I know I haven't posted on here in forever, but I'm just letting anyone out there that even cares really, I'm still around, but I'm keeping myself distant for awhile. It has become pretty obvious due to how many people support anarchy and violence, that I can't be friends with certain people anymore really, or at least not until they realize that a lot of crap going on is not good on either side.

When I'm literally getting sent videos of law enforcement being beaten and laughed at, I can't take that shit anymore. Yes, bad things happened, but it also isn't a time to be raising hell on people either. If you dont like me, fine, piss off. I hate I've had to lose a few friends basically because they want to run around and make it miserable for me to just be around them, but I can't take that anymore. I'm already alone a lot of the time, but I can't take that kind of crap.

If anyone cares, I'm not hard to find, but basically losing people I thought friends pretty much because they want anarchy, I can't be behind that. Sorry about that guys.

Jet.

Hey, figured I'd put this out there for people if they are interested. If anyone would want to get any sort of story from me, then I am thinking I might be willing to do trades/swaps in exchange for them. What I mean is, if I do a story, you draw something, or get me some sort of cheap game and I'll do a story for you.

I tend to prefer ideas that revolve around Sonic, and ones that revolve around diapers, baby, toddlers, ABDL, or just diapers and younger characters in general. If this is something people would be interested in, please let me know and we can chat.

Thanks =)

Wow, it’s retro time.

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest

I’m sure you didn’t see this coming at all did you? Yes, we are going back and doing some retro games for a little while. I haven’t done any of these in quite some time, so you will again get to see my thoughts on some of the older games out there. Here, we have one of the original DKC games that I ran across not long ago. Is it worth going back and finding a copy to play, or is this something that needs to be left in the past? Let us take a closer look and see shall we?


Gameplay

Donkey Kong Country 2 is the second installment in the series, so for those that have played the first game in the series, you already know what to expect here, but let me explain it for those that want an explanation. This is your basic super Nintendo platformer. You run from level to level trying to get to the end goal so that you can progress to the next level on the map. There are several worlds each with several levels for you to play through, as well as a few bonus levels that can be unlocked later. Yes, getting to the end of the level is the basic idea, but there are reasons to slow down a bit and not just rush to the end of the level. First, the obvious ones such as finding all the letters to spell KONG to get an extra life, then you need to find banana coins to be able to purchase hints, save, or move from area to area on the world map. Also, there are two more important things to find such as Kremlin Coins, and DK coins. Finding the Kremlin coins are what you use to be able to get to the area where bonus levels are located. You find these in random areas around the level in bonus areas or stuck to the end goal. Finding these bonus areas in the levels can be quite tricky at times, so if you want to get access to the bonus levels and such, then you are going to need to explore the levels very well to find all these coins. Then there are the DK coins that are even more hidden in levels. These are used for rank at the end of the game and for a bit of bragging rights of course. These are honestly a bit easier to keep track of than the Kremlin Coins, as there is a marker on the levels where you find these coins. This means you can find what levels you haven’t found them in much easier. This is a small complaint though that I have is that you have no idea what bonus levels and what Kremlin Coins you have found unless you just replay all the levels and check them all again to see if there are any that you missed. Missing just a few coins and getting to the end can be a tad frustrating as you have no idea where you missed them. The levels themselves, when you are playing normally are pretty fun, though there is of course that traditional trickiness that Donkey Kong games tend to have to them. The game does make you work for completion, but it is rarely unfair in most levels. There may be times of frustration, but progress normally isn’t that hard. However, there is one thing that I have to bring up, and it is something that plagues many snes games and games of this era and that is that while level progression and such is saved, your lives and banana coins are all deleted when you turn the game off. That means this game does somewhat punish you for taking a break, as you will lose all lives and coins you have last time you were playing. This can leave you at a big disadvantage if you are going to harder areas or need to save your game or get hints soon after starting. You are sometimes forced to replay older levels first to get these back before you can continue. This also relies on you even being able to do so, because if the flight center with Funky isn’t unlocked in the world you are in at the moment, then you are stuck there and have to tough it out. So yeah, if you have the time, play this game in a longer play session, as taking a break from it, actually is somewhat of a punishment. Other than this though, I would say most are going to have fun running and jumping in the levels as both Diddy and Dixie Kong. Diddy is your speedier and heavier character as his jumps are more normal, but he is faster. Dixie is more the floaty character as she is slower, but she can spin her hair to float more slowly to the ground. You need to pick and choose who you want to play with in particular situations. If you aren’t sure about your jumps, then Dixie is a better choice at times, but if you need speed and more control, then Diddy is a better character to use. Most of the game is about choosing who you want to play as in any given situation, as either choice works, but it is more up to personal preference and who you feel is best at the time. Allowing you this choice is rather nice as each character is unique and allows you a choice as you are playing. It would be different if they were both similar, but this control difference is rather nice and something that comes in handy quite often. So yeah, overall, I’m pretty happy with the gameplay, other than those small punishments for taking a break.


Story

The story of this game is fine, but nothing special really either. Basically, K Rool has come back and kidnapped Donkey Kong, and it is now up to Diddy and Dixie to save him with the help of your animal friends and other Kong’s as support. Not the most creative story around, but it does give you an excuse to use a new character and at least they did try with a story. There isn’t much in terms of progression of the story, but there is a twist or two in the end that do at least show you that K Rool doesn’t want you rescuing DK and that he is trying to get away as well. The other Kong’s give little cracks here and there about things happening around them, but you could pretty much leave them out in terms of story and you wouldn’t be missing too much. So yeah, I know this is a bit of a quick one, and you sometimes can’t expect that much sometimes from older games, but at least this one tries and I’ll give it that for sure.


Graphics

If you try and say that this game didn’t look great then and now then you would be kidding yourself. This game looks great, and has quite nice looks and details throughout the game that make it look like you are actually in jungles, swamps, and on old ships. The details of the characters are very well done, and the animations and movements fit rather well with everything as well. I don’t really think I saw any lag to be noticed around, and if there was, it was so minuscule that I didn’t even remember it. The enemies, your animal friends and all the side characters are designed just fine. Heh, it’s almost hard to tell you what is or isn’t good here, when honestly, there isn’t much that needs to be said on some of the things here. Most things in this game are damn near perfect when it comes to look. I know cutscenes are honestly at a minimum though, and that’s understandable. Still, most of the talking sections are just repeating animations for the side characters and simply the standing animations of the game sprites when in those cutscenes. Again, it’s simple, but hey, it does the job. So yeah, I would still say, this was one of the better areas of this game, as it is quite the looker, and makes use of the snes’ graphic capabilities quite well.


Sound

There is a reason that this game’s sound track often shows up in snes music playlists, because not only are they done so very very well, they have that memorable factor that I like to mention as well that music needs to have if it is going to be a long lasting favorite with me and others. This game scores very high on that scale. Yes, there are certain level music that are more preferred with people out there than others, but that doesn’t mean that you can just write off all the other music in the game. You are going to be humming some of these tracks for sure. Plus, I know that there isn’t voice acting in this game, and that the story and speech is done in text boxes, while the sounds are just monkey sounds, but hey, it works. This is one of those games that does tell it’s story through motion more than other games, and it honestly doesn’t require that you have speech to know what all is going on all the time. Most of it is pretty self-explanatory by both look and sound. I hope you like monkey sounds.


Control

It will take you a little bit to get used to the controls at first, so there is a small learning curve in the beginning when you play this game. However, it isn’t that difficult to get going after a while. You just have to learn how to control the characters to where you can pull off some of the trickier moves that they can pull off. Mastering Diddy’s rolling move is needed to either get hard to reach coins and bananas or to make getting through harder to get through areas, much easier. Also, learning how to use Dixie’s hovering move is something you will want to master rather quickly if you want you are a more cautious player. She is almost made for the player that doesn’t have as much faith in their jumps as a Diddy player would have. So yeah, I don’t see many people having much trouble with the controls, as most of them are just run and jump controls after all. You just need to make sure you know how to use each Kong’s specialties and controllability to get the most out of both characters.


Replay Value

The replayability is pretty good, though lacks in just one area that makes this game perfectly replayable. There are many levels to play through, and as I said, there are Kremlin Coins and DK coins to find in all the levels if you want to play extra levels or just have the bragging rights of collecting everything. However, remember I said that DK coins are easy to keep track of and Kremlin Coins are not. You are encouraged to replay the levels to find the coins you missed, but you have no idea which levels you may have missed those coins in, so you are going to be playing levels randomly trying to figure out which ones you missed coins in. This seems like a bit of a cheap way to extend gameplay by making you have to hunt randomly for the missing coins. Maybe it’s just me, but at least a dot or something on the levels would be handy you know? The levels are fun to play, so don’t get me wrong there, but just a small thing like that would have taken away some of the random replaying that seems to be required if you want to fully complete this game, one hundred percent.


Overall, I must say that I’m still quite impressed by DKC2, and do recommend that people go give it a try. Yes, the story is a bit lacking, even with the acting through mostly motion and emotions, and there are some iffy bits with the gameplay in that you are punished for taking breaks and coming back later. Still, when you get into the game and give it nice long play sessions, you are rewarded with a stable platformer with inventive level design and well done controls. I would say this is a game that is just as fun to play now as it was back in the day and would recommend those that want to try out some of the older Donkey Kong games, or just want a fun old school platformer to go pick this game up as it is worth it.


Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Donkey Kong Country 2 an eight point five out of ten.


Gameplay: 8
Story: 6
Graphics: 10
Sound: 10
Control: 9
Replay Value: 9

Overall: 8.5

You knew I would be doing this eventually.

Sonic Mania (Switch)

I have been waiting for this game for a while now and finally I am getting around to playing it and giving my thoughts on it. Sonic Mania has been hyped for a while, and now that it is here, it is time to see how well this one holds up as a Sonic game and as a platformer. Don’t worry, I’ll review a Sonic game fairly, unlike most out there. So let us see how this game holds up shall we?


Gameplay

The gameplay of Sonic Mania is almost exactly like the original classic Sonic games. If you have played the original three games, then this one fits right in with the bunch. I only played Sonic 4 part 1, so I don’t know much about the other half and how well the entire package fits in. This one though does seem like it fits into the original games. What I mean by this, is the game looks and plays just like the genesis games. You run from level to level, exploring the levels and their many paths to the exit. All the while you are running around, attacking enemies, gathering rings and trying to collect the bonuses that this game offers. There are two types of bonus games here. The first is when you get fifty rings and hit the sparkles that come from a checkpoint. When you get this, you play the classic Blue Sphere mini game. You can also hunt down the hidden giant rings again, which when you enter them, you have an early 3D style mini game where you have to chase down one of the chaos emeralds without running out of rings or falling off the stage. Blue Sphere is just as challenging as it was back in the day, though this new mini game isn’t a piece of cake either. You have to be paying attention as you are gathering rings to stay alive and gathering bubbles to speed up. There are spikes all around that will take your rings away if you hit them, but you need rings to keep going. The bubbles increase your speed in three intervals, and you need to usually be at level three to hope to catch the emerald. This is a neat new way of getting the emeralds, and is pretty fair as well. If you mess up, it’s clearly your fault. Yes, there is some slipperiness, but that’s to be expected with Sonic’s speed and trying to turn so quickly. Either way, the main game for the most part plays just like the original games, though they were nice enough to throw new ways of getting around in there too. Yes, these are normally level gimmicks or ways to play nostalgia on players by bringing back older gimmicks, my favorite being the babifier from what I have to call it from Sonic CD. Yes, this game plays on nostalgia a lot as it literally uses old levels from the original games. It has levels like Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Flying battery and such like that. With the zones that use original levels, Act 1 is normally the same level as before, whereas Act 2 will use new tricks, edit music a bit and be something very original. This is also where you fight the bosses, so yes, just two acts, which is fine when this game has a dozen zones at least, which does make it a lot longer than the older ones too. I have to say, that I’m pretty impressed with the game overall, as it does a lot to show that it could be part of the classic lineup of Sonic games. It does enough to show that it has a lot of original gameplay content, even bringing back with big cameos from old lost characters, and using many neat new gameplay mechanics that you could see being in the game back in the day. The best part about all those mechanics though is that you aren’t just playing as Sonic either. You get to control all three original characters. So yes, you can play as Tails and Knuckles as well, which bring new elements to all the levels. Sonic has a harder time reaching certain areas, but he can speed through levels, whereas with Tails and Knuckles, you can get to many areas much more easily, so they have easier times exploring and finding the secrets than Sonic does in many situations. Sure, Sonic can sometimes have easier times on bosses at times, or on certain other parts, but each character is better in certain areas. I’m just glad to see them bring back all three characters and do enough to pay tribute to the older games, but also showing plenty of new things as well. Believe me, I had fun with this game, and it is worth playing through several times, which is good for another category later.


Story

Honestly, this is really the only part of this game that is lacking. It isn’t terrible as there is a bit of a story here, it is just you have no clue at all what it is that is going on overall. Okay, so Sonic, Tails and Knuckles are running around. There are bad guys. Eggman and some Robot guys are fighting over what look to be a Time Stone. Something happens with the floating island. There is some fighting and it looks like you are teleported from many different zones in the past to another as things happen around you. Ummmmm, right. I’m completely lost here on what is going on. It’s original, don’t get me wrong, which I do have to bring up, which is a good thing. There just doesn’t seem to be much explanation about what is going on in the big picture of things is all.


Graphics

I have to say, they got the game right in that it looks like the original games and it looks like it could be from that era. Sure, the game is cleaned up a bit to look nicer and there are many movements and things that happen in the background and such that likely couldn’t have been done well back in the day, but really, you expect there to be new things thrown in there anyway. While nostalgia is used in many games these days that use older graphics, this game does a good job of finding that balance of using most of the original graphics from back in the day, but making it just look nicer overall. I honestly don’t have any complaints about the graphics, plus the little anime opening and closing of the game is just a little bonus thrown out there to the player. Sure, I would have liked a lot more of it and I feel those scenes could have been used to help the story element for sure, they aren’t fully needed overall. As I said, they feel like a nice little bonus really.


Sound

The sound here is excellent. There are many tunes from the original game, plus remixes of many of them as well when you get to the second acts of zones. There are original zones, so you have lots of new music thrown out there as well for you to listen to. It has that strong memorable factor I’m always on about and you will be humming the music from this game. Heck, I took a bit to write this review and still can remember at least some of the music from the game. That’s a really good sign your music is good if people can remember it even after a while of playing the game. I could see myself wanting to listen to the soundtrack at some point if I was bored, so yes, I can’t recommend the music enough. The sound effects are fine and do the job as well, as they are mostly sounds from the original games, aka, the classic sounds. Nothing wrong with reusing what works in my opinion really. So yeah, I have no complaints in this department.


Control

The game controls like the original games as well. I know I’m bringing that stuff up a lot, but really, that is what a big part of this game is. You are sort of throwing this game out there to become a part of the classic series of Sonic games. You run around as Sonic, Tails or Knuckles, using the same abilities as you did back in the day. Yeah, there isn’t much new to add here. I was surprised that you could make the computer controlled Tails lift Sonic up into the air, which I don’t remember from the original games that much. That was a nice little touch. Other than that though, everything else is just pretty much the same control wise. If it was in the original games, it’s here. Simple as that.


Replay Value

The replay value is pretty good here as well. You can play through the game three different times if you want to beat the game as the other characters, then there is the fact you can collect the emeralds as well to try and get the final ending and boss as Sonic, or just trying to play through the game as the super versions of the three characters. Yes, you don’t need sixteen for Tails this time, he can go super with normal seven. There are several different paths through each level as well, so you can try various different ways to get to the goal if you wish. You have all the blue sphere games you can try and play through as well. You first need to try and just complete them all, but then you also want to try and perfect them all as well, aka get all the rings and complete the level. Heck, you even get a chance to play puyo puyo in this game, which is a neat way to do a boss battle and also allow you to play it on your own later. Remember, I played a Puyo game not long ago, so I am pretty well versed in the game right now, so it was neat to try it again. Still, I enjoyed how much there is in this game really. Sure, I would like a little more added in if possible or for there to be more branched paths for different characters, but that’s just me. Either way, this game will get you a good amount of hours out of it, especially if you are going for completion.


Overall, I have to say that Sonia Mania is a pretty good Sonic game and platformer that looks like it belongs in the original series of games. It has good gameplay, great soundtrack and great replayability that will keep you playing for quite some time. Sure, the story is still lacking, which is my main complaint with the original games as well, but it has more than they did for sure. I would recommend giving this game a try on whichever system you want to try it on. It’s only $20, so it is worth trying out at the very least. I do believe this game is worth that price, and it does easily fit in with the original Sonic series of games. Go give this game a try I would say.



Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Sonic Mania an eight point five out of ten.


Gameplay: 10
Story: 5
Graphics: 9
Sound: 10
Control: 9
Replay Value: 9

Overall: 8.5

You knew this was going to come right away after all.

Sonic Forces (Switch)

With another Sonic game out and about, you knew it was going to review it as soon as possible. I will again try and do my best to not be bias towards the series as you know I’m a fan of it. Still, there has been lots of controversy as always with these games, but let us try and make sure Sonic gets a fair review now shall we? This one looks a bit different and has some time to be polished up, so let’s see if Sonic Forces can be held in high regards, or if there was more work to be done shall we?


