nexusreviews

FINAL IMPRESSIONS: No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (SPOILERS)

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 01:59:43 GMT

Y'know, what's funny is I was having trouble thinking about what to say for that review, and now that it's finished it's probably the longest one I've written.

Anyway, here's some spoiler-filled thoughts on No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle:

Some of this won't make sense if you haven't played the game. I don't bother going giving any explanation about the things I'm talking about. This is mostly dumping thoughts into words.

Random Questions:

So my head is racing, trying to make sense of the game. The problem with Suda 51 is that with his games, he may have something in there with no answer at all, just to mess with the fans. He's about style, not story. That's why the first game ended the way it did.

But now I'm not so sure all of it was pure nonsense. I'm starting to wonder if it's a 'bigger picture' kind of thing. At the end of the first game, we see Sylvia with her daughter in front of a painting of Travis and Henry fighting. At first I thought this was her and Henry's daughter (although I found it odd they named her Jeanne, after Travis' ex-girlfriend/half-sister). Now I think this was a glimpse of her in the far off future, and Travis is the father (which makes much more sense).

In this game we're shown a peep show-type establishment where Sylvia is apparently working. She talks to a mysterious stranger who never speaks, telling him the story that takes place in No More Heroes 2. This is obviously some point in the future, but why she's there is a mystery. Of course, at the end of the game Sylvia steals Travis' bike and takes off. The last cut scene shows Sylvia in the peep house, breaking down in tears. Travis is revealed to be the voiceless customer. He tells Sylvia that "Finally, I found you" and "Santa Destroy needs us."

So this brings up a few questions. First of all, Sylvia already mentioned her voiceless customer had made multiple trips, so I doubt Travis was being literal when he said he found her. I think he meant he finally got to see the real Sylvia for a change. The entire time he's known her, she's stolen from him, conned him, lied to him, and is impossible to figure out. She revealed her true feelings to a stranger (who just happened to be Travis), and he saw a side she was too afraid to show.

But then there's the "Santa Destroy" comment. Earlier in the game Travis swears to take down the UAA (United Assassins Association). Clearly Sylvia no longer works for them and is, in fact, not even in Santa Destroy any longer. So something big has happened between the last fight and this scene, and it screams for a third game to conclude it. So has the UAA gotten out of control? Or did Travis take them down and now there's chaos?

There's also the question of what Sylvia promised to Shinobu for helping take out some of Travis' opponents. This is never touched on again, although a recent document found online indicates there MIGHT be a bonus fight with Shinobu once Bitter mode is beaten. I'm curious if that's true and answers the question. If not, well, there's a chance Shinobu will be the star of the third game.

But that's the other thing: Suda 51 said this is the last of Travis in the series. But that doesn't seem to gel with the ending. The ending practically begs for a third game featuring both him and Sylvia. So was he throwing out a red herring or was he serious? It's hard to tell with him because if his games are anything to go by, the man is absolutely insane.

So overall, I'm starting to see a larger story developing. We've been given hints of the future in both games, but how it comes together is a mystery. The best I can put together, Travis becomes the top assassin and does what nobody else has ever done: disappeared without the UAA finding him (something one assassins mentions in this game, when she talks about being "trapped"). He comes back to get revenge for his buddy's death, becomes number one again, and promises to take down the UAA. Sylvia runs away because she's getting too close to Travis, then... what happens next is unknown. We jump again where he finds her no longer working with the UAA and tells her Santa Destroy needs her. And then we the jump even farther in the future showing they both likely have a kid together.

So many unanswered questions, but at the same time it makes me feel more confident now than ever that there will be a third game (Suda has apparently gone as far as to say he has enough ideas to make up to a fifth game). I guess it all depends on sales, and so far this one has started off better than the first. W00t!

I'm looking forward to starting a new game on Bitter mode, although I might not finish it if the rumor about Shinjobu isn't true. I know the E3 trailer for the game shows up once you complete Mild, so I'll at least look into that.

Other random thoughts:

There's some connection between Margaret and Alice. Alice throws pictures of Margaret with a photo album into a fire and comments on how being an assassin is stupid if all that's going to happen is you kill each other in the end. Also, Margaret's last name is Moonlight and Alice's is Twilight. So either sisters, romantically linked, or something else. There were also pictures of a man and child, so it's more likely they're sisters and Alice was once married.

Who was Bishop's friend? Apparently it's famed Japanese director, Takashi Miike. The credits list a few different cameos by real people.

Hideki Anno (Evangelion) directed the Bizarre Jelly 5 anime opening. That. Is. Awesome.

The Assassins:

This is where I would rank them, with number one being the hardest:

15.) Charlie MacDonald
14.) Dr. Letz Shake
13.) Cloe Walsh
12.) Skelter Helter
11.) Margaret Moonlight
10.) Kimmy Howell
9.) Mimmy
8.) Nathan Copeland
7.) Alice
6.) Captain Vladimir
5.) Matt Helms
4.) Million Gunman
3.) Ryuji
2.) New Destroyman
1.) Jasper Batt Jr.

This is based on how hard it was for me to kill them. In the cases of Ryuji and Million Gunman, I was making the fights tougher on myself because I was overlooking one small detail that, had I thought of to begin with, would have made the fights over fairly quickly (for example, Ryuji's dragon summon is HORRIBLE, but once you learn to avoid it by simply locking onto Ryuiji and rolling away until the dragon goes underground, he's easy to deal with).

Charlie MacDonald barely qualifies as a fight. It was clear Suda 51 wanted an excuse to use a giant robot joke, and that was the main purpose of it. There was zero challenge at all to that battle.

In the case of New Destroyman, he's only hard when you have two to deal with, but then is really easy but tedious when you kill one of them.

For Jasper, the first part is obviously easy (anyone who's played it understands why), while the second was brutal. The third part was annoying because it was easy in that there wasn't much strategy involved, but he had that blowing move that sucked down your weapon's power immediately that was really cheap. I don't mind being beaten by clever or hard bosses, but I do mind it when the only reason they win is because of some near instant hit/kill move that's nearly impossible to avoid. Still, he gets credit for the second part because he was legitimately tough there.

The Little Things:

I loved the small jokes or references to the first game, such as how Travis still has Jeanne's picture next to his phone but has scribbled out her face.

There's also Batt Jr.'s connection to the first game, as his father and brothers were the nameless targets in the Pizza Butt (apparently a translation error?) assassination missions that earn you money.

I couldn't help but laugh when Charlie MacDonald suddenly jumps into a giant robot (of all things) and Travis says, "I thought something like this might happen." And he just happened to have a robot of his own! Now who would ever figure they might find themselves in a giant robot battle?!

"Oh, poopies!" is probably the best line of dialog, written or spoken, in the entire game.

REVIEW: No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (Spoiler Free)

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 01:58:33 GMT

I'm going to begin by stating that there are two additional playable characters in this game, other than Travis. I WILL be talking about them and stating their names. I don't consider it a spoiler (especially since it's been pretty widely talked about on the gaming sites), but if you don't want to know who they are, I'm warning you now.

When the first No More Heroes came out, I absolutely fell in love with it despite the obvious problems. It was weird, because it was like your character was in two worlds: the GTA-style overview one and the action based levels type. It failed so completely at the former that I could see it easily turning gamers off, but the latter was so well done that it was worth overlooking the glaring problems. It seems Suda 51 has listened as this sequel has some serious improvements.

While the first game saw Travis Touchdown climbing the assassin ranks to become number one, this one has him starting over with a different motivation: revenge. This time around he has to claw his way up from Rank 50, facing a slew of new opponents. Although the game definitely has a much darker tone than the first, it still has the outrageously over-the-top bosses, geeky references, and innuendos that made the first one so beloved. Further, Suda 51 has packed the game with even more extras that can be earned, which are well worth it.

The first real noticeable change is the overview world has been replaced with a map. Instead of driving to each location, which was incredibly tedious and boring in the first game, this time the player can simply choose the location from a list and instantly be taken there. As much as I would have liked to see an improved free roaming world for Travis to interact with, I would much rather have this than a repeat of what the first game delivered.

Another big improvement is the lack of paying to enter ranked fights. The first game required the player to earn money through mini-games, most of which were not fun at all but had to be played many times to earn enough money. This time mini-games are optional, with the money only needed for weapons upgrades, clothing, training, and Jeanne's food. For those who don't have the patience for mini-games or wish to get straight into the action, this is a nice option.

This isn't to say the mini-games aren't worth the time, though. In fact, the mini-games are almost as much fun as the main game, and boy are there a lot of them. Games like helping Jeanne lose weight and playing the Bizarre Jelly 5 (commonly referred to as "BJ-5") shooter will unlock surprises, while the other games are strictly for cash. Those mini-games, however, are about as awesome as they can be for anyone who loves old school gaming. The games are designed to look, sound, and play like the old original Nintendo games, and honestly as much fun as some are, I think they could have legitimately been released on WiiWare. The absolute best part is the digitized NES-style voices. I still laugh when I hear the barely audible foul language spoken during these games. I could easily see myself popping in No More Heroes 2 just to play a round of the bug catching or coconut collecting games. The only mini-game that isn't made in a retro NES-style, the scorpion catching game from the first one, also happens to be the least fun. I honestly don't know why it's even in here, as it doesn't fit the theme at all.

As for the main game, there's a lot that's different but a lot that's the same, too. Travis controls pretty much the same as the first game, although I think Dark Stepping is harder to pull off this time around. In fact, I thought it had been removed from the game until I accidentally pulled off the move halfway through the game. Travis does get a few new moves, such as slashing attacks that are performed by slashing in the air with the nunchuk and Wiimote. The Nunchuk attack isn't available at first, but when it is it definitely is a useful move when Travis is ganged up on and needs to clear some space. There's also a great addition I learned of completely by accident: the ability to recover from a fatal blow. If Travis loses all his health, he will wobble for a few seconds before falling to the ground and dying. During this time the player can shake the Wiimote madly in hopes of keeping him on his feet. I can promise you that you WILL look like an idiot furiously shaking the Wiimote, but in tough battles it gives you a much needed second chance. It only gives Travis about four or five more health points, but it can be used about three times before he finally dies for good. During those frustrating fights that the enemy only has one or two health points left, this can make a huge difference and save the player a lot of frustration and wasted hours.

