Thứ Năm, 14 tháng 4, 2016

How Pokemon and Nintendo Could Fix Mobile Gaming



With Nintendo moving forward into the mobile arena, I think mobile games can be just as interesting and innovative as console games. If other developers followed, I think we would see some very fun and exciting games.

Pokemon Go is an upcoming title for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. This title is being published by The Pokemon Company and is separate from Nintendo's own mobile app line-up which begins launching this month via social game Miitomo. Pokemon Go looks and sounds exactly like most Pokémon games, with similar game mechanics and a lot of the same Pokemon we love. As always, if you want certain Pokemon, you'll have to go to their respective environments; the beach for Water-type Pokemon, mountains for Rock-types, and inside active volcanoes for Fire breeds. There will, of course, be new Pokemon for the Pokedex. What's more, there might even be player location-based Pokemon to discover.

Miitomo is a mashup of Miiverse, the company’s social network that it launched with the Wii U, and Tomodachi Life, the weird friend-collecting toy for the 3DS. Miitomo is a lovely free phone app that pulls in friends from Facebook and Twitter, in addition to personalized news and feeds. The new app lets you spend real money to buy in-game items. So far, it seems to be the Nintendo version of Second Life with progress made simply by adding friends, answering questions and so on. This exciting social network is the first of five apps Nintendo plans to release over the next year, and the following four will be more traditional games that are expected to include some of the company's famous characters. Miitomo is available in Japan today for iOS and Android, with a global release set for later this month. Though this is a social network app, the in-app games and operations are very similar to regular online games. Thus, another easy adaptation to mobile that other developers could do too.


Since Nintendo is going to launch more game apps, other developers might very well follow. There are already a few mobile games out there that not only use the mobile format to their advantage, but have the same feel as a console game. El, for example, is a beautiful Indie game by Gree Inc. Gameplay is easy with increasing difficulty per level, the animation is stunning despite being so simple, and the plot is emotional enough to make you play the game again. You touch the screen to move through the level and try to collect umbrella pieces to survive, the story unfolding as you fly by the various backgrounds. El may not be a game that takes hours to finish, but I think the half hour it takes is worth it and speaks to the potential of mobile games. A more lengthy game that feels a lot like a console game, is Slender: Noire by DarkFusion Games. Though the game is quite glitchy, for my phone anyway, the camera and move touch buttons are just like a PS or Xbox controller. The animation looks like the usual gritty horror game, filled with dark corners and suspiciously empty streets. The plot evolves slowly, with each area completed and items found.

If EA or Ubisoft thought more creatively and plunged wholeheartedly into the mobile game genre, I think they would succeed. If Telltale Games can, the big-name developers can too. Thanks to Nintendo, it's very clear that mobile games don't need to be shorter on creativity or revolutionary techniques any more than console games are.



Help the orphans with Furtive Dao

Do you like solving puzzle games? How about action games? If you like those both enjoy playing Furtive Dao. It is a puzzle game that involves some strategies and action. Your goal is to collect as much gold coins as you can. Use these gold coins to fix the orphans’ shelter. But getting the gold coins is not as easy as you think. You will have to eliminate all the enemies guarding the place.


And the most challenging part in this game is to collect all the gold coins and slay all the adversaries in certain count of moves. You will see the numbers of move it should take you at the upper left corner of the screen. Solve thirty levels of this action-packed game. And you can also help fix the orphans’ shelter in between each level as long as you have enough gold coins to spend.

Survive the chaos in Chaos Faction 2

Are you familiar with a chaos? Do you know what it means? If you are totally clueless, it is fine because the content of this article will surely answer the questions for you. A chaos is a disorder or confusion brought by certain factors. One example is the heavy snow that created disorder in the streets where vehicles are passing through. Another example is when a wrong announcement happened in a competition or contest which will cause pandemonium. Chaos is either controlled or natural because sometimes, it will just happen without a notice or warning. It is an event that should be managed calmly and solved peacefully. Do you know that there is a flash game that incorporates chaos and it is called Chaos Faction 2. Continue reading the entire article or click here!!
This is a shooting game that is full of action and drama as well as numerous weapons. The player will have to fight his or her way through 15 campaign levels presented in this game. He or she must utilize the given weapons in each level and try to stay alive as much as possible. This game is perfect for adventure seeker and action lovers.



