They Rose from Kaiser Crowbar's Crypt of Doom, or, Savage Zombie Ablogcalypse!

Yes, folks, it's magic time. Halloween is upon us and I saved the best for last. I have one more board game for all of you and I recommend, nay, demand under pain of death that you check out this game.

I don't remember when I first caught wind of this game. It was, most likely, when I was still working at a comic and game shop many years ago. In fact, I think that's right, because it came out around 2001. Seriously, though, when I did check it out on our store shelves, I knew I wanted to play it.

The game I'm referring to is Zombies!!!, and, just like Betrayal at the House on the Hill, it features players going around on an ever-expanding board that uses tiles to dictate the board.  A normal game of Zombies!!! starts out with the players at the central town square, and they have to explore a city infested with the undead.  You can find certain buildings that can give you extra health, extra ammo, or, if you have the right card, a new weapon.  There are two primary objectives to the game: either be the first person to kill 25 zombies, or the be the first person to get to the helipad (which is shuffled in the tile stack) and kill all nine zombies there to clear it off.  That's right, people, Zombies!!! is not a team sport.  Everyone is in it for themselves, and with certain cards, you can really fuck your friends over.

Which is part of the reason I love playing this game.  This is the truest test of friendship I have ever known.  If your friends can play an entire game of Zombies!!! with you, as you call each other the harshest of names after taking turns dicking each other over, and they still like you, they're a keeper.  Hell, I remember one time I called my wife something along the lines of "Harpy Bitch Queen" after she screwed me over royally.  She told me to fuck off and die, or something, and we both laughed our asses off.

So, the game works like this: On their turn, each player draws a card, if they used one and are below the hand limit (I think it's five), pulls a new tile from the top of the stack and connects it to the rest of the board, then they roll the dice for movement and get to where they want to go.  If they encounter a space with a zombie on it, they have to fight.  They roll 1 die (the dice are all the standard d6, by the way).  If they get a 4 or higher, they kill the zombie and add it to their kill count.  If they get 3 or lower, they can do one of two things, they can either spend an amount of bullets (each character starts with three bullets, but can collect as many as they find) in order to bring the die roll up to a 4.  For instance, if someone rolled a 2, they would have to spend two bullets in order to succeed.  Each bullet counts as adding +1 to the die roll, and you can only do it if you wouldn't normally make the roll.

If the player doesn't have enough bullets, or doesn't want to waste that many, they take 1 health worth of damage (players start with three health and can have up to five).  Should you run out of health, you lose your entire hand, half the zombies in your kill count, and have to start their next turn back at the town square.  If the player survives movement, they then roll another d6 to determine how many zombies they can move.  Each zombie moves 1 space per turn (into legal squares - there are some nameless buildings that are not considered a legal square) and only one zombie can occupy a square at a time.  Other than that, the player can move them however they like.

Needless to say, this game is fucking awesome.  I always look forward to a good Zombies!!! game, though I usually don't win.  And, if playing the core box gets a little stale, there are expansion sets that add on to the basic set.  Usually, these expansions add new rules as well as new locales to escape from the zombies, including a mall, a military base, a circus, a prison, a forest, even the sewers.  Adding one of these expansions is sure to keep your game going longer, though I only recommend using all of the expansions if you and your friends have an entire week to kill.

You can find Zombies!!! and all the expansions at your local store of awesome, or at Twilight Creations Inc.  The company actually has a wide selection of horror games to choose from, including a hybrid board game/RPG called When Darkness Comes..., which is very similar to Betrayal at the House on the Hill, but isn't out of print, so you can get it at a more reasonable price (I found a copy of Betrayal on ebay for $80.  Yikes!).  They also are releasing a Deadlands board game (Deadlands is an old west horror RPG and is also the predecessor to Savage Worlds).  Definitely check out these games.

I assure you, you won't live to regret it.  (maniacal laughter)

Happy Halloween, my Steel Legionnaires!
Kaiser out

The Dark Shadows That Plague Kaiser Crowbar's Crypt of Doom (A Games You Should Know About... Halloween Special)

The survival horror genre has been a staple of mainstream video games for over a decade.  Most of us remember playing Resident Evil for the first time and actually being creeped out by a video game.  I remember playing it with tense apprehension, waiting for something to jump out at me so I could put a few shotgun shells in it before I wigged out too much.  The fear factor wore off after the first time playing, but the game did give you a good experience.  After the success of the Resident Evil series (which is still going strong), Capcom and other companies capitalized on the rise of the genre.  From the disturbing pshchological terror of Silent Hill, to the eerie horror of Fatal Frame, to the seat-of-your-pants zombie survival bonanza Dead Rising.  It was all thanks to Resident Evil for being the first survival horror game that started it all... or did it?

