House of the Dead 2 and 3 Return
Nintendo Wii (2007)

I knew it had been too long since I had stepped in an arcade when I happened across House of the Dead 4 at my local mall and my first question was, “wow, did I miss House of the Dead 1 through 3?”

The House of the Dead games are rail shooters — first person shooting games where players do not control their character’s paths. Characters travel through the game along a predetermined path, and gamers are only responsible for pointing and shooting. Don’t worry, that part alone will keep you plenty busy. The two games included here are both ports from previous console systems (House of the Dead 2 is a port of the Dreamcast version; House of the Dead 3 came from the Xbox), with both games modified to work with the Wii’s controls. The Wii’s controllers, with or without any additional gun accessories, work amazingly well. Aiming is smooth, not jittery at all, and responsive. I had no frustrations with the controls at all. For those who feel a difference between using a bare controller vs. one of the zappers out there, the game includes a quick calibration mode that works great (more games should include this).

Those unfamiliar with the House of the Dead storyline shouldn’t have any trouble jumping into House of the Dead 2 and 3 with both feet. Both games’ storylines are, by and large, moot. The goal here is to shoot zombies in the head and avoid shooting humans in the head. That’s pretty much it. Along with the games’ original arcade mode, there are other modes including Extreme Mode (where everything’s a little tougher) and a training mode that tests your reflexes.

If I had any bones to pick at all, it would be with the disc’s loading times. During the arcade/story mode things’s aren’t bad, but the training mode spends ten seconds reloading every time you fail (which turns out to be quite often, in my case). House of the Dead 3 has some in-game slowdown as well. There are two other basic complaints about the game floating around on the net, neither of which I agree with. One concerns the game’s graphics, which have not been significantly updated since the Dreamcast/Xbox versions. I quit buying Wii games for their graphical quality a long time ago. The other common complaint I’ve read is that the game is priced too high — again, I disagree. $30 for two games with no major bugs sounds pretty good to me, especially compared to some of the stinkers currently available for the Wii that are priced higher than that. Fans of rail shooters are certainly getting their money’s worth with this package.

Happy Feet
Nintendo Wii (2006)

After a while, all those computer animated kid-oriented films start to run together. While I’m sure my kids (ages two and five) could tell you all about last year’s hit film Happy Feet, all I can tell you is that it stars computer-animated penguins, at least one of which likes to dance. I’m sure there’s more to it than that, but honestly I already feel like I know more about the plot than I want to.

Happy Feet for the Nintendo Wii combines three basic game engines and links them together with cutesy animated cutscenes. The first level is a DDR-style game that involves waving the Wiimote around instead of stomping with one’s feet. The second level has players sliding on their little penguin stomachs while racing through ice tunnels and avoiding snow drifts and icicles. The game’s third engine is an underwater swimming adventure on rails. The DDR-esque level involves holding the Wiimote like a wand and flicking it in one of four directions (up/down/left/right). The other two levels involve holding the Wiimote sideways, tilting it from side to side to steer.

First, the good news. Happy Feet is great for young kids. My five-year-old son was able to beat all the levels the first time through, so the learning curve is minimal. Plus, you know, kids love singing and dancing penguins. So that’s a plus.

And now for the bad.

(Get comfortable.)

For starters, if you are over the age of ten you will be bored with this game in about ten minutes. The DDR idea is gimmicky with controls that don’t always register. The underwater swimming scenes offer few challenges, and the belly-sledding game is like Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam watered down for pre-schoolers. (In fact, after playing Happy Feet for fifteen minutes, my son begged me to put Tony Hawk back in.) The levels seem unrelated other than the fact that there’s a penguin in all of them, and after running through the three types a couple of times everything became pretty repetititve. I had hoped that at least the two-player modes would be more fun, but even those are pretty lame. In the underwater scenes, there’s no way to go faster than your opponent, and in the downhill sledding you both control the same penguin, with one person steering while the other jumps and does tricks. Zzz.

It’s pretty obvious that the controls for Happy Feet were developed with conventional gamepad controllers in mind and retrofitted to the Wii. Personally I didn’t find any added enjoyment or gain in control in tilting the controller vs. a conventional d-pad. Bottom line, Happy Feet feels like a $9.99 game with a $49.99 price tag. It barely passes for a “last-gen” game, and certainly doesn’t meet the expectations for the current generation.

Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
2006 (Xbox)

The latest installment in Tom Clancy’s/Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon’s franchise is Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (GRAW), available for the Xbox 360, Xbox, and PC. The PC and Xbox versions are different enough from the 360 release that they can really be considered two different games. While I haven’t played the 360 verison, I have played all the previous Ghost Recon (GR) games available for both the PC and the Xbox, which is what I’ll be comparing the Xbox version of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter against.

GRAW follows the same general style and presentation of the other Xbox Ghost Recon games (all of which I loved, I feel compelled to mention). Like the previous games, GRAW is divided into larger missions and smaller tasks and goals which are constantly being explained to you throughout the game. In-game audio and video clips constantly feed you current information about checkpoints, new mission goals, and so on. There’s never a question about what you’re supposed to be doing at any given time; the Ghosts have strict orders and specific targets, facts the game will remind you of if you get too far off course.

The biggest difference fans of the series will notice is that unlike previous Ghost Recon games, GRAW is presented in first-person. While it doesn’t make the game any less fun, it does make it seem less like a “Ghost Recon” game and more like a “generic first-person Army shooter”. In your first-person view, information is constantly being passed to you via heads-up displays in your visor. Your map, your datalink, and even what your backup Ghost parter is seeing is all pumped onto your screen in small windows. While the audio clips often contain critical information, most of the video clips are of such bad quality as to be useless. The small window that shows what your partner sees looks more like a Powerpoint slideshow than real video, and the clips of people talking to you (the helicopter pilot, for example) are 2-3 seconds long and then looped for the length of the audio. I’ve seen better lip-syncronization in dubbed ninja movies.

GRAW takes place in Mexico City, where throughout the streets you’ll find plenty of cars, planters and obligitory crates to take cover behind. Your overall mission is to rescue both the American and Mexican presidents from Mexican rebels who have already killed the Canadian Prime Minister. Unlike the previous games in which you had a squad of ghosts to control, you’re only given one fellow soldier to accompany you through missions this time. This addresses the problem some of the previous games had in which your fellow AI soldiers occasionally did too much of the work. Commands such as “advance”, “regroup” and “hold your fire” can still be issued quickly to your partner, useful for sending the poor sap directly into a patch of angry rebels or off to destroy convoys of enemy tanks by himself while you hang back in the rear sipping on margaritas. The “advance” feature can be used to send your fellow Ghost running for cover, although from what I could tell he did better on his own than with me bossing him around.

Those who detest online campers will be delighted that the prone position (lying down) has been removed from the game. Instead, in addition to crouching or standing, players can now sprint by pressing down the left analog stick and then pushing it forward while steering with the right. It doesn’t take as much manual dexterity as actually running, but it’s close. While running, a stamina bar appears, preventing gamers from running the entire time. Players can also “lean” around corners while holding down the left trigger and pressing left or right on the left analog stick. Pressing down on the right analog stick turns on your rifle’s scope. Running across an alley way, ducking behind a dumpter and peering around it using your scope requires pressing down on the left analog stick/pushing it forward and steering with the right stick (to run), pressing left trigger (to duck), pressing the right analog stick (to turn on the scope and finally holding down the left trigger while pressing left or right on the left analog stick to peek around the dumpster. There’s definitely a learning curve involved, although probably not any more than any other advanced first-person shooter.

GRAW pushes the Xbox to its limits, a fact evident by the game’s loading times and frame stutters. The game’s physics engine is kind of fun though, and you will be delighted at the way enemy soldiers crumple after being shot by your sniper rifle — that is, if you can overcome the newly added “drift” feature, which makes your scope wander around aimlessly as you try and plug bad guys. While the majority of the game maintains a decent framerate, it’s hard not to notice the stall, stutter and jump every time the helicopter takes off at the beginning of the first level. And trust me, you’ll be seeing that scene plenty while learning GRAW’s controls. Unlike previous GR games, in GRAW you can only save your game at specified save points, not at any given time. That means you’ll have to make it pretty far in the first mission before finding one. Walk past one manned alley and it’s back to square one, captain.

Like Summit Strike before it, additional styles of gameplay such as “capture the flag” and “last man standing” are available through Xbox Live. Up to twelve players can battle it out online. In person, up to four people can shoot it out, Goldeneye-style.

Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter is definitely different than the other games in the series. The game’s many changes almost make GRAW seem like it’s not part of the franchise. Gamers used to crawling around and waiting in the shadows will have to adapt their style of play if they want to survive in this run-and-gun chapter. Fans of the original storylines will enjoy taking Captain Mitchell out on yet another mission, but diehards may find the game has strayed a little too far from the chain’s tried-and-true roots to be familiar.

Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike
Xbox (2005)

Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike is one of those games that doesn’t really need reviewing. It’s essentially Ghost Recon 2, repackaged with a few new features. If you liked the original, you’ll like this one. However, since A, it’s the only new game I’ve picked up in the past two weeks, and B, everybody is rushing out the door to head to either CGE or vgXpo this weekend, I thought I would go ahead and write up a brief review. Oh, I almost forgot the most important part; C, it’s really good.

Using the same engine as Ghost Recon 2, this stand-alone expansion pack adds new maps and new missions to the existing GR franchise. Offline, there are eleven new missions which can be played by either one or two players. Online, GR2:SS contains two new styles of game play (Heli-Hunt and Armor Strike, bringing the total for 24), 24 maps, and several new weapon and graphical upgrades.

As with many other FPS shooters, you’ll need to take control of your squad if you plan to get very far in the mission. Hold them back and you may be the first to take a bullet from the enemy; send them off into battle too soon and you’ll risk blowing your cover. Fortunately your fellow soldiers have pretty good AI, and tend to react realistically in most battle situations. Unfortunately for you, so does the enemy.

While GR2:SS is being promoted as an expansion pack, there are enough new features and upgrades found within for it to stand on its own feet. Ghost Recon 2.5, perhaps. Fans of console FPS who like a little strategy mixed with their weaponry should pick up Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike. Not only is it a better game than GR2, but it also has an MSRP of $29.99. Win/win.

Godzilla Generations
Dreamcast (1998)

Some people claim the Dreamcast tanked due to the release of Sony’s PlayStation 2. Others say the Dreamcast failed because of widespread piracy of the system’s games. My own personal theory is that the Dreamcast failed because Godzilla Generations sucked so badly.

Ruining a Godzilla game is like ruining a cake — you started with some pretty tasty ingredients, so what happened? Guys love tearing things up (have you ever been to a monster truck rally?), so it doesn’t seem possible that anyone could ruin a game that revolves around tearing things up! And yet, once again, game developers have done the seemingly impossible, and somehow made mass destruction boring.

The goal of Godzilla Generations is to pick one of multiple versions of the big green lug (Godzilla, Mechagodzilla, First Generation Godzilla, USA Godzilla) and work your way through levels by destroying cities and avoiding death. While playing you will notice Godzilla has the ability to roar and heal himself, which essentially means you can play forever without dying (unless it’s from boredom). Gameplay revolves around stomping on various cities while avoiding being killed by tiny army people, but there are multiple quirks (including control and camera issues) that keep this from being as fun as it might sound. First off, Godzilla should be renamed to Godmolasses as it takes him forever to perform such complicated maneuvers as turning around.

Just like the Christmas I was old enough to realize Santa wasn’t coming, I played Godzilla Generations for a couple of hours hoping it was going to get better, but sadly realizing it wasn’t going to happen. While some of the technical and graphical issues can probably be attributed to the fact that this was a launch title for the Dreamcast, even the world’s most advanced processor wouldn’t have the power to turn this into a good game.

The only three bad things about Godzilla Generations are its looks, controls, and gameplay. Instead of buying this game, pick up a package of tiny plastic green army men, scatter them around your backyard and spend a few minutes stomping around on them while roaring. I promise, that’ll be more fun.

Friday the 13th
C64, Dormark (1985)

I can still remember the night I got Friday the 13th for my Commodore 64. My friends and I were big fans of all the big 80s horror icons such as Jason (Friday the 13th), Freddy (Nightmare on Elm Street), and Michael Myers (Halloween). The thought of playing a videogame based off of one of those movies at that time was both exciting and a little scary for us youngin’s. Fortunately for our young minds, the scariest thing about Friday the 13th for the Commodore 64 was the actual gameplay.

