
Gameplay
And here comes the biggest complaint. The camera. Oh Lord the camera is awful. Really really awful, as in you can't see what is actually happening half the time awful. It follows behind your character much like Tomb Raider but it constantly gets stuck when you walk through a door or get too close to a wall so all you can see is the top of the characters head. The original Japanese game had a camera system similar to Resident Evil with a static camera, this was removed and I'm at a loss to think just how bad it must have been to have them change it to this.
In fact when you die, and you will, it's normally because you can't actually see what's going on rather then a lack of gaming ability. This makes for a really frustrating and unfair gaming experience and you will throw your controller out a window if you're not careful.
Apart from the nightmarish camera the game has some very good points. The puzzles, whilst easy, are always impressive and don't get annoying as some of the resident evil key puzzles.
Also the weapons in the game are fantastic and each one feels and looks different enough to impress. Weapons and health are also easy to obtain at various vending machines which are all over the place so you'll never run out of ammo for long. You can get food to heal yourself here too as long as you have enough money, which is earned from killing the walkers (big things with 4 arms) and the re-spawn so you can always find money.
The game also has a nice element in being able to swap between the two main characters at any time. Elliot has fewer weapons but can fight hand to hand whilst Dogs has most of the cool guns but can defend attacks. To be honest you'll mostly just stick with one character and only swap on occasion but it's a nice idea and it does work well.
6/10
Ummm sparkly
Sound
The musical score in this game is superb and really helps set the tone for the game. The voice acting is horrific. Easily as bad as the camera and you'll often see characters lips move but have to wait five or so seconds before they say anything. And the delivery of lines is flatter then anything I've ever heard, it's like the director asked them to remove all traces of emotion from everything they said. The only thing is that is so very bad that you'll laugh your ass off when you start to hear it.
3 for voice acting 8 for the score so say 6/10
Lasting Appeal
The game takes about 10 hours to play though first time. You do get extras if you finish under 5 or 3 hours which is certainly a reason to go back and play again. If you can get over the camera and dodgy acting.
6/10
Fun Factor
Okay I know the camera and acting are awful and that some of the plot makes no sense at all but even so this is a fun game. As bad as some plot parts are it's easily the main reason to keep playing because it's so enjoyable even with its obvious plot twists. Is big dumb fun.
7/10
Is it worth buying?
Well I got it for about $4 and that's well worth it for a few hours of fun. But and this is a big but. If annoying voices and awful camera controls annoy you then stay away as you will hate this game.
It's not worth buying a machine for but if you have a Dreamcast and you see it cheap pick it up and give it a go. You never know you might like it.
Overall its better then a 6 but not as good as a 7 so lets say – 6.5/10
So a pretty good game but hardly showing the quality the machine was capable off. If you have any questions or comments that please send me an e-mail and next week I'll be reviewing Sega Smash Pack
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