Be the protector in Shorty Covers

Do you have an idea what Shorty Covers is? What is its purpose? If you are totally clueless about it, then it is fine. This article will eventually help you know more about Shorty Covers. This is an example of a flash game. It is an online shooting game with a touch of uniqueness and braveness. The story in this game revolves around Vinnie, who is a cool guy and Shorty, who is Vinnie’s girlfriend. They are in a mission to kill certain enemies. But before that, let us tackle two reasons why you will love this game.

First is because of the involvement of shooting action. Second is because of the unique love story of the protagonists. The reason why the game is entitled as Shorty Covers is because of the scenario that Shorty, who is also a sharp shooter, will cover or protect Vinnie while he performs his duties or mission. Everyone who will bring danger to Vinnie will be killed by Shorty as if she is covering him all the time. The good thing about this game besides the shooting action, is the love of Shorty for Vinnie and vice versa.



An upgraded game play in Snail Bob 4

Do you remember Snail Bob? Yes, he is the cute but slow snail who is the main character in the game series called Snail Bob. He is back with a new adventure in the fourth edition of the series which is called Snail Bob 4. There are three reasons why you will have to check this game out. First is because of the new look of the main character. Second is because of the graphics and designs that are improved and leveled up.


Last reason is because of the added challenge to the players which you will find out if you are on the game proper. Since this is already the fourth installment, expect improved and leveled up game play. The objective of the player is still the same which is to navigate and guide Bob towards the safe exit in each level. The added challenge pertains to the new obstacles that will appear in each level. This time, the player will have to think logically and strategically to win the game. Visit this wonderful game at http://www.snailbob4.net/.



Out of this world battle with Plazma Burst 3

The concept of the outer space has brought up a lot of possibilities that we are trying to give life and execution at the moment. There have been tremendous efforts to find out answers to thousands of theories and questions existing. There have been explorations conducted to visually collect evidences to certain hypothesis. The universe is a mass and unfathomable space that we are looking forward to unfold not now but in the near future. At this moment, we can only experience so much through different entertainment mediums that feature out of this world action. One example is flash game.


In fact, this article presents a futuristic flash game which is called Plazma Burst 3. This is the third installment from the game series called Plazma Burst. The player will act or play as a futuristic robot who will go on a mission to defeat enemies in different levels. There are four levels that you should play to finish this wonderful game. Utilize the weapons provided.


Help Granny survive the battle in Granny Strikes Back

If you are looking for a flash game that incorporates uniqueness and fighting action, Granny Strikes Back is the perfect fit for you. One good thing about this particular game is that it shows the appreciation of game creators and developers of the essence and importance of being a grandmother. We should remember that without them, we are nothing so let’s take the chance to give back as long as we have the time and chance to do so. But the game play and story presented in Granny Strike Back is a bit brave and bold which is quite unusual for a granny.


Granny is trying to get back to the snow monsters who are trying to destroy her house as well as getting her raspberry jam. Your mission as the player in this game is to help Granny defeat the monsters by utilizing the power ups from the sunflower and achieve frying pans for more blasting action.




Help the persistent car in Wheely 2

It is nice to see and experience games that really test players to their limits for their development that are continuously existing at the moment. The great thing about them is that they give a lesson or lessons that many players or gamers can benefit from. This article is presenting a good example which is called Wheely 2. This is the second installment from the series with the same title minus the number 2. There are two great things about this game. First is the involvement of great features that make the game more appealing and attractive. Second is the involvement of a cute character that most gamers will truly love.



In this sequel, the story is about Wheely who is the main character who is on a mission to find and reach his true love. He must pass through several dangers and obstacles before he reach his goal. Your goal as the player of this particular game is to help the main character in surpassing and overcoming the obstacles with great control and navigation of the car.



Fight other brawlers in Saloon Brawler 2

Saloon Brawler 2 is the second installment from the flash game series called Saloon Brawler. This is an action packed game where the players need to deal with the brawling that is happening in a specific place or location. There are two reason why you will love playing this game. First is because of the full action that will take place. Although it is bad to get into a fight, but it is integral to know what skills you have in order to defend yourself in a positive way. Second is because of the fact that brawl can be a great theme in a flash game that serves great entertainment to gamers around the world.




Familiarize the given weapons in Cactus McCoy Weapons

Are you familiar with Cactus McCoy Weapons? Is it a game, a movie or a television series? If your answer pertains to the first option, then you are correct. Cactus McCoy Weapons is actually part of the compilation game called Cactus McCoy. This page or portion is specialized in determining the weapons to be used if you will be playing any edition or all the editions of the game series.