The game also sees the return of Shinobu Jacobs and Sir Henry Motherfucker (yes, that's his name), who are both playable. For the most part they play like Travis, but with some additions. Henry's charged attack sends energy bubbles towards the enemy, plus he has a nifty dash move that covers large distances. Shinobu is quick and agile, plus has the ability to actually jump. Her charge attack creates streaks of energy slashes, which is actually important at one point in the game in order to progress. I'll be honest, I didn't care for Henry that much. Maybe I needed more time to get used to him, but I found his moves and attacks a little annoying. Shinobu, on the other hand, was a ball to play as. I've always favored quick and agile characters over slow and powerful ones in games, so being able to jump in and out of thickets of enemies while attacking made me happy. Sometimes I wondered if her moves were almost too unfair, because enemies hardly ever had the chance to make contact with her. Then I played the boss battles and changed my mind quickly.

Suda 51 said Travis won't be the star of the third game, which would be unfortunate. If he decided to replace him with Shinobu, however, I would get over it quickly. I had a ball playing as her. The only drawback is that sometimes her jumping isn't accurate; if you jump to a ledge but hit the C or Z buttons to readjust the camera, she will change directions. Even when this doesn't happen, Shinobu has a tenancy to easily fall off edges you didn't intend her to fall off of. This is a minor issue until you find yourself in battles that require you to jump to different platforms while being attacked. One of Shinobu's biggest flaws happens to be when she completes the full motion of her sword attack, which causes her to sit still for a full second or two, completely exposed. This is incredibly frustrating with enemies that specifically attack when your character stops moving. It wasn't a problem so long as I stopped hitting the A button just short of the final motion of the attack, but it cost me a few fights when I accidentally went one too far.

There are some other issues in the game, but to be fair these are mostly my preference. Pre-stage intros for the bosses are gone, as well as phone calls through the Wiimote. I giggled like a fool when I first hard Sylvia talking through my control in the first game, and I definitely missed it in this one. Considering the pre-stage intros, which are the assassin silhouettes introducing the boss' name in the first game, a big loss sounds silly but it still bothers me. They may have only been a few seconds but it was something that added to the games style. I understand why it was done since some bosses needed to be a surprise. It isn't a big deal at all, but I still wish they found a way to keep them while still keeping those specific assassins a secret.

There are more assassins to take out this time around, but some are so ridiculously easy they almost shouldn't count at all. Don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of fights that equal the creativeness and difficulty of the first game. Every once in a while, though, there will be a fight that is either a sure thing or requires virtually no strategy at all. One of the selling points about this series is the need to come up with a specific strategy, whether by using certain attacks or the environment to help you, to win against some tough opponents. Even the weak fights in the first game lived up to expectations in some way. In this one, some fights seem to be throwaways for the purpose of having a visual joke, or in some cases simply lacked any effort whatsoever. The strategy for a couple of bosses were as simple as, "run in, attack, run away." I expect more out of the game.

Also something I miss greatly is the multiple-kill-attacks. What I mean by this is when you finished off an enemy in the first game and a blue 'motion control death attack' icon appeared, Travis would cut an enemy to pieces while nearby enemies suffered the same fate. To be honest this is kind of a cheap move because it can be used to clear out enemies quickly rather than fight them all. At the same time, it felt satisfying and fit the over-the-top Kill Bill-style the game had going for it. Deadly Struggle seems to still have this if an enemy is really close, but has definitely toned it down a lot. Again, I know it's a cheap move but I miss it. I don't care if the game throws in more enemies to compensate; having that side affect from killing one guy was an awesome visual.

There were two other complaints I had, but I'm still not sure if they're real or something I was imagining. They were ever so slight that I thought it was me at first, but they seemed to persist. The enemy lock feels just a little off, while the camera seems worse than the first game. I don't know why this is but they just do. I did get used to it about halfway through the game, but it definitely felt like something was tweaked slightly.

There really isn't a lot to say about the graphics. They look the same as the first game, which to be honest is a little disappointing. Don't get me wrong, I like the style. It works for this time of game. But with the sequel I was hoping that at least cut scenes might be spruced up a bit in certain areas. They weren't. It still looks nice but using the same methods from the first game without making improvements screams of laziness. To be fair I've heard they were rushed making this game so that could be the reason why, but it doesn't excuse the fact they didn't address any graphical issues the first game had.

The sound is pretty good but nothing to get excited over. The soundtrack works for the game but I didn't hear anything amazing, and in fact it reuses some songs from the first game. The voice actors do a good job, even when some sound over the top. Nothing can top the previously mentioned digitized voices from the 8-bit mini-games, though. That was one of the best things in the game.

Finally, the story is definitely darker with a less humor than the first. That doesn't mean it doesn't bring the silly, though. There are plenty of moments that live up to the absurdity of the first game, and Suda 51 continues to pull out inappropriate ideas from his dirty little mind. I think what makes this different from the first game is that it gives hints of a bigger story happening here. The first game does as well, but you wouldn't know it by playing it alone. The second game seems to give some clear hints that these games aren't meant to be viewed as individual stories, but rather parts of a larger one. Scenes from the first game that were once viewed one way now appear to mean something completely different when looking at the given pieces of the puzzle. It isn't always direct about telling the player this. A few lines definitely hint that there's more coming, but for the most part it lays the groundwork and lets the player figure it out. Some games flat out make it clear, "This will be continued in the next game, and you can expect these huge plot points we went out of our way to make you see to be addressed". Desperate Struggle doesn't do that. It might have a throwaway line that opens up a lot of questions, but one that the player would never realize about if they missed it. It doesn't dwell on these hints or shove them down the player's throat. Instead of constantly referring back to the hint but still not answering it, it simply moves on.

This is refreshing. It makes the player pay attention. It makes them look for subtle clues and think about the story being told, or to find the real meaning because those typical Suda 51 lines that at first glance appear to be nonsense. I don't pretend to understand everything behind these games, and there are certainly things I missed that I've learned only because of more observant gamers. This isn't something to be afraid of, however, as you don't have to understand all the little quirks to Suda 51's story to enjoy the game. If you miss something, it isn't a big deal. If you figure something out that didn't seem apparent, congratulations! Or if you're in it just for the hack-and-slash assassin kills, that's fine too. You don't have to understand the deeper elements of the story to have a good time with this game.

I honestly wasn't sure about Desperate Struggle when I first played it. I was afraid it couldn't live up to the first one, and the first few hours had me thinking it wouldn't. The more I played it, though, the more I liked and the more it felt like a "complete" game compared the original. And that's the best way to describe it: it feels complete. It fixed the most serious issues of the first game, then piled all a ton of content for good measure. Even though it went a more serious route, it still kept the quirky ideas that made the first game so great, and even added a few more. The play time varies based on how much you do (subtracting the time from the mini-games and revenge missions, I would say I put in about 15-16 hours into the main story, although some people say they beat it in about 12 hours), but even if it ends up being a short game for you it's well worth the time. It's packed with replay value, and is without a doubt one of the top games for the system.

Suda 51 did right by this game, and if sales justify a third one I'll be first in line for it.

SCORE: 9 / 10

REVIEW: Cardcaptor Sakura Act 01 (Spoiler Free)

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:59:58 GMT

REVIEW: Cardcaptor Sakura Act 01 (Spoiler Free)
By Melissa McCarthy
March 19th, 2000

CLAMP! CLAMP! yaaaaay! Sorry, just had to do that.... The truth is, Sakura is cute, but it’s not as entertaining, not to mention complex, as some other CLAMP works. X/1999 this ain’t. Sakura is the stereotypical genki heroine, and she has a happy family and few problems. This manga is aimed at younger children, so there’s a minimum of text and a maximum of pretty pictures. At this point, there’s not much in the way of plot either, but this is the introductory issue, after all! It’s likely to get more interesting as the story progresses, the way CLAMP stuff generally does.

Mixx is translating this (and I use the word lightly, given their track record). At least they kept her name as Sakura, instead of following Nelvana’s lead and making it “Nikki.” They also kept her information chart -- you know, birthdate, blood type, best and worst subjects, etc. Unfortunately (and inexplicably), they didn’t keep most of the characters’ family names. Argh! Oh, and they spell Touya’s name “Toya”, but since that’s technically incorrect, and furthermore it looks like a prostitute’s name, I’m using “Touya.”

Mixx decided to label this title as “Chix Comix.” Disgusting as that is, in principle they’re right: I cannot imagine guys enjoying this. It’s very fluffy, it’s hyper-cute, there’s no action to speak of... this is one of the most shoujo things I have ever seen in my life. I like it, and I’m going to keep buying it despite Mixx, but if you’re not a big fan of shoujo and kodomo, Sakura probably won’t be your cup of tea.

One other comment: CLAMP reeeeeally likes that scene of Tokyo Tower at night O_o

The Grade:
Writing: B+
Artwork: A
Overall: A-

MANGA SYNOPSIS: Card Captor Sakura Act 01 (Spoilers)

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:34:17 GMT

SYNOPSIS: Cardcaptor Sakura Act 01 (Spoilers)
By Melissa McCarthy
March 19th, 2000

CREATED BY: CLAMP
PRODUCED BY: Mixx Entertainment’s Chix Comix (English Version)
TYPE: Mahou Shoujo/Kodomo
CONTENT: [there’s nothing whatsoever that could possibly offend anyone here!]
INTRODUCES: Kinomoto Sakura, Kerberos, Kinomoto Touya, Kinomoto Fujitaka, Tsukishiro Yukito, Daidouji Tomoyo
DEATHS: none

The Story:

There’s a scene of Tokyo Tower at night. The quiet is broken by running footsteps. A young girl (Kinomoto Sakura) and her ultracute sidekick (Kerberos, or Kero-chan) chase a rather demonic-looking bunny-type critter.

