Book: Sam & Max Surfin' the Highway

Now this blog isn't exclusively for video games, it's about all kinda of media so next I would like to tell you about Sam & Max: Surfin' the highway...

Sam & Max are a creation of artist Sam Purcell from the late 1980s, however in a medium filled with self appointed do-gooders, Sam & Max aren't any ordinary vigilanties. Sam is an anthropromorphic dog who wears an ill-fitting suit and fedora while Max is a hyperkinetic rabbity thing who often refers to himself as a lagomorph despite his toothy shark-like grin. Since their creation, Sam & Max have appeared in award winning comics, video games & a televisions series and have maintained a cult following throughout all these years. Surfin' the Highway is then a collection of their comic book adventures which had been out of print for many years but was recently given a reissue by Telltale Games who currently also produce the new episodic Sam & Max point and click adventure game series.

The anthology of Sam & Max comics chronicle their many adventures which take through the comfort of their 1960 DeSoto to around the world, to the moon and even through time. They like to use viiolent tactics whenever possible and in spite of devoting themselves to enforcing the law, seem to only have a vague understanding of how often they themselves break it. The humour in Sam & Max (if you can't tell already) is pretty irreverant. For example, when on the Moon, Sam & Max hitchhike and get picked up by two people dressed as a gorilla and a zebra driving a moon buggy but the only problem Sam has with this is that gorillas and zebras don't normally intermingle in nature. This kind of humour can also be found in the other mediums which Sam & Max have appeared. The original Sam & Max PC game included instructions on how to make your own Max paper-bag puppet in the instruction manual. Sam & Max are just chalked full of silly little things like that.

The art in Sam & Max is also very nice. Most of it is in black & white which is fine within the context of the series being a little film-noir-esque. Steve Purcell makes good use of shadow and texture to give Sam & Max's world a sense of real gritty detail. There are also some stories which are inked in colour which is also well done by Mr. Purcell, who made interesting choices such as the sky often being pink or orange regardless of the time of day. The character models are characters but retain a nice balance between real and cartoony and the backgrounds are also well detailed even if Mr. Purcell admits he had no source for drawing Thailand so it's completely wrong - hilarious.

For many years this collection was difficult and expensive to find. But thanks to Telltale Games, it's available again through their website with the addition of bonus stories and material. It's available in paperback or hardcover for a very reasonable price (especially considering how much copies of this book cost at this time last year). If you're a fan of independant comics, irreverant humour or wild adventurous stories, then head over to their website and get a copy for yourself while you still can.

Game: Killer7

Where do I start when talking about this game? Killer7 is really unlike anything I've played before. So I suppose it would be best to begin by discussing some background information about it. Killer 7 was developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and published by Capcom for the Nintendo Gamecube and the Sony Playstation2 in 2005. If you're unfamiliar with Grasshopper Manufacture, it is the studio directed by celebrated video game auteur Goichi Suda - or as he is also known "Suda51". What makes him such an auteur you ask? Well let's take a look at Killer7 for a few minutes and you'll see what I mean.

The story of Killer7 is strange, very strange. You play as Harman Smith, an assassin who has the ability to take the form of seven other assassins. Harman may be old and confined to a wheelchair but through his seven other personalities he is able to take missions to destroy the Heaven's Smile. The Heaven's Smile are invisible, inside out, giggling suicide bombing zombies and only the Killer7 are able to see them and have the skill required to destroy them. Yes that's right - invisible, inside out, giggling, suicide bombing zombies. If they sound insane, then it would take equally insane characters to fight them and that's exactly what Killer7 delivers. Including Harman Smith, you will also be able to control seven other personalities which include; a magnum toting tough guy, a dual pistol weilding blind teenager, a mexican wrestler, an ex-criminal, a woman who has the power to absorb blood by slitting her wrists, a shirtless knife throwing homosexual and Garcian Smith - the Cleaner. You will also have the aide of Iwazaru (Harman's bondage loving subservient) and the ghost of Travis Bell (the first person Harman killed). By playing through the game, more clues will reveal themselves about the histories of the characters and how they came to be the Killer7 amidst an alternate universe backdrop where political tensions are rising between the United States and Japan. Crazy, no?

The gameplay of Killer7 is sort of a rail shooter where the character is controlled by pressing A to run forward and then pressing R to enter a first-person view when attacking. The player then has to scan to reveal any invisible Heaven's Smile. Once a Heaven's Smile has been detected, the player has to kill it before it rushes at you and explodes. You can kill them by either shooting them repeatedly anywhere on their body until they die or by targeting a specific glowing spot that will cause instant death. For killing a Heaven's Smile you then recieve blood in return. White Blood can be used to restore your character's health or red blood which can be used to upgrade you character's abilities. Unlike other rail shooters like Panzer Dragoon or House of the Dead however, Killer7 allows for full exploration of the levels by having branching paths that the player can explore and return to at their leisure. You will in fact need to do this because as you go through levels killing Heaven's Smile you will also collect items and use them for many of the puzzles that riddle each level.