There are two reasons why this page is very important. First is because of the chance given to the players to familiarize the weapons they will be using on the game. It is right to know your weapons so that you will be very prepared going into action. Second is because they also give ideas to players on which one is the most powerful as well as the weaker one in order to stabilize their performance. At the beginning of each game, the players will be using their bare hands but if they are able to achieve certain points and money, they will be able to upgrade or buy weapons like shooting weapons, throwing weapons, melee weapons and whips.




Games Like Gun Mayhem that you will like

If you had played all the Gun Mayhem sequels, you will surely ask for more. There are a lot of shooting games which have similar features with Gun Mayhem and you should check this out. One worth mentioning is Fight for Glorton which is an action game where you will fight against the opponents; damage them until they are ejected out from the playing arena. You can also choose your character and you can opt to play in single or multiplayer mode.


Another game like Gun Mayhem is Superfighters which is an action game where you can play in single or multiplayer modes. In multiplayer modes, you can play as a team with the other player in the stage mode or you can play against the other player in Vs mode. Combat Hero Adventure is also similar to Gun Mayhem. It is an action adventure shooting game played in an arena.






Thứ Hai, 11 tháng 4, 2016

Nintendo 2DS

Nintendo is responsible for innovating in many unusual directions. But unfortunately, those directions don't really always work out. After a tough launch, Nintendo's handheld 3DS system eventually became a huge success and a technological feat, merging a dual-screen system with touch sensitivity and an Internet connection, as well as a simulated 3D environment. But then Nintendo dumbed the system down into a weird tablet-like device at a slightly lower price point. Dumber still, the company cut out many of the 3DS' unique features to make it accessible to younger gamers. As a result, retailers couldn't move 2DS systems until they put them at steep clearance prices.


Virtual Boy
The poster child for Nintendo's boneheaded ideas, Virtual Boy launched in 1995 and was completely discontinued within a year. To use it, gamers would plant their faces into a stationary viewing port and play games with an external controller, while red LEDs simulate a parallax 3D environment within the system, years after Nintendo had begun using other 3D tech on games like Star Fox. Nintendo was forced to remove the virtual reality-like head tracking feature before the Virtual Boy's release due to health concerns, which may have made the system's reception even worse. Only 22 Virtual Boy games were released, and Nintendo seems to maintain their regret to this day, mostly because they were twenty years too early.

Power Glove
Even deeper in Nintendo's history is the terrible Power Glove, a sweaty mess of plastic from 1990 that players strapped onto their arms and desperately tried to control through a grand total of two dedicated games. Programmable finger motions sound like the Power Glove might be a fun novelty, but making Mario jump by flashing devil horns or poking at your arm with your one free hand proved too cumbersome of an alternate control scheme for most games. And the two games that specifically utilized on the device just weren't fun enough to make the Power Glove a successful peripheral. Plus, it made you look like a gigantic nerd.

R.O.B.
Another innovation that's awesome in theory but not in practice, R.O.B. is your Robotic Operating Buddy, a little guy who sets spinning gyroscopes into motion and drops them onto buttons on a modified controller adapter—and that's about it. While R.O.B. has a safe home in the memories of Nintendo fans, appearing as an easter egg in many of Nintendo's titles, the little robot man is practically useless. It was only included with Nintendo systems to make them look more interesting and interactive. And while it kinda worked, R.O.B. will always be one of the more asinine and confusing peripherals out there.



e-Reader
A peripheral for the Game Boy Advance, the e-Reader could scan tiny bar codes on the edge of specific trading cards, collect the data, and either use that information to augment an existing game, or load up a classic NES game. The device was relatively popular in Japan and received support for about six years, but the whole thing tanked in the US after just two. The e-Reader often had difficulty reading codes, and scanning ten cards to run Excitebike never really caught on, especially when cartridges that did the exact same thing were readily available. Even the inclusion of bar codes on popular Pokemon trading cards wasn't enough to make the e-Reader seem cool, even if the Pokedex feature was fun.



Red Dead Redemption - Irish


A lazy, lying, gregarious drunk with a thick Irish accent, actually named "Irish" in Red Dead Redemption, captures a whole lot of negative stereotypes about Irish immigrants during the days of the wild West. Irish is grouped with a few other characters who are named by their countries of origin, but none are so grossly cliche as Irish himself. It's just a reminder that every subset of people, no matter how you choose to divide them, have seen some kind of prejudice in their history. But it's not a reminder that you want while playing video games.