When they catch up, Sakura makes a speech and goes through some flashy motions with a key-like staff. She takes out a Clow Card called Windy and uses it to contain the bunny critter. Sakura and Kero face the camera and make the victory sign.

A bell rings. Sakura wakes up to find the previous scenes playing on TV. Kero is watching a tape of them. Kero tells Sakura she’s late. She asks why he’s watching the video again, and he says he likes to watch himself because he’s so good-looking.

Sakura stops the tape and takes it out of the VCR so she can return it to her best friend, Tomoyo, who is the only one who knows Sakura is the Cardcaptor. Kero is furious because he’s missing the best part. Sakura, even later than she was, hurries downstairs for breakfast. Her brother, Touya, teases her and calls her a monster. Her father, Fujitaka, is oblivious to their fighting and brings in more food. Her mother died when she was three.

Touya gets up to leave for soccer practice as Sakura starts eating. She shoves her food into her mouth, straps on her rollerblades, and hurries after Touya. He tells her not to hurry so much.

Touya’s best friend, Yukito, arrives. Sakura is in love with him, because he’s very sweet to her. He says hello to her and says she’s up early. Touya says she wolfed her breakfast, and Sakura hits him. Yukito, ignoring the fight entirely, asks if she’s worried about something; Touya told him she hasn’t been sleeping well lately. Touya says an empty mind has no worries.

The three reach Sakura’s elementary school. Yukito and Touya, who are in high school, keep going. Yukito throws Sakura a candy. She stands there with a dreamy look on her face, until Tomoyo interrupts her. Sakura gives Tomoyo the video. Tomoyo tells Sakura she looks beautiful in it and says Sakura is the only one who can save the world.

Two months before, when Sakura started the fourth grade, she opened a book in her father’s library. Kero-chan came out, thanking her for awakening him. She thought he was a toy, but he said he wasn’t, and that his real form was much better; he was stuck in “toy” form because his magic was low.

Kero-chan explained that he was the Creature of the Seal, protecting the magician Clow Reed’s book. The powerful Clow Cards, having escaped the book while Kero-chan was sleeping, would become real and do evil. Sakura woke Kero-chan, proving that she can use magic.

Kero-chan took a key and magically gave Sakura power. He presented her with a magical staff, and the Cardcaptor was born.

The flashback ends. Sakura says Kero tricked her, but Tomoyo says most people couldn’t be cardcaptors. She asks Sakura how many cards she’s collected. Finding out it’s only three so far, she takes Sakura’s hand and tells her to work hard, because she’s protecting them all.

Tomoyo says she’ll videotape Sakura again next time, and she’s already designed the next costume. Tomoyo designs a new costume for every card Sakura must capture. Tomoyo is sweet enough (despite being very rich) and close enough to Sakura that Sakura doesn’t have the heart to tell her the outfits are silly.

In gym, Sakura vaults over something. The teacher says she did a great job. Tomoyo tells her she’s great at sports, and Sakura says she likes it.

Nearby, Touya is playing soccer, watched by an adoring group of girls. Tomoyo, looking dreamy, says Touya is great too. Sakura is unimpressed, then spots Yukito. She pushes a few girls away from the fence so she can see him better.

Yukito turns, spots Sakura, smiles at her, and starts running toward her. There’s a flash of light, and Yukito falls. Touya goes to see if he’s all right. Seeing Sakura, he stretches out Yukito’s mouth. Sakura has a fit.

A huge wind sweeps across the field, knocking everyone down. It’s caused by a gigantic bird, which then disappears. Tomoyo asks Sakura if she’s okay. Sakura doesn’t answer, wondering if the bird was a Clow Card.

End of Act 1

REVIEW: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Spoiler Free)

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:32:43 GMT

Please note that I do not currently have the ability to hook the XBox 360 to the Internet. Since the online portion of this game is as important as the campaign, please note that any opinions and score I give do not reflect the game as a whole. It very well could be higher or lower based on the online experience.

I am not a first person shooter fan, although I do occasionally give them a shot every now and then. There's something about not seeing my character that throws me off and I in general do not do well with them. So that should say something that Call of Duty 4 is so well made that even someone like me can get the hang of it rather quickly.

The game's story focuses on tracking down a terrorist, but I honestly doubt anyone playing really paid all that much attention to it. The story is serviceable but hardly anything special, and it isn't the reason to play the game anyway. It's everything else from graphics to game play that COD4 really shines.

The visuals are absolutely stunning. Even two years after release they hold up to today's games, and in a lot of cases surpass them. From backgrounds and buildings to vehicles and character models, Infinity Ward took a lot of time to make everything look as good as it possible can. When there's a lot going on, such as massive battles, everything holds up well. Not even some of the 360's biggest releases today can say that.

Combined with the visuals, the sound helps make it feel like you are in a real war. The music is intense and powerful, while the gunfire and explosions help to set the mood. A lot of games tends to suffer from NPCs repeatedly shouting the same lines over and over until you want to shoot them yourselves, but that isn't the case here. The NPCs react to imminent threats, such as yelling out a warning of a nearby grenade or reacting to a couple of RPG-wielding enemies, and the entire time it sounds completely natural. In most cases the NPC dialog ends up taking me out of the experience, but COD4 does it right.

As for the rest, the controls are tight and respond almost perfectly and the game play is is addictive. The only issue I had with the controls is occasionally it wouldn't maintain a sprint when I pressed in the left stick. If that's the worst issue I have with the controls, though, I can live with it. On game play, there aren't a lot of negatives. The combat is fun and there's a wide range of weapons to choose from, and the game puts your character in a variety of situations to survive. Fortunately Infinity Ward resisted adding any vehicle-based levels; maybe their version would have been terrific, but I've yet to play a game that made such levels anywhere close to fun.

If there is something to complain about the game it's length of time. The single player campaign mode is, at most, four or five hours. If you like achievements and play through the harder modes you can double that, but it doesn't excuse the fact the first play through is so incredibly short. I understand that with a game like this online play is half the package, and it's expected most people would be playing more to frag each other over the Internet rather than play the campaign level. Still, for people who don't play online for whatever reason this seems way too short for the price tag. Two years later, the game is still selling for at least $40. If you buy it with the intention of playing campaign and online, it seems like a price worth paying. If you're looking for just the campaign mode, it's overpriced, despite how good of a game it is.

This is a game I will play again and again, and once I have access to XBox Live again I'll almost certainly log a lot of time with it there, too. If you're like me and only play the occasional first person shooter, this is definitely one to take a look at. Still, the short single player mode is a big drawback for the game.

SCORE: 8 / 10 (Campaign only; does not consider online play)

REVIEW: Mass Effect (Spoiler Free)

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 07:59:23 GMT

At the end of this month Mass Effect 2 comes out, so I figured it was a good time to finish the first one. I actually started playing it way back in October, but during the Christmas and New Year's breaks took some time to finish it up. I'm actually surprised at how different I feel about it now from when I first began.

The RPG/shooter combo is sci fi epic as your character, Shepard, tracks down a nefarious villain. Along the way you meet aliens of all kinds and learn clues about the past. It's an interesting idea; besides Star Ocean I don't think there's been a RPG set in space, and there certainly hasn't been anything made quite like what Bioware has done here regarding the sheer size of the thing and how it's put together. Technical achievements aside, however, I couldn't help but feel indifferent about the game when I started. In fact, I nearly didn't bother picking it up again after a few hours of play because it wasn't the type of game I'm normally into.

I gutted it out, though, although the results were no different. I played for maybe an hour or two but never felt compelled to continue, and at this point was sticking it out partially for achievements and partially in hope that I would see what it was that made this a Game of the Year candidate. Around the twenty hour mark something clicked and I finally saw the light.

To be fair, right from the start I focused on side missions rather than the main story. The completionist in me couldn't stand to see all of those unfinished missions and I had to clear the list before continuing with the meat of the game. This is probably why I felt so indifferent in the beginning; driving long distances between locations on bland brown-and-grey-planets for missions that were, for the most part, meaningless didn't exactly excite me. I think had I focused on the main game my feelings would have quickly changed. Then again, the side missions are there to enhance the game, and at least in my experience Bioware failed in this. They got much better as the game progressed, but for an opening hook they didn't do much to make me want to try the rest.

It also didn't help that the game has no built in tutorial to help a player learn what's going on. For much of the beginning I was flying blind, randomly pressing buttons hoping I correctly figured out what they did. As someone who doesn't normally play shooters this was particularly frustrating, as the combat in the game is definitely almost all shooter elements rather than RPG. I'm sure someone familiar with that type of game would have been fine, but for someone that has relatively little experience with it, it took a while to catch on. All of these factors did not help get me hooked. Even after I figured out the controls I was still waiting for that one thing that would make me fall in love with the game.

Once I continued on with the main story I found exactly what I was looking for. I can't say what exactly was the turning point. I kept hearing how cinematic the story was and that it played out like a movie, and for the longest time I didn't see it. Somewhere around the twenty hour mark, however, it all clicked. As the clues to the bigger picture were being revealed it DID suddenly feel like the epic story others said it was. I found myself playing for hours at a time, something that doesn't happen much these days with me. I didn't want to put the controller down.

So it's a good game. I'm glad I didn't give up on it. It doesn't mean it isn't without problems, however. As I mentioned, the lack of a tutorial didn't help things at all. For experienced shooter fans this probably wasn't much of an issue, but the game was sold as a RPG. To RPG fans who might not delve into the shooter realm that often, this was a totally different beast and a little direction would have helped.

The weapon system also didn't seem to add much in terms of RPG elements. In most RPGs you can upgrade your abilities by adding certain items which would give different powers or affects. With Mass Effect this comes in the form of ammo, which the player can equip to different weapons. This isn't such a bad idea at all, and actually fits the type of RPG Mass Effect is, except in the end it didn't seem to matter much at all. In a game like, say, Final Fantasy players are encouraged to equip different materia based on what an enemy is vulnerable to. Perhaps a boss can be taken down very quickly by adding Lightning, or maybe using Blizzard actually heals him. These kind of affects are part of what makes those games interesting because the player has to think about how their equipped items plays out in a battle. With Mass Effect, however, it seemed irrelevant. Sure, there were bullets that, according to their description, would have added damage to mechanical enemies. There were some with radiation affects (essentially the "poison" equivalent of the Final Fantasy games). And sure, I could have taken the time to go through and make sure I had the proper bullets set up for certain areas. What I found instead, however, was that it didn't matter: any bullets I used pretty much did the job. Sure, maybe one would have added a little extra damage, but it wasn't like my normal ammo had no affect at all. This made the whole system seem pointless.