The graphics in this game are just gorgeous. Killer7 uses flat-shading to make the game look like some early CGI. The art direction also makes good use of light and darkness to add visual contrast within the characters and scenery. When running around in 3rd person mode, the camera angles are set up to look as though you're seeing the game from the perspective of a number of security cameras. This I find all very aesthetically pleasing but my favourite graphical addition is whenever you switch between characters. Switchng is visually represented by the character you're already playing as atomizing in an explosion of blood which then recollects back together in the form of the new character. I swear, I never get tired of seeing it. I would recommend the Gamecube version over the Playstation2 version in regards to the visuals however, because the Playstation2 version's colours are a little washed out looking, the frame rate drops sometimes and there's a noticable load time when switching between characters.

The music is just as surreal as the rest of the game. Sometimes it can be chill downtempo or pounding house music. othertimes the music can be eerie ambient sounds or nothing at all. It just adds an extra level of absurdity to Killer7 when you're killing Heaven's Smile while listening to loungt jazz or something equally bizarre. The voice acting is also quite good in the cut scenes, however the rest of the game uses this unsettling garbled sound for dialogue which you can occassionally make out English words in. I have no idea what sort of filter would have been used to make that effect but it is really fucking creepy.

So that is really only scratching the surface of what Killer7 is. It needs to be played to really be understood - and even then you won't understand very much. However, Killer7 is a wild, weird, visually striking and unique game that I would recommend to anyone who is a fan anime, zombies, shooters, puzzles or post-modern narrative. I would not recommend this game for kids however, because of it's frequent use of disturbing gore, violence and sexual scenarios. (Did I mention Harman spends his free time having masochistic sex with his home care nurse?). If you're an adult who can't stomach these things then you may want to avoid this game as well. Otherwise get out there and play this game because it's like nothing else you've experienced.

Game: Flashback

Flashback: The Quest for Identity was a game created by French developer Delphine Software for the Amiga series of Computers in 1992 as a spiritual successor to their previous hit "Out of This World". I however don't own an Amiga so instead I'll be talking about the version for the Sega Genesis which was published by U.S. Gold a year later in 1993. As much as I love Snatcher, which you can see me talk about below, I feel Flashback: The Quest for Identity is the definitive cyberpunk adventure of the 16 bit era.

The story of Flashback is that you play as Conrad Hart, a cadet at the academy for the Galactic Bureau of Investigation. His senior year thesis project is to make a headset with a lense over one eye that can measure density for the purpose of detecting smuggled goods. Once Conrad tests his headset at a public gathering he notices that several people there have densities that don't match that of other humans. After investigating further, he discovers that aliens have infiltrated human society and even the highest levels of public office. Fearing the worst, Conrad records a copy of his memory and mails it to his friend living offworld as well as a message to himself telling him how to get to his memories and recover them. Not long afterwards Conrad is kidnapped by the aliens and is scheduled for execution but manages to escape to the moon Titan where he is shot down, this is where the game begins. Lost amid the jungles of the terraformed moon, Conrad must get his memories back and stop the aliens from conqouring the human race.

Flashback's gameplay is a puzzle-platformer similar to the original Prince of Persia games. Using a series of button presses, the main character Connor can walk, run, roll, hop, vertically jump, long jump, or high jump. He can also pull himself up ledges or hang from them if need be. Jumping and climing aren't his only mechanics however, Conrad starts with a gun and a shield but will soon make use of many other items that include rocks, keys, force fields, a teleporter and more. Mastering these skills and items will be vital in your quest which will take you from jungles to cities on a Running Man-esque game show, and alien planets. The gameplay is often varied, especially in the second level's underground city where you has you earn money by taking jobs that can involve delivering packages to fighting rogue cyborgs or running a gauntlet to fix a computer before it explodes. Other levels have you often using the environment to solve puzzles that allow you to progress further. All of this is complimented by having very tight controls, even now it brings a smile to my face to run around dropping from ledges and firing a few rounds into enemies.

The graphics are also hold up very well. Just like "Out of This World" Flashback uses rotoscoped flat polygons to achieve very fluidly animated sprites and cutscenes. The backgrounds are also very rich and detailed from the foliage of the jungle to the strange techno organic look of the alien world. Little details like dripping water or cracks in the foundations of buildings are also a nice touch. The game also makes good use of the Genesis colour palette and like I said it still looks great 15 years later. One thing you may notice if you compare this version to the original Amiga version is that when moving from screen to screen on the Genesis version, there is a slight half-second delay. I'm so used to compensating for it that it's ingrained in my head and I don't see it as a problem but it's a slight visual erm.. idiosynchracy that I felt obligated to point out.

The sound for the Sega Genesis version is also great. Other than in cutscenes, music doesn't play all the time, rather it plays only in certain instances to heighten the feeling of tension. It's very eerie sounding and when it plays over the otherwise ambient sounds it gives a real dramatic impact. I actually prefer this to say the SegaCD version which had redbook audio going all the time in the background and served only to make the game seem cheesy is some way. Music and how it is used are very important for setting the mood of any film or television show or game.

So, to all of you people out there I would highly reccomend this game. It's available for the Amiga, DOS, Genesis, SegaCD, SNES, Apple, 3D0, CD-i, Jaguar and more. Whatever you can track this game down for - track it down. Flashback: The Quest for Identity is a pure slice of 16-bit era platforming heaven. Who wouldn't like this game? I don't know, if for whatever reason science fiction isn't your thing or you prefer straight action and aren't interested in puzzles so much then ..Oh hell, just play it.