Actually, Resident Evil was not the first survival horror video game.  That honor would probably belong to another Capcom game, Sweet Home, which was released in 1989 in tandem with the movie of the same name.  Though Resident Evil did borrow a lot from this game, Sweet Home was never released outside of Japan and was an 8-bit RPG for the Famicom.  Resident Evil is a 3D game, so would that make Resident Evil the first 3D survival horror game to reach the States?

No.  Another game beat RE to the punch by four years.  That game was Alone in the Dark.  It was primarily made for PCs and Macintosh computers, but a version did crop up on the lackluster 3DO console.  It took place in 1925, as a paranormal investigator, Edward Carnby, discovers terrible horrors in a Louisiana mansion where the owner committed suicide.  The game has a heavy Lovecraftian influence and is considered a classic by many old school afficionados (I wouldn't know, though.  I spent most of my life without a computer, so I never played this game).

So, if I never played this game, why am I writing about it?  Well, the game did have sequels.  Both AITD 2 and 3 followed as direct sequels to the game, but didn't have as much Lovecraftian influence.  It wasn't until the fourth game came out that I took notice.  Titled Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare, it seemed like a reboot of the franchise.  It retained a lot of Lovecraft's influence, but the monsters in the game are not quite like the Cthulhu mythos.

The hero, again, is Edward Carnby.  Some people have theorized that he, inexplicably, was in a coma for several decades and that this is the exact same guy from the first game.  Regardless, he decides to go to this island off the coast of Maine after his partner dies while investigating there.  Along for the ride is the beautiful Aline Cedrac, a young professor at Boston University who is looking for Obed Morton, who, supposedly, inherited this island, as well as some "research," from his father.  Of course, there's much more to this story than is let on in the beginning.  It seems that the island is filled with these monsters who come from a shadow dimension and are eager to kill anything in their sight.  The player will also come across lots of zombie-like creatures: corpses that were injected with some of the inorganic material that the shadow monsters are made of.  They were brought back to some abomination of life, much like Lovecraft's story, Herbert West: Reanimaror.

The player can play either Carnby or Cedrac.  Each character has their own different game experience, as both of them are exploring the old mansion nestled on the island.  The game plays a lot like Resident Evil, you run around (just like in RE, it's like steering a tank), picking up items, solving puzzles, and shooting monsters.  But this game does some things differently.  First off, this game has a lot of investigation, in the way of reading letters, documents, diary entries, photos, and audio recordings, in order to get a lot of the backstory, which is pretty involved.  I certainly recommend reading every document you find.  It may take some time, but the backstory is rewarding. 

Another innovation with this game has to do with the lighting.  Light plays an important part in this game, from the way that lights will go out just when the monsters appear, to actually having weapons that use light, such as the phosphorescent bullets that Carnby uses, to kill monsters.  This may sound insignificant, but the flashlight in this game is quite impressive.  Considering the character and monsters are 3D representations on a pre-rendered 2D backdrop, the flashlight actually interacts perfectly with the 2D background, making a realistic spot of light appear wherever you aim the flashlight (and you can aim the flashlight to search through the dark surroundings).  It's actually a good effect.

The voice acting is a step up from the original RE.  It doesn't sound as forced or corny (no "Jill sandwiches" here).  Some of the voice actors do ham it up a bit, but it sounds much better than Barry from RE repeatedly saying, "What is it?" in such an unconvincing voice.

Like I said before, gameplay is similar to RE because this came out after and uses some of the influences from the game.  I do like that the left analog stick is used to aim your flashlight while you're searching.  You can also aim both your gun and flashlight at the same time, so you can see what you're shooting.  The dual shock controllers are a must for this game, because the game uses the vibration function to kinda give you chills at appropriate times.

Despite a lot of reviewers saying this is just another RE knockoff, it really is much more than that.  It provides atmosphere, depth, and real scares to your gaming experience.  I recommend you pick up a copy.

