Doctor Setebos
09-09-2010, 09:18 AM
Gunblade NY & L.A. Machineguns Arcade Hits Pack Review
Title: Gunblade NY & L.A. Machineguns Arcade Hits Pack
Platform: Wii
Developer: Sega (http://www.sega.com/)
Publisher: Sega (http://www.sega.com/)
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)
MSRP: $29.99 (http://www.amazon.com/Gunblade-NY-L-Machineguns-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B003P5AJFI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1283902923&sr=8-1)
Editor: Nathaniel 'Doctor Setebos' Payne
What's Hot: arcade action, budget price, heavy dose of nostalgia
What's Not: ugly graphics, weak audio, boring gameplay, no challenge
If there is anything that the Wii does well, it would have to be the Wii remote pointer functionality. Unfortunately, this functionality tends to bring with it a deluge of low-quality light-gun ports. Enter Sega's Gunblade NY & L.A. Machineguns Arcade Hits Pack, a cheap cash-in on arcade nostalgia if there ever was one.
Of the two games included in the pack, Gunblade NY (an arcade game from 1995) is especially showing its age. The characters and environments are flat and uninteresting. L.A. Machineguns (a 1998 arcade title) also shows its age, but still looks passable for a Wii port. But let's be honest, compared to the more current Wii library, these games are both horrendously ugly. Sega should have invested even the tiniest bit of effort to clean up and upgrade the graphics, at least a little. The fact that they did not says a lot about the quality of the title overall.
http://image.colonyofgamers.com/wii/gunblade.jpg
And if the graphics were not offered a facelift of any sort, you can bet that the gameplay suffers such neglect, as well. Infinite ammunition means that all you have to do is hold down the trigger and point at anything that moves. This leaves you with an extremely boring and repetitive game. One could argue that this is just like the arcade version of the games, and that person would be absolutely correct. But that does not necessarily mean that it's right. No ammo management means you can just keep blasting and blasting and blasting. There is no challenge in it, and the mindless shooting gets really old, really fast.
Another feature that removes any and all challenge? A complete lack of penalty for dying. In an arcade game, you would try your hardest to stay alive, because death meant you had to insert more of your hard-earned coins in order to proceed. That sort of penalty is, for obvious reasons, completely non-existent in Gunblade NY & L.A. Machineguns. When you die in the Wii title, you start exactly where you left off. And if you exhaust your lives, and are forced to continue, you start exactly where you left off.
Unlimited ammo, unlimited lives, unlimited continues. It is almost like a "god-mode" was enabled for the game, but you are not actually capable of doing anything interesting with the mode besides shoot everything in sight.
http://image.colonyofgamers.com/wii/la-machineguns.jpg
Now, the game is not entirely without its perks. Winning each game's various modes unlocks new bonuses in the other games. For example, completing L.A. Machineguns on "normal" difficulty offered me an unlockable "Rapid Fire" gun to use within Gunblade NY. This was an interesting bonus, however, I personally was not able to discern any real difference between the regular gun and the new "Rapid Fire" gun, so as a "bonus" it falls relatively flat. But it was good to see at least some attempt at including additional content in the Wii port that was not available in the original arcade titles.
Sega also saw fit to introduce some online leaderboards for the titles. As either a testament to my gaming prowess, or the fact that no one is really playing this game, I came in second in the US rankings on the online leaderboards after my first playthrough on L.A. Machineguns.
http://image.colonyofgamers.com/wii/la-machineguns-USscore.jpg
I did not fare as well on Gunblade NY.
Now, it should be noted that Sega has tried its hand at arcade light-gun ports before with an early Wii game called Ghost Squad. But with that arcade port, Sega at least felt the need to improve the graphics and add new unlockables and a fresh batch of extra content. Gunblade NY & L.A. Machineguns apparently did not deserve such treatment, which is disappointing. With a little effort, the game could have been so much more than it was. Unfortunately, what we get instead feels like nothing more than a weak attempt at cashing-in on nostalgia. All in all, the game is an ever-so-slightly superior version of was at one time a pair of truly great arcade systems. But that was in the mid-90's, and honestly, that's where these games probably should have stayed.
Score: 2 out of 5 CoGs
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG2.png
Nathaniel says, "If you desperately want to play this game, you should first ask yourself: will I dump more than $30 worth of quarters into either of these machines at my local arcade? If the answer is 'no', then I would suggest that you give this title a pass and try to locate the arcade version instead."