I'm willing to give the makers the benefit of the doubt on this, however. Maybe I needed to play with it a bit more and learn the system better. Maybe I was just under the impression my attacks didn't feel any weaker based on certain ammo. I could be completely wrong and the ammo DOES have a big affect on how enemies are taken down. Still, if I am wrong I must have lucked out with the ammo I selected, because it seemed to do well against whatever enemy I faced.

The other big problem is the visuals. A lot of the game is absolutely beautiful. The grainy look helps give it a more classic sci fi movie feel, although after a while I hardly noticed it anymore. The way the game designers made certain worlds feel absolutely massive was amazing. Still, certain things were lacking. Some characters (I'm looking at you, Anderson) looked absolutely horrible. Some animation felt a little clunky to me. More common than not the game had to 'catch up' when filling in details; access the character stats and watch as the character's details slowly build in front of you until they look like they way they should. This seems to happen often in the game, especially when there's a lot going on to process. It's a quick way to get taken out of the experience and kills, if only a tiny bit, the movie feeling the game seems to be going for. I also also a little disappointed with the planets. Most were nothing more than rocky terrain, completely void of life. There are a few exceptions, but I was hoping for at least a few lush and alien looking worlds to explore.

I also highly recommend turning off auto save. Convenient? Yes. Potential game save killer? Definitely. When exploring other planets, once you are out of the Mako it is really easy to find yourself stuck in a ditch somewhere with no way to climb out. Without access to the actual Mako you can't escape the planet, either, and with autosave on a reload of the file will only put you right back where you are. The same can happen when the game glitches at inopportune times, such as when my character was stunned but ended up stuck in a wall. Had autosave been on I would have wasted about twenty five hours. I can't imagine that's a pleasant realization for someone who did use the feature.

AI in the game can be a little wonky as well. Squad members will, for whatever reason, put themselves in situations and locations ensuring an eventual death. It isn't as bad as some games where teammates weren't just useless but a detriment (I'm looking at you, Gears of War), but it does occasionally leave you fighting what should be an easy fight on your own. It still isn't so bad that they are useless, however. A few times the AI did bail me out of some potentially game ending situations.

Those are all the complaints I have for the game, however. The music is nice and the voice work is pretty good, for the most part. The main story really begins to shine when you get a few hours in, and little details enhance the overall experience. The writers put a LOT of effort into the aliens, exploring their individual histories and explaining little culture differences that shape their personalities the way they do. Lately it seems sci fi movies and shows merely copy other sci fi movies or shows when it comes to their aliens (or in the case of something like the newer Star Wars movies, simply take an ethnic stereotype to build around), but this game goes out of its way to be different. It's a refreshing to see such unique looking (and acting) aliens in a science fiction story.

The story itself is pretty amazing once the full scope of it becomes clear. Like with traditional RPGs you spend a lot of time talking to people, which usually leads to side missions becoming available. There are also usually two potential ways to go with an answer: be the nice guy (Paragon), or be the jerk (Renegade). Your answers and actions give you points for the appropriate personality type and can affect how plot elements play out. The story is also good at making such choices have a real impact. Sometimes it's minor; declining to do something possibly devious might close off potential side missions. Doing something noble may come back to haunt you down the road. Or you might be forced to make a hard decision that will have lasting affects throughout the game. The point being is that while there is a set story and path you are following, your actions can play a part in how certain things unfold. Since Mass Effect 2 is supposed to use save data from this game, I imagine these same actions will immediately come into play with the sequel. It's something worth thinking about before you kill that merc just to be a jerk.

By the end of the game I had completed most of the side missions, sinking 33 1/2 hours into it. The main mission is probably five or six hours, at best, which is short but seems to be pretty standard these days. Still, there's plenty to do if you don't mind looking at some rather bland looking planets for the majority of the game. For a game I felt pretty 'blah' on I find that I really want to play it again, this time going through the Renegade story elements. It took a while to grow on me, but I came around. It is an amazing game, despite its flaws.

SCORE: 9 / 10

WII REVIEW: New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Spoiler Free)

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 02:38:20 GMT

Earlier in the year Nintendo was heavily criticized for a lack of quality games on the system, especially from the parent company itself. They swore things were in the pipeline, and soon enough they announced their big holiday title: New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the sequel to the beloved DS game.

I've always been a fan of the side scrolling Mario games. In fact, as good as Mario Galaxy was I've never been a huge fan of the 3D-style titles. When it was announced a new game much more in line with the DS, SNES, and NES games was coming out, I was thrilled. When I found out who the stage bosses were, I was ecstatic. I loved the idea that Nintendo was returning to some of their roots and bringing back some long abandoned ideas. Of course, there is that old saying I forgot about: be careful what you wish for.

Okay, maybe that comes off as a bit too negative. I love the new takes on the retro stuff, and I'm certainly not complaining that Nintendo dusted off some old ideas for the sake of nostalgia. The problem is sometimes nostalgia gets in the way of innovation, and in the case of this game it does almost nothing in the way of adding to the franchise.

I think long time Mario fans know what I mean. Super Mario Bros. 2 (the US version, even though it wasn't meant to be a part of the series) was a radical change from the original game. It introduced a whole new set of characters, ideas, gameplay, and even Luigi and Peach's unique designs and moves. When Super Mario Bros. 3 came along, fans were introduced to a whole slew of power suits beyond the Fire Flower, giving him a wide variety of abilities (that idea alone may have had the biggest impact on the series). The game also seemed much bigger than the previous games, with items cleverly hidden and tricks no one would even think of, such as crouching on the white block to go behind the scenes. Next to Super Mario World, it is probably my favorite Mario game ever made.

And speaking of Mario's debut on the Super NES, Super Mario World did more than bring Mario into a graphically beautiful world. It introduced Yoshi, switch blocks, ghost houses, a ton of new characters, and secret exits that opened up entire new worlds. It was an incredible upgrade from previous games. The one thing all of these games had in common, however, was that while each one was a sequel in name and used a few elements here or there from the series, they were all their own unique games. They took the best of the line and found ways to be innovative, and that innovation was one of the main reasons I looked forward to Mario games the most.

And that's the problem with this game and its DS predecessor. As fun as they are (and don't get me wrong, they are fun) there is no innovation. There are virtually no new enemies, save for giant versions of existing ones. Aside from the multiplayer, which I'll get to later, there's nothing ground breaking about the title. Instead of borrowing elements from the previous games simply to enhance the new experience, it aped them completely. The Nintendo of old would never have been that lazy.

Still, even a lazy Nintendo knows how to make fun games, and NSMBW might be the best of the year. It is easily a game that I will keep on my shelf and replay over and over. One of my biggest complaints about the DS game was how easy it was to beat, partially due to the amount of lives you can quickly earn and partially due to the level design. While this version still suffers from the 1up glut issue, the difficulty has been turned up a notch. Some areas were pretty easy, but as the game progressed others required multiple playthroughs and a lot of patience. The challenge of finding all of the coins was upped by hiding or using clever ways to access them. In most cases there always was a small but very subtle clue, but even the sharpest players could miss a few. And the ending fight was one of the best I've seen in a Mario game yet. The fear that Nintendo would dumb down this game with the addition of the Super Guide was unwarranted; in fact, I usually forgot it was even available and the game doesn't point it out unless you die eight times in the same level.

For those curious about the multiplayer mode, you needn't worry. Having played two player mode with a family member, it was absolutely one of the craziest, frustrating, and fun times I've had. It was weird to experience all of that at the same time, but that's the genius of it. At times you use the other player to access hard-to-reach items; at others, you're too busy messing your partner up to remember the common goal. I can't even imagine what four player might be like.

The game also continues the tradition of new costumes for Mario to use. For the most part it's stuff we've seen before, but there are at least three new power ups that players have access to at different points of the game.

The controls are, for the most part, what you expect from a Mario game. To control Mario you use the Wiimote on its side (like the classic NES controller) while occasionally using motion. The motion controls work just fine and are used so little it isn't a distraction. The only real complaint I have is with performing ground stomps. Normally this works just fine, but randomly at times Mario would perform the move while over a Pit of Death (TM) when I was attempting to pull off something completely different. Suits that involved shooting things (ice and fire) also made it extremely difficult to do the smash attack.

As for sound... well, it's what you expect from a Mario game. The music is wonderful, but if you're looking for voice acting beyond grunts, noises, and a word or two, you won't find it here.

Visually the game is appealing but it gives off the impression Nintendo didn't put their full attention to it. The game looks good, but it hardly appears to be pushing the Wii's limits. Still, the 3D character models seem to work with the 2D background. It does suffer from a problem I've seen only in one other game: Deadly Creatures. When something required a lot of animation, such as the moving sand pillars, screen tearing was noticeable. In all the games I've played on the system, this is only the second time I've seen this. I seriously doubt it's hardware limitations, as more complex games like Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl had flawless visuals even during the most intensely animated moments.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is flawed and a little lazy, but it's still an amazing game for fans of side scrollers and the DS predecessor. It's at least worth dusting off the console for.

SCORE: 8 / 10

WII REVIEW: Tenchu: Shadow Assassins (Spoiler Free)

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 08:27:00 GMT

I would be the worst ninja EVER. At least that's what I learned while playing this game. If I were to become a ninja I better hope for some kind of voodoo ninja magic you always see in these games, because I would need to be brought back to life a LOT.

Although the review is horribly late I hope I'm forgiven for it. After all, this was a game that appeared with a glut of other highly touted Wii games back in February. Also, there's the fact I'm horribly slow when it comes to playing games.

