anonymous Mar 9 2005, 09:22 PM Game: American Gladiators Creator: Nomad Genre: Sports Description: Play many events from the action/sports show featuring the known hosts and gladiators Rating: 94% Review: After a retirement from South Park gaming, Nomad gave it another shot with this game just to disappear again. But this is most likely one of the best South Park games ever made. IPB Image The game starts off like the same-titled show and the intro looks quite impressive which is random most of the time. In the main menu you have a big selection. Select if you want to play alone or if you want to play with a friend. You can always view the controls or if you need more explanation you can get advice from the real American Gladiators (yeah they actually appear in this game, after WCW tried to shut down Nomad's wrestling game the American Gladiators wanted to show that they support South Park gaming not like these whining "wrestling" actors tongue.gif ) on how to play the many different events. You also have a cheats menu which unlocks nice stuff. But now to the game: You select either a red or blue suit and enter your name. The hosts introduce each event with random speeches and the events also come in random order. You see a camera showing the specific event in its entirety. After your turn there's always a funny, again random, cutscene of how your opponent mastered the event. In the end the results are presented and a password for unlocking sweet mini-games. This game has mainly original graphics. The people look "South Park" nothing wannabe like. You see flashlights through the events and many people watching, there are so many details that I can't even list them. To say it in less words: These are some of the best graphics I've ever seen in a South Park game if not the best. IPB Image All sound effects are fitting with hits and shots etc. There's also other arcade like sound effects like making a basket in Powerball. All music is mostly from Super Nintendo games, a little bit Super Mario Kart and much Megaman 7. The intro has the original American Gladiators theme. Nothing more to add, the music decently sets the mood for the events even though it's not original. Before I make a game by game review I'll talk about the controls. Every game has more or less different controls and takes some getting used to. You need to use the (left) Ctrl, Space, Z, X and C keys plus the cursor keys. If you think about it, this control scheme is pretty clever as the left hand controls the action keys and the other hand the directions at least for non-German players as our keyboards have the Z and Y key switched for no explainable reason but that isn't Nomad's fault. IPB Image Well let's start with the simplest event the Atlasphere, you control your "atlas," that has a car movement, with the arrow keys. Human Canonball has you stopping 3 different bars with the ZXC key combination mentioned before, the more precise you can stop them in the center, the bigger the chance to make the gladiator collapse. The Wall has you climbing the wall with simple button mashing and the arrow keys while trying to escape the hunting gladiator. In Powerball you gain points by throwing the balls into the baskets. The Joust is a nice beat-em-up which only need the combination of arrow keys and the space button to master. In Assault you need to dodge the balls and shoot the gladiator in the hiding spots. As much fun the gameplay is, it's really too easy if you get hang of it for example if you know how the gladiators behave in Atlasphere it's ridiculously easy to score 15+ points (in my case nearly 30) in the event. Talking of points the random calculator for your opponent isn't really correct all the times as an event in which you can get a maximum of 10 points the opponent can get 11 or an event which goes by intervals of 3 points the foe is able to get 2 or 5 points, understand what I mean? Anyway you can overlook these imperfections because the game is still very much fun nonetheless. You will be coming back for more after you've played a few times because you want to beat the computer or simply want to know all the passwords for playing the decent mini-games. There's also the possibility to play with a friend. It takes some time until you have seen all the random comments, cutscenes and collected all the codes. And the game doesn't seem to get old after many times because it's just so much fun. I will never sound more positive in a review ever again! What I want to say is download this game it's too good and possibly my favourite South Park game ever. IPB Image Wormmaster May 24 2006, 04:39 PM Game: American Gladiators Creator: Nomad Genre: Sports Description: Play in some events known greatly from American Gladiators. Rating: 91% Review: Ah, American Gladiators. Just recently I re-introduced myself to this awesome, godlike game. So, let's play. First, we see an intro, after that, the main menu (duh). Now you can select if you'll play alone or with a friend. Then you can edit your gladiator's name and hometown. So, first we get... Atlasphere. I personally don't really like atlasphere. The enemies are quite a pain in your ass if you're cornered. After the event, you'll see a funny and random cutscene of your opponent's try in it (if you play single player, that is). Then we get Joust, my personal favourite. You've got to whack your opponent up with a stick while blocking his attacks. Again, you'll see your opponent's try in a cutscene (if you're playing Single Player). Then we get The Wall. It's a bit too easy in my opinion. You've just got to climb the wall while avoiding the gladiator. Again, you'll see... Well, you know already. tongue.gif Now, to Assault. You need to dodge balls by jumping and ducking to get to the station where you get a weapon. With the weapon, you must shoot the target by stopping the bars with keys I already forgot. tongue.gif Again... Well, yeah, you know, the cutscene. Now it's time for Human Cannonball. In this, you've got to stop 3 moving bars with ZXC key combination. Get them all in the center, and you'll hit the gladiator in his head. Again, blah blah blah. And the last but not least event, Powerball. I also hate this one, but you might like it. In this, you've got to pick a ball, dodge the gladiators and put the balls in baskets to get points. And again, the cutscene is seen. Of course, the order of the events randomizes everytime. The random point generator for CPU is not perfect (like, the maximum point count you can get in The Wall is 10, but CPU might get 11 or 12.), but this is still a fun game to play. Wormmaster Approves. happy.gif Evano May 30 2006, 05:20 AM Game: American Gladiators Creator: Nomad Genre: Sports Description: Play in some events known greatly from American Gladiators. Rating: 89% Review: This game was the last game that Nomad had made before he retired in the SPGA. There are different types of sports in the game like the joust which is my favourite sport in the game, the powerball where you move around being chased by two other guys, the wall where you have to climb a wall and avoiding another guy, atlasphere, human cannonball and assault. I only gave this a 89% is beacause of the different controls and the hard gameplay, still it is a fun sports game that has good graphics and nice music in the background.