Pokemon - Jynx
Any Pokemon that showed up after the original 151 are just worthless piles of trash, but there's one OG Pokemon that should have probably also been left out. Jynx escaped scrutiny in the original Game Boy game series because it was hard to offend with a few green pixels, but Jynx's appearance was later deemed offensive enough to have certain episodes of Pokemon banned in the US. The creature bears a striking similarity to some deeply racist 1940s cartoons, where the character probably took its inspiration, and is known for its "rhythm." Draw your own conclusions from there, and never look at Pokemon the same way again.

Punch-Out!! - Everyone
There really isn't a single character in Punch-Out!! that isn't some kind of racial stereotype. One might think that the cultural evolution between the original 1984 version and the latest 2009 version would have fixed some of these problems, but they only got worse; King Hippo is a morbidly obese Polynesian who drops pineapples when you punch him; Glass Joe is a notoriously weak and cowardly French guy who drops croissants when you punch him; even Bear Hugger is a lampoon of Canadian people, guzzling maple syrup, talking about hockey, and being surprisingly nice to Little Mac, despite clobbering him. How these things survive in a PC world is a mystery. But at least Punch-Out!! is a great game, if you can ignore the magic Indian turbans.
Nintendo's dumbest products
In the glow of nostalgia, your old Nintendo was always a welcoming beacon, quietly waiting for you after school to quell all of your daily anxieties with Zeldas and Castlevanias. But in reality, Nintendo has always been a pretty serious company—with some pretty serious problems figuring out what products they might want to keep off the store shelves. Even though Nintendo has a great history of successes and is synonymous with video gaming, these days it's often considered a niche company for low-spec family gaming while other systems pass it by on many levels. As Nintendo's relevance seems threatened more every day, we have to ask: just which products have set Nintendo back the most?





Final Fantasy VII - Barett Wallace


While the character of Barett Wallace eventually evolved through the course of a few Final Fantasy games, critics of the series immediately noticed that Wallace seemed to embody the awful "lazy" stereotype that's been used in negative portrayals of African Americans, given his proclivity for a weird, Japanese version of Black English Vernacular and superficial similarities to Mr. T. Defenders of Barett also acknowledged the problem, but cited that Japan has a different cultural understanding than the US, and the character, though tone-deaf, was created with the best of intentions. By the time Wallace reached Dirge of Cerberus years later, Square Enix had finally written him as a complete character instead of a one-note racist cliche.

Streets of Rage 3 - Ash

The designers of Streets of Rage couldn't decide if they wanted boss character Ash to be a ridiculous gay stereotype or a ridiculous transgender stereotype, so they just kinda stopped in the middle at the most ridiculous place imaginable. Ash, who can only be described as a leather daddy, wears an enormous medallion of the male symbol (indicating his romantic preference, apparently), leggings, and high heels. His fighting moves are that of a deranged ballerina, even though he deals a ton of damage. The stereotype did not go unnoticed, and while the code remained in the American version of the game, the character does not make an official appearance.

Final Fight - Poison & Roxy
It's hard to define exactly where Poison and Roxy went wrong, because it gets weird in so many places. The two enormous, tough women appeared in the original Japanese version of Final Fight, but were omitted from the American version because it was deemed offensive in 1989 to fight women in a video game, even though 1987's Double Dragon intro lady-gut-punch was somehow okay. Capcom responded by stating that the pair were either pre-op transgendered people or transvestites, tacitly making the argument that as long as they still had biologically male parts, it was okay to beat them up. It still was too confusing for an American audience, and later literature and appearances remain completely ambiguous what's really going on, but no matter how Capcom spins it, their careless treatment has been established.



The virtual field medic


America's Army was developed by the US Government as an unabashed recruitment tool for the actual Army, using realistic situations to show the experience of war. If you don't run away traumatized and terrified, you might just be cut out for to be all that you can be. Part of this realism is a virtual medical training course, which gamer Paxton Galvanek was very familiar with. So, when he saw a flipped SUV with a dismembered victim in South Carolina, Galvanek didn't hesitate to hop out of his own car and use what he learned in Army to slow blood flow and ultimately preserve the victim's life until actual paramedics arrived. A little bit of information went a very long way.