Um. Anyway. This is a game I almost passed on. I was dead set on picking up Deadly Creatures and it was only when IGN began pointing out Tenchu was surprisingly fun that I started to find myself salivating on my shirt. With a choice to make I found a way to pick up both games. You know my feelings about Deadly Creatures. Did this one suffer the same disappointment?

Surprisingly, no. Let me begin by saying I have never in my life played a Tenchu game. My understanding is this is just like any of the others so if you are looking for a new experience from the franchise you aren't going to find it here. Despite this fact it seems the original creative team behind the first two games (generally referred to as the "good games") was brought in on this one. What they've made is an incredibly fun experience, even for newbies prone to being caught many many times like I was.

The game follows Rikimaru as he, along with Ayame, attempt to uncover a plot of betrayal against Lord Gohda. Soon they learn there's much more going on than anyone suspected. As the story progresses the player is shown events through Rikimaru's eyes, then through Ayame. It's an interesting story, though incomplete; this is apparently only part one of a trilogy so the ending doesn't feel as satisfying as it should. Still, this is a series that apparently crafts stories meant to be enjoyed as larger arcs rather than each individual game, much like the .hack games did.

The game play is pretty simple: stay hidden in the shadows, don't get spotted, and sneak up on guards to kill them. Placement of certain guards, such as watchtowers, can trigger quicktime events, although not quite hitting them right merely alerts the enemy to your presence. To aid the player in the art of invisibility are weapons and accessories, such as ninja stars, water tubes to douse lights, and even a ninja cat that can spot hidden enemies your character can't see with his "ninja vision". The cat can even pick up weapons and items normally beyond reach.

Some people might find the lack of real combat boring since the objective of the game is to avoid confrontation. Although the kill scenes are somewhat satisfying they are really only activated movies using simple motion controls or button presses. I can see and understand why this might turn a lot of people off to a game like this, but the challenge and fun isn't in the kills. It's in developing a strategy and discovering the proper path to take. Which, as I've said a few times already, I'm evidently pretty terrible at. It's still fun, though, and more challenging than one might think.

If you are looking for more action you can still find some in the game, so long as you either carry a sword or reach a boss fight. If discovered while carrying a sword the player is given the opportunity to fight back, but holding the sword (Wiimote) at the wrong angle will cause stress on the blade, eventually breaking it. The player has to quickly adjust to the direction his opponent will swing and block the attack just right. At some point the player will be allowed to attack, which sort of works as long as the controller isn't swung wildly around. The accuracy of the sword movements in relation to the Wiimote is surprisingly great. The problem with is the horribly flawed system designed for the sword fights. Your character can take only three direct hits. If you do not block hits perfectly the sword will break, resulting in instant death against bosses, regardless of whether you still blocked the attack or not. It can be incredibly frustrating to be off only a little bit, still block the shot, yet die because the sword breaks after two hits. This sole issue nearly ruined the game for me as I was beginning to wonder if I could even get past the sword fights and finish.

Fortunately after what felt like a dozen or more tries I eventually succeeded, but it was a terrible experience. If it ends up returning for the sequel I will avoid buying the game for this one issue alone. Challenge is one thing. No More Heroes had some incredibly tough battles that took me forever to win but even after replaying a boss for the fifteenth or sixteenth time I never felt frustrated enough to quit. This sword system made me feel like unless I was absolutely perfect there was no chance to win. That is the easiest way to cause a player to abandon an otherwise good game.

Some of the voice overs were irritating as well. During cut scenes most of the voices were fine. During gameplay, however, was a different story. If Generic Bad Guy #1 gets a whiff that you might be around he constantly repeats the same lines of dialog. If he winds up alerting Generic Bad Guy #2 they both spout the same dialog but slightly off from each other. After a while this really begins to grate on the nerves. That, however, is one of the few issues with audio as the music itself is beautiful and captures the mood perfectly.

The game is also visually stunning as a Wii game. It's certainly one many companies could use as an example of what they easily could do if they put more effort into their titles. The cutscenes look terrific and there are few noticeable flaws during real time gameplay. It's really telling during thunderstorm levels when the lightning and rain are coming down. Aquire did a very good job with this game visually.

You will not find anything groundbreaking about this game but for a system that has so far been light on quality content it's certainly serviceable. For someone who keeps only a handful of games and sells the rest I can tell you there's a reason this is still in my collection and Deadly Creatures is not.

SCORE: 8 / 10

DS REVIEW: Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword (Spoiler Free)

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 06:05:21 GMT

Buy this game. Review: done.

Okay, that probably wasn't the most compelling argument. Really though, there's absolutely no reason a fan of action games looking for a solid DS title shouldn't pick this up, especially since it can be found for around twenty bucks right now.

The story picks up six months after the events of "Ninja Gaiden", as Ryu has helped rebuild the village after the Dark Dragon Blade incident. While training the young woman Momiji she is kidnapped by the Black Spider Ninja Clan. Ryu's attempts to bring Momiji home leads him on a quest to collect the Dark Dragonstones. The story is pretty straightforward and not exactly complex, but that's okay. The story isn't what you will play this for.

The gameplay is what draws the player in. I've never seen anything quite like it. Ryu is completely controlled by the stylus, from his movements, jumps, and attacks. In fact the only actions associated with the buttons on the DS are the menu screen and blocking. Normally I would expect near 100% stylus control action to not work. After all I would think it would be easy for the DS to become confused on what exactly you want the character to do. At rare times that does indeed happen. But for the most part it all works extremely well for one simple fact: this is the DS equivalent of button mashing. That sounds odd but it's true: enemies show up on the screen and more often than not I found myself sliding the stylus back and forth quickly, favoring speed as opposed to predetermining my attacks. Occasionally I would throw in something for variety but the truth is this game works extremely well with random movements with the stylus on screen. There is incentive to avoid repeating attacks, though. Having a variety of attacks instead of the same type over and over again will cause the game to reward you with bonuses, such as health or on rare occasions and even extra Ninpo moves. For those extremely tough fights the Ninpo move (a special attack that can be used once) is extremely helpful while also playing a part in solving puzzles.

The puzzles aren't very difficult and at least in the beginning there isn't too much challenge from the enemies. The addictive nature of the attack system will keep players interested, however, as they progress further into the game where things become more challenging. It was quite a surprise to see Team Ninja use this method of control for an action game but it works extremely well.

The game is also visually beautiful. Using 2D images for the background not only gives the visuals extreme detail but it also frees up the DS to create more stunning character models and animation. It was a clever move on Team Ninja's part.

The music and sound effects are also very well done, fitting the mood of the scene and overall game perfectly. One complaint is the lack of voice acting, though. It's weird when talking to people in the village as a text box pops up with a long answer the character gives a simple grunt or similar noise in response. It's understandable that fitting large chunks of voice overs probably wasn't feasible but considering the length of the game and the reuse of many enemies surely something could have been done.

That brings up the real issue of the game: length. Taking my time I finished the game in about five hours. Although there are twelve chapters to work through they increasingly felt shorter and shorter as the game progressed, and even making side trips to find bonuses doesn't extend the play time very much. The game is also fairly easy. With the exception of a few bosses dying was rare for me. On the bosses that did manage to pull out the win it was a simple matter of figuring out their pattern and develop a strategy, one of the few times in the game I couldn't simply "stylus mash" the enemy to death. Fans of the series might be disappointed by the lack of difficulty, but beating the game unlocks a harder mode that will likely be more to their tastes.

The DS has an impressive library of quality games as it is, but this is a must own for action fans. With the price now at a reasonable $20 it will be worth the investment, despite the shortness of the game, and even if it's something never to be played again it is still well worth the experience.

SCORE: 9 / 10

WII REVIEW: Deadly Creatures (Spoiler Free)

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 04:46:36 GMT

One of the biggest criticisms of the Wii has been the lack of truly original content for the 'hardcore' audience. With a glut of mini-games released on a regular basis when a truly unique title does come out, fans take notice.

It was a big surprise when February brought us not only one hardcore title but three: Tenchu, House of the Dead, and Deadly Creatures, all three of which garnered a lot of hype before their debuts. None more so, however, than the latter game which promised beautiful graphics and amazing game play. So did it deliver?

The best I can say is "sorta." I'll admit to drinking the Koolaid when I first saw the videos and heard the guys at IGN talk up the game. It sounded like exactly what I was looking for from the Wii. It sounded like a true Triple A title for a system that has been severely lacking in quality content. And it IS a good game and does some things very well. Unfortunately it also has a ton of problems which prevent it from becoming an endearing title in my book.

The game follows the adventures of a tarantula and scorpion as they hunt and battle various creatures throughout the desert. The player alternates between the two every other chapter while the arachnids occasionally encounter the two humans who are providing the story for the game.

The controls are very tight. It feels natural crawling up walls and pouncing on enemies and each character has their own style: the tarantula is quick but not as powerful while the scorpion is a tank but very slow moving. Personally I enjoyed playing as the tarantula. I've always favored quick and agile over powerful and I found it much easier getting through the game when I wasn't playing as the scorpion.

Unfortunately the same can't be said about the motion controls. While some work fine others, which sometimes are required to pull off to continue, are extremely frustrating. I found certain combo moves almost impossible to pull off at times. Frankly I would have been happier if they were replaced with something easier for the sensor bar to read or taken out completely. The game thankfully has a sensitivity bar that can be adjusted but even at maximum it didn't seem to help at times.

Another serious issue is the sheer amount of glitches, which become more common as the game progresses. Enemies melding into the environment, your character getting stuck in a place it should never have been able to reach, or the game simply glitching to the point the player can't progress are all too common. Glitches are expected in games but the amount in this one is ridiculous. I know the joke has been made enough to the point it's no longer funny, but it does deserve pointing out that it's ironic a game about bugs has so many of them. After I finished the game I couldn't help but feel a little ripped off, having paid $50 for something that clearly did not feel finished.

The visuals were also a frustrating experience. Yes, the game has some beautiful character models and backgrounds. It was clear the designers put a lot of attention into certain parts. I loved the lighting of the game, which changed as your character moved to different areas. Despite this attention to detail, however, there are visual issues. The biggest one I noticed was the screen tearing, particularly with save points. Any time there would be a lot of things on the screen that moved there was rampant screen tearing. While not as noticeable on a 42" LCD screen I tried it on, it really popped out on my 50" plasma. Unfortunately for all the beauty in the game these glaring problems took me out of the atmosphere they were trying to establish.