Gameplay

The gameplay of Sonic forces is a bit interesting, because it feels like a mix of a couple different gameplay styles. I’ll do my best to go over them. Modern Sonic plays pretty similar to Unleashed, in that it’s boost as fast as you can, while defeating enemies to get more Boost as you get to the end of the stage. All the while you are looking for things to increase your boost, find red star rings, and get through the stages as fast as possible. Sounds pretty familiar I’m sure, and it should as this style has been used in many Sonic games. While yes, there are people that don’t like that some parts of this are automated or don’t require a ton of effort, honestly, if your goal is to make a game with lots of speed, then most of the modern Sonic sections do bring that feeling of speed that you are looking for. Yes, most of these levels are some of the easier levels in the bunch, but honestly they feel more like they are there to show off the speed of the game and that Sonic is about speed in general. There is also Classic Sonic in this game, and his levels play more like as you would expect, all in 2Dish levels where you try and get to the goal post at the end. These levels are much slower than the modern Sonic levels. These levels are a mix between speed and pure platforming. You will notice that while there are speed sections, these levels tend to be about making the jumps, not falling into the pit, and trying to take out the enemies with fewer moves than Modern Sonic has. These levels tend to be some of the harder missions in the game, some of this being down to the way Classic Sonic controls compared to Modern. While it isn’t game breaking by any means, Classic feels like he has more of a learning curve to use him properly than Modern Sonic does. What I mean is, that you may find him harder at first, but when you master the way he controls, you are going to have a much easier time of progressing. Then finally, there are the Avatar levels. Yes, I said Avatar levels, as this game does involve you creating your own character to play in the game alongside the two Sonic’s in the game. There are a great number of items to use to customize your character, though more would always be appreciated, and there are about a half dozen species you can choose from. I do wish there were more once again. The more detailed you can get with character creation the better, as the more you offer, the more creative your people will get. I get why it is a bit simple though, it is so that younger players won’t have to go into the intense detail some can get with character creation. It is nice to be able to add your own character to the game though, as it does feel like the world is more expansive than it used to be. Still, the Avatar’s levels tend to be similar to Modern Sonic’s levels just without the super high speed sections. The avatar has a weapon he carries around which are based off one of the Wisps. So there are lightning, fire, and other such power ups that they carry and can be activated during the level when you collect the wisp capsules in the level. This is the big difference you are going to have to get used to, because yes, you have your little grapple hook that sort of works like Sonic’s homing attack, but without the speed boosting, you need to use your weapon if you want to attack enemies as well. The weapons offer a variety of ways to attack the enemies, but each one has its own unique special that can be activated, such as Lightning, the one I used, having basically a boosted up light speed dash through rings or enemies. So you now have an idea of how all the levels play, and honestly, they all work rather well if I can be honest. Sure, they aren’t perfect as some levels are harder than others and some do have flaws that I spotted. Modern Sonic had a nasty habit of sometimes boosting off the edge of platforms for some reason, so there are some levels that seem harder than they should be. Classic Sonic also has a habit of not getting any bounce on enemies and when you expect to hit and enemy and be able to bounce somewhere, he just seems to fall down flat instead. The main complaint I have about the game though is the length. This has been my complaint with many of these games now is that while they are very fun and enjoyable, you seem to be done with it before you know it. There just needs to be more length put into these games if they want them to have a longer lasting appeal is all. Still, I don’t have many complaints with the gameplay overall, and I and see the fun in the game for sure.


Story

The story is actually one of the better stories I’ve seen in these Sonic games for a while. While a bit mixed at times, I would say this is the right track they should be taking with these games in terms of story. Pretty much, Eggman has taken over and you are part of the resistance as you try and take back the territory that Eggman has taken over as you try and restore the world to the way it originally was. Seeing a Sonic game where there is an actual resistance that is taking on Eggman seems to go back to the origins of Sonic as this was a common theme that was and has been used in Sonic stories for years. For a while now, the stories of Sonic have seemed to focus on just individual conflicts with Sonic and Eggman, while this story feels like it involves everyone in Sonic’s world, not just him, Eggman and his friends. I like that they make the world feel more expansive and that what everyone is doing has a purpose. Getting to see the world and many more of its inhabitants, who are all furry like Sonic and his friends, is a great thing to see and something I hope they continue to expand on in the future. I do have a few small complaints with the story though that could be ironed out in the future. One, is that again, the story is too short, thus towards the end of the game, the story feels like it kicks into overdrive instead of taking it’s time to get to the conclusion. It feels like this could have helped the pacing of the game by adding many more levels, which could have given the story more time to flesh itself out as you got to see them struggle and work to get things under control more. Also, at the end, it just feels like there are some questions that have been left unanswered, at least in my eyes. So yeah, I just feel things got a bit rushed in the end, and if they had taken the time to slow it down a bit more, it could have been even better than it already was.


Graphics

I honestly don’t see any problems with how the game looks. It has that cartoony feeling you expect from the series. Everyone’s models are rendered very well, and the animation of the characters looks pretty well done throughout the game. I really didn’t see anything that looked like major graphical glitches, and slowdown really didn’t look to exist from what I saw. Maybe I’m generous when it comes to how the game looks due to being used to this style for so many years. However, I’ve played much worst looking games than this. I’ve played really glitch games as well, and honestly, I don’t see of those around as well either. Things look smooth to me, and the characters, and backgrounds look pretty good as well. Sure, things are perfect as you can always ask for more detail, especially with how fast this game is moving. The mouth movements on the characters aren’t perfect, and honestly, I feel like I’m grasping for things to talk about now. Sure, the game isn’t going to look as good on this system compared to the others, but really, if you are just comparing background textures and such, really, I don’t count that sort of stuff. To me, this game looks good for its style, and other than small things here and there, really, I don’t see much to complain about.


Sound

Okay, if you have any problem with the music in this game, I don’t really know what to say, as this is one of the better sound tracks I’ve heard in a while. Really, when you have a game that is full of music that is full voiced and also full of classic sounding music that sounds like updated versions of music from the 90’s, you have one rocking sound track. I honestly have no complaint with the music and do suggest people go listen to it if they can as it really does feel like once again, Sega put some good effort into their music. The voice acting seems spot on for the most part as well. Really, when you hear the actors giving their performance, they seem pretty convincing to me. Sure, there are a few parts that aren’t perfect and you wonder if they could have done better in that scene compared to another one, but this does seem pretty few and far between. What I mean for example is that yes, there is a scene or two where some characters can sound a bit off or not showing enough emotion as they should be, but this is so miniscule that really, when it comes to sound, it doesn’t bug me that much at all. Sound effects are all classic and pretty much the same, so nothing really to say in that department, but to keep using what works. Overall, the sound is the biggest highlight of the game, and that shouldn’t be ignored at all.


Control

The control is something I do have to bring up about this game though. There are points where I feel the controls aren’t as responsive as they should be, but they are by no means broken either. I sort of mentioned my main complaints above with these in that there are times where it feels like you lose control in certain areas where you should still have it, thus resulting in deaths that feel very cheap. What I mean by this is for example, with modern Sonic there were several times where it seemed you were supposed to be boosting, but you went flying off the edge of the track due to have fast you were going. I could see what they were going for in some areas as I could see boosters stuck in certain curvy areas to be used to control your direction better. Some areas though have fewer of these than others, and the ones with fewer of them were much easier to make mistakes and go flying off of edges. Classic Sonic has more of a learning curve than Modern Sonic, as his style of gameplay is a bit different in this game than in a game like Mania where he felt way more controllable. He just feels a bit heavier than he should be, as you expect classic Sonic to be a bit floatier instead, so that platforming and being more precise would be easier to do. Plus, classic Sonic’s falling spin dash move, while useful, doesn’t always seem to register or work when needed. Again, this can be overcome with time, but it is something I had to bring up, as it does feel like classic could have used a bit more polish, while modern sonic seems to have most of his kinks worked out, just with a few here and there that could have been worked on more. Again, most of these issues can be overcome with time and learning how to handle the sonic’s in the given circumstances, but they do feel a bit out of place and like something that could be fixed. If these issues were handled, I would say the controls would be better. For the most part though, they are, so really, most of the game handles great!


Replay Value

The replay value here is a bit mixed in my eyes. What I mean is that the game is so short that you are going to be done with it before you know it, but the game does offer little collectibles and such to keep you playing for longer. You have the usual red star rings, which as you collect them, you get little small extra levels to play, which is a nice reason to collect them. You can try and also collect a good number of parts for your avatar, which can be done by doing all sorts of missions in the game. You get many naturally as you play the game, but the rest are done by doing things like, beating levels in certain time limits, getting S ranks on mission, using certain weapons, and other small random missions here and there, that when you accomplish you unlock more items to customize your avatar. If you really get into the avatar customization, this is a good way to keep you playing as you will want to see what all items you can gather up to create or customize your characters. However, let’s say you weren’t into the avatar function as much, most of the collectibles and add ons seem to not do much for you, other than the red star rings. This on top of the fact that replying the game once again can be done in a relatively short amount of time, the replayability factor is a bit limited at least in my eye. If you are someone that really like collecting and finding all the little secrets in a game, then there are plenty of those here for you. If you are looking for massive gameplay variety between playthroughs, then I’m sorry, you won’t be getting that here. Sure, you can change your avatar around for another playthrough, so that you are using a different character. However, nothing else change except for their appearances, so there isn’t going to be anything different when you play again. I do still see lots of things to do in this game though, so while it is a bit artificial in the way it extends the game, you can’t say there is nothing else to do once you finish it either. Just make sure you do enjoy the character customization in the game, as it is a big focus of wanting to keep playing after all.


Overall, I must say that while Sonic Forces isn’t perfect, it isn’t really a bad game at all. It’s overall a fun time that I can see people of all ages enjoying. Getting to create your own character is a neat little feature that I’m sure many out there are happy to see added into the game. This game sounds great and has a pretty neat story, though I can see why some may not like it, due to it being somewhat simple and also maybe not the most replayable game in the world. However, if you are looking for a platformer that goes for that fun factor while giving you something fun to listen to and give you a somewhat serious story as well, I would say this game is for you. So yeah, I would say this game is worth a try. It isn’t perfect, but I would say this is a decent addition to the series.


Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Sonic Forces an eight out of ten.

Gameplay: 8
Story: 8
Graphics: 9
Sound: 10
Control: 7
Replay Value: 7

Overall: 8

Time for more 3DS again.

Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse

I’ve had my eye on the Shantae series for a while, and finally, I got a physical copy of this game, so I’m not stuck with digital anymore, meaning it didn’t exist to me. Now that it is physical, this game is finally going to get to be played, to where I can give my full opinion on it. It looked like something I would like, but now that I actually have it, let us see how it really is shall we?


Gameplay

The gameplay of Shantae is your normal platformer, where you roam around from area to area to beat a boss, so that you can move on to the next one. In a way, this game sort of reminds me of a simplified metroidvania type game. You have the map where you uncover the grid, but the levels are much smaller and way more straightforward. You do get to roam around and explore, but the levels are pretty linear, at least for the most part. You still have twists and turns about where you go, but still, when you are roaming around, it is usually pretty clear where you need to go next, despite the exploring opportunities. There are exploring opportunities of course though, though this is mostly in the form of backtracking. There are some areas that you are not going to be able to get to easily unless you have gear that you get later in the game. These extra areas usually involve the two main collectables that the game involves, which are extra heart squids, which are used for more health, and dark magic enemies. Finding all of these are not necessary, but the second one, with the dark magic does allow you to get the rest of the ending. So yes, as you can see, you go to an area, you roam around until you find the main dungeon, then you go through the dungeon where you get a new item, and fight a boss that then allows you to go to the next area to do the same thing. You are collecting money as you go along, that you can use to power up your attacks or to get new moves as well. Money does take a while to get, but it is worth collecting, as you can also get auto revive potions in case you do end up dying. There are a few small quests here and there you can do, but many of them are quests you either are required to do, or are needed to get essential items. Just be ready for these, as this is what you do when you aren’t going for your next new dungeon right away. So yeah, the gameplay is pretty simple for sure, but hey, it works. This is a game where you are supposed to figure everything out and then possibly do it better or faster next time as well. I’ll talk more about this later, but this game definitely is a speed run worthy game as well. It even has a mode you can unlock later that is basically built for speed running. But yeah, the game is simple, but it does offer a lasting appeal that’s for sure.


Story

The story of this game is a little confusing, but also makes sense as well. I know that’s a little confusing, but here is why I say that. This game has its own story that makes sense, but there are many references to the other games in the series from the past. This game in many areas seems to be relying on the fact that you have played the other games in the series to get some of the jokes or references it is trying to reference throughout the game. I’m glad it does an okay enough job about introducing the many characters you encounter throughout the game, but you really don’t get much origins on most of them, as it is assumed in many places that you have met these characters before. I don’t mind a game that does this, but not even giving big synopses about them all does at times bug me a bit. Besides this fact though the story revolves around this baron taking over the town Shantae is supposed to be protecting, and now you are looking for ways to stop him. Shantae is a half genie who has lost her magic and is trying to figure out how to get it back. Also, Shantae is also working with an old enemy as well as you work to stop the spirit of an older pirate from reviving into the world again. The story then involves you going from island to island with this old enemy, which most people don’t trust as you look for dungeons that house the magic that is being used to revive this old enemy. This part of the story is unique and makes sense. It is on the short side for sure, but hey, it works. It just wish there was more explanation about the backstories though of these characters as you feel like you are missing bits and pieces by not having played the older games yet.


Graphics

This game does look pretty good, as it is bright and colorful, and the animations of the characters that are standing around in the towns look lifelike enough. Shantae wiggles around and stays in constant motion, even when she is standing still. She feels life like and not just a stiff cut out sprite that stand still when you aren’t doing anything to control her. You see that in many games, where in 2D games like this, where they just clip sprites and stick them in there and they don’t really move around much at all. That’s not something you see here, as characters do animate and move around, so they don’t look like they are just stuck in the game. When characters are talking though, they blow the images of the characters up to large versions of the characters that have a lot more detail to them. This means you can see what they look like a lot better, and also see the smaller details better as well. Yeah, the little details. That’s something you are going to notice quickly is that this game is very suggestive in its themes towards the girls, Shantae included. Many of the main girl characters in this game wear very skimpy outfits, and even sometimes change into even more skimpy outfits for you to check out. If you were looking for a game that basically tries to make girls look like eye candy with a bit of sex appeal, this game sure has that. Yes, you never actually see anything bad, but if you want to see some girls in outfits that look like they are just barely covering the things they need to be covering, you are going to enjoy the looks of this game. The only thing I have to say sometimes is that I do wish that the story parts were a bit more animated and that it wasn’t just big pictures that change sometimes to express certain reactions and that’s it. It would be nice if they were a bit more animated, but that is just pushing now for a little thing to talk about in the game. Really, other than that, this game looks pretty good for sure.


Sound

The sound in this game isn’t that bad at all. It seems to do the job and keeps you from being bored or feeling like the music isn’t there at all. Again though, this is one of those games where the music just isn’t super memorable to me, and I feel like I’m going to forget it rather easily. Also, while I appreciate the fact that they added a few words that Shantae will occasionally spit out in certain situations, I do feel that they could have added more voice acting to the game as well. It just seems like a bit of a tease to make Shantae say a few words here and there, when it shows that they could indeed have added voice acting to the game. So really, other than that, I don’t have too many other complaints. It just seems like they could have gone just a slight bit further than that did. Other than that, the music and sound effects seem just fine to me.


Control

The controls of this game are very good, and for a platformer, that’s actually a good thing, when controls are so important to them. One of the reasons I say they are so good is how the game introduces the controls to you. You only use a few of the buttons when you first start the game, and as you learn new moves or get new equipment, you slowly start using more and more of the buttons to use these moves. It’s a slow progression to using all the buttons, which I actually think introduces the controls in an easy to learn way that doesn’t have you constantly confusing what button does what, which is an issue I tend to see a lot these days. You introduce too many controls at one time instead of letting it be learned a little at a time over time in a more natural, easy to learn way. So yes, the controls seem really good to me, and this should be a way more games do it, in my opinion at least.


Replay Value

As I mentioned a bit above, the replay value is pretty good here. Some of the main reasons are that this game is mostly about trying to play it as quickly as possible. Yes, you have the normal things such as finding the few collectibles that I mentioned above, but that isn’t the bulk of what makes this game replayable. It is the fact that you can either play the game normally, or unlock a special mode that gives you all the special equipment right off the bat to play as in a new way. It is nice to have basically a new game plus mode, but it is also nice to have a game that actually encourages you to play it fast and better each time you do so. The game is short enough as well to not feel like you have to make massive commitments to do so either. I know I normally complain a bit about a short game, but this is one of those rare games that takes advantage of its length not being the longest in the world and actually appears to me to encourage you to want to play it multiple times. Yes, you are doing the same thing over and over again, but having an additional mode to play through after you beat the game does add a little bit for sure.


Overall, I have to say I’m actually quite impressed with Shantae for the 3DS and feel it is a good platformer/metroidvania type game that is worth people’s time if they like those 2D platformer type games. Other than the story really being a little lacking on the backstory, and the sound being a bit of a tease at time, I really can’t find a ton wrong with this game. I am glad this game finally came out of the digital realm and gets a physical release for people to play on as well. I would recommend you go out and try it, if you like these types of games. If you are looking for something a lot more deep or something with a long length though, this may not be the game for you. Everyone else though, I would say at least try it out, as this seems like a series you will see more from me in the future.


Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Shantae and the Pirates Curse an eight point five out of ten.


Gameplay: 9
Story: 7
Graphics: 9
Sound: 8
Control: 10
Replay Value: 9

Overall: 8.5

Going back to my 3DS with a different series from Nintendo

Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.

I’ve heard of this game before, but I had no idea what I was getting into at all. This was a cheap game that went down in price quickly. I figured it was worth a shot, so I’ve decided to see what this newer series from Nintendo was all about. However, is there a reason it went down so quickly and I was able to get a new copy for barely anything? Let us find out what Code Name Steam really is about and if it is a game worth getting or not?


