This forum is in permanent archive mode. Our new active community can be found here.

GeekNights 20110726 - Half-Minute Hero

edited July 2011 in GeekNights
Tonight on GeekNights, we review the refreshing Half-Minute Hero on XBLA. Gamepro moves to a quarterly format and EA buys Popcap for over a billion dollars.

We also consider a number of XBLA games, but only Catherine stands out.

Download MP3

Comments

  • but only Catherine stands out
    That's because it provides good life advice. Be kind, be dilligent, treat people nicely, and avoid being eaten by horrible monsters.
  • d EA buys Popcap for over a billion dollars.
    Apparently, Rovio (Angry Birds) is really pissed off that EA bought PopCap instead of them.
  • but only Catherine stands out.
    And we have to wait till it comes out.
  • Whoa hey, OSTER Project finally released this? Allow me to pull a Ro by saying:

    (b゚▽゚)b

  • edited July 2011
    Tears of joy were coming by the end of it. Not only was the music brilliant, but the animation and everything else really brought the characters to life. This is one of the greatest applications of this technology I have ever seen. It is right up there with the Hatsune Miku concert. I am so happy to be alive and sentient in this time of greatness.
    Post edited by Victor Frost on
  • Tears of joy were coming by the end of it. Not only was the music brilliant, but the animation and everything else really brought the characters to life. This is one of the greatest applications of this technology I have ever seen. It is right up there with the Hatsune Miku concert. I am so happy to be alive and sentient in this time of greatness.
    OSTER Project is one of the greats, man. Seriously, track down and buy her CD.
  • Tears of joy were coming by the end of it. Not only was the music brilliant, but the animation and everything else really brought the characters to life. This is one of the greatest applications of this technology I have ever seen. It is right up there with the Hatsune Miku concert. I am so happy to be alive and sentient in this time of greatness.
    OSTER Project is one of the greats, man. Seriously, track down and buy her CD.
    You are implying I didn't already know about her...
  • About the EA/Pop Cap purchase; EA already has a part of the company that makes casual games. The reason they bought Pop Cap was probably for diversification reasons, and for the talent Pop Cap has. EA has been trying to move more and more into the digital download space (see Origin,) and they noted in their recently quarter earnings call that they expect that physical game sales for them will be down for Q1 2012, but digital sales will be up. Pop Cap has only ever really released digitally, and I think EA partly wants that expertise to help them as they transition to digital.

    On the diversification front I mean that they are trying to widen the appeal of games they make, if you look at the other big game publishers (especially Activision) they are mainly aiming for larger blockbuster games. Which is incredibly risky, because if one of those big budget games fail you are suddenly out a large chunk of money. But by having more of these casual games EA can withstand any trouble if one (or more) of their big titles don't meet expectations in terms of sales by having a consistent source of income.

    Basically they are trying to make themselves more nimble so that they can change the sort of games they make to fit the economic environment.
    d EA buys Popcap for over a billion dollars.
    Apparently, Rovio (Angry Birds) is really pissed off that EA bought PopCap instead of them.
    They probably would have if Rovio could prove that they weren't just a one hit wonder. No one took Pop Cap seriously until Plants vs Zombies, which was their I think forth or fifth game to sell extremely well.
  • I'm now pirating Half-Minute Hero because of this episode. If I like it, I'll buy the sequel.
  • I'm now pirating Half-Minute Hero because of this episode. If I like it, I'll buy the sequel.
    How can you pirate an XBLA game? Or are you pirating for PSP? How do you pirate a PSP game?
  • edited July 2011
    Yes, you can pirate XBLA games. Did PSP now. You put a program on your PSP, run it, takes a minute (then you have to figure out which patches to get and which stupidly named one is the most recent). After that, you go to the pirate's bay, download the game you want, and transfer it to your PSP's memory card via USB. Goes in root/ISO.

    Oh, also, for some reason, if you just unplug the PSP, it won't recognize the game, but if you press X to go out of transfer mode it does. Entire process of wanting a game and getting it on your PSP doesn't take more than a few minutes, with of that, 10 seconds requiring effort.

    (New PSP models are a bitch to hack. Hardware needed. See if you know someone who bought an old PSP and doesn't use it, or if you can find one cheap second hand from someone who doesn't know its easily hackable.)


    Edit: Oh you said 'how' for XBLA too. I'm not exactly sure. You can just put it on a USB thing or a disc and run it, but it would check if you owned the game or not (if not, it would be the demo). My mate did something so it doesn't change your account.
    Post edited by Aria on
  • I'm now pirating Half-Minute Hero because of this episode. If I like it, I'll buy the sequel.
    Maybe you should try downloading the demo and if you like it buy it, and maybe if enough people buy it they'll make a sequel.
  • Not only did you not explain the story of the game until the end of the review, I didn't hear a mention of the platform until quite near the end, so was bummed out it was just on XBLA.