Most offensive stereotypes in video games

As with any form of fiction, video games can be pretty dumb when it comes to portraying diverse characters as well-rounded humans (or aliens, or robots…), and occasionally stray into some pretty weird stereotypes. It's a lot easier to fall back on an easy cliche than to write a real character, but most of the time, simplifying a character down to overused stereotypes is just a horrible thing to do for everyone involved, from the gamers on up to the producers. Here are a few offensive video game characters that shouldn't get any extra lives.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Letitia
It's hard to imagine what voice actress Amanda Straw was thinking when she voiced the character of Letitia, aka "The Trash Lady," but she's wise to leave the credit off of her resume. Though the game's events occur in the future, Letitia affects a pretty ridiculous accent, reminiscent of what one might expect to hear from an unpaid employee on a gross exaggeration of an 1850s Southern plantation. We're pretty sure that saying "pacifics" instead of "specifics" infantilizes a character's intellect, and while there's a pretty good diversity of characters of all races represented in many ways through the game, all it takes is one bad apple to spoil the bunch. Square Enix apologized and was mostly forgiven.

The virtual sword stabbing




Two friends in China won a rare in-game sword in Legend of Mir 3 in 2005, worth around $1,100 today, but the prize quickly proved too much for them to share. When Zhu Caoyuan sold the sword online without telling Qiu Chengwei, authorities didn't know how to deal with the theft, since it was all virtual goods. Qui became impatient and murdered Zhu, stabbing him repeatedly, which did nothing to get the mystical imaginary sword back, and only sent Qui to prison. Mir 3 shut down permanently in 2012, so it was hardly worth it.


The toaster fire
For those suffering from muscular dystrophy, video games are often an escape from everyday difficulties, but in the case of Robert Chambers, a game literally saved his life. Stuck immobile in Spokane, Washington, Chambers was unable to escape when a toaster at his residence caught fire. Instead, he used Evony's in-game chat feature to call for help, and players from across the US called Spokane police and fire departments, who arrived in time to save Chambers' life form the growing blaze. Prior to this incident, Evony was only known for deceptive advertising and lawsuits.


Marriage proposals aplenty
There are literally dozens of geeky dudes who have proposed to their girlfriends using video games, whether they've used Chrono Trigger mods, customized Minecraft, or Little Big Planet levels, or even completely original games designed for the express purpose of getting their girl of choice to submit to the ring. You'll find just about all of these on YouTube, but none are more elaborate than Gary Hudston's proposal, which incorporated a custom Portal 2 level, including the original voice of GlaDOS. She said yes, but gentlemen, make sure your girlfriend actually likes games before you propose to her with one. Half of these ladies just seem perplexed.


Extra Life
Back in the days of the NES, watching someone play a video game was usually a punishment for having only one controller. These days, however, games are an international spectator sport. Extra Life is a charity organization that helps gamers broadcast these gaming marathons in order to earn donations for local children's hospitals. Born from the unfortunate death of Victoria Enmon, a gamer herself, Extra Life raises millions of dollars every year for charity, saving lives. And you don't even have to leave your couch.

The Curiosity disappointment


Curiosity was an enormous multiplayer mobile game, where all the players tapped on an enormous cube to make smaller cubes disappear, all in a collaborative effort to get to the center. While it sounds like an exercise in wasting time, the first person to reach the center would be awarded a mysterious prize, only revealed to the winner. Once someone broke into the center, it was finally revealed that the winner would become a paid decision-maker for a game called Godus, which sounds like a sweet deal—until developer 22Cans never lived up to its promise, leaving winner Bryan Henderson with neither a prize, nor a new job.


The Mario Kart rescue
In August of 2013, 10-year old Gryffin Sanders saw his grandmother lose consciousness while out driving with him and his brother. Against all odds, Gryffin was able to take the wheel and steer the car to safety without any serious injuries to anyone inside—thanks to Mario Kart, according to the kid himself. Somehow, Gryffin was able to leverage his ability to guide Luigi around a go kart track into navigating an actual road with a real car, and around obstacles even more threatening than stray turtle shells. Things would have turned out differently had he been weaned on Grand Theft Auto.




The Kong kings
There's really no greater documentary about video games influencing lives than The King of Kong. It documents amateur player Steve Wiebe's attempt at scoring the world record in Donkey Kong, much to the chagrin of Billy Mitchell, a professional player who seems stuck in the 1980s, the era in which he scored his life-defining victory. Both players' lives weave around a singular game, and even though both would eventually lose their titles to newer players, it's an emotional view into small-scale competitive gaming and how it affects players.