Gameplay

I had no idea what to expect here with this game, but it turns out that this is a turn based strategy game based on a grid. That’s actually rather appealing to me, as you have seen how much I enjoyed some other games in this category. I have to say though, that while there are some positives here, I also very quickly found some of the negatives as well. First, let’s see some of the positives. This is a turn based strategy game that is based about movement and action points where you move around the map and take shots as long as you have the points still available to do so. I’m sure this sounds familiar doesn’t it? Different gear, different actions, and situations require different amounts of steam to move around. Yes, steam is the measure of movement and actions. This method can work quite well and it makes you have to plan out what you need to do, or else you are going to be left in vulnerable situations quite often. That’s the thing though. Unlike Valkyria Chronicles where this method worked quite well and punished you fairly for mistakes, this game takes the difficulty to another level. If you aren’t perfect in some areas then your men basically get gunned down and you either have to take the lost for that map, or restart again. Your men aren’t dead permanently, you just lose them for the map, but you only get four members at any given time. You have twelve different members by the time you get through the game, so you get to choose from the members you either enjoy more, or feel are better for certain situations. However, you aren’t always going to know who is the best fit for the situation until you have either already failed the mission or played the game a few times. Yeah, this game slowly becomes more about trial and error on a more major scale than you may like it to be. Don’t get me wrong, when you get levels that have more cover and enemies that don’t just kill you in one or two quickly hits, then the game is actually fun and strategic, but you very quickly learn you don’t get this luxury most of the time. So often, enemies will take you down in two hits, and often in one turn. Then on top of that, many of the maps have respawning enemies that respawn just as fast as you kill them. How are you supposed to make progress when the enemies spawn so fast you can’t even move as the next wave is coming up to you? Believe me, there is nothing wrong with a challenge, and if the maps were more about hold onto your position against oncoming enemies, that would be different. However, when you have missions that are usually about advancing into the enemy and the enemy has almost inexhaustible numbers and you only get four members, I see this as a pretty big flaw in your strategic logic. I know I’m being a little hard on the game, but the game does at times feel like it is just being quite unfair. As I said though, the game isn’t a horrible lost as it does often a crew that has a wide variety of specialties and types that leave you the free choice of who to choose as you progress through the story and get more of them. When you see enemies, you can just shoot at them, and the game gives you an idea of how much damage you are going to do to them, which is nice, however, most of the time, the damage calculations aren’t accurate at all for some reason. Yes, there critical hit spots, which are usually not that hard to hit though, in certain situations. You need to target these areas, as this is the main way of dealing damage fast, and you need it, as your enemies can hit you VERY hard and quickly depending on the situation. Yeah, I think you have seen the main fatal flaw of this game. While I did have some maps where things were alright, with so many of the maps being somewhat frustrating to play, the fun factor slowly went away as I went through the game. It wasn’t a total dud, but there are for sure some big troubles with this game. I wish there was a difficulty setting, maybe more troops you could use, or the enemies weren’t so unforgiving at times. The game just feels like it is just way not in your favor is all. It really tries though with the various weapons you can unlock, and various armors as well. You get these by collecting cogs that are lying around the maps, which you can go back to and replay to get more of if you wish. Still, while some weapons are better than others, I’m sure you will find your favorites and not change after you do. So yeah, while these are some inventive ideas, and it is nice to have a strategy game on the go again, I just am not sure this is the best way to go about it, with how unforgiving it is at times.


Story

I will say this, this is a very original story that’s for sure. Basically, aliens have invaded the earth and are slowly taking over. It is up to you and your squad to not only try and defend your home, but to find out how to stop these aliens that seem to keep coming. Your squad is run by Abraham Lincoln of all people, and you are working to fight aliens while flying around in a steam punk age blimp using modern day weapons, all the while, you have members of the wizard of Oz constantly popping up, as that world exists at the same time as well. Several of your squad members are mixtures of American historical figures, and wizard of oz characters, and a few other random members as well. All of this combined with a president that isn’t supposed to be there, aliens, and the wizard of Oz? Yeah, well, I can certainly give this game points for originality that’s for sure. Yet, while the game is original, and the members are likable and well written, it just doesn’t seem to go much further than that. The story just seems to be about your members trying to defend places, it doesn’t seem to work and things slowly get worst as they keep working. So yeah, this is one of those stories where you are wondering if things are ever getting better, as it seems like they are the only group anywhere having any success, as everything rides on them and only them. They do a good job of following people’s characters, as least the best you can figure. Each person is a typical trope and fits with the stereotypical type they are supposed to represent. It just seems like most of the time, that the story doesn’t really seem to be going anywhere except a possible one final blow to stop all the aliens at once, as nothing else is going to work story. I’m sure you have heard of those. Where nothing else works, so we go for one of those all for nothing plans that if it works, stops them all at once, or everyone fails. Yeah, while the premise and some of the story is very original, it just fails to flesh anything out further than this is an invasion and we need to figure out some way to stop it. It’s not bad, but just seems a bit boring or predictable, at least to me.


Graphics

The game actually looks fine. The characters on the map are well animated and the enemies move around smoothly enough as they are scouting around and looking for you. I do find it interesting as well that the cut scenes are done in the form of a comic book. There isn’t really much animation, and everything is done in the form of stills with voice acting placed over it. An interesting form for sure, and something you don’t see every day. How often do you see living comic books as the way of doing your game’s cutscenes? Not often I’m sure. While the game is yet again inventive, the graphics aren’t perfect. It does look a little pixily in some parts, especially when things are being looked at from a distance. Up close, things are fine, but you can tell that distance when it comes to the graphics was something that needed to be worked on a bit more, but I have also seen way worst. Characters and enemies look like what they should represent, with that slight cartoony look as well. So yeah, the game does look fine. It has its little quirks, but it shouldn’t be something that should distract much at all. You are more likely to be noticing the difficulty I mentioned more than looking for what little imperfections that may be in the game.


Sound

The voice acting in this game is just fine really. As I mentioned above, the characters all follow those stereotypical tropes, so often times, people’s voice tend to mimic those as well. The story is told well enough, in what ways it does, but the people that act it out do a good job of doing it. They sound realistic enough, and don’t sound like they are bored or are reading from a script at all. Still, the music is something that I just can’t remember much at all, which does sort of tell you a bit right there. It’s not memorable at all. While it must have been fine for me to have remember I hated it, but that does of throws it somewhere in the middle honestly. Not really great or memorable, but not bad enough for me to really remember it enough to think it bad either. So really, good voice acting, but average music and sound effects, which most of the time are just people talking, foot-steps, and gun shots.


Control

The controls here are interesting. I am using my new 3DS XL, so I think I have a small advantage that some may not have in this game if I didn’t have it when I played this. Walking around, aiming and shooting all seem okay, but that’s because I was using a dual c-stick form of controls. If you didn’t have that other c-stick on the new 3DS, then you would need to use the stylus to control the visual camera as you are moving around and aiming. That would become very annoying quickly and also make you have to hold the system in awkward ways as you did need the other buttons and stick at times as well. Having the additional c-stick does allow you to control the camera without the stylus, which is a big plus, but it also brings about the question of what this game would be like if I hadn’t had that bonus from my new system. I did use the stylus at first when I didn’t know the other stick would help so much, and yes, it really was awkward to control. I can’t hit the game fully for this awkwardness though, as I think this game may have been semi planned to be used with the new 3DS but it wasn’t essential either. It seems I had an advantage and one that was very welcomed and one I was glad to have. If I had had to use other way though, this would have been a very awkward game to play through if had had to use the stylus to control the camera during the entire game, as you control the camera a lot. You need to look around quite a bit, as enemies can counter attack you if you get too close and in the wrong way. If you aren’t looking around constantly, you can kill yourself on your own turn easily enough, by either constant reaction shots or being stunned and in the open for an easy kill on the next turn. So yeah, the camera is going to be the only real thing I had to say in this game that could have some issues.


Replay Value

Alright, replay value is a bit tricky here in that yes, there is replay value in that you can play the maps in various different ways with different characters as there are even different paths depending on characters and weapons you are carrying at times. That’s actually quite nice and could bring you back to keep playing more. The same goes for the various cogs lying around the maps that unlock more weapons and armors. All of this would be great, if not for the fact that the difficulty was so unforgiving on some maps. I could tell that some people are going to become frustrated real easily and it is going to be very discouraging for them. I will even tell you, it turned me off from wanting to keep playing after a while. I enjoy these types of games, but you can also go too far in your difficulty to where you can also encourage people to not want to play anymore after a while. I must say though, if you like them difficult, then you are going to love this game and want to play it a lot. However, if you are easily frustrated or don’t want a game that feels like it is going to really punish you for your mistakes, then this game is going to be one you won’t want to replay, just because of the frustration it could possibly cause you. That’s really going to hurt its replayability if you are going to make some happy, while really frustrating others.


Overall, I must say, that Code Name: S.T.E.A.M is an okay strategy game for the 3DS, but it is really plagued by one massively fatal flaw that effects several other factors of the game, and that is the difficulty that comes across at times as just cheap and sometimes brutal depending on the situations. I’ve played much worst games though, and this game really is creative and inventive with it’s pretty original story and cast of characters and ways to replay any mission at any time if you wish. However, so many little things are turned off though because of the difficulty and the just downright unfair things and seemingly not thought out things that stop this game from being the great game it could have been. It’s not trash by any means, but this game could have been so much better. So really, if you are looking for a strategy game to play on your 3DS for cheap, then this is a game to go try out. However, if you are easily frustrated or are looking for a game that isn’t out to make you do trial and error to beat several of the levels then this isn’t the game for you at all. If you find it for cheap though, I would still say at least try it out. You won’t be out much either way if you do.


Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. a six point five out of ten.


Gameplay: 5
Story: 7
Graphics: 8
Sound: 7
Control: 7
Replay Value: 6

Overall: 6.5

I’m sure you all saw this one coming.

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Well here we go guys. After my last Zelda review, I’m sure you saw this one coming from a mile away. I’ve gotten my new Switch and it is time for me to take a look at the game everyone is eager to see and play. Yes, we have the new Zelda game, and for the first time, I got a Zelda game on release. Well, I’m sure you all want to know what I think of it, and we are going to hear from me what I thought of the game for the Switch that everyone wants. Let’s see if it lives up the hype shall we?