The visuals weren't the only mixed bag in the game. The story left a lot to be desired. Because the main characters are arachnids it's difficult to shape a plot around that, so the creators of the game came up with a plot that occurred in the background as you moved throughout the environment. There's nothing wrong with this idea and it was neat hearing these two men getting louder as you came closer but this leads to a problem that can't be avoided: who do you care about? Typically the player is supposed to identify with the character they play as their story unfolds. You don't get that here because of the nature of the game. You certainly can't identify with the two humans because they show up sporadically and, frankly, aren't very likable. So really there isn't anything for the player to emotionally invest in. In the end there's no character the player can feel a strong connection to. Even with Billy Bob Thorton and Dennis Hopper providing voices it's hard to muster up an interest in what they're doing, especially when their plot is pretty thin.

Fortunately not everything is a mixed bag in the game. The music and sound effects are absolutely amazing. If it weren't for the visual miscues the combination of graphics, lighting, and sound alone would make the game worth playing.

For me the game isn't what it was hyped to be, but these things seldom are. It's certainly not a bad game but it has a lot of issues that should have been ironed out before releasing it. While I do feel games like this should be supported I don't think a developer should be rewarded for cutting corners or for shoddy work, either, so I can't recommend buying this at the full price. If anything give it a rent and see how you feel. Maybe wait until it goes on sale or buy a used copy on eBay. This game has a lot of fun moments but should not be $50 with all of the problems it has.

SCORE: 6 / 10

XBOX 360 REVIEW: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Spoiler Free)

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 03:59:42 GMT

I am by no means a Star Wars fanboy. I enjoy the movies, I own them, and I will do the occasional movie marathon, but that's no different for me than other franchises such as Indiana Jones or Alien. I don't often play Star Wars games, the last one I half heartedly gave a chance being Knights of the Old Republic on the PC, which I honestly didn't get too far with because I'm not adept at using the keyboard for gaming. So when this game was announced with the promise of being a more action-oriented title I found myself mildly interested in it. Just about the only thing that could get me to give a Star Wars game a shot was the ability to use force powers like in the movie, and up to the point of this game's release nothing could come close.

I'll be honest I had a lot more fun with it than I thought I would. It's definitely a game that had to earn it, though.

While this review is spoiler free, I am going to explain the general plot. If you consider that spoilers then skip to the next paragraph, but really it's the basic idea behind the game so I don't see it as much of an issue. The game picks up after the third movie (of the new trilogy). Darth Vader has trained an apprentice in secret with plans to overthrow the Emperor. As Starkiller you travel on secret missions for Vader, all leading to the goal of taking down the Emperor.

It took a while for me to warm up to the game. Naturally Starkiller starts off with limited abilities, initially only able to use force grip and force push. The force grip was extremely frustrating at first because I expected to have pinpoint accuracy when it came to throwing things at enemies. It was something that almost ruined the experience for me until I realized I was going about it all wrong. The force grip was never meant to have such accuracy. The power was meant for quick attacks, throwing something in an enemy's general direction and causing a lot of damage quickly as opposed to targeting specific baddies. Once I realized this and began using the ability with that in mind it became one of my favorite powers to wield, especially when following it up with other attacks.

While Starkiller starts off with few abilities they are already powerful, giving the impression of a character that could go toe-to-toe with any Jedi. As the game progresses new abilities are learned, either by gaining a certain amount of experience or earning points that can be spent on upgrades and combos. By the end of the game Starkiller had an incredible variety of combo moves and an obvious increase in strength. It wasn't until near the end of the game when I used a force push on some storm troopers that I truly realized how strong Starkiller had become. All of this and I had not even earned all of his upgrades. New crystals for the lightsaber can also be found throughout the game, which affects enemies in different ways. I honestly found this hardly worth going out of my way to mess with, however, since using the force powers were rewarding themselves.

The story seemed a bit so-so from the start but eventually sucked me in as it neared its conclusion. It's unfortunate it took almost the entire ten hour experience before I found myself truly enjoying the game but the truth is even a few hours in I was still unsure whether I liked it or not. It was only when I saw the true scope of the story and what Starkiller became from where he started that I truly appreciated the game. While I won't give away details I will say the George Lucas said the story is canon and it does play an important role in the overall movie storyline.

While the story was satisfying (along with the music, which features classic Star Wars sound effects and themes, helping make the game feel more epic) the graphics were more of a mixed bag for me. Darth Vader and Starkiller look fine, especially at the beginning of the game. The cut scenes do an amazing job showing off force powers on a far grander scale than can actually be done during game play (although "finishing moves" for boss fights were annoying; instead of pressing the buttons they told me to I would have rather just seen a cut scene). Halfway through the game, however, things get a little murky. I was enjoying the amazing cut scenes up until the very moment a familiar character from the original movie series appeared and I found myself giving out a "Gah!" out loud. Not only did the character look absolutely terrible but so did the entire cut scene. I immediately wondered if they had their B team take care of some of the less important parts of the game. It certainly would have explained the sudden dip in quality out of nowhere.

Fortunately the quality picked back up as the game reached its conclusion. I was actually surprised by how hard the last two fights ended up being. I never felt the previous boss fights truly prepared me for what I faced. Once I came up with a strategy it was much easier but still extremely challenging.

Overall the game was an enjoyable experience and almost what I wanted to see from a Star Wars game but comes up just short. I wouldn't mind the fact the game is only about ten hours except I was hoping to face off against more Jedi than the game actually has, which was very disappointing. The fights hardly felt epic, either, instead relying on the cut scenes to do that. For a bunch of Jedi and Sith I was kind of hoping for more of a challenge, but as I already pointed out the only time I truly experienced that was during the last two fights.

It's a good game, there's no doubt about it, and I don't necessarily feel I wasted my $40. However if it wasn't on sale when I bought it I'm sure I would feel much differently. This doesn't feel like a $60 experience and as soon as I collect my last few achievements I don't see this game staying in my collection.

It's good but for me it's not beloved.

SCORE: 8 / 10

FINAL IMPRESSIONS: Eternal Sonata (SPOILERS)

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 03:59:07 GMT

Yeah, this is pretty late since I did my review sometime last week, but here it is anyway. Basically I'm going to go into more spoiler-filled details about WHY parts of the story were broken but other things that were chock full of nifty goodness.

I'll be honest, ever since I finished the game I want to get a collection of Chopin's music. I think it's inevitable at this point because everything I heard in the game was absolutely gorgeous. He truly was a musical genius.

Anyway, that's another topic entirely. I'm here to talk about the game. One of the biggest problems I had with the story was (the in dream story, not the "Chopin's trying to deal with death" story) how many subplots, romances, etc. with little or no conclusion. There were a LOT of problems with it.

The big problem seems to be a lack of proper set up. While Polka and Allegretto's love story was okay (it could have used a lot more details to flesh it out, but it was acceptable). But a lot of other things were thrown in without any development or follow up. For example, the whole "traitor" subplot. Shortly after first meeting Claves, Falsetto, and Jazz we're immediately given the idea that one is a traitor. Which I guess is okay but within an hour two the traitor was already revealed to be Claves. When she dies immediately after being outed as the traitor, there's a huge sappy scene as if we're supposed to care. But how could I care? I didn't know this character well at all because there was no attempt to make me care about her. It was also pretty clear she was the traitor when it was suggested it was either her or Falsetto. If you're going to do a traitor story and expect us to care about a character who dies, there has to be some attempt to develop the story and character.

Another issue was all of the romance plots without any resolution. Falsetto's love for Jazz was okay since it was established they were childhood friends, but it never saw a hint of a conclusion at all. What got me most was the sudden revelation of Viola's love for Jazz. WTF?! It was introduced out of nowhere even though nothing in the game up to that point showed the two having some kind of personal connection (I don't think Viola ever actually spoke to Jazz directly in the game at all). After it was introduced Viola talked about it for about five minutes and then there was absolutely NOTHING mentioned of it again. It was completely pointless to throw it in there other than as a quick attempt to give Viola some more personality in the game. Honestly out of all the characters Viola hardly needed anything to make her character relatable.

I also never got the feeling that Count Waltz's part of the story was important at all. I was expecting some epic story but it never really came close. There was no explanation of why the Agogos made mineral powder so effective (and dangerous) or why Polka made them glow. It was like they came up with this idea centered around Chopin but needed filler to get to that part of the story, but they didn't care enough or couldn't be bothered to try hard on the dream story.

Whew. So yeah, the dream story had a ton of problems and little-to-no resolutions. But the story with Chopin was amazing.

If you didn't pick up on it, it seems the story was in a loop. The game begins and ends with Polka jumping off a cliff, restarting the story. When Polka goes to the tree to tie her fortune to it, there are several bad fortunes she tied to it in previous visits. Polka's stone, given to her by someone she loved, was from Allegretto halfway through the game, even though Polka had it since the beginning. Polka jumped off the cliff knowing if she didn't it would mean Chopin would die in the real world. But his refusal to let go of the real world kept him hanging on.

Chopin, finally deciding it was time to accept his fate, saved Polka and breaking the story's loop. But doing so resulted in his death in the real world.

The one thing I'm confused about is if the dream world continues to exist now that Chopin is dead. After he passes away in the real world and his spirit leaves his body, he's shown in the background in the dream world as Polka and Allegretto kiss. It doesn't seem like this world could still exist since it existed only in Chopin's mind. With his death I would figure the dream world and all of its people would be gone as well.

Something to note I didn't notice until someone pointed it out was the flowers that bloomed at 2am in the beginning of the game. Chopin died in the real world at 2am.

Anyway, this only makes my experience of the game more conflicted because the overall "Chopin dealing with his own death" story was absolutely amazing and set up well, but the dream story with the warring nations and Agogos seemed utterly pointless with all of the problems it had. That's why I felt the game was still worth playing but took a big hit on my score because of the annoying story problems.

