GameTap Thursday: Daikatana about to make you its b*tch

by Alexander Sliwinski { Sep 7th 2007 at 10:00AM }

Is it Friday already? Guess John Romero did a good job and we're sore, we should do the GameTap Thursday post now. This week GameTap added the game which brought us the controversial ad you see above for Daikatana. Where as Thief: Deadly Shadows -- which was last week's addition to GameTap -- was one of the last games by Ion Storm studios, Daikatana, which came out a few years before T:DS, was when the cracks started showing in the company. Well, now the game which started the beginning of the end for Ion Storm has a nice permanent home.

Daikatana (PC) - Beyond the behind-the-scenes drama, another thing that mired the game was its reviews. Maybe with seven years of distance and an open mind we can finally see John Romero's vision -- or lack of -- for Daikatana..
Infernal (PC) - A game that flew completely under the radar in 2007 (yeah, this year). Heaven and Hell's armies stop paying attention to "the rules" for a short time in this third-person shooter. Definitely check it out. Great mindless action for a lazy afternoon.
Blast Miner (PC) - Like Tetris, but not. A puzzle game that's part of GameTap's indie series.
Morning's Wrath (PC) - Another GameTap indie game. In the vein of Diablo, you play as Princess Morning who must plunge into the dungeons below the castle to repel the invaders from "heck".
Startopia (PC) - SimCity in space, but so much more. Manage a space station on the edge of the galaxy and protect it from all sorts of problems both internally and externally. Another great title that'll burn an afternoon -- or many afternoons -- away if you're into quirky sim games.

After the break we have GameTap's updated list of free games, now at 41 titles. There's actually a bunch of exciting editions this week including Ghouls n' Ghosts, if you have more time Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2, and the classic 1943.

1. Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2
2. Restaurant Empire
3. Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers
4. Warlords Battlecry 3
5. King of Fighters 95
6. Metal Slug
7. X2: The Threat
8. Commandos 3: Destination Berlin
9. Alpha Mission II
10. Shock Troopers 2
11. Sengoku 3
12. Qix II: Tournament
13. Soccer Brawl
14. Samurai Shodown
15. Laser Squad Nemesis
16. Super Gem Fighters
17. Myst Online: Uru Live
18. Exed Exes
19. Football Frenzy
20. Bust-A-Move Again
21. Baseball Stars 2
22. Root Beer Tapper
23. Three Wonders
24. Elevator Action
25. Buku Kakuro
26. Puzzled / Joy Joy Kid
27. Capcom Sports Club
28. League Bowling
29. 1943
30. Space Invaders
31. Joust
32. Bubbles
33. Ghouls n Ghosts
34. Legendary Wings
35. Black Tiger
36. 19XX
37. The King of Dragons
38. The Last Blade
39. Mega Man: The Power Battle
40. Riding Hero
41. Rampage

Tags: gametap, gametapthursday

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

robert @ Sep 7th 2007 10:15AM

John Romero can make me a sandwich.

dan stabbingworth @ Sep 7th 2007 1:15PM

I believe you mean "fetch me a sammich!"

Cabcru @ Sep 7th 2007 10:18AM

Ahh, Startopia was (/is) a great game. Crying shame it didn't do a lot better when it came out.

Grammar freak @ Sep 7th 2007 10:18AM

To win the game you must beat ME, John Romero!

Word of the street. @ Sep 7th 2007 10:35AM

John Romero's about to make you his Friend.

How nice of him.

comtar @ Sep 7th 2007 10:50AM

I'd get Daikatana if they could somehow add the cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000 to do voice over commentary similar to how alot of games now feature commentary while you play, then it'd be a whole lotta fun!

Mr Slavio @ Sep 7th 2007 11:01AM

Do they add to or change the free game list every week?

t_m @ Sep 8th 2007 10:46AM

it changes randomly. Some stay on for months, others only last a week.
Its pretty cool for the older, arcade or emulated games. ... but (for example) it was pretty annoying when Hitman 1 was only available for a week or so. No time to finish it.
Some come and go regularly.. there is almost always a version of Street Fighter 2 and of 1945, but often the exact version changes randomly.

I just wish they'd let you keep a free game after they stop being free... even if that meant you couldn't play any others until you deleted it.

Sean @ Sep 7th 2007 11:20AM

John Romero is about to make you his surrogate mother!

Word of the street. @ Sep 7th 2007 11:57AM

John Romero is about to make you his Mistress

Sean @ Sep 7th 2007 12:19PM

John Romero is about to make you his pair of shoes!

Word of the street. @ Sep 7th 2007 12:37PM

John Romero's is about to make you his Personal Samba instructor!

Sean @ Sep 7th 2007 12:40PM

Now that's just too far!

SeriousKriss @ Sep 7th 2007 11:33AM

Startopia is still a great game. Very nice addition!

HCF @ Sep 7th 2007 11:45AM

I loved Startopia! Really quirky and fun. I strongly suggest anyone who hasn't tried it, and actually likes the sort of "Theme Hospital" sort of game, go pick it up.

WiNG @ Sep 7th 2007 11:49AM

I never played Daikatana but back in middle school this was one of my friend's favorite games. I guess he was just bat-shit crazy?

Abscissa @ Sep 7th 2007 3:20PM

No, he wasn't. It really wasn't a bad game at all. It's just that people got so tired of the arrogance and hype and delays, that most people weren't really willing to give it a fair chance once it came out.

Mr Khan @ Sep 7th 2007 4:44PM

The problem with the game, as i saw it, was that it was attempting to be the flagship of all FPS's of its day, but in doing so took too long to come out (kind of like Duke Nukem Forever), but unlike 3D Realms, Eidos and Ion Storm decided to just dump the game out in a time when it was no longer anywhere near the cutting-edge awesomeness that it was

Basically, it suffered the Red Steel problem, although 100x worse. That's why it consistently makes "Worst games ever" lists alongside such true shit as "Plumbers Don't Wear Ties" and "ET"

Abscissa @ Sep 8th 2007 2:51AM

Personally, I'd have to disagree with the common perception of ET as well. I've played it and it really wasn't all that bad. There are worse 2600 games out there. It just wasn't as earth-shatteringly great as Atari was convinced it would be.

Heck, Atari's overly-high expectations for ET made Daikatana and Red Steel look like nothing. AIUI, they made so many of those carts (more than there were systems in existence) that it could have been the best selling game up to that point and there still would have been a warehouse full of unsold stock. But I suppose anyone reading Joystiq probably already knows that.

t_m @ Sep 8th 2007 10:50AM

I only played the demo, but that sucked.

You spent most of the time running around a green swamp trying to shoot small green frogs and green mosquitos with an inacurate and slow pistol that fired green bolts.

Also, the AI companions were a key element.. but AI back then (and even now) wasn't good enough to make them useful. (infact they were annoying).

And having the most powerful weapon be a melee weapon didn't make much sense, and 1st person melee combat wasn't very intuitive.

however, from what i understand, it DID get better once you got into the later time periods and got some better weapons.