Title: Gunblade NY & L.A. Machineguns Arcade Hits Pack
Platform: Wii
Developer: Sega (http://www.sega.com/)
Publisher: Sega (http://www.sega.com/)
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)
MSRP: $29.99 (http://www.amazon.com/Gunblade-NY-L-Machineguns-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B003P5AJFI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1283902923&sr=8-1)
Editor: Nathaniel 'Doctor Setebos' Payne
What's Hot: arcade action, budget price, heavy dose of nostalgia
What's Not: ugly graphics, weak audio, boring gameplay, no challenge
If there is anything that the Wii does well, it would have to be the Wii remote pointer functionality. Unfortunately, this functionality tends to bring with it a deluge of low-quality light-gun ports. Enter Sega's Gunblade NY & L.A. Machineguns Arcade Hits Pack, a cheap cash-in on arcade nostalgia if there ever was one.
Of the two games included in the pack, Gunblade NY (an arcade game from 1995) is especially showing its age. The characters and environments are flat and uninteresting. L.A. Machineguns (a 1998 arcade title) also shows its age, but still looks passable for a Wii port. But let's be honest, compared to the more current Wii library, these games are both horrendously ugly. Sega should have invested even the tiniest bit of effort to clean up and upgrade the graphics, at least a little. The fact that they did not says a lot about the quality of the title overall.
http://image.colonyofgamers.com/wii/gunblade.jpg
And if the graphics were not offered a facelift of any sort, you can bet that the gameplay suffers such neglect, as well. Infinite ammunition means that all you have to do is hold down the trigger and point at anything that moves. This leaves you with an extremely boring and repetitive game. One could argue that this is just like the arcade version of the games, and that person would be absolutely correct. But that does not necessarily mean that it's right. No ammo management means you can just keep blasting and blasting and blasting. There is no challenge in it, and the mindless shooting gets really old, really fast.
Another feature that removes any and all challenge? A complete lack of penalty for dying. In an arcade game, you would try your hardest to stay alive, because death meant you had to insert more of your hard-earned coins in order to proceed. That sort of penalty is, for obvious reasons, completely non-existent in Gunblade NY & L.A. Machineguns. When you die in the Wii title, you start exactly where you left off. And if you exhaust your lives, and are forced to continue, you start exactly where you left off.
Unlimited ammo, unlimited lives, unlimited continues. It is almost like a "god-mode" was enabled for the game, but you are not actually capable of doing anything interesting with the mode besides shoot everything in sight.
http://image.colonyofgamers.com/wii/la-machineguns.jpg
Now, the game is not entirely without its perks. Winning each game's various modes unlocks new bonuses in the other games. For example, completing L.A. Machineguns on "normal" difficulty offered me an unlockable "Rapid Fire" gun to use within Gunblade NY. This was an interesting bonus, however, I personally was not able to discern any real difference between the regular gun and the new "Rapid Fire" gun, so as a "bonus" it falls relatively flat. But it was good to see at least some attempt at including additional content in the Wii port that was not available in the original arcade titles.
Sega also saw fit to introduce some online leaderboards for the titles. As either a testament to my gaming prowess, or the fact that no one is really playing this game, I came in second in the US rankings on the online leaderboards after my first playthrough on L.A. Machineguns.
http://image.colonyofgamers.com/wii/la-machineguns-USscore.jpg
I did not fare as well on Gunblade NY.
Now, it should be noted that Sega has tried its hand at arcade light-gun ports before with an early Wii game called Ghost Squad. But with that arcade port, Sega at least felt the need to improve the graphics and add new unlockables and a fresh batch of extra content. Gunblade NY & L.A. Machineguns apparently did not deserve such treatment, which is disappointing. With a little effort, the game could have been so much more than it was. Unfortunately, what we get instead feels like nothing more than a weak attempt at cashing-in on nostalgia. All in all, the game is an ever-so-slightly superior version of was at one time a pair of truly great arcade systems. But that was in the mid-90's, and honestly, that's where these games probably should have stayed.
Score: 2 out of 5 CoGs
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG2.png
Nathaniel says, "If you desperately want to play this game, you should first ask yourself: will I dump more than $30 worth of quarters into either of these machines at my local arcade? If the answer is 'no', then I would suggest that you give this title a pass and try to locate the arcade version instead."