One final thing is the dialog. Some was fine, other parts felt like it was there to come off as philosophical (even if it wasn't necessary), and Chopin's doctor's dialog was absolutely horrible. Still, the ending worked and was a nice.

XBOX 360 REVIEW: Eternal Sonata (Spoiler Free)

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 03:58:28 GMT

Over a year ago I bought my 360 because of the promise of a bunch of RPGs coming to the system. At the time Blue Dragon, Mass Effect, and Eternal Sonata were mentioned and I was excited for all three. While the first game didn't get stellar reviews, things seemed optimistic for the latter games and I preordered them both. Oddly enough despite all of the hype, it wasn't Mass Effect I was really looking forward to. I couldn't wait to get a hold of Eternal Sonata.

Unfortunately real life kept me from playing it until recently, hence the really late review. Although it's a few months late, I have indeed finished the game and feel the need to spill my thoughts into this electronic journal, because honestly if I don't I think my head will explode. The game came very close to breaking my brain for a variety of reasons.

For the record, this is a non-spoiler review. I'll try to keep things as vague as possible, and if something seems like it's a spoiler I probably only mentioned it because it's an obvious part of the plot that any preview would have mentioned already.

I'm finding some difficulty deciding where to start. I think it ultimately depends on how you view the game, so I'll cover both the literal story and the one of interpretation, beginning with the former.

One of the things that attracted me to this game was the idea is was centered around the musical genius Fredrick Chopin. The idea was intriguing and I was interested to see exactly how they could spin his life into an RPG. The basic premise of the game is that Chopin, on his death bed, enters a world of magic and monsters. Initially he's convinced it's a dream, but as he spends more time in the world he begins to question which world is real.

Before I jump into the story (because honestly there's so much to cover it's best left to last) I'll get the basics out of the way. The non-story elements of the game are a mixed bag to say the least. The artwork is absolutely beautiful, giving the world and characters a unique style that helps the game stand out among other RPGs.

Unfortunately the animation, with the exception of the end of the game, suffers greatly. While the beginning showed a load of promise, halfway through the game I found myself forcing my through long cut scenes with long pointless pauses, jerky random movement, and horribly robotic looking scenes. For example, there are a couple of scenes showing two characters hug, but the scenes looked horribly awkward. Both wound up looking like the characters didn't want to touch each other at all, and any emotion I was supposed to get from the scene went out the window. I also couldn't help but notice that for some reason any character around the age of eight can't put his or her arms down. There were good spots here and there, but overall the animation was absolutely terrible. It was a distraction and killed the pacing of the game at certain parts.

Regarding the battle system, it was certainly unique but after a while began to feel almost like a button masher. With the exception of recovery items any other objects used in battle were simply sold or sat in my inventory, collecting dust. Between healing moves and special attacks that never run out, there wasn't much point to extra items in the game. And while, as I said before, the battle system was interesting after a while it became repetitive. There is little to no strategy in the game when it comes to fighting. Regardless of which boss the player faces, the strategy can pretty much be summed up as building up echos and healing the party. That's it. Don't get me wrong, the lack of strategy didn't ruin the fun of the game, but after a while it was certainly noticable.

The voice acting is also something that I had a mixed opinion on. While characters like Viola, Falsetto, and Allegretto were pretty good, others likes Beat, Salsa, and to an extent Polka were annoying. There is the option of listing to the Japanese cast if you can't suffer through the English version, though. It isn't enough to make ears bleed so it's certainly tolerable.Despite some of these issues, there is a big shiny spot to the game, and that's the music. Based on Chopin's work, the game sounds absolutely beautiful. Between chapters it treats the player to a piano only version of Chopin's music as the game gives a history lesson on the pianist. It's really weird to be playing a video game and find yourself learning at the same time.

Now that the basics are out of the way, it's time for the meat of any RPG: story.

As I previously mentioned how you walk away from this game feeling depends on what part of the story you're focusing on. Let's cover the literal part first. The literal story is pretty disappointing. While the potential for something special and epic was there, the story seemed to burden itself with subplot after subplot and numerous love triangles, half of which come out of nowhere with little-to-no set up or follow through. I was left scratching my head at some of the random plots tossed in and quickly forgotten, or some of the logic characters used for the sake of story progression, even though it didn't make sense at all.

I think part of the problem lies with the fact that there are so many characters involved there was no time to properly develop stories for them all. There are ten playable characters plus no less than eight non-playable characters with key parts at various stages of the game. With so many characters to focus on if a subplot actually makes it through to completion it ends almost as quickly as it begins, giving no build up whatsoever to subplots that should be been important mysteries or potential relationships that ended up being no more than a tease. That's, of course, if those subplots and relationships are lucky enough to have a conclusion. Unfortunately quite a few story elements dropped in are never resolved.

If you look at the game from that point of view, the story is horrible. It's sloppy and riddled with holes.

But then there's the other part. The overall story that ties the game together. Chopin's story. If you can ignore the horrible unimportant parts of the story and focus just on Chopin and his journey, that's where the gem of the game is.

I'll admit that after finishing the game my mind was swimming with so many questions and thoughts that I didn't know what to make of it. I was very confused and figured there was a deeper meaning to the story but having played it only once (and not eager to have another go at it any time soon) I sought out the opinions of other people who had more time with it. I found a variety of interpretations of what the game meant, and any of them could be right. If you ignore the obvious in your face parts of the story and focus on the subtle things, the clues begin to add up to what the game really means, whether the world is real or not, and how ultimately the game is and always has been about Chopin's story. Looking at it from this point of view the story is absolutely amazing, in spite of the more obvious flaws. It also helps make sense out of some of the weirder actions of certain characters.

I think I definitely need to play through the game again with this new perspective. It might not be for awhile because I need some time away from it. After spending the last few weeks working through some pretty horrible subplots and cut scenes, I need a beak. But the game deserves a second play through, this time ignoring the literal aspects of Polka's world and focusing on how they relate to Chopin.

Regardless of how potentially deep the story is, though, it's still a game and there are some pretty big glaring flaws that should have been addressed. It's a fun game with frustrating parts. How big of a payoff you get depends on how you view the game and honestly while it's something I don't think many people will regret playing, it isn't something that should be pushed to the top of the list above Mass Effect or from what I've heard Lost Oddessy. I like the game and I'll probably like it more my second time through, but I probably could have waited to play it longer than I did.

There IS a PS3 version coming out with more content and supposedly a more fleshed out story. If you own (or will own) a PS3 and intend to check this game out, it will probably be worth waiting, especially if it means even close to a more coherent story.

SCORE: 7 / 10

PLAYER'S GUIDE REVIEW:

As a little bonus, here's a very quick review of the Brady player's guide. Yes, I used a player's guide. Normally I avoid them on games except RPGs since those games tend to involve the player doing a series of various tasks to get an important item. Without the player's guide figuring that stuff out is practically impossible.

Anyway, from my experience with the guide I've found a few different errors and missing information. The issues range from hidden items not marked in the book to obvious save points the authors completely missed on the map. That isn't such a big deal because the save points are out in the open (you don't need the book to find them) but it's the point that they missed something as easy as that that reflects on the quality of the book.

The biggest and most frustrating part is the book completely skips explaining what needs to be done to face Dolce for the third time. Without doing something very specific at a certain place if you miss it, there's no chance of going back to do it again. A mistake like that is inexcusable. It's a shame I gave $18 for the thing.

The guide still has plenty of useful information, but be careful with it and look somewhere else for Dolce information. If you can find an alternative to this I would suggest it, but if this is the only option it works too.

WII REVIEW: FFCC: My Life As King (Spoiler Free)

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 03:57:41 GMT

This past Monday Nintendo launched WiiWare, a downloadable game service much like the Virtual Console, but providing 100% new material. Six games were offered on Monday, one of which was Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As King.

I haven't played the original Gamecube game but from what I understand if you expect this to be anything like that one, you will be disappointed. The game's premise is simple: you are a small king given the incredible power to magically create buildings out of thin air, so long as you have the proper materials. At first only a few buildings, such as houses, are available to build but as you send adventurers out into the world to explore, they open up new options.

Because of the Final Fantasy name attached many people might be looking for the expected RPG-style of game. Those people will be severely disappointed. The game can best be described as SimCity-lite. As king you build your city, build your growing populations morale, fund shops and training, and send adventurers on certain tasks. You never get to fight yourself, instead living vicariously through the young men and women sent to battle. So if you're a hard core RPG fan looking for a traditional experience, this isn't it.

Despite the lack of directly getting involved in battles, the game is strangely addictive. I downloaded it on a whim, only half-heartedly interested in the idea. From day one, however, I found myself clocking in stretches of four hours, five hours, seven hours... The way the game is structured makes it very addictive. A full day passes in a couple of minutes in the game, taking you to reports page to see the progress your people made. Because of how quickly a day passes and the fact the game saves before you view reports, it's difficult to not continue and see how things play out further. It's simple but effective.

Now it's only fair to warn everyone that this is one of those Pay-and-Play games, but don't allow that to scare you away. It simply means there's downloadable content to enhance the experience. Some is pointless, such as clothing for your young king, but others appear to be more worthwhile, such as extra dungeons and race classes. On my second playthrough I'm definitely downloading the latter. Without downloadable content there is a complete game here. I played for nearly nineteen hours. For $15 I certainly feel I got my money's worth. In comparison I paid $50 for Gears of War and it took only ten hours to finish the campaign the first time.

Graphically don't expect much beyond Gamecube graphics. It still looks nice, but considering size limitations due to the storage issue on the Wii there's only so much Square Enix could do. It's also because of this that space to build quickly feels like it's running low and there's no voice acting in the game. Still, Square did an amazing job considering what they had to work with. Supposedly there will be future downloadable content available that could open up areas like the castle. I noticed one area had a small patch to build on but had a huge section that served no purpose, so I suspect Square already has future plans for things like that. With the promise of more content so long as I have the ability to build on more areas than what's provided I can see myself playing this game far down the road.