Players begin the game as one of ten kids stuck at Camp Crystal Lake, Jason’s stomping grounds. Unfortunately for you, one of the kids isn’t a kid at all; it’s Jason in disguise (gasp). Your mission is always the same — find Jason and kill him before he kills all your friends and comes after you. To do this you’ll need a weapon. Fortunately for you someone has littered a dozen or so weapons including chainsaws, daggers, pitchforks and axes around the Crystal Lake campgrounds for the children to use.

The game’s screen is divided into halves. The top half shows the area you’re in. The bottom shows you useful information. Of course your score and current weapon are listed, but there are a few other items of use to you here. On the left is your “Scare-O-Meter”. The more scared you are, the higher your hair stands up on your head (seriously). Next to that is your health meter, measured graphically with a barbell. To the right of that is the creepy Jason Face-O-Meter. (I don’t know if these things really have names or not; these are simply what I call them.) Jason’s Face-O-Meter slowly fills in each time he kills. I’m pretty sure this represents how close he is to winning. On the right is your roster of friends. Those who have taken an axe to the face or a chainsaw to the gut are replaced with cute little tombstones.

What a great place to drop your kids off for the summer!

The game field consists of about a five by five matrix of screens. You’ll pass the church, a field, the cottage, another field or two, and then the church, field, and cottage again. There are three buildings you can enter: the church, the barn, and the cabin. Logically, the game plays a lot like Superman for the Atari 2600, except the playing field is much smaller. There’s no way to actually get lost in this game — not that you’re going anywhere specific, mind you. Your goal is to wander around, looking for Jason who is disguised as one of the other kids.

So, how do you find Jason? The easiest way is to start attacking the other kids. When Jason is hit, the graphic will change from the kid’s disguise to Jason (who looks like a regular person wearing a black jumpsuit). Many of the other children are so are wimpy that once you’ve hit them in the head two or three times with your weapon of choice, YOU kill them instead of Jason! Oh well. The game ends when either Jason kills all the other kids, or you. The round ends when you kill Jason. Each round is basically identical, except you alternate between two different playable kids which look different but play the same.

To throw some shock value into the game, occasionally when you stumble across a corpse the game will randomly flash a gruesome picture on the screen for about 2-3 seconds, along with a (badly) digitized scream. It seems to happen about once every ten to twenty corpses. The first time you see them they can catch you off guard, but after that they just kind of make you laugh. I spend more time trying to get these come up than anything else in the game.

Friday the 13th includes some fun musical tunes. Depending on where you are in the game, the songs will change from Teddy Bear’s Picnic to Old Macdonald to other classics. They all relate to where you are, and are funny if you get the jokes. For example, the lyrics to Teddy Bear Picnic go, “If you go out in the woods today/You’re sure of a big surprise/If you go out in the woods today/You’d better go in disguise.” Of course the songs don’t have lyrics in the game, so you kind of have to know them to get the jokes. In general the songs are so upbeat and happy you would never know you are playing a horror game. There’s something weird about stabbing a dude while Old Macdonald plays in the background.

Every time I pull out my old Commodore, this is one of the games I play. It’s got fun music, fun graphics, and allows you to throw hatchets at small children. Friday the 13th isn’t hard to learn how to play or master, but it’s mindless fun and always reminds me of the good ol’ days. For such a silly game, you’ll yourself playing Friday the 13th longer and more often than you probably should.

Complete Computer Fireworks Celebration Kit
Activision (1985)

While both videogame consoles and home computers allowed owners to play videogames, home computers also gave creative kids and adults the ability to create their own. Through BASIC and other languages, home computer owners were able to create their own games. Unfortunately, many young programmers found out the hard way that creating a game from scratch was rather difficult.

Out of this need, a new genre was born — the “construction kit.” The first one I remember seeing was Electronic Arts’ “Pinball Construction Set,” a program that allowed budding programmers to place bumpers at will and create their own virtual pinball tables. Pinball Construction Set would soon be followed by Arcade Game Construction Kit, Adventure Contruction Set, Shoot-Em-Up Contruction Kit and Wargame Construction Set. All of these programs greatly simplified the process of creating your own programs by managing the majority of the code, allowing young game makers to focus on things like graphics, sound and gameplay.

