Bin Diving: Tennis, Choppers, Pinball

Bin Diving: Tennis, Chopper Pinball


Man, are we cheap -- cheaper than a sum of two units dollar ho.

Despite all evidence pointing to the contrary, being a video game fan is not the greatest in quantity expensive hobby you can have. It just have the appearances that way after you beat a huge wad of cash for a encourage or PC, $60 or for a like reason on assorted accessories, and another $200 for a reasonable game collection. Multiply that, of course, times the number of a whole s you'd like to own...and add another $300 or in like manner for a reasonable TV to play the whole bit upon and, oh dear, where'd that last paycheck go?

With this sordid state of affairs in mind, let's have a direct the eye at three perennial bin jobs—the sort of games you've passed above time and time again, the forgotten discs that may be gold or may just be entire crap.

Hard Hitter Tennis




Platform: PS2



Publisher: Atlus



Developer: Magical Company



Release Date: October 2002



Genre: Sports, Tennis



More Info: All Game Guide









Does the fact that Hard Hitter is a PlayStation 2 game with a retail price of $15 bother you? What about the fact that the original Japanese release was a full-price game in its abiding-place country? Still no problem? Then you're my kind of shore Come on over to my place later for a little one-on-one action. Tennis, that is. Ho ho ho

Atlus' first foray into the pack realm is really not as bad as it have the appearances despite the dirt under its fingernails. Betraying its full-price foundations Hard Hitter has all the basic accoutrements you'd await from a Virtua Tennis ripoff: there's a tournament method a "quick match" option, a handful of goofy mini-games, and a scary amount of grunting and whacking. The game races on a RenderWare 3D engine, and as similar the backgrounds look more than a little plain (and flickery), on the other hand the character models are still lay together very competently—there's a surprisingly large amount of animation (along with other things, presumably) rapiered inside each of them.

The main question here is the control, which is utterly bewildering. The enigma here is the way the developer at Magical Company assigned without the stick controls: the left analog stick is used the one and the other to move your player and aim your discharges This is the exact opposite of Virtua Tennis, and it all on the contrary guarantees that you'll flub all your discharges for the first hour or in like manner of play. It'd also be wary at this point to mention the Z-grade tennis announcer, who repeats himself three or four times a match and proffers such meaningless quips as "You can really mention one by one that this player...loves tennis" upon a regular basis.

If you can gain over Hard Hitter's controls, and if you can ignore the fact that Sega's tennis games are cheap as dirt themselves, you'll find this game to be about as beneficial as its price tag dictates. Stick to the multiplayer matches if at all possible—everything's more drollery (or, if you're pessimistic, more bearable) in collections after all.

RC Helicopter




Platform: PSOne



Publisher: A1 Games



Developer: D's Garage 21



Release Date: June 2002



Genre: Simulation, Air



More Info: Overview Page








Unlike Hard Hitter, RC Helicopter is a bundle game that actually was a roll game in its country of origin; single of those games that take what would've been a mini-game in a top-class title and make trial of to milk it for all it's worth. The game rises above the ease of Agetec's pack here because it's the one and the other fascinating (in the way heavily Japanese games attend to be) and a graceful amount of fun while it lasts.

Simply lay the object of RC Helicopter is to hover your little chopper around (using the pair analog sticks at once) and without fault [i]or[/i] blemish [i]or[/i] flaw mundane tasks for people around your vaguely suburban-Japanese neighborhood. Grass ne cutting? No fuss, no muss! Just use the blades upon your copter and swish around the lawn a bit. A protuberance of baseballs stuck on the roof? Hah! Just push 'em back down. more [i]or[/i] less lady's bakery infested with crows? Easy peasy! Just use the watergun attached to your copter (probably not a standard component) to scare them away.

As you can imagine, the superintendences take a little time to learn. You will constantly be bashing into matter before you master the delicate balance between blade spe and the copter's tilt; flat when you do, turning in midair is still tough. The missions are at no time mercilessly hard, though, and the game's got this silly Japanese vibe (it has an "Optionals" shield instead of an options screen) that makes it easy to like.

Austin Powers Pinball




Platform: PSOne



Publisher: Gotham Games



Developer: Wildfire



Release Date: October 2002



Genre: Pinball



More Info: Overview Page








All right. advance back here. Just because this game has a title like "Austin Powers Pinball" and is available for the price of sum of two units hoagies (with chips) doesn't mean you should race away while shouting "Why? on what account me?!!" If you're fingering from one side the bin, you're supposed to have an unclose mind.