DLC Quest Hit or Miss?

This is gonna be a short one. Thankfully it's a breath of fresh air after writing the Pokemon gen 1 review for probably almost 24 hours for all 3 parts. But, lets not waste time and get to this cool indie title that I didn't see much buzz about when it was released and that I think is a great title that should've gotten more attention.

DLC Quest is a 2D side scrolling platformer indie title made by Going Loud studios. You are set on an epic quest to save the princess from that bad guy with the mustache. BUT, to do that you'll need to buy some DLC. Before you exit out of this and decide that the game isn't worth it if you need DLC to beat the game know that this is a satirical game. The dlc is purchased in game with coins you collect by doing the platforming.

The whole point of DLC quest is to take a satirical stab and what at the time were trends that the AAA games were starting to take hold. Cutting parts of the games off and selling them later as a separate package (sometimes even on day one which was even more of a shitty move) and pre-order bonuses. Today we expect these things but, back in 2011 (original release date on the Xbox 360) this was still a new thing and many think that DLC and pre-order culture is what made AAA titles lackluster and kept their companies greedy. This, I believe, to be correct and most games, when DLC was becoming a regular thing, either had outright bad DLC or had DLC that was not worth the price of admission.  Today, however, ... okay it's not that much better. There are still many games that come out with bad or overpriced DLC but, many games in the recent past couple years have also used DLC very effectively (Payday 2, Mass Effect 2 and 3, Outlast, and Bioshock Infinite to name a few.)

I originally played DLC quest way back in 2012 and at the time it was a small 20 minute game that was a cool jab at those trends. But, in march of 2013 DLC quest came out with a free expansion that added a second campaign to it. The Live Freemium or Die campaign is a longer more expansive campaign with a different story to it. There is a village that has been experiencing a spike in mysterious death recently and the hero must get to the bottom of it ... by buying some DLC. The Live Freemium or Die campaign has a separate set of DLC packs and has some different mechanics. While i still remembered some of the original campaign I had never played the Live Freemium or Die campaign.

It's Overall not a long game but, I think that works in it's favor. I think that because of its satirical nature making it longer than it is would end up being a detriment. It's just long enough so that it doesn't overstay its welcome. The Live Freemium or Die campaign was an excellent addition that I like more than the original campaign. So yeah, DLC quest was a great time. Its short length makes repeated playthroughs easy and with the in-game timer function speed runs and easily accessible. You can purchase DLC Quest on Xbox 360, Windows, or Mac HERE

Pokemon Kanto Hit or miss? (Part 3: The review Pokemon Fire Red)

I'm glad to report that I get to be a lot more positive for this last section of the review. While i do still love Pokemon Red/Blue/Green/Yellow their glitches and balancing problems can be exhausting to deal with. Pokemon Fire Red however fixes ALMOST EVERYTHING! Pokemon Fired Red is based of the Gen 3 (Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald) engine. This means all the glitches, bugs, and balancing problems are fixed in Fire Red/Leaf Green. This also means that Pokemon now have abilities which makes Pokemon like Weezing and Gengar better since they have levitate making them immune to ground attacks which they were previously weak to. Lastly the gen 1 special stat is Split from Gen 2 onward into Special attack and Special Defense which means that Pokemon with high special attack (like Alakazam) no longer have high defense against special attacks which fixes the balance of Psychic types. Finally, the Gen 3 engine means natures now exist. Natures are combinations of one stat getting an increase while another stat gets a decrease (ex: Modest nature decreases physical attack while increasing special attack.) This lets you either push a Pokemon's best stat higher then before or you could use it to cover up a Pokemon weaker stat.

Pokemon Fire Red also adds a new area to the Kanto region called the Sevii Islands. They are introduced after getting the volcano badge from Blaine when Bill shows up outside the gym and invites you to go with him to the islands. There is also an after Pokemon league story section that takes place in the Sevii islands that extends the game's length a tad. As a bonus after getting the national dex by obtaining 60 Pokemon in the Kanto Pokedex the Sevii islands have some Gen 2 pokemon show up (some notable examples are Heracross, Skarmory, Larvitar, and Mantine.) Finally, after doing the Sevii islands content the Elite four has a second round where they have leveled up their teams and revampingthier teams with some from the national dex (for example: Lorelei has a Piloswine from gen two instead of a Slowbro from the first League challenge.)