One of the weirder additions to the “construction kit” genre was Activision’s “Complete Computer Fireworks Celebration Kit.” Dubbed “the fireworks construction kit” by gamers, Activision’s 1985 release allowed users to create their own virtual firework displays. Seriously. The Complete Computer Fireworks Celebration Kit (CCFCK) was written by Jon van Ryzin, the same man that wrote H.E.R.O.

Like any other “construction kit” program, CCFCK offers a multitude of options that allows virtual fireworks maestros the ability to customize every part of their display. Users can choose one of six backdrops (a bridge, a city, a castle, etc) and from a list of twenty songs, from The Star Spangled Banner to Happy Birthday. The program is compatible with Music Studio, so custom songs can also be imported. The fireworks displays also include text messages displayed at the bottom of the screen which can be customized as well.

And then there are the fireworks. There are several different types of fireworks than can be used, and each one can be modified using sliders, giving users the ability to alter each fireworks size, color, speed, and so on. The sliders, like every other part of the program, are controlled using a standard joystick. CCFCK requires very little keyboard interaction (other than the custom display messages users can enter).

Each event is ultimately stored on a vertically-scrolling event list. Each entry can be changed, inserted or removed. With enough time and effort, a person could theoretically synch their fireworks display up with the background music.

Once your masterpiece has been completed it can be saved to disk, where it can be reloaded or traded amongst friends (assuming they also own the program — from what I can tell, the saved firework displays are not stand alone executables).

While many people apparently have fond memories of this program, I have to admit I found the whole thing pretty boring. I mean … seriously, virtual fireworks? For a fraction of this program’s retail cost, I could put a fireworks display on in my own backyard. After ten or so minutes of messing around with Activision’s Complete Computer Fireworks Celebration Kit, I actually wanted to to turn off the computer and go outside — and that’s really saying something.

Druid
Firebird, 1986 (C64)

Cloned games were overly abundant on the Commodore 64. Quick programmers often beat software companies who were dragging their feet porting arcade games to the punch by releasing knock-off versions of official games. Such was the case with Gauntlet, the classic arcade game from Atari. In the year it took for Gauntlet to make its way from the arcade to the Commodore, several other companies had already begun working on their own versions. These included games such as Into the Eagle’s Nest (Pandora), Demon Stalkers (Electronic Arts), and Commando ’86 (Elite). One of the best Gauntlet clones, which in many ways exceeded the original, was Druid (1986), which was followed a year later with its own sequel, Druid II (1987).

Those who have played Gauntlet will find Druid looks very familiar. In fact, the simplest way to describe Druid is, “an outdoors version of Gauntlet.” Stone floors have been replaced with grass and castle walls have been replaced with hedges and trees. A few of the other graphics have been tweaked as well. While Hasrinaxx, the player-controlled wizard in Druid looks amazingly like Merlin the Wizard from Gauntlet (except dressed in blue versus yellow), the ghosts in Druid look more like guys wearing bed sheets than actual ghosts.

Like Gauntlet, the main object in Druid is to shoot everything that moves. Unlike Gauntlet, Druid actually does have an end (I believe there are six levels to work your way through). Instead of fireballs, our wizard shoots lightning bolts from his fingers. Also at your disposal are several spells, including invisibility, chaos, and more. One of the coolest spells is Golem Summoning. Golem can be conjured up and controlled by a player in joystick port 2, turning Druid into a multi-player experience! If you’re flying solo, you can also let the computer control Golem’s movements.

While on the surface Druid appears to be simply a clone of Gauntlet, the different terrains, spell-casting system and addition of a plot open up all new styles of game play. Druid II (which is Druid I on steroids) is better.

ExciteTruck
Nintendo Wii (2007)

Let it be known that I absolutely hated ExciteBike 64, Nintendo’s attempt at dragging the previously side-scrolling Excitebike motorcycle racing game into the world of 3D. Its combination of blurry textures and bad frame rates stunk like exhaust fumes. I don’t care what any other reviewer thought of the game neither then nor now. As a long time fan of the original two-dimensional version, I thought the N64 version was a disaster, and to be honest I didn’t have terribly high hopes for ExciteTruck, the third game in the series and the first to appear on the Nintendo Wii. Turns out, I was way off – ExciteTruck is one of the most enjoyable arcade-style racing games I’ve played in a long time.

