The Hand Baked Arcade returns to the scene with Pure Gaming to pump more retro video games in to people’s eye holes on the 29th May. This time they are installing themselves at Pure Groove Records, Smithfield, London, an apt location as accompanying the huge amount of retro classics are tunes provided by E:LF, Randomoidz and Schemeboy which should
appeal to you if you like your music electronic. Especially E:LF’s set as it is going to have plenty of chip tunes and other computer game inspired music (fiver says that the classic Tetris anthem “popcorn” gets played at least once)

What else to expect; well if previous installations at festivals like Glade and Glastonbury are anything to go by then classics like Street Fighter, Golden Axe, Pac Man and Space Invaders will all be inevitable. Along with those mega hits, I’m hoping on plenty
of other long lost gems and favourites that I may have forgotten. Back in the day these would be played on 15″ CRT sitting about 3 foot away from the screen, just to get all of the retina burning goodness. Hand Baked Arcade, however, promises 7ft projected  screens (indoors and outside) along with the classic tube displays to keep the purists happy.

To be honest I was always far more interested in my GameBoy than the SNES. Perhaps I was daunted by a screen that was any larger than a postage stamp, enjoying straining my eyes on a screen with no back lighting (how did we ever cope before the GameBoy SP?). However the pull of a group of like minded children of the 80s may make me change my mind. There will be able to see a full report on Pure Gaming after the event as 7bitarcade will be looking for bricks with coins hidden in them and dodging barrels being thrown by apes. In theory of course!

There is some significant excitement being generated in anticipation of Heavy Rain, a game that many here at 7Bit will be playing. Perhaps now then would be a good time for anyone else out there thinking of playing it to sample its spiritual prequel.

Going by a variety of monikers for reasons I don’t totally understand, the game known as Fahrenheit and Indigo Prophecy is something you may want to give a whirl, before or after playing Heavy Rain, if only to see how Quantic Dream are developing their own formula of adventure games.

Now it is a few years old now, so forgive me for not reviewing something more cutting edge, but I have a suspicion that many of you virile young game-studs out there might have overlooked this one, and the release of Heavy Rain means now is a perfect time to go back and have a look-see at its precursor and to appreciate how it was influenced.

Fahrenheit comes closest of all games I have played to that old chestnut of being an interactive film. Everything the game does tries to reinforce that perception, just play the tutorial and they basically tell you “you are a virtual actor in an interactive film”.

Controls are somewhat clunky and not very well explained, especially on the PC version. In any kind of situation that requires responsiveness there is a series of quick-time events, but rather than just asking you to press a certain button or sequence of buttons, they often require you to use combinations of keys and the timing is at first a little ambiguous. Once you get used to it, it’s not so bad though.

If you are a derider of quick-time don’t even bother opening the box on this one. You will do many many many quick-time events, many of them quite complicated and occaisionally tedious as long scripted events demand intricate quick-time input sequences. Be prepared to repeat challenging sequences many many times.

Beyond the quick-time events, it becomes more like an old-school point and click (although without the pointing and clicking) adventure game. Investigating items, speaking to people, all that adventure game staple that you would expect. Dialogue choices drive the gameplay forward in many instances and often feel like they have some real weight to them beyond the immediate responses. Seemingly inconsequential dialogue choices early on in the game can have a more serious impact later.

That is one of the things that contribute to the strength of the game; it creates a very convincing sense of cause and effect, an illusion of having the freedom to affect outcome by every choice. The illusion they craft is much more comprehensive than the reality, but that is part and parcel of being a game. All entertainment is illusion, so take pleasure in the well crafted and convincing illusions.

This is a game totally driven by narrative, and for the first half it is totally compelling. You spend much of the game switching viewpoints between a man who brutally murders someone in a bathroom stall and the two detectives trying to catch him. You would think that this would eliminate the tension as you can see both ends of the story, but if anything it creates more. You can see directly how well your attempts to cover up the crime work, and then work from the other angle to unravel these secrets. It is an interesting narrative technique for a game, and for the most part it works very well.

I do have to lay a very hefty complaint with regards to the narrative once things start to progress though. If you are planning to play the game and don’t want any kind of hint as to the plot development then cease reading here good sir/madam.

Still here? Good. Don’t worry I wouldn’t give you any real spoilers anyway, it goes against the sacred code and I would have to commit ritual suicide if I did. Without giving away too many details, lets just say that it all goes a bit silly towards the second half. All the things that make the first part of the game so compelling seem to vanish. It feels like getting up from your seat in the cinema to go to the bathroom and coming back to a different screen by mistake; when you leave it is dark, mysterious, dramatic, tense. When you get back it is cheesy, cliched, and almost non-sensical. You start off with a paranormal thriller and end up with a sci-fi B movie, and that more than anything is what marrs an otherwise compelling and original game.

From the start, the gameplay is always playing second fiddle to the story and the atmosphere. As the story and atmosphere degrade and become less compelling, the clunky controls and gameplay become much less tolerable.

Nevertheless, I would recommend this game to anyone looking for something a little different. I am a big fan of Fahrenheit despite its failings, and I am sincerely hoping that in Heavy Rain they have expanded on the positive and cut back on the negative from Fahrenheit.

Overall, it is a middling 3 out of 5 thermometers, if only it had kept on as it started it could have been much more.

Hey all, glad you guys liked my top 10 must have games for the Dreamcast, thank you! I noticed you wanted more Dreamcast articles so here one is, a retro review of Chu Chu Rocket!

Chu Chu Rocket! (never forget the ‘!’) was one of the Dreamcast’s strong points in the games market. It boasted online functions so people could easily make a game and play it with someone over the internet. The game was such a hit that it was given away free with every new Dreamcast console to demo the Dreamcast’s online functions (such as online chat, web browsing and playing games online).

The game is all about leading mice (ChuChus) into your rocket while avoiding the cats (KapuKapus). Its about getting the most mice into you rocket, each ChuChu = 1 mouse, a golden ChuChu = 50 mice and a red ChuChu = a special move (e.g. Cat Attack, puts a cat into your opponents rockets which takes mice from them). Every time a cat walks into your rocket you lose one third of your ChuChus so be careful. The game can also be played with up to four of your friends locally if you have some spare controllers, so you can enjoy beating them while they try to figure out what to do!

Chu Chu Rocket! has other features than just the main game such as Team Battle (two on two), Stage Challenge (complete tasks within the time limit), Puzzle (lead ChuChus into rockets on the puzzle board), Puzzle Edit (make your own puzzle boards), network (Play online*), Homepage (Chu Chu Rocket! website*) and settings.

*Sadly, these features no longer work because the servers are closed down and the website is no longer working.

I think I’ve cleared everything up, there’s not much more to cover on this game because its basically a puzzle game. Anyways, you can purchase Chu Chu Rocket! on eBay cheaply for about £2-3, depending on its condition. Its sad that this great online game can’t be played online anymore, I wish SEGA would open DreamArena (SEGA.NET in America) again so Dreamcast owners could play online, its a shame because it was really good as well (in my eyes, it was better than the Playstation Network).

So its 4 out of 5 KapuKapus from me.

Just for fun now, who thinks SEGA should bring back Dreamarena and Dreamcast? Leave your comments in the comment section!