    Also it was fun to hear in one section "When was the last time we said something was awesome?" and then later "This game is awesome, buy it."
  • But they're already making one. I'd buy it had I had money.
  • I have pirated and played the PSP version a while ago and recently bought the Xbox version because I liked the PSP version.
  • Man this episode hit all the right places for me. I love half minute hero and was able to play it on a borrowed PSP, it was totally worth it. Fun fact, many people's favorite mode is only on the PSP release and not on the 360. Why? No idea.

    Also Catherine is an interesting game, the puzzle/dating sim game play is worth the time to check it out, also once you beat the game it unlocks the multiplayer of it. They purposely did that to make sure that the people playing multiplayer ACTUALLY knew how to go and play the game. More games should do that.

    Also on the magizene topic I recommend Retro Gamer, Play, and Edge. All three have the good commentary that kicks ass and touch on a different aspect of the gaming culture.
  • Man this episode hit all the right places for me. I love half minute hero and was able to play it on a borrowed PSP, it was totally worth it. Fun fact, many people's favorite mode is only on the PSP release and not on the 360. Why? No idea.
    Although I think that the Hero 30 mode was the strongest mode in the PSP version, it is kinda sad that they left out the other modes and made them just a part of main Hero 30 game.
    More games should do that.
    Only games where multiplayer is secondary to singleplayer and maybe not even those. It would suck to buy a game thinking that it would be fun time with friend just to find out that you have to do single player first.
  • More games should do that, but also have cheating built into the game. After you beat the singleplayer once, it can tell you that the konami code in the menu will auto-beat the single player for you, if you ever need to do it in the future, but don't have your save file.
  • I bought Catherine and I have being playing it a lot. From the opening it looks like the animation was done by Studio 4C, which is pretty awesome. The music, is composed of rearrangements of different classical piece of music such as "Mars", and "Symphony No % in C Minor". Suffice to say that the music goes well with athmosphere of the game.
    The story is very compelling and the puzzels are hard. Yeah, the demo that Scrym tried only had the puzzle's levels on easy, so you guys can imagine how hard they can be on normal.
    So far I would definately recommend it to buy it. If only because the puzzle's are hard enough that one could not finish it just by renting it.
  • The game you described that the kid from Make a Wish made reminds me a lot of a flash game I played a while ago. It was called something like "warlords". You chose a race (of many) then conquered lands by getting guys past your opponents in the parallel lines of movement.
  • I'm now pirating Half-Minute Hero because of this episode. If I like it, I'll buy the sequel.
    How can you pirate an XBLA game? Or are you pirating for PSP? How do you pirate a PSP game?
    Very Easily. Something Awful has a thread on it. You should go find it.
  • edited August 2011
    Scott, I feel the term "hoisted on your own petard" is relevant here.

    But yeah, what you're looking for is a piece of software called a "Homebrew Enabler for $FIRMWARE_VERSION". Get a Fat PSP, as I've heard those are more easily hacked, but I know Yuyuke's run one on his slim. Dunno about the Go.
    Post edited by Neito on
  • Hombrew, eh?
  • It's in heavy sarcasm quotes.
  • edited August 2011
    Most (read: ones made earlier than a few months before the release of the PSP-3000) PSP-2000s can be hacked relatively simply, with the removal of 1 pin from the battery and some files on a memory stick. I did this a few years ago. It's probably even simpler now.
    Post edited by Pegu on
  • It's in heavy sarcasm quotes.
    LMGTFY doesn't have them.
  • Most (read: ones made earlier than a few months before the release of the PSP-3000) PSP-2000s can be hacked relatively simply, with the removal of 1 pin from the battery and some files on a memory stick. I did this a few years ago. It's probably even simpler now.
    Yes it is. Now most PSPs can be hacked just by installing custom firmware on memory card, no hardware modification needed.
  • It's way easy these days, they reverse engineered the signature key Sony uses so anyone can sign their code to make it appear official. Thus, you don't even need to hack the PSP, you can just fake an authentic signed program and go from there.
  • So, I got this game for my PSP (it's basically the same, only with a few less missions and without all the smexy Xbox Live stuff), and I think the thing that gets me the most is how the credits roll after every level.
  • I have been rocking the steam release of this game, still awesome. Scott there IS a second area aka the skull in the 2nd megaman in hero 30. If you go get game again I can give hint on how to get there. Otherwise working on unlocking hero 3 and 300.

    Evil Lord 30, pretty interesting and quick if you play avoid everything technique, other wise its rock paper scissors with rts elements, just enough to keep you occupied for an hour or two.
Sign In or Register to comment.