Unlike ExciteBike 64, which tried too hard to modernize the original ExciteBike, ExciteTruck actually has very little in common with its ancestors. While both ExciteTruck and ExciteBike include racing, jumping, and turbo boosters that overhead way too easily, there are enough differences between the two that ExciteTruck is probably best classified as an entirely original game.

ExciteTruck is controlled by holding the Wiimote sideways, in what has become the conventional “driving” style. Steering is performed by turning the Wiimote as if it were an actual steering wheel. The “2” button acts as a gas pedal, while pressing the d-pad in any direction fires off your turbo boosters. (For you wimps out there, “1” acts as a brake. Or so I’ve read.) Like the original, the key to maintaining your speed after jumping is landing with all four wheels on the ground. To do this you’ll need to tilt the Wiimote forward/backward, to ensure your truck hits the ground level.

Right out of the box, ExciteTruck offers gamers choices between three trucks and four tracks. Beating each track involves not only outracing all other AI vehicles but also amassing a predetermined number of stars. Stars are earned by performing various tricks, such as drifting, spinning, or simply bashing into your opponents. The length or skill at which these tricks are performed determines the amount of stars players will be rewarded with; finishing a race in first, second or third place will also award winners with stars. After each race your performance will be graded (A, B, C). Outstanding players who can achieve an “S” ranking on all four tracks will begin to unlock additional tracks and trucks.

Before long it becomes apparent that there is a ton of unlockable content in ExciteBike. Achieving “S” ratings on every track in Excite Race mode will unlock Super Excite Race Mode; beating all those tracks will unlock Mirror Race Mode, and so on. I suspect it will take gamers many a mud-slinging night of racing to unlock every car, track and mode in ExciteTruck.

Included in each track are multiple bonus items. Running over exclamation marks changes the immediate terrain in front of you, usually adding a needed ramp or occasionally adding previously hidden rings (which can be leapt through for more stars). POW power ups give your truck an extended boost of turbo and some much needed temporary invincibility.

I have two gripes about ExciteTruck, both of them minor. The first is that the game’s aerial trick system is limited to one trick (a simple 360/720 spin). With such an arcade-feel to the rest of the game, it just feels like you should be able to perform back flips or something. My other gripe (even smaller than the first) is that the original version of ExciteBike does not appear to be included as an unlockable extra, as the game can be purchased through Nintendo’s online virtual console. I’m all for the big N making a buck or two, but the game was included in ExciteBike 64 and it feels a little cheap not to include it here as well.

ExciteTruck is an exciting, action-packed racing game that’s enjoyable in either one or two player split-screen mode. Beating each level requires a balance between performing tricks to obtain stars and keeping the pedal to the metal (or your thumb to the plastic). ExciteTruck is so good that it almost made me forget that I once paid money for ExciteBike 64. Hallelujah.

Druid II
C64, Firebird (1987)

Taking the basic design and style of Gauntlet and adding a few twists, Druid II picks up where the original left off.

Released one year after the original, Druid expands the Land of Belorn into ten different additional levels. Like a Star Wars movie, each zone consists of a completely different climate (ice, desert, forest, etc.) Players get to choose their path across the enchanted land, similar to the path-picking portion of Crossbow.

The spell casting system of Druid II has been greatly expanded. Druid II gives players 30 new spells to choose from, including Wall of Fire, Death Touch, and Teleport. Like the original, in Druid II additional help can be summoned. While the original game only allowed the summoning of golems, Druid II players can now choose between conjuring up Fire, Water, Earth and Air Elementals. Each of these elementals can be used in one of three ways. They can simply follow you around, they can be controlled by simply keyboard commands (‘run forward’), or they can be controlled by another human player using a second joystick.

Despite the expanded features, Druid II plays essentially the same as the first game. Based upon the Gauntlet style of play, players will run through mazes, shooting anything that moves and collecting everything that doesn’t.

Druid II takes the already established rules of the first game and simply expands the amount of levels, worlds, spells and enemies in the game. One reason I think these games did so well is because there was nothing to compare them to. Many Commodore 64 owners were disappointed in the home version of Gauntlet, simply because it didn’t look as good as the arcade version. With Druid and Druid II, there was no arcade game to compare them to, and thus, no disappointment.