RodeoSRAW




In this ridiculous video, we're treated to some more jet action, courtesy of F4ithHD. While we've seen players jump out of their jets and get back in after getting a kill, we've never seen someone ride their jets like a surfboard. That's exactly what F4ithHD does as he jumps out of his jet, lands on it, gets a lock on an enemy and fires off a shot before jumping back into the vehicle's cockpit. This move is so pro that it makes us feel bad about our noobish skills.


Crazy dirt bike stunt
This is the same concept as the C4 and the tank, only it's even cooler because it's using as a dirtbike that gets launched even further. It's awesome that TheMasterRPG-7 simply points to his target, much like Babe Ruth, and his teammate send him flying into the distance. In midair, he lines up an RPG and blows up a jet that's unlucky enough to fly into it. Now that's a home run.

Awesome ways video games tied to real life stories

Video games don't need to exist only in a virtual space. Gaming has become such a part of our everyday lives that it often creeps out into our reality and affects us in very real ways. Of course, the most common real-life consequences of excessive gaming are blood clots, relationship troubles, and insomnia. But there are countless other actual human events directly related to gaming as well. Here are a handful of real-life stories (both happy and not-so-much) made possible by your favorite digital pastime.


The Swordquest medallion
The concept behind the Swordquest series was pure awesome. Players would compete through four different Atari games to solve complex puzzles combining in-game clues and comics packaged with each game, and whoever solved the puzzle first would get a real, amazing treasure. It was all pretty high concept for Atari, but they only carried it out across two games by the time the crash of 1983 brought everything to a halt. By then, a $25,000 medallion and a $25,000 chalice had been awarded. Steven Bell, the winner of the medallion, sold his prize to pay for college, so there was a happy ending after all.

Jet swap

One of the coolest features that helps the Battlefield series stand out when it comes to military first-person shooter games is its inclusion of vehicles. Whether you're a fan of land, air, or sea, you'll find a sweet ride waiting for you in game. A lot of players like to take to the skies and rain death upon their enemies with guns and missiles, swooping down like metallic birds of prey. In this video, we see Stun_gravy using his piloting and shooting skills to great effect as he not only escapes death, but gets a sweet kill and a new ride out of it.

From the description, it seems as if Stun_gravy has an enemy solider locked on to his jet from the ground and also has an enemy jet pursuing him. So, facing certain death, he does the only sensible thing he can think of and bails out of his jet in order to shoot his pursuer and then manages to steal the dude's jet while his original plane gets blown out of the sky. How's that for resourceful?


Insane mid-air kill jet stunt
Here's another highlight from Russkhof, also involving some jet-swapping action. You see, people, these are the kinds of high-level maneuvers you should be striving to execute in-game! Russkhof is flying around when he spots an enemy helicopter assaulting his team mates. Rather than just try to shoot it down with his guns or a rocket like a normal person, he ejects at top speed so that he's catapulted forward. As he floats above the chopper, he fires off an RPG and blows the thing to kingdom come. Not content with that sick move, he also manages to get back into his jet in mid-air and flies it away like a complete badass.


Troll stunt
Here's another one involving Russkhof and NoRRy RaMpaGe trolling some players, albeit while pulling off some pretty impressive stunts. There's just something so beautiful about this much skill and orchestration being used for "t3h lulz." You see NoRRy expertly flying his jet into the cables of a tower and then ejecting so that he can land on top of said tower to place C4. Russkhof, on the opposite team, is sitting there chilling, waiting to bait one of his teammates. NoRRy runs back on the cable to jump into his jet, flies away, ejects, blows up the C4 and kills a dude, and then hops back into his jet. It's all so beautiful, but used just to troll a dude. There's something poetic about that.


Peek-a-boo
This is one of the best stunts we've seen in a long time and features some pretty awesome coordination between teammates and a bit of imagination. Player ponylionHD uses a tank to take out a jet. No biggie, right? Wrong. He has a teammate place C4 below the tank and blows it at just the right time so that the explosion pops his tank up into the air, just as the jet is flying by, giving him the best height and angle to destroy it with the tank's turret. It is a thing of beauty.


The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - Into the Moon



The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - Into the Moon
As if the grimacing moon threatening to destroy Hyrule in Majora's Mask isn't scary and strange enough, the game's final level has Link flying through the moon's toothy mouth and into a surrealist final level. Like a '90s music video, there's a single tree at the top of a hill in a hazy field and creepy kids run around the base asking for masks. If this wasn't weird enough, Link also acquires a mask that essentially turns him into a god…but only for the final battle. Sending Link into space isn't really a Legend of Zelda kind of thing, but as long as there's some kind of magical element to it, it kinda works.

