Psychic Force 2012 - EXTRA: Richard Wong is a Bastard.

 Man, it's Sunday and I've been pretty busy today.  Busy doing absolutely nothing!  I've actually been playing Psychic Force 2012 this whole weekend and I honestly didn't feel like playing anything else, especially when this game is so dear to me.  So let's talk about it some more, shall we?  I'm that one guy who gives a lot of love to games that were tragically overlooked.  You probably picked up that hint if you looked at my previous blog entries and you couldn't recognize half of what I am even talking about.  But this game, I would have to say it's easily in my top 10 favorite games of all time.  I don't really HAVE a top 10, but if I did you can be sure this game would be in it!

He always has that grin on his face.

The music your typical Japanese synth, but I haven't forgot a single tune in this game.  Both the original arcade tunes and the special arranged versions, I enjoy them both!  Each character has their own theme song that plays when you fight them.  The cyborg GATES features an appropriately mechanical beat, the cool-headed water-focused Carlo got a smooth jazzy tune, and the fiery Regina having an appropriately hot guitar lick.  Though my favorite theme belongs to the glorious bastard of the series: Richard Wong.  This guy is one evil very EVIL man.  With the powers to manipulate time, he can easily ruin your day, his song is titled "Perfect World".  He considers himself to be a chess-master with everyone else in the world his unwitting pawns.  He has used and abused countless people to meet his own ends and he does it all with a mocking smile on face.  His theme song only amplifies his character, playing very elegant piano mixed in with a sense of animosity.  He's a guy with class, but he wouldn't mind stabbing you with hundreds of swords and this song proves that.

Yes, he's flipping you off in this game cover.

Oh wow, this suddenly became about Richard Wong!  Funny what happens when you start writing!  This guy is so badass, that even if you beat him in one of the many story modes, HE WILL STILL WIN!  Even if you kill him, he'll have one last ace up his sleeve to screw you over in your ending.  Play as him in the story mode, and you'll be so badass, that you don't have to GO anywhere!  All your opponents come to you looking for revenge so no traveling is necessary.  Just sit back in your mansion, and be the asshole that ruins so many lives!  In the end, Wong kills everyone on the roster and the world is his.  No screwjob.  No justice.  Nothing.  The bad guy WINS!  And all the good guys get horrible endings, but this bastard gets what he wants in his end!  ISN'T THAT WONDERFULLY HORRIBLE?!

And I'll end this weekend's post with Wong's theme song.  I picked up a new game today, and I'll talk about that in the coming days.  Until then, I hope you have a good evening.

Psychic Force 2012 - Fight for your beliefs! Kill those that you love! Be F***ED no matter what you do!

This game was my entire 6th grade. When I got a Dreamcast back when it came out, my parents bought Psychic Force 2012 as a random Christmas present. I wonder what was their logic for picking this game, especially when it has a particularly busty woman on the front of it but boy AM I GLAD that they got me something unlike anything I ever played before! I've played the hell out of it, and  I'M STILL PLAYING IT!

This game is all about aerial combat.

Psychic Force 2012 is a 3D-style Fighting game but with a unique system all it's own. You and your opponent are psychiccers who fight it out in a three dimensional cube hurling elemental projectiles at each other or engaging in close quarters combat. You could consider it a precursor to games like "Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi". The style of gameplay might not be for everyone but for me, it just CLICKED. The fighting was fast paced and chaotic coupled with an energetic soundtrack that have tunes still stuck in my head even today!

Even when you beat the game.  You lose.

Replaying this game, the impact of the story hasn't fully hit me until now. More often than not, it's depressing as hell. You choose one character and watch his or her story unfold through dialogue with the games other psychic powered fighters. Sadly, due to two warring factions, characters will refuse to listen to reason and you end up killing most of those people you encountered throughout the story. And when you reach the end, and beat the final boss (which also varies depending on who you are playing as), then ending you get will often be very bitter, tragic, or just a downright evil ending. The strength of the Japanese voice acting really drives home the point that not everyone in this game is going to have a happy ending. This is a testament to how strong the characters are, their interactions with each other bring out their best and worst of their emotions. I really loved the characters in this game, even the incredibly evil ones. It's just a shame that a lot of them will die, even for the most petty of reasons.

I just loved this game. I played it for hours upon hours until my Dreamcast finally died on me. But my love for Psychic Force 2012 lives on in my fond memories...oh and emulation! Truly, it's not a game for everyone, especially those who are put off by Japanese style games. I never met anybody in public who has even tried let alone HEARD of this game aside from my friends (but they don't count as I was the one who introduced it to them). There's also a Playstation version of the game known as "Psychic Force 2", so if you don't have a Dreamcast you can check out that version instead. As usual, I will leave you guys with a video of the game in action, have a good weekend everybody.