beyond good and evil

this has been out for a while now, for xbox and ps2. i don't think it's available for gamecube. one should be able to find it for $20 or less. it's a real gem. i read all sorts of rave reviews talking about how this is one of the best and most underappreciated games ever, and so i picked it up a long time ago, but i didn't pop it in until today. go find it now and buy it. it's legitimately awesome.

i'd say the closest well-known game that's like it is zelda. so it's like that, except the fighting is easier, i think. the moving around is better. there's a huge camera aspect in the game that's a lot of fun. i remember wind waker had a camera mini quest sort of thing but it was just for kicks. in this game you're a journalist searching for proof of a conspiracy, so the camera plays a large role in the game. and there's a hovercraft that is plain fun to fly around, enough so that one could create a whole game based just on it.

it's funny, it's cute, it's beautiful, it plays well, and the story is engaging. i love how all the military guys keep calling jade things like short cake. she's this little asian girl, but she's got a short bo staff thing and some mean martial arts skills. she's gorgeous, which isn't a big deal, but it doesn't hurt that she's easy on the eyes without being ridiculous like, for example, lara croft. a lot of characters are humanoid animals, including the orphans that jade takes care of, and her sidekick is a big pig who she affectionately calls "old ham." i really like the controls, and something as simple as the code-entering interface is amazingly executed and should be the standard from now on for all games with analog controllers. it's this crazy helix thing that works really well for scrolling through all of the alphabet and digits quickly.

the first boss battle was very reminiscent of zelda. they must have drawn influences from there. so well done.

raj you ps2 owning son of a bitch, you should still get it, but i bet you it's slower and noticeably less pretty. xbox >> ps2. although if the protagonist is a cute little asian girl you're probably already sold.