Month: August 2015

Replaying Nox, Again

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I have never bothered to create a top-ten list of my all-time favorite video games. Maybe I should since it seems the only way to get people to read your Web site is to organize everything into numbered lists. In any event, were I ever to compile such a list Nox would be somewhere in the top five for me.

After a recent upgrade to Windows 10 (excellent by the way), I was going through and making sure all my treasured old programs still worked. In the process I booted up my GOG.com version of Nox and noticed it had some issues. After much searching and fruitless forum posting I finally found a workaround. In case you are wondering, you need to install a game mod called “Nox SDL.” You can download the patch here. Once I got the game running, it wasn’t long before I was sucked back in to my fourth play through of the game.

This game is so great. I don’t know about you, but I immediately realized that when I could play with my character stripped down to his briefs:

Nox Underwear

Beating the game would be difficult, but you could play the entire game running around like a crazed streaker if you so chose.

The game was marketed as a role playing game in the style of Diablo but that’s not what it really is. Although there are a lot of standard RPG tropes’leveling up, collecting loot, upgrading spells and abilities’Nox has much more in common arcade-style top-down action games like Guantlet and Smash TV. The game play is fast, exciting and there isn’t much thinking and strategy. If it moves, kill it! As simple as this sounds it is sounds, the game is incredibly fun. There’s just enough exploration and level variety to keep you going. The story is paper thin but it’s filled with humor and the main villain Hecubah is terrifically voice acted.

I even bothered to record a bunch of game play footage to post on YouTube and make tons of money off of the idiot millennials who watch other people play video games:

See, what I mean? It’s just awesome! I really wish someone would take up the mantle and reboot Nox. A few modern games like Torchlight look like it but are still firmly RPG games with horrible inventory management and no twitch game play. Magicka comes close, but I felt the mechanics were too complicated and the game seemed overly concerned with co-op play. For now, the GOG.com version will suffice. As soon as I finished this playthrough as a conjurer I immediately felt the itch to start over again as a fighter or wizard.

Nox Patch for Windows 10Download

OlliOlli on PC (9/10)

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One of my favorite games of the coin-op era was Atari’s 720. It had a simple, but unique control scheme that’s pretty much impossible to replicate through emulation. You would basically jump then spin a knob (dressed up like a joystick), and the more times you spun the dial, the more points you got. As abstract as it was, this felt like skateboarding.

OlliOlli is the only skateboarding game that I have played that comes close to matching the rhythm and feel of 720°. The controls seem complicated at first: flick and spin the left stick to jump and press A to land. But once you start to get the hang of it (you never really get the hang of the landings) there’s an incredible flow as you grind from one obstacle to the next. Landing is everything though. If you don’t time that tap of the A button just right you lose out on big points.

In the end the game is better compared with a bullet hell shooter. Timing and memorization are everything. Strategy and exploration have no place here. Still, trying to get everything perfect is addictive and the reward of hitting a huge combo just right is greatly satisfying.