Now, I know that the picture above is for a PS2 version of the game, but unless you live in England, you're shit outta luck.  The PS2 version is only available for PAL systems.  I own the PS1 version of the game, which has the least impressive graphics out of all the versions.  There is a Dreamcast and PC version of the game available, but I don't know how well the controlls would work, since the control scheme seems to be made for Sony's systems.

With that being said, this video is definitely not from the PS1 version.  Most likely, it's from either the PC or Dreamcast version.  So enjoy, and always be wary of things in the dark.


Kaiser out

The Demon Hunters of Kaiser Crowbar's Crypt of Doom

Halloween has only been a recent phenomenon in Japan, but has quickly become very popular.  Despite this, Japan has a longstanding penchant for horror.  Most of their horror stories center around ghosts and spirits, as is evidenced by such popular movies as Ringu and Ju-on and video games such as the Fatal Frame series (which are some of the scariest games I've ever played).  In the late 80s and into the 90s, there has also been a fascination in anime and video games on demon hunters.  A lot of these anime (and some of the games) made it to the states and became one generation's first glimpse at the world of anime (myself included).  So I decided to take a look back at some of the anime and games from the past 20 years that focused on demons and the people who hunt them.

One of the most successful anime studios, Madhouse, cranked out these supernatural anime like nobody's business during those days.  Features such as Demon City Shinjuku, Wicked City, Devil Hunter Yohko, Vampire Hunter D, and Phantom Quest Corp. were staples of the anime section of any movie store (Devil Hunter Yohko was actually ADV Films' first release).  All of these were made by Madhouse.

Though Madhouse was the most prolific, others made supernatural anime as well.  Most notable was Devilman, based on the manga by the legendary Go Nagai, it focused on Akira Fudo, a timid young man who is encouraged by his friend to fight demons.  In order to do this, Akira becomes possessed by one of the strongest demons in Hell, Amon.  Only his pure heart keeps Akira in control and allows him to transform into Devilman, an amalgamation of Akira's will and Amon's strength.  Another one, Tokyo Revelation, is based on the Shin Megami Tensei video game series (which I'll get to in a minute).  A young man discovers he can control demons using a computer program that works much like a summoning spell and wreaks havoc with his demonic tools until a childhood friend tries to stop him.

All of these demon hunting movies do share certain characteristics:  Blood, Violence, Sex, and Nudity.  Not all of them are the same, though.  For instance, Devil Hunter Yohko does have nudity and sexual situations, but little to no blood and gore, while Wicked City is dark and gritty with plenty of sex, violence, gore, even a rape scene.  Phantom Quest Corp. is probably the tamest, as it's primarily a comedy.  There is some sexual innuendo and a short flash of breasts, but it doesn't get graphic.  Then there's series such as LA Blue Girl and Urotsukidoji, both of which are notorious for their "tentacle porn."

As if anime wasn't enough, Japan had quite a few video games that involved demon hunting.  A lot of them were based off of some of the anime I've already mentioned.  I know that, Devil Hunter Yohko and Devilman have been turned into video games.  The most recognizable series, though, is Shin Megami Tensei, which was originally based on a novel about summoning demons through a computer.  The first games, were released on the Famicom, when the series was just called Megami Tensei.  They added "Shin" to the title when they started making them for the Super Famicom.

One of the first games from the franchise to reach the states was Persona for the PS1.  It's not technically part of the SMT series, it's more of an offshoot.  The main difference was that, instead of summoning demons with electronics,  each of your party members summoned a "persona," a sort of archetypal being that arose from their personality, that would cast spells to defeat demons.  It achieved a cult status when it released and the sequel came out for the PS1 as well.  Persona was one of the first series of SMT based games to have each game brought out to the States (The Digital Devil Saga series and the Raidou Kuzunoha games also have been completely released in the states, but Persona was made before them).  Along with the different series, standalone games, such as Nocturne for the PS2 and Devil Survivor for the DS, were released.  Each of these games have gotten critical praise for their innovative RPG elements, fascinating premise and themes, and their art and design.

So now that you have seen how they do horror on the other side of the Pacific, check some of these games and anime out (except for Urotsukidoji, unless you have a thing for girls being raped by psuedopods, freak).

Kaiser out