The value was well worth the experience, and had this been a DS release I certainly would have handed over thirty dollars for it. Any concerns that this isn't a full game experience can be put to rest, because despite the simple nature of the title and the limited content there is a surprising amount to do. The game will not be to everyone's liking, but for RPG fans who also enjoy sims it should be right up their alley. It certainly was a pleasant surprise from what I was expecting.

SCORE: 7.5 / 10

WII REVIEW: No More Heroes (Spoiler Free)

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 03:57:01 GMT

Suda 51 has no luck at all.

Despite Killer 7 being considered a cult classic, the game was a total failure. However, fans rejoiced at the news that he was hard at work on another project, this time exclusively for the Wii. The promise of a quality mature game on a system that has been lacking both was enough to stir up buzz among Wii owners. Surely if third parties would make quality games fans would show their support.

Unfortunately, the Wii doesn't appear to be so friendly to third parties. On a system flooded with horrible mini-game compilations and the only games sitting on top of the system's sales charts all belonging to Nintendo itself, games like Zack & Wiki have been lost in the shuffle. And despite the fanfare it has received, No More Heroes is at risk of the same. Japanese sales have been abysmal, and while North America has shown love to the game, Europe has seen yet another delay of their edited version.

While it's too early to tell what the North American and European sales will be like when it's all said and done (although the NA sales have been pretty strong for a game with little advertising), the game has already hit a major roadblock in Japan. An embarrassing launch left Suda 51 sitting alone at a table for twenty minutes, surrounded by NMH promotional toilet paper and no sign of fans wanting their copy signed. It summed up the game's reception in Japan pretty well: the game sold only 10,000 copies, a total failure considering what they were hoping for.

So it's up to us to determine if the game is a success or failure. The question is: is this a quality AAA title for the Wii, or did it deserve the scorn of Japanese fans? Should we follow suit?

If you've read my first impressions, you already know how I felt with the initial two hours of game play. I've been pushing for people to buy the game because those two hours were that enjoyable, plus most of the major reviews highly praised it. Having completed the game, I'm confident in making that recommendation.

The game is interesting to say the least. As Travis Touchdown, you are ranked the number eleven assassin. Your goal is to climb your way to the top, killing your ranked opponents. Guiding you through the ranked matches is Silvia Christel, representing the United Assassin Association. The other ten assassins really make the game. While you have to hack and slash your way through countless generic enemies, it's the thought of reaching that next ranked fighter and experiencing their part of the story that propels you further. Even ignoring the boss fights it's still fun taking out hordes of generic baddies. The game makes sure your moves and weapons are constantly changing to keep what's an otherwise basic fighting controls interesting and fun. For the most part it's just hitting the 'A' button a lot. But even though it's pretty much a button masher for most of the levels it never feels like it. The difficulty levels do make a huge difference in enjoying the fights, though. I originally started on the Easy level, but by the time I won the second ranked match, I started over on Mild for the challenge. Easy felt like I was going through the motions, while on Mild I actually had a chance to die. And die I did, especially when it came to the bosses.

The ranked fights really made this game. Each assassin was so unique and quirky in their own way, and the fun was figuring out the right strategy while facing each one. It wasn't uncommon for me to die two or three times while I learned what I was facing and the best way to approach the boss. The nice thing is how different each assassin had to be fought. The variety and cleverness was impressive to me. It could be as simple as knowing the right moment to attack or it could be knowing how to use the environment to combat your enemy. What made me realize how great the game play was, though, happened while fighting Shinobu. I'm almost ashamed to admit it but I played her alone for over four hours. So many times I was a hit or two away from beating her but I got cocky and tried to force the win... and it cost me. Normally I would be frustrated having wasted so much time and get that close. I certainly wasn't happy, I can tell you that but I never once felt frustrated. It was a challenge trying to figure out the strategy and the desire to see the next cut scene kept me going.

While I really was digging the story, if you're expecting something deep you will be disappointed. This more like the first Kill Bill rather than the second one. You're killing people to become number one. That's it. There are hints of a deeper story, but I won't comment about that in this review.

What I will comment on is how the game uses style to help the story along. The writing is filled with funny comments and references. Maybe it's making fun of Travis' sexual habits or maybe it's taking a jab at anime. Maybe it's inserting a classic video game reference. Or in the case of ranked fights, it's over-the-top dialog as two bigger than life characters face off in a duel to the death. The style oozes over into the art as well. Considering the Wii's limited graphical abilities, this might have been necessary to make the game look interesting.

Graphically the heavy use of shading looks good, but there are times when the Wii's limitations show. Parts of the city might look great while others look horrible. Cut scenes, however, make up for a lot of it. It's not what the early 2006 trailer promised us, but I almost like this better. In a way it fits with the retro parts Suda 51 inserted into the game.

But with the good there unfortunately is bad, with a game that was never really treated like a AAA title there's bound to be some missteps here or there. I loved the story, although some people looking for a deeper meaning might be disappointed. I think if you take it for what it is it actually makes the overall game more enjoyable. It's the graphics and lack of content that ultimately are this game's sour points, however.

I mentioned earlier about the retro style. It works along side the other elements Suda 51 put into the game, but I couldn't help but look at the rougher parts and think of what the game could have looked like if the maker's had spent a little more time on it. It could have easily kept the style they established while doing away with the pixelated parts.

While the ranked matches are fun, the overworld gives a sense of being rushed. There are a handful of people wandering the streets and only a few buildings that can be entered (only after defeating certain ranked assassins). The only thing that can be done is kicking open dumpsters for t-shirts and cash and finding Lovikov Balls. You can dig for cash and cards if you have the patience and a lot of time to kill, but I gave up on that a long time ago. Otherwise the only point of the overworld is to get from Point A to Point B. There's so much that could have been done to give it some purpose, such as interacting with the people on the street. That could have opened up a lot of different options, such as learning new information, taking on assassination gigs, finding objects or weapon upgrades, etc. It's neat to have such a big city to explore, but without anything to actually DO there's no point. Hopefully if the game spawns a sequel this is something that can be worked on.

The assassination gigs are also something of a mixed bag. Performing menial tasks (such as collecting coconuts or mowing lawns) opens up assassination missions to earn the big bucks. Unfortunately there is only one real assassination mission (with three different versions), while the rest are fighting random bad guys in parking lots and alleys. It isn't bad but it's so generic. Considering these are the same type of baddies in the ranking missions, I was kind of hoping for some variety. It also doesn't help that half of the missions usually are, "Kill all the bad guys within three minutes, but don't get hit!" Those ended up being the most pointless parts of the game, because inevitably after all the hard work of taking out the bad guys someone would get in a cheap shot and the mission was over. If you get hit once, it was all for nothing. For your sanity stick to the Pizza Competition assassination gig or something that doesn't involve Travis having only one square of health left. Even for people who like hard challenges I can't imagine anyone actually enjoying it.

The game is not perfect. The plain overview world and the lack of anything to do in it keeps this game from being a true AAA title. That's unfortunate because everything else about it is quality and if it had a world with more to do or even simply a smaller area to explore, it very well could have been included in that exclusive "AAA" category. The game is so close to it that had Suda 51 took just a little bit more time, it could have made all the difference in the world.

Despite all of this, the game is amazing. The good make up for the bad in every way, and it's easily one of the best games on the system so far. It might not be a Mario Galaxy or Metroid Prime 3, but it deserves to be considered in the top ten. The graphic violence, language, sexual themes, and game play won't suit everyone, but if you're a fan of Kill Bill you will find this worth your fifty dollars. Everything it does is over the top, and that is the strength of the game.

SCORE: 8.5 / 10

Welcome!

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 03:40:07 GMT

Hello and welcome! My name is Jacob and I would like to explain what this little project I'm doing is about. If you are reading this only at LiveJournal please head over to the website where I've embedded the journal at. I'll explain in a moment why I've done that.

A long time ago I wanted to make an anime information website. The plan was to make a site so detailed and full of information it would be the one stop for all fans. It would would have complete information on series, characters, seiyuu, reviews, etc. I enlisted my friend Melissa to help. She wrote a lot of synopsis of manga and anime for me while I worked on anime shrines for certain shows. Things were going well but after a while time grew shorter and shorter and the scope of the project was beginning to become clear. It was too big. There was no way either of us could write enough to give the site even close to looking like an ultimate anime info site, and besides that other people were already doing it and doing it better. So the project fell off to the side and we both moved on to other things, our hard work never seeing the light of day.

That was years ago. Since then I've started a webcomic (with a spin-off) and set up a LiveJournal for my comic work that has since become a regular blog. In it lately I've found myself commenting on all sorts of geeky things and even writing reviews of games. It got me thinking about all the hard work Melissa and I did that remained buried on my computer and I decided it was time to dust off an old idea.

That's what this site is, except with some changes. No longer will it focus on having the most information possible. That certainly is a worthy goal and maybe over the course of time will get to that point but for now it will serve as a hub for reviews and comments on all things geeky. I'll post all our hard work here as well as reviews of anything pop culture. It won't contain every review possible; just what we get to. Maybe that's not perfect but it's more realistic for those of us working on it, especially since it's just a side project to begin with.

The LiveJournal serves a special purpose. While I own and run the site and do have certain categories to place reviews in, I do want other people to post their own reviews. I've given certain people access to the LJ so they can, at their convenience, post geek news, opinions, or reviews without having to wait on me to work into the regular parts of the site. The LJ will serve as an immediate way of giving visitors new content without having to wait on my often tight schedule.

While the old idea was very strict on how things were written and what was posted this is going to be much more loose. As long as the post fits the criteria of being geek-related it's fine to throw up here. It's about entertainment and information. Everyone might have a different way of writing a review, but that's fine. It's mostly so I can have one place for everyone to see this info and maybe get some discussions going.

Right now I've only given access to a few people I know (after all, it has to be people I can trust with the password) but I hope to expand on that as time goes by. I would love to see several thoughts. And of course if you have a review you want on the site feel free to contact me with it and I'll throw it up here. Just because you don't have the ability to post on the LJ doesn't mean you can't contribute if you want!

The next several posts will be reviews I've written on my LJ as well as some general impression of games I'm playing right now but have not yet reviewed. Enjoy!