The most ridiculous things we've seen in Battlefield 4


Battlefield 4 is one of those games that, even if you don't play, you always seem to hear about on the Internet. A lot of incredible stunts, kills, and maneuvers can be pulled off in the game and it's become a sort of custom among hardcore Battlefield players to try and pull off the craziest moves that the in-game engine will allow. These stunts are lovingly known as "Battlefield Moments" and have been a great way for the community to showcase their skills while flexing a bit on the Internet. Here we have some stunts that are jaw-dropping, funny, and just all-around impressive. Strap in and get ready for some ridiculousness on the battlefield.


Crazy sniper headshot
Battlefield player and YouTuber Russkhof is no stranger to stunts and trick shots, showing us some of the most elite-level gameplay around. In this video, he gets a crazy, long-range headshot with his sniper rifle. "No big deal, anyone can get a sniper rifle headshot," you might say, but what makes this particular shot special is the fact that it comes from an extremely long range. He even gets a Marksman Bonus of 1,861 points, a bonus that's based on meters. The fact that he was able to get a headshot on a dude who was basically a pixel on his screen is mind-blowing. And yes, pun intended.


Kid Icarus: Uprising (Nintendo 3DS) - Chaos Vortex



The legacy of Kid Icarus was given a whole new layer with Uprising, exclusive to the Nintendo 3DS. It's a pretty standard third-person shooter with alternating aerial and ground levels, based very loosely on Greek mythology. But the Chaos Vortex level drops the Greek theme for total insanity. Giant shadowy hands reach across the screen, human eyeballs blink in empty space, enemies curiously crowd the viewer's camera, and huge script words fill the screen for no apparent reason. If you make it through, things go back to normal, but it's probably the closest thing to an acid trip that Nintendo has ever offered.



Metroid (NES) - Escape the Planet
Metroid is one of the first kinda-open world games, allowing for free exploration in all directions, provided you have the right equipment to blast through certain doors. It's a leisurely stroll through shooting up alien weirdos at your own pace, until you defeat Mother Brain and the planet starts to explode. Suddenly, the game becomes a frantic, unexpected rush against the clock as you platform upwards on the smallest ledges in the entire game. Your prize if you survive the heart-attack inducing stress? A tiny digital picture of a girl in a bikini. Thanks?


Earthworm Jim 2 (SNES, Sega) - The Villi People
Every level in Earthworm Jim 2 is pretty weird and none of them seem to follow any kind of theme, whether it's escorting bombs across isometric landscapes, solving timed puzzles to save puppies, or basic 2D platforming. But the weirdest level of all is "The Villi People." Inexplicably, Jim is dressed up as a blind albino lizard, swimming through the intestines of some huge creature, avoiding pinball bumpers and pencils. At the end of the level, you're forced through a trivia contest with meaningless answers, and then a game of Simon. It's level-creation chaos at its weirdest, and then it's back to shooting baby-throwing ants and stuff.



Star Fox (Super Nintendo) - Out of This Dimension
If you follow the right sequence of portals in Star Fox, you'll be zapped into an inescapable dimension of certain death, which is a lot better than it sounds. It takes perfect timing and careful controls, but when you pilot your Arwing into the area known only as "Out of This Dimension," you'll be forced into a never-ending fight with paper airplanes, an intelligent slot machine, and eventually, and the words "THE END," which you fire at until you decide it's time for dinner and shut the system down. There's no escape, the Lylat system is doomed…but at least you got to see some insane, grinning moons before you run out of oxygen or starve. Whichever comes first.

Video game moments that took players by surprise



Video games are like little pockets of consistency that the bored and lonely can curl up in for a few hours at a time and disappear from the strangeness of reality. When you plug in Super Mario Bros., you can expect a succession of progressively harder levels until you reach the end, and at no point will you be expected to help Mario pay his taxes or deal with migraines. Not every game follows the same predictable formula, however, and a game will occasionally have a segment that's so out of left field that it just boggles the mind. Here are just a few levels that will leave you scratching your head.



Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES) - Bombing the Hudson
The hugely popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the NES is a game that every '90s kid has played and loved…until the end of level two. That's when pure hatred sets in. During the game's painful underwater level, you're forced to defuse bombs strapped to a dam, and all bets are off. It's a swimming level in the middle of a standard platformer, where countless obstacles can cause quick death, and you only have about two minutes to save New York. Since when does the Hudson have pink, electrified seaweed? Sorry, New Yorkers: you're just going to have to learn to swim to work.



