DOUBLE DRAGON ADVANCE (GB ADVANCE) ............. PÁG

Ecco is unlike anything you've ever seen. It is a game that mixes strategy, adventure, action, in addition to having the fantastic story as a backdrop. And the result of all this is a totally innovative game, with an adventure game style.

And everyone who played it agrees on one thing: Ecco The Dolphin is an extremely difficult game. No help, get ready. There are 25 levels, and some are quite long, for you to go through. In addition, we also have some puzzles to solve, puzzle your way to the exit in various water mazes... It's not easy.

In addition, Ecco also has to come up for air, like all dolphins, and he can eat some fish to recover his energy during the journey. And one of the rare aids you'll have during the game is the map. It appears when you press and hold the A button.

As it does so, Sonar goes back and forth, implying that it has scanned the entire environment around Ecco.

In addition to it we have the Gliphs, which are crystals scattered across the ocean that contain the knowledge of the Atlanteans, and which indicate what to do or where to go.

Ecco can also communicate with other dolphins and whales via sonar and "talk" to them in order to continue his mission.

For example, at one point in the game, a dolphin will ask for Ecco's help to find his lost family. After scouring the level looking for them and finding them, our hero Dolphin will receive a sonar that can confuse sharks or slow down their movements. And Ecco received two more games for the Mega Drive: Ecco The Tides of Time and Ecco Jr. The game has also been ported to other consoles such as the Master System and Game Gear.

A Sega CD version was also released, with new levels and an alternate soundtrack.

Remembering: at the beginning of the game the sonar is only for communication. A tip: In the quest to save the baby whales, you will need to find 3 baby whales. There's a fourth hatchling near the level exit that will give you the sonar upgrade. DO NOT fail to get this puppy before you pass this stage. You're welcome. ;) Fun fact: the soundtrack, especially the SEGA CD version, was so impressive that it is considered by many, to this day, as one of the most perfect soundtracks ever created for a game.

A group of musicians called Pixel Mixers had their careers so deeply influenced by the ECCO score, that they created a tribute album to the game, called Timeless Ocean. And this album is distributed for free on the internet and has influenced many other artists.

Ecco The Dolphin is one of the most well-crafted games ever made. Its story, combined with accurate and well-tuned gameplay, with graphics that are simply beautiful make the complicated journey worthwhile. Ecco may not be a game for everyone, but those who venture out won't regret it.

I unfortunately couldn't get a Gameboy Advance at the time. But I was lucky enough to be able to play on some friends.

And thanks to that, I know I missed out on many of the wonderful games on the console. But thanks to emulators I can run after the lost games that

Desenvolvedora: Atlus

Lançamento: 2003

I didn't get a chance to play. Because among these games I discovered the best Double Dragon of all that have been released. It's not an exaggeration. I'm talking about Double Dragon Advance.

Double Dragon Advance was released in 2003 for the Game Boy Advance. It was published by Atlus and developed by Japanese studio Million. It's a remake of 1987's Double Dragon, but it has elements from all the sequels and the home versions.

The elements are new stages between the original stages of the game, to be more precise, four, in addition to some blows and weapons coming directly from other games in the series.

The story is the one that is already known: the player takes control of the 2 martial arts master brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee, as they fight against members of the Shadow Warriors to save Billy's girlfriend Marian. And Double Dragon Advance can be played either alone or with another player via the Game Link Cable. It's choosing an option and beating them. And I'll tell you this: the beating rolls with style in this game. And I say this because the amount of combinations impressed me. We have a punch button, a kick button, a jump button and a defense/counter-attack button. But when you combine the buttons you'll discover new moves like headbutts, grappling rear kicks, knees and much more.

It's the most complete, perfect and addictive Double Dragon I've ever had (and still have) the pleasure of playing. And who designed Double Dragon Advance was Muneki Ebinuma, a former Technos employee who had already worked on the series, on Super Double Dragon, for the SNES and on Double Dragon for Neo Geo. And we can say that he had the thinking of a fan of the series while working on the game.

Ebinuma created Double Dragon Advance as a way to preserve the legacy of the original Double Dragon. And in the meantime he made up for the shortcomings of the games in the series he had worked on before. That's why this game's fighting mechanics closely mirror those of the original arcade, which were combined with various elements from the NES and Super Double Dragon games, from SNES.

And playing you realize that he really achieved what he wanted. You can say that Double Dragon Advance is the best of the series.

Double Dragon Advance is the definitive game in the franchise. This is clear in my humble opinion. It has everything a fan of the series could want.

Great controls, beautiful and vibrant graphics, a wide variety of enemies, lots of hits, weapons...

The PlayStation 1 has several great games that have become classics. Whether for its story or its gameplay.

And we also have those that have no explanation. And one of those is Jackie Chan

Stuntmaster. And it's not that the game is bad. On the contrary, so much so that it became one of the console classics. And it's hard to find a person who had the PS1 and hasn't played it or doesn't remember the game.

And they always remember with a nice nostalgia to tell everyone. But it is justified.

This was not the first game that Jackie Chan starred in. Since the 8-bit Generation, passing through Arcades, he was already participating in several games. So why did Jackie Chan Stuntmaster become this PS1 classic?

It's even quite simple to understand why: The game is a lot of fun. Also, no game has placed the player inside a Jackie Chan movie as seamlessly as Jackie Chan Stuntmaster.

All movement and action in the game was captured by Jackie Chan himself, including the voices. And that made the player really feel inside the game and in the shoes of Jackie Chan, thus increasing the fun. And anyone who has watched a Jackie Chan movie knows that one of the coolest parts was the bloopers at the end, as everyone knows Jackie didn't use stunt doubles in her movies. And to increase this closeness even more the Producer put this in the game. When the game is finished, several videos are released with the recording errors and also showing the process with the motion capture that was made, including scenes from the beginning of production. We also have the Red Dragon masks. When collecting 10, we have a bonus phase

JACKIE CHAN STUNTMASTER

Plataforma: PS1

Desenvolvedora: Radical Ent.

Lançamento: 2000

So why did I say that I can't understand why it ended up becoming a PS1 classic at the beginning of the text?

For the simple fact that the game was very weak, graphically speaking. It had very little detail in the polygons and the CG that told us the story was boxy, and much uglier than the game's graphics. And the control wasn't the best, but the gameplay and fun were so sensational, we didn't care about it. And few games can achieve this.

The game's combat is quite varied. In addition to kicks and punches, we can jump, grab and even counter-attack our enemy. The amount of blows that exist in the game is even impressive for the time.

Another strong point of the game was that we could use various things in the scenario to be able to attack enemies. Among the options, we have brooms, chairs, tables and even a swordfish, as well as sticks, frying pans and more.Exactly like Jackie does in her movies. On top of that, we hear him talking the entire game.

And the game's story? Jackie works for her grandfather as a delivery boy and has to deliver a package to the Shaolin Temple of Martial Arts. And his grandfather is kidnapped and he loses the package. Now he will have to rescue his grandfather and still retrieve the package.

Jackie Chan Stuntmaster is still as fun today as it was at the time of its release.

It deserves its place among the greatest beat'n ups classics ever made. And it proves that the game doesn't need wonderful graphics to be fun and amazing.