Tuesday’s Trope: Giant Space Flea From Nowhere
[Tuesday's Trope is a weekly department highlighting an amusing video game trope from TVTropes. Aggrogate is not affiliated with TVTropes.org in any way. All trope examples come from TVTropes and are shared via the Creative Commons license.]
Boss fights don't have to make sense. Sure, sometimes you'll fight a crime lord, an alien overlord, or an evil wizard that fits in with the narrative of the game you're playing, but just as often you're probably going to run across a mutant cake, a robot dinosaur, or a Giant Space Flea from Nowhere.
What is the Giant Space Flea from Nowhere? It's supposed to be the embodiment of all evil in the world. Some say its father was the main character's long-lost friend. Nobody believed it was real. Nobody ever saw it or knew anybody that ever worked directly for it, but to hear the cutscene tell it, anybody could have worked for it. You never knew. That was its power. The greatest trick the GSFN ever pulled was convincing the world it didn't exist. And like that, poof. It's gone.
The GSFN is any boss that just doesn't make sense. It appears out of nowhere, forces you to fight it, and then vanishes without a word. In some games, it turns out to be the final boss, just because the guy you were chasing the entire game didn't seem big or interesting enough. It just shows up, looking for a fight.
Examples of Giant Space Fleas from Nowhere include:
Will GreenwaldMega Man Universe First Gameplay Trailer
Youtube user GrafWutzenstein has spliced together the gameplay trailers that were sent to IGN, 1UP, and GameSpot. The trailer showcases four of the multiple characters playable in game including MegaMan, RockMan (based on the Japanese boxart), a MegaMan based on the bad box art of the American version of the first game, and Ryu from Street Fighter. The game also includes Arthur from Ghosts and Goblins, though he is not in the trailer. Incidentally, the game looks very much like the stop motion trailer that was released previously. MegaMan Universe is coming out on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Store.
Dee SawyerDLC Double Shot: Bioware Releasing Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age DLC Next Tuesday
Bioware's releasing two DLC packs for their two biggest games, Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins. Both drop on September 7 and will cost you $10 each. The trailer located above is for this year's critical darling and Game of the Year forerunner, Mass Effect 2. Titled "Lair of the Shadow Broker", this piece of DLC reunites Commander Shepard with one of the possible love interests from the first game, Liara T'Soni. The DLC will take you into the chambers of the mysterious Shadow Broker, a figure that had featured heavily in the periphery of the games and directly in the plot of the Mass Effect: Retribution comic book.
The trailer located after the jump is for last year's Dragon Age: Origins. Taking place after the end of Dragon Age: Origins, this will have you going after one of the party members and finding out just what they've been up to. Any more details would be a spoiler, so if you still haven't finished Dragon Age: Origins, I suggest you avoid the video.
Dee SawyerFriday Flashback: Shadow Warrior
Considering all the hype surrounding the surprise revelation at PAX that Duke Nukem Forever will be completed and published in 2011, and that Gearbox will be doing the deed, it's time we look at a certain FPS game. It's a game with an in-your face hero, who runs around different levels and uses tons of weapons to reduce his enemies to bloody chunks, all while making funny quips while he does it. It's a game where you can find naked or almost naked ladies in various places. It's a game made by 3D Realms.
That's right, I'm talking about Shadow Warrior.
Will GreenwaldFrom the Game: Castle Crashers King (plus the first Aggrogate Giveaway!)
The Behemoth's fast-paced, cartoonish, insane beat-em-up Castle Crashers has finally hit PSN after over to years of being XBLA-only, and to commemorate the release the developer sent us The King. This figurine is 4 inches of regal, screaming, beardy rage. Find out how you can get your mitts on him after the bump.
Will GreenwaldTuesday’s Trope: Lethal Joke Character
[Tuesday's Trope is a weekly department highlighting an amusing video game trope from TVTropes. Aggrogate is not affiliated with TVTropes.org in any way. All trope examples come from TVTropes and are shared via the Creative Commons license.]
Almost every fighting game has a character nobody wants to play because he's too weak, too strange, or too useless. That same character inevitably turns out to be completely unstoppable in the right hands. They might be extremely difficult to master, but once you figure out how to take advantage of their unique abilities they're absolute monsters in the ring. They are Lethal Joke Characters.
Tournament fighters aren't the only games to have lethal joke characters. Many RPGs feature seldom-used characters that can be grinded or equipped properly to turn them into invincible killing machines. Blue mages in Final Fantasy games are often lethal joke characters, because it's so difficult to get their best abilities. If you can expose them to just the right magics, though, they easily become the most powerful members of your party.
Examples of lethal joke characters include:
Will GreenwaldFriday Flashback: Deja Vu
Nintendo was notorious for censoring potentially offensive or graphic content in its games, especially in the 8-bit and 16-bit days. That's one of the reasons why ICOM Simulations' 1990 release Deja Vu is so impressive. This first-person adventure game, in the same vein as Shadowgate, brings some genuinely gritty and dark storytelling to the NES (the game was released before then on the Amiga, Commodore 64, PC, Apple, and Atari ST).
Will GreenwaldFrom the Game: Dragon Quest slime trading figure keychains
Slimes are the most famous "characters" of the Dragon Quest series. They're the series mascots, burbling, smiling lumps of goo that has been a part of the series since the very first game, gotten their own surprisingly good action-adventure spin-off on the DS
These Dragon Quest slime keychains are Japanese toys I picked up at E3 2006 from Square-Enix's booth. They're just three out of over a dozen potential keychains, running the full gamut of Dragon Quest slimes. Besides their well-known blue goopy slime versions, there are metal slimes, king slimes, bubble slimes, heal slimes, slime knights, and others. These three are the Sea Slime (blue slime with white shell), Medislime (green jellyfish-like slime), and Platinum King Jewel (clear, jewel-shaped slime).
Will GreenwaldSteampunk Warfare: Building a Well-Reasoned Argument (with video!)
Professor William von Greenwald here from the airship S.S. Aggrogate, because everybody is a professor with a "van" or a "von" in their name aboard an airship when it comes to steampunk stuff. The aesthetic may be overused, but I think there's still some life left in the Victorian high technology pastiche yet! I told you a few days ago that I was working on something special with the Nerf Barrel Break IX-2, and here it is!
Will GreenwaldTuesday’s Trope: Nice Job Breaking It Hero
[Tuesday's Trope is a weekly department highlighting an amusing video game trope from TVTropes. Aggrogate is not affiliated with TVTropes.org in any way. All trope examples come from TVTropes and are shared via the Creative Commons license.]
Congratulations, you just destroyed the world. You spent hours looking for the pieces of a crystal you thought would help fight the evil emperor, but it turns out that crystal has a dark god inside that's the real threat! The path to hell is paved with good intentions, and when you step down that road during a video game, you're likely to hear "Nice job breaking it, hero."
Examples of Nice Job Breaking It Hero include:
Will Greenwald
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