Gameplay

The basic gameplay of this Zelda game is somewhat unchanged, but fresh enough to where it feels like its own game. The big difference you will immediately notice is that this is a large, and I mean large, open world for you to roam around in as you please. If you see a mountain in the distance, you can go climb that. If you see some buildings coming up, you can explore that as well. Invisible walls and barriers don’t look to exist anywhere really. I’m sure there are some at the edge of the world, but the world is so large and open, that you aren’t likely to ever care. You can still do the normal Zelda game things, such as fighting enemies, roaming into towns, collecting rupees and working to end Ganon. That’s what Zelda is, and it still holds true here. The main difference being that you can do this stuff in any order you want. If you honestly want to assault Ganon right away, technically you can. You might get your butt kicked, but you can do it. What you usually want to do is roam around the world finding these small temples that give you little orbs that you can turn into for extra heart pieces, this being the main way you get more hearts, or to increase the stamina wheel. These temples are very important, as they are like mini dungeons, but they are also your fast travel points, so you want to find them if you can, as that extra health of stamina on the wheel is important and a life saver. And yes, the stamina wheel from the last game is here as well, and it is even more important here. You use stamina to run yes, but you also use it when climbing up mountains, and when gliding around on your hang glider. The less stamina you have the less you can climb or glide, but it can always be made to work, no matter how much or little you have. A big thing with this though is that there is a food and cooking system you can work with as well. You find random food and other edible munchies all around the world. You can scavenge for them in the wild. You can hunt down some meat as well from local animals. You can also buy the stuff, but you usually would want to save your money for other things, as money is harder to come by at times in this game. You find cooking pots either in towns or in random spots in the wild. You throw anywhere from two to five food items in there to get various results of how much they will heal you. Yet, you can also throw food with special effects in there to have food that will either restore your stamina, instant heal you and give you temporary extra hearts, raise your attack or defense, or even make you stealthier. Making use of this food and keeping a good stock on hand can get you out of many situations that arrive, such as about to run around of health obviously, but say you are high up and about to fall as your stamina is running out. You can eat some stamina restoring food and just keep climbing afterwards. I think you get the idea, but making use of the food throughout the game and cooking the food is a major element of this game and one you want to learn about fast. There are special recipes you can learn throughout the game if you wish to do so, but they aren’t essential. They are just something for you to enjoy if you wish, though these often do restore more than simple dishes. You also have a nice armor system in this game where you can buy or find various armors throughout the game, which do protect you, but also offer various effects at time as well. You have armor that might be weaker, but lets you survive hot and colder areas. Which is another quick thing to cover is that there is a temperature gauge in the game. If it is gets in the red or blue areas, then you are going to either start to get cold or overheat, and if you do that for too long, Link starts to take damage. Various armors and food can make you withstand this for longer periods of time though, so there are ways around them. You can improve your armor by finding the great fairy fountains and having her upgrade them for you, but this costs material, so it encourages you to scavenge for more material as you roam around. Your horse is unique as well in that you actually go out and catch your own horse and tame it yourself. You aren’t just given one. You see a wild horse and it is your job to go catch one and then ride it around for a while and comfort it until it trusts you and doesn’t want you to just get off of it. If you push them too hard too fast, they just might kick you off. That is unique in that you now get to pick what kind of horse you want, if you want one at all really. Most of the time, I would just roam around on foot instead of riding the horse around. However, if you want to get somewhere easily though, just let the horse get there for you, as the horse will roam the path’s and stay on them without you having to do anything if you want them to do so. Now, finally, you have the controversial system, and that’s the weapon system. I do like that you can pick and choose what kind of weapons you want, be that one handed or two handed weapons, and what kind of bows you want as well. The tricky part is that most of the weapons after using them for a bit, end up breaking. When they break, they disappear and you have to use another weapon. Yes, this can happen at any time, and you will end up having to adapt on the go as to what weapon you use next. This means constantly gathering weapons and being ready for when the weapon you are using is going to break. Yes, sometimes it feels like weapons break too easily, and sometimes they do, but it does make you have to constantly be on your toes and change what you are using from time to time. That’s the basic idea of what the gameplay is like in this new Zelda game. I must say it is a unique system and it really does encourage you to explore the wide open world you have been thrown into. Yes, there are times where you will feel you are in an empty world, but that’s the point at times. This is a wild world you are roaming around in at most time. In many areas, all you are going to find is wildlife and monsters. Villages are out there, but there are only so many of them, as the world has been under assault in the past. So yeah, as long as you like exploring and doing lots of it, you will enjoy this game. If you are looking for something that is nonstop action though, this Zelda game isn’t for you.


Story

Oh wow, yes, there is an actual story in a Nintendo game. I know I’ve been complaining for a while about some of these Nintendo games not having great stories to go along with them, but Zelda does seem to be one of the few exceptions out there. This game has a very deep story, that I’ll try and give some info about, but I’m not going to try and spoil things for you if possible. Basically, it would appear that Link originally lost his battle with Ganon and had to go into a long term healing chamber that has healed him over a hundred years. In that time, Ganon’s influence has been felt, but not as bad as it could have been, as Zelda has been holding him off all this time from just running around Hyrule like crazy. His minions have spread around for sure, but the worst of it is being held back. Link’s memories of the past have been wiped and now he has to relearn what happened to him and Zelda all those years ago and if there is a way to stop Ganon this time, to avenge all that he has done. However, it won’t be easy, as there are loads of mechanical guardians spread around that Ganon has taken control of, as well as the protectors that each major village had protecting them. Link has to figure out how to stop these guardians and find a way to not only take out Ganon, but bring the various village guardians back to his side as well. I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but you do get to experience Link’s adventures as he works to restore his memories and help the people of Hyrule around him. There are flashbacks that happen every now and then as you watch Link remember the past, and also as he works to find that way to stop Ganon. It’s hard to explain this all without giving out all the little secrets of the game, but that’s what makes a good story. It keeps you guessing about what has happened in various parts of the world throughout the years Link has been gone. Really, the only complaint I have is that the game does sort of come to an abrupt halt at the end of it. The ending is okay, but it just seems like it just stops. It feels like there is more out there and that it should keep going. Really, other than that, I’m impressed with the story, at least what I can tell you, as I don’t want to spoil it all for you.


Graphics

You would have to be kidding yourself if you didn’t think this game looks great. It looks like a living world, as everything looks like a natural living world that has been under some stress yes, but has also been recovering slowly over time. It feels like you are out in nature roaming around, seeing wildlife and finding various food items here and there, as well as small monster bases, towns, and other temples spread about here and there. You will occasionally see people roaming and traveling from town to town, and when you get to towns, you see people going about their day to day lives at various times of the day. Yes, the game naturally transitions throughout the day and night cycle and has an active weather system. It does rain, and even storms on occasion as well. Storms can actually be dangerous, as not only is it raining hard, which like normal rain makes climbing basically impossible, there is also lightning striking around you. You will see it hit the ground and catch things on fire, but you have to beware. If you are equipped with metal items, you will start to attract the lightning. If you get hit by it, you can pretty much say goodbye. You have to keep this in mind and either have alternatives, or be willing to de-equip your items until the storm passes. The enemies look good, and Link moves wonderfully and looks very realistic. I can’t begin to explain how impressed I am with how this game looks. If you see that item way off in the distance that really is there and is someplace you can go. There is no, oh that’s just background you can’t ever get to. No, if you see it, as long as it isn’t outside the massive world of Hyrule, you can go to it and explore it. The game has that Zelda style to it, so it feels like it fits in the Zelda world, while just expanding on top of it to make it all the more great. So yes, believe me, I can’t really find anything to complain about. Lag was down to a bare minimum, with me barely seeing any at all. I might have seen maybe one or two spots that had some iffy moments, but other than that, everything really looks good. Yes, there are the little fine details that could still use some work, but that would just be nitpicking on an already well-polished product.


Sound

The sound of this game is pretty good. There is one big thing I wasn’t expecting, and it is something I so want Nintendo to go back to doing more often, and that is that this game has voice acting on most major events of the story. The voice acting scenes sound great and really do stress the emotion that they wish to express. While yes, most of the game is still in text boxes, which you expect really. However, the fact they went that extra mile to add voice acting, that I do feel is very needed in these games, it just shows the effort they went to on this game. The game music, when it is there, sounds great and has that orchestra feeling that you now expect Zelda games to offer. However, really my only real complaint about the sound of this game is that at times it is very barren on the sounds. Yes, you are in nature and you want the nature sounds, but you sort of expect maybe some very soft music in the background to break any sort of silence. This isn’t always the case, and really at times, the game is just very quiet. I get that it is a wild world, but you just don’t want to feel like the game is very quiet with the only sounds you have are the sounds of link running around doing his thing. Other than that though, all the voices sound great and naturally, and music that is there, is beyond wonderful.


Control

The controls in this game are alright and do well at doing what they do, but I will say there is definitely a learning curve for this game. In the beginning, you are going to be struggling to learn all the moves you can do, but by the end, you are going to be impressing people with the moves you can do and the little tricks to dodge that you can pull off. Do you want link to go rushing in slashing like crazy, or would you prefer he have his shield up and you block more. I will say, that controlling Link isn’t that hard once you get the hang of it though. You are going to be messing up at first, and the little tricky dodges come with time. If you know how to jump and dodge at the right timing, you can get free hits on the enemies where time slows down and link rushes in for free hits. The more you do this, you will be encountering impressive battles where Link will be doing backflips and dodging to the sides and hitting enemies in impressive sword battles and bow battles. Just be prepared to learn the controls though, or else it will come back to bite you in the butt later on when you get to encounter harder enemies.


