Sonic Rocket-Launcher. Okay, come on… think about it…

Okay, so the more astute of you will realise that I am talking about Sonic Chronicles – The Dark Brotherhood on the DS. An RPG that I procured recently. I think it’s fair to say that I have never given up hope on the round blue spiky one. I know that most of the games he features in as of late have been rubbish, but each time I see a new one released, I will still feel compelled to part with cash for it. I will tell myself repeatedly in my head that I will like it regardless. Maybe that’s why Sonic is still around after all this time…

I think it’s fair to say that SC-TDB (ugh) falls into the same pitfall as a lot of other Sonic games, like Sonic 3D or Sonic R – It’s just not fast. I wouldn’t even say not fast enough, just… not fast. At all. There are bits and pieces in there that echo the Sonic days of old, like spin-dashing round loop-the-loop set pieces, but I can honestly say that this reminds me too much of another game. And for once, it’s not Mystaria.

If you look at all the elements, the 3D Characters on a drawn background, the strange quick-time events, the turn-based combat strategy sections, the cheesy storyline… It is basically, an anthropomorphic Final Fantasy 7.

The problem with Final Fantasy 7 is though, I never completed it. It was a cursed game. Not because I lacked the ability to play it, as I own both the PC and Playstation versions of it. But The savegames always just… evaporated. Disappeared. Vamoosed. Vanished. Ceased to be… and for some of these reasons, I thought that playing such a game would be doomed to failure, and that I should not really invest that much time on it. However, I am still trying to decide that, after nearly four and a half hours of almost constant play…

- Galford.

Streetfighter 4… It’s a bit like Mystaria…

Okay, so it’s not. But that’s a tradition!

Zig graced my place of residence twice over the last week, I think that’s some kind of record… He brought round his Xbox 360 in the vague hope of persuading me to buy one. Suffice to say, he completely succeeded. We played games like Project Gotham 4, Flat Out, Virt-oh Sod it. We played Streetfighter 4. And more Streetfigher 4. And after that, we played some more Streetfighter 4. We did try playing some other games, but these very quickly became a five minute fantasy before returning to the pinnacle of all things fisticuff.

This is it. A complete return to my youth. Everything in my life has changed over the last 5 years. I got married, moved house, had kids. My parents moved house. Changed my job. Job changed premises. Changed my car. Everything I have come to know as constants have gone. Except for one. The existence of Streetfighter games and the chance for the two of us to sit down and have a night of challenge. It really is more addictive than anything else I can think of. When the fateful time came, and Zig had to head back home, I was really sad. I wanted it to continue. To prolong the experience. For years, preferably. It leaves me yearning for the next time.

I might actually get around to reviewing it at some point. But in the meantime…

I WILL get an Xbox 360!!

- Galford.