With all that said here was my team for Fire Red:

There really is only one small issue i have with Fire Red and Leaf Green and its an issue that has was around Pokemon until gen 4. In Gens 1 through 3 there is no Physical special split for moves. What that means is that in gens 1-3 attacks are divided into physical and special by TYPE instead of a case by case basis. This means that thunderPUNCH is a special attack because it's and electric type attack. This is really only a small complaint and it is fixed gen 4 onward. You can also take advantage of that like I did for example as you can see above. Bite is a dark type move which in gens 1-3 is a special move which is why it was on Vaporeon. It let me deal with Pokemon like Alakazam by hitting it with Vaporeon who could take psychic's from it really well.

I did sadly stop Fire Red after the first Elite four run because i had still intended to finish the reviews of Blue and Fire Red during June but as the deadline crept closer I realized that there was no way that it was going to happen. Hopefully all there of the parts together got my point across. I really love Gen 1 but, its bugs and balancing problems take a bit of either getting used to or research to abuse yourself do lower its enjoyment for me and make it hard to recommend to anyone that isn't a Pokemon fan. The remakes however I FULLY recommend to any RPG fan who thinks the premise of gathering a team of monsters to battle for you sounds interesting or fun. Even if not I'd still encourage you give Fire Red a try at least to see if you like them. After all you never really know until you try. Pokemon Blue can be bought on the 3DS E-Store or as a GB cartridge (It'll cost you a lot though) and Fire red is only available as a GBA cartridge (it can be expensive depending on where you find it.)

Pokemon Kanto Hit or Miss? (Part 2: The review Pokemon Blue)

Pokemon Gen 1 has its fair share of problems however (specifically the original releases of Red, Green, and Blue.) There were numerous glitches and overall balance problems that can hinder your enjoyment or (if you take advantage of them) can lead to a better experience.

Since there are too many to mention the graphic

< there is a compilation of some of the glitches and bugs in gen 1.

Additionally, the Psychic type is immensely overpowered for a few reasons. First off in gen 1 there were very few good bug types (really only Pinsir and Scyther.) Secondly, the only Ghost types in gen 1 were the Gengar line which are also part poison which is weak to psychic. Thirdly, there were no good bug or ghost type attacks that do damage (the best bug attack is a toss-up between twineedle and pin missile and the ONLY damaging Ghost move is lick because Night shade deals fixed damage based on level.) Fourthly, in gen 1 the pokemon's offensive and defensive stats are divided differently. Pokemon attacks can be either physical or special which pull offensive power from either a pokemon's physical or special attack respectively and take damage based of that pokemon's physical or special defense. In gen 1 however, there was no special defense stat instead there was a special stat that was BOTH special attack and special defense so, psychic pokemon (who specialize in special attacks) had high special attack and defense. Finally, (and this is something that i didn't even know until researching this) there is a glitch in the game where Ghost type damaging attacks(which to be fair is only Lick), that are supposed to be super effective, DO NOT effect Psychic types. This was so bad that Gen 2 had to introduce two new types (Dark and Steel) that would check Psychic types and make them more balanced.

So with all that in mind here was my team of champions:

From first hand experience I can now say the psychic types are overpowered as fuck. Scryfish came to the rescue multiple times when another one of the party fell and could tank hits like no other pokemon on the team could. 

As a Pokemon fan going back to gen 1 to relive the roots of the franchise was super fun and gave me a lot of nostalgia moments of when first playing gen 1 back when it released. I do however recognize that a rpg fan jumping into Pokemon Red, Blue, or Green with no prior knowledge would probably have a generally miserable time as the glitches and general failing of balancing could just turn off general rpg fanatics.

So I've been generally pretty mixed here mentioning a lot of negatives and a couple of positives and that generally sums up my feelings on Pokemon Red/Green/Blue. While I still love them as Pokemon games because of how thankful I am to them for introducing me to video games I do recognize that the games has aged really poorly and has many flaws to the point where i would only recommend them IF AND ONLY IF you are a fan of Pokemon and want to see how the franchise began. Otherwise i would strongly recommend that instead of Red/Gren/Blue you play Fire Red or Leaf Green instead as your first Pokemon game.

Since there really isn't much story to all of the games outside of just going on a Pokemon journey and occasionally getting stopped by team rocket its not much of a draw. To me the draw of Pokemon is trying different compositions of Pokemon  teams to see which combination work well together and which don't. This is why I play so much Pokemon. Because of how many Pokemon there are that leads to so many different team compositions that even 20 years after release this is the first time I've used a Starmie in a playthorugh of a Pokemon game.

Even though these games have aged really poorly, I'm sure this won't be the last time I play gen 1 of Pokemon. Even through all of the glitches and broken balancing I had a really good time reliving gen 1.