Replay Value

If you don’t think this game embodies what a replayable game is all about, you have to be kidding yourself. When you are basically let loose in an open world and you are able to do whatever you want in any order you want, using whatever techniques you want, you are given so many different possibilities on how to get things done. If you want to rush right in, you can. If you want to uncover every little thing, you can. If you want to do things in different ways each time you play through, you are more than welcome to do so. Do you get the special weapons and use them, or no? Do you do all the side quests, none at all, or some? That’s up to you. This is one of those games that is more than easy to replay as many times as you want. If you run out of things to do, that just means you need to come back to it again one day and do it in a different order or in a different way. Believe me, this will be one of those games you will come back to many times to in the future for sure.


Overall, I must say that I am impressed with what Nintendo has done with the new Zelda game, and it really does live up to the hype that has been building with the game for all these years. It really was worth the wait, and is definitely a system seller for the Nintendo Switch to keep you busy until more games eventually come out for it. Other than small little things with the sound, and the controls being something you need to learn to get the full experience out of them, there is very little else I can say that is negative about this game. Nintendo picked a great game to be one of the last on the WiiU and the opening day game for their new Switch. Believe me, there is a reason everyone is getting a switch and getting this game at the same time.


Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild a nine out of ten.


Gameplay: 10
Story: 9
Graphics: 10
Sound: 8
Control: 8
Replay Value: 10

Overall: 9

Time to do one of the major staples out there now, and also to make sure I finish it before It before the Switch and the new Zelda.

The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword

I know just about everyone knows of the Zelda series, so I’m not sure there is going to be much I have to explain about what this game is and what it’s about. However, this is the one that came out on the Wii, and with the Wii’s reputation with some people, I’m sure that can bring into question about this game’s quality. Well, let us take a closer look at this Zelda and see how it fairs on the Wii, and if the high quality that this series is known for still holds true here.


Gameplay

The basic gameplay of this Zelda game is really unchanged, but there are some add on’s here and there that do make this game unique compared to others in the series. You do for example roam around a world collecting rupees for money, hearts to stay alive, and look for dungeons to explore to get new items. If you have played any other game in this series, this is no surprise as it is what has worked for so long. However, as I said, there are some gameplay mechanics that are brand new to this game. One of the first big ones you will notice is that yes, you are roaming around on the ground a lot, but you are now also roaming around in the sky as well. One of the main open world areas is the sky above the land. You get around by flying on a large bird creature, which comes to take you around when you jump off the floating islands that are all over the sky. Getting to fly around in an open sky is pretty neat and something that does break up the usual running around the world map that’s for sure. One thing though that I have to bring up is that getting around does involve a lot of going from the ground, and back to the sky and over and over several times throughout the game. When you are on the ground, the world is split into three areas, with no way to get from one to the other, except by going back up to the sky from a save point, and flying to the opening to one of the other areas. While this is neat to start out, you do sometimes wish you didn’t have to constantly go up and down when you are trying to get to different save points on the ground, when you are already on the ground. When you are actually fighting when on the ground though, that’s where things get a bit unique as well. As most know, Link is normally left handed, but in this game, he is right handed, due to the fact that all attacks are done by swinging the wiimote around, which actually is a neat way to make the sword work. I’ll tell more about how effective this works later in controls. When it comes to the items and weapons you pick up during play, unlike some Zelda games, this game does make use of all the weapons and constantly throughout the game. You don’t just use the weapon a few times until you get a new one. You use them all the time. Also, several of them can be upgraded, just like your shields you get in the game. To upgrade stuff, you use material you find around the world. This material is easier or harder to find, depending on what you need, and you need some of it throughout the game if you want to upgrade your stuff, but that isn’t necessary at all though. The same goes with potions, as you purchase them in the main town, but you can upgrade them using the bugs you find around the world as well. These bugs can either be used for this, or sold to another NPC you find. These are both neat little add ons for sure, but there are some annoyances with them as well. As I said, some of them are harder to a hold of, but another annoyance is that every time you restart your save game, the game must stop and do the notification and hold up item screen whenever you find these items again. This means, you found them all, but had to come back the next day, you are going get stopped for the game to tell you what these materials and bugs are all over again the next day as well. I think they could have fixed that for sure. Another new thing you will run across is that Link has a stamina bar. As you run around, he will quickly get tired, and this drains. You can either slow down to let it recover, or find little green balls that are in certain areas to restore stamina immediately. This means you can’t just run everywhere, as Link does get tired. The same goes with using your sword. If you just swing wildly, he is going to get tired and you don’t want that. If stamina goes to zero, link just stands there pretty much or moves at snail’s pace and he is wide open with no way to defend. It’s a neat little ad on again, and while yes, you do wish you could just run like crazy and such, it does make it more realistic as well that he does have limits. Also, getting stuck is harder to do as well, as there are several ways to get hints throughout the game. Fi, a character that lives in your sword, can give you many details and hints, plus there are various stones throughout the game that can give hints as well. If you are ever stuck, use these, they will help, as they did help me quite a bit for sure. So yeah, lots of this is some of the main additions and the few little tid bits that I found a little annoying throughout the game. Still, these things are very minor and don’t take away from the games overall gameplay. If you have played other 3D Zelda games, then this one plays just like the old ones, just with little additions as you would expect. It does still feel like a Zelda game, even on the Wii, this is mostly because while there are motion controls, they are done well, and in a way that doesn’t take away from the game. This just shows you that motion controls can work well in a game, and don’t just always get in the way as many of the other Wii games I’ve shown you can do in the past. Overall, the gameplay is still fun and offers that 3D Zelda action you are looking for.


Story

The story is done well, and it does show that Nintendo can actually put decent stories in their main series games. Even if Link doesn’t talk still, you can tell a story through the other characters and reactions well when done like this. Link lives in on an island city in the sky called Skyloft. He is training to be a Knight that flies around on these large birds called Loftwings. Your city lives in the sky as the land below has long ago been tainted and your small society was sent to the sky to survive evil as the land itself takes time to heal. During his training, successful training as well, you are separated from your longtime friend Zelda, and you must now go on an adventure to rescue her from wherever she has gone. The game’s journey shows Link as he travels around to try and find or save Zelda from whatever evil wants with her out there, the slow progression of the world changing and starting to slowly appear to be getting back to normal from the many years, and also links progress from a new swordsman, to the hero of legend that we all know he is. You will have to deal with the evil man named Ghirahim, who seems to end to get a hold of Zelda and also tells you right away that he wants to resurrect his master to bring the evil back to the land. You will be dealing with him throughout the game, so be ready for the twists and turns that revolve around him as well, as he will be your main adversary throughout the game. I must say, the game does a nice job of progressing itself and also keeping you interested throughout the entire game. Whenever you think you are about to get to the end of it, it feels like they added on more to keep you into the game longer. I like games that make you think you are getting to and end and then it shows that you aren’t anywhere close to being done. The game knows how to tell the story and make you feel for Link has he searches for Zelda. She isn’t just some random princess he is there to save, she is basically the love interest and he is out to save her. I’m not going to tell you all the story as that is the main appeal here. When you have a story that is there to make you emotionally feel for the characters and watch as the world is slowly starting to change around them, you know it is doing a good job. Also, I will make one point though that is made evident real quick throughout the game. This is the beginning of the Zelda timeline. You are going to be seeing staples from the series being born or just created throughout the game, and it does a good job of showing you how some of these items came to be and why they are the way they are. You always want to know how things got their start, and this game will give people that knowledge of where many things got their start from. So yeah, this is the beginning of the story, so veterans are going to be very entertained and get more of the subtle hints here and there about things you will see in other games. A great little touch and shows they really do know how to do a story. They just need to do this in more of their other series now.


Graphics

You know at this point from my other reviews that most of these first party Nintendo games look great and this one is no different at all. The land is beautiful. All the characters are very vibrant and feel alive, and you really do feel like this is a land that is being reborn throughout the game. It doesn’t feel like a land of evil any more. The cutscenes are smooth and nice looking, and I really can’t say that there was any slowdown to speak of either. You can always tell when there is legitimate effort put into the look of the game, and looks that don’t take away from the rest of the game or look like the only good note about it either. There are a few things I have to bring up though. The game’s lighting really messes with things at times and does show a few graphical flaws that the Wii brings along with it. There are a couple of places where they just go overboard with the sun to where it can be blinding or just feels like it is being way too reflective to where it feels like you are in an area of nothing but sunlight. The same goes for in the sky that you will sometimes be able to see that things can look a little blurry in the distance at times when there is too much sun around you. So yeah, the sun is going to be the only real thing that is going to be distracting and a bit of a negative when it comes to how this game looks. Other than that though, this game is beyond amazing to look at, and a real treat that can show you what the Wii really can do.


Sound

When it comes to a Zelda game, you can expect not only familiar music from the entire series, but you also get very well-orchestrated music that is original and wonderful to listen to. When you have professional music people doing your music, I would hope it would be great, and this game doesn’t disappoint in that at all. Heck, there is a soundtrack included to let you hear more from the orchestra that helped do some of the music in the game. As I said as well, you have many of the familiar tunes you hear throughout other games, such as the main themes, Zelda’s theme, and other small music bits and sound effects from other games in the series. I can see this music being very memorable and something you would want to listen to more even after the game is done for sure. Heck, why would they give you a music cd to listen to if even they didn’t know that the music was great. Yeah, you could say they are just promotion their own game music, but it really is good and a treat that you should check out when you get a chance. There are no complaints here from me, that’s for sure.


