Sunday Roundup: 2/24/13

It’s Tony Hawk with Disney characters! Literally. The game was published by Activision, the same company behind the Birdman’s series, and Disney’s Extreme Skate Adventure actually uses the same engine as Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 on the PS2! Bet you didn’t know that! Because I sure didn’t. I’m actually thinking of playing this game right after I finish this article…

The original Pipe Dream is a classic. I assume you’re a plumber in that game, because the entire concept is that you have to rearrange different pipes to form a circuit so the water/ooze doesn’t leak out, thus ending a level. Hey, if you’re a tennis player in Pong you’re a plumber in Pipe Dream. Anyway, the comical pipe characters on the cover of this game leads me to believe you play as him, I’ll call him Pipey, as he goes on some tube-filled, wacky adventure. Hopefully in space.

Hopefully you’ve had the joy of playing this game in the arcade, where it came with a huge cabinet that housed not only the game but a massive sniper rifle controller! The best part about the game (and really the only good part) was that you could actually look down the scope of the big gun and see a zoomed in targeting reticule! It was like you were really sniping bitches! If you were lame you could also just look on the screen and see the zoomed in look, but then what’s the point? Speaking of which, what’s the point of this game if you can’t use the big sniper rifle controller? That’s probably why this was a dollar, and thus free from the Buy 5 Get 6th free deal.

Even if you don’t fancy yourself a simulation game fan, you have to play Sim City 2000. Even the original Sim City will suffice. The sublime gameplay of creating a city out in the middle of no where, watching it thrive, then laughing manically as you call forth a Godzilla like creature to destroy it all is something every game needs to enjoy. Hopefully the upcoming reboot will keep this all intact.

The greatest video game puzzle game ever made received quite a few ports and enhanced remakes over the past thirty years. But no matter what the new games did to alter the core gameplay, they always made the smart choice of including a faithful port of the original game. That way there’s always some redeeming factor for the game if the new version sucks! The Next Tetris doesn’t do much to the tested formula other than put it all in 3D, but so long as I can play Tetris I don’t mind.

As much of an icon Lara Croft is, I have yet to play a Tomb Raider game for longer than 10 minutes. It’s not that I haven’t had the opportunity, I just never really got into the series. Perhaps I should look back into the games, seeing as I’ve played and loved the Uncharted series, which I have to assume is somewhat similar.