Well, we went from one week of amazing games to a week of…well, practically nothing. I was expecting a few titles in my mailbox this week, but sadly, didn’t get a thing. Thankfully, Xbox Live Arcade didn’t let me down, and I’ve been playing the crap out of some old classics, while looking forward to the next coming weeks full of the finest games the holiday season will offer, beginning with next week’s release of SCARFACE. Sadly, I’ll be out of town next week, so my review of the game (and my subsequent interview with one of the voice actors, a certain Mr. Jason Mewes) will have to be postponned. Until then, however, let’s take a look at some old school fun, recently released on Xbox Live Arcade on 360.

DOOM

This week on Live, we saw one of my favorite games released, the OG of FPS’, DOOM. The classic PC shooter is back, featuring 4 player deathmatches and 2 player co-op, as well as fancy new upgrades like a remixed soundtrack in 5.1 digital surround sound and redone in High Def…not that you’d really notice.

The game retains all the finest moments from the classic shooter, finally adding dual analog control, as well as multiplayer on either Xbox live or splitscreen (two things that were sadly missing from the titles release with the various versions of DOOM 3 on regular Xbox). Also included is co-op, where two friends can battle the hordes of hell together through the main game’s story mode.

Everything is just as you remember it, which is both a good and a bad thing. While all the secrets and tricks have stayed, so have the muddy graphics. No amount of high def can smooth over those grainy walls. And while overall there is a new feeling of smoothness, it still looks like 1993. It plays like it too, with still no option to aim up or down, just hoping your random wild shots will hit those demons on the upper balconies.

Still, the online fragging is about as fun as it gets. This is the OG, and for folks like me who suck at pretty much every shooter out there on live, it’s nice to have a game that I can dominate in once in a while. While most of the sessiosn have been pretty lag free, there still are moments where the occasional hiccup does occur. All in all, nostalgia fans should rejoice with this title. Good shooting fun, lots of levels and a decent amount of achievements will bring folks back for more time and again, just like it did as shareware all those years ago. The only drawback is that $10 (or 800 microsoft points) seems a bit steep to play a game that we’ve all owned at one time or another (and mostly for free) but it should pay off in the long run, with plenty of extra levels and missions to add later. Can anyone say ULTIMATE DOOM?

One Gamer’s Opinion:

STREET FIGHTER II’ HYPER FIGHTING

I know this was released quite a few weeks ago, but sadly, my Xbox Live has been down for a bit, so I missed this when it was first released. Still, I’m no stranger to the game. Taking the 12 World Warriors into battle brings back some great yet strange memories of my youth, and some of them actually aren’t that happy.

The main game is a true to the original as ever. Choose your fighter, then beat the crap out of the other guy using a series of punches, kicks, and crazy special moves. Gameplay works fairly well with the Xbox controller, but my kingdom for an arcade stick. Also, playing this again just reminds me of how cheap the game got as you progressed. Fight Ryu early on and he’s a push over, but if you don’t get to him until after the first bonus round and he’ll mop the floor with you. Lame.

The biggest draw here however is the Xbox Live multiplayer. With the all new “quarter match” set up, folks can scream “I got next” by placing thier virtual quarter down and playing the winner of a match that they’re spectating on, just like those arcade days of old. The only problem here is that most games tend to have a HUGE amount of lag, making timed attacks virtually impossible to accomplish correctly. It’s been fixed as of late with most games, but there are still times where it just gets downright jaggy, and therefore annoying as all get out.Still, again, for nostaligia’s sake, it’s a good amount of fun. I would have preferred a newer version of the game (more along the lines of NEW CHALLENGERS rather than SUPER SFII due to the crazy combo meter) but for what we got, I’m not complaining too much. Get a patch out to handle the lag and you’ve got a quality fighter that’s still king.

One Gamer’s Opinion:

Short but sweet this week, folks. That’s all I had to review this time. Like I said, no column next week, but I’ll be back after that, more than likely with a shitload of titles (naturally). One man’s dry spell is another man’s tsunami. ‘Til then, gamers…

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