X-Men (Sega Genesis) - Mojo's Reset
Mojo's level in X-Men for the Genesis wasn't all that nontraditional itself, but its conclusion breaks just about every expectation you've ever held about video games. After defeating Mojo, you're told to "reset the computer," which seems to imply that you should find some kind of hidden button that you need to hit with some mutant projectile…except there's no button. Instead, gamers are expected to actually tap the reset button on their Genesis console; only then would the game restart on the next level. It's some insane fourth-wall thinking that few games have ever replicated.



Far Cry Primal (PS4, Xbox) - Urki
There are three segments in Far Cry Primal that simply don't fit into the serious, life-or-death caveman warrior aesthetic, and they all involve a weird caveman named Urki. As you traverse the land of Oros, rescuing your prehistoric pals and murdering rival tribes with trained wolves, you encounter a genuine redneck caveman. Even though all of the game's dialogue is spoken in an imaginary primitive dialect, Urki has an unmistakable Southern drawl, and the ridiculous antics to accompany the stereotype. It's completely incongruous with the prehistoric theme—and absolutely hilarious.


Mortal Kombat

With everything else out of the way, the only thing left is virtual fighting, and we don't mean Virtua Fighter. If you're going to do a VR fighting game, you have to go all the way to the heart of fighting games, and by that we mean actually reaching into a chest and pulling out a warm, beating heart. Soul Calibur and Killer Instinct are nothing compared to the no-nonsense gore of the original ultimate fighter, Mortal Kombat. We're not sure how a player would actually experience the fatalities from the inside, but that's for programmers and cardiologists to figure out.


Low G Man: The Low Gravity Man
An under-appreciated gem among retro games, Low G Man has the most gloriously redundant video game title of all time. While its name alone is not enough to justify its conversion into a VR classic, the game's unusual mechanics would make for an interesting game experience. First, you freeze an evil robot. Then, you stab it with a spear, all while jumping 30 feet high, because you, my friend, are The Low Gravity Man. Trampoline accessory required.

Zombies Ate My Neighbors
VR would be tragically incomplete if it didn't have at least one zombie-killing game. While hordes of the undead are a problem in Zombies Ate My Neighbors, you also have to deal with spiders, mad scientists, and a giant, angry baby as you wander through a Tim Burton-like, VR vision of suburbia, trying to save your hapless neighbors from certain death. It's all good, though, because these 16-bit zombies are apparently defeated with a water gun. Just stock up on Bubble Tape, Warheads, and Soul Asylum CDs before you put on your VR headset and start shooting zombies.

Paperboy


The world's first video game about having your soul crushed by the responsibilities of work, Paperboy has some pretty awesome potential if it had a virtual reality/bicycle contraption. The use of a stationary, VR-equipped bike would eliminate the need for a clunky, full-body virtual reality setup. It would also promote physical fitness for the unfortunate paperboy, who has to avoid a surreal neighborhood full of more crippling dangers than the average war zone. You could always save a lot of money by just riding your bike outside and throwing newspapers at people, but where's the fun in that?

Smash TV
There will probably be hundreds of shooters that make their way into the VR gaming scene, but my favorite retro shooter is Smash TV, which encourages you to mow down thousands of one-hit weirdos on live TV in order to win a cash prize. It's chaotic madness at its finest, and virtual reality would greatly simplify the two-controller control scheme of the NES original. Sure, you'll be spinning around in frantic, sweaty circles as murderers swarm you from all directions, but that's better than having to use two control pads at once, right?

Castlevania
Forget about the shooters for a moment, and think vampires and monsters. Picture a life-or-death struggle against an army of skeletons, bats, swamp monsters, and vampires. If you feel that there's a certain amount of satisfaction in your average headshot, Castlevania triples that by doing it with a whip. While doctors may never understand what whipping thousands of undead monsters might do to your arm, it'll definitely be fun to find out. Just don't eat the wall meat—it's been there for like five hundred years.


Sonic the Hedgehog

Now that we're immersed in another reality, let's play around a bit with disorientation. Sonic's unholy lust for golden rings propels him at dizzying speeds through vibrant landscapes to a Michael Jackson-inspired soundtrack, but could you, puny human, hold up under the strain of that velocity? Racing cars isn't really something that would make a truly interesting VR game, because you can just get into a real car if that's what you're into, but running at insane speeds and spinning into evil robots? That's the kind of thing that virtual reality dreams are made of.