Control

I do need to go over this section at least a little bit, as the wiimote and motion controls are a big part of this game, plus the normal controls of course. This is one of those games that require you to be using motion plus, so do take that into consideration as well. It is a good thing as well, as I mentioned before, this game involves you swinging the wiimote to make you swing your sword. So the game takes advantage of being able to swing your sword in any of the eight directions and any in between. There are many points in the game that want you swing in particular ways and the game actually does a good job of recognizing where you are swinging the wiimotes. Yes, it isn’t perfect and if you get into a rush, the game may make you do moves that you didn’t want. If you are panicking or swinging too hard, you could end up doing spin moves or not swinging in directions you wish to be swinging. The technology isn’t perfect, but as you notice throughout the game, it is much better than many games you see out there. You use the wiimote as well to help fly your loftwing around when you are in the sky. This is very easily done as you just tilt the wiimote when you want to go in certain direction and you simply shake the wiimote down when you want to flap to go higher. See, you can do motion without it being intrusive and make sense in a way that is fun. Yes, there are some issues as I mentioned, with one of the only other control issues being with free falling/skydiving. It took me quite some time to understand how to control this with the motion controls, and until you do, you will be wondering why Link is falling in ways he is doing so. They need to explain this a little more, or at least give more tutorials to show you how to work it if they are just going to suddenly thrust it upon you the way it does at times, as there are spots for certain extra items that you need to free-fall in certain ways to get to certain areas. Other than this though, I’m actually impressed with the controls of this game, as they work and don’t get in your way at all, for the most part.


Replay Value

This game has great replayability and reasons to keep you coming back for more of it. There are the normal things you expect from the game, such as finding all the heart pieces and doing the loads of side quests that will open up throughout the game. There are also things such as finding all the goddess cubes around the world that give you extra things like money, heart pieces, and items. The side quests are going to keep you busy for many many hours. Then on top of that, when you do eventually beat the game, there is Hero mode that lets you play a harder version of the game with stronger enemies if you want more of a challenge. It’s hard to explain all the ways that you are going to get a lot of playtime out of this game, but when you are spending normally forty or fifty hours on a playthrough, depending on your skill and how you much are playing, I can say there is plenty of gameplay in this game. Yes, you are going to be doing some of the same things in each playthrough, but it really depends on how much you want to get into all the side quests and how much of a difficult time you want to have when you play the game.


Overall, I will say that Zelda Skyward Sword is another great game in the Zelda series and it does prove that the Wii is still capable of showing us some great games. While yes there are small things here and there that make the game not be perfect, but very few games are perfect or close to it. Still, when you look at this game and the quality that was clearly shown to be placed into it, you get a very fun time and game that everyone should at least think of trying out if they have a Wii and are looking for something more than a simple casual game. There are good Wii games out there for everyone, and this is one of them. Go give it a try, and if you can get the soundtrack as well, give that a listen.


Overall, in my opinion at least, I give The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword a nine point five out of ten.


Gameplay: 9
Story: 10
Graphics: 9
Sound: 10
Control: 9
Replay Value: 10

Overall: 9.5

Its RPG time again everyone!

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride

I’m sure many of you have heard of the Dragon Quest series, and this isn’t my first time playing the series either. This is the first time you are seeing me review one of them though. They are a neat little series that has been around for quite some time. This is the DS version of this game, so we are getting to play it on the go. The other DQ games I’ve played have been good, so let us see if this one shares that positive experience shall we?


Gameplay

The basic gameplay of DQ5 is pretty much what you expect if you have played any game in this series before. You roam around a world map trying to fulfill your overall quest. You level up by fighting enemies in the old school style of you see the enemies in front of you while you just see text for who your party members are supposed to be. This style has worked from the beginning, and I see no sign of them getting rid of it, as it is sort of this series thing. So yeah, I know it is sort of simple, but that is the basic gameplay of the game, which is basically your typical rpg. We all know the style of roaming around, visiting towns and dungeons while leveling up. That is no different here. Though one major thing I need to bring up, that keeps that classic style from being as enjoyable as it could be, is that this one of those games that doesn’t do a well enough job of explaining what you need to do next, so you can choose if you want to do that just yet or not. Basically, this game has several, where the heck do I go now moments in it. You finish a certain quest in the story and it either doesn’t mention where you need to go next or the hints are so subtle that you barely are able to catch what they want you to do now. I know some of that is that the game wants you to be exploring to figure out what you need to be doing next, but there is a difference between suddenly being given a new area and you don’t know what you need to be doing in that area right away, and being able to revisit older areas to get to new things, or going to places out of the way, that you wouldn’t likely run into, unless you were scowering every little bit around you to find them. Other than that though, the rest of the gameplay is pretty simple and self-explanatory. You work trying to level up your characters to be able to take on bosses and progress the story. I know I skipped to talking about one of the major negatives about the gameplay right away though, but it something that brings the game down for sure, especially later in the game. But do let me explain one of the major features of the game that is unique to this game. Well, in this game, you get to capture monsters, and are able to add them to your four member party to fight for you. So as you play the game, you will be using them more or less, because you are not always going to have human characters in your party that you can use. Even then, when you do have human characters, there are chances that the monsters have been trained to points where they are better than the humans, or are placeholders while the humans level up in the background. So yeah, as you play through the game, you can slowly recruit monsters, which you do by battling them and waiting for them to want to join you. When they do, you can either start training them right away, or send them back to a camp where they will wait for you if you want them anymore. So yeah, this is basically a collect them all sort of thing. You can choose who and how many you want with you, up to eight, though this does include the human party members as well. So in the end, do you want to use the humans, mostly monsters, or a mix of both? It will depend on who you recruit and also how the stats look throughout the game. Other than this neat little gameplay element, and the negative one I mentioned before, the game is very fun and I can see people getting plenty of enjoyment out of it, if this is the type of game they are looking to play.


Story

The story of DQ5 is basically showing you the live of your hero as he is growing up from a little kid all the way up until he is an adult. You get to watch him have little adventures as a kid, and then endure the lots of tragedy he has to go through as he becomes an adult and goes through his life of finding a wife and starting a family. That’s certainly unique, as most rpg’s don’t tend to take place over the course of many years and instead seem to occur in a rather compressed or undisclosed amount of time. In this game, you actually get to see the passage of time as people around you change and as you grow from the little kid, until you start are the strong adult looking to save the world. I’m not going to spoil too much here, as that’s the beauty of the story, is that you never see some of this coming. Starting your life out following your dad as you are looking for your mom, as you watch the tragedy that befalls your father as he gets killed in front of you, and then have to many years later get back to the journey of not only looking for the legendary hero to save the world, but to also continue looking for your mother. That’s the main goal of the story, and it is something you will be spending most of the time working towards. The legendary is also someone you would never expect, and your mom, even after all those years is still alive, but where you are looking to find her at is also not someplace you would expect either. I do have to say, the story is neat and has some fun twists, but one of the downers I have to mention is that you have to be a fan of tragedy at time though, or you are going to get pissed or upset at certain parts of this game. This is one of those stories that constantly have these massive downers when things start to look good again, and it isn’t just one or the simple your dad has died stereotype. They do it several times throughout the game. Believe me, I’m just glad there are some happy times throughout the game, or else this would be a pretty depressing story at times. It is still a good story, but there are definitely some sad or depressing times throughout the game.


Graphics

For a DS game, this game looks very good I must say. It has that traditional 2D look that shows you it was made awhile back ago, but it has been nicely polished up for the DS. The animation has that certain look to it, where yes it is minimal at times, but it does enough to where it doesn’t look cheap either. Really, I have never minded the 2D look with the 3D feel to it, so this game looks fine to me. If you were expecting something that was going to blow you away, then yeah, that’s not here. If you get too high as well, or go to certain areas, you definitely can see this game as a bit pixely at time. I know some of that is just from it being a normal DS game, but it also just shows that while they did put some great care in the game, there were still some limitations in certain places. Still, I must say, that for an rpg you can take on the game, and from a series that has always been someone about simplicity while holding onto that DBZ style, I must say that I’m still impressed. And yes, as I just said, all DQ games have that same art style as the DBZ series, so all the characters look like they are right out of the DBZ series. Hey, if you want something that is sort of iconic in terms of art style, the Dragon Quest series definitely is going to be a series that is memorable and able to be told apart from the other rpg’s out there.


Sound

The sound is pretty good throughout the game, though it does miss some of the memorable moments at times. Yes, I did say at times, as DQ games have iconic music that has been around for a long time, and that music and those sound effects are of course present here and still nice to listen to, but other than those, I can’t really tell you much about the music after that. While the music I remember wasn’t that bad, it again lacks that memorable feeling to it that makes me want to go back and listen to it some more after the fact. If you enjoy the old school music that you know from this series and the other music that is provided, I can see this being a nice little bit of music to listen to, though there were still times I didn’t miss listening to it and would listen to other things while playing the game.


Control

The control in the game is just fine really. You are mostly navigating menus throughout the game and are just roaming around the world map when you aren’t in battles or in towns. Getting around is not really a problem. Yes, there are a few times, where it felt like you were getting a bit confused on which direction you needed to go, though some of that was due to the layout of certain areas crossing over in certain ways or just from the game trying to make use of the ability of being able rotate the game camera three hundred sixty degrees. The camera can be a bit tricky sometimes, though for the most part, you don’t need to rotate it that much throughout the game. It is nice that it is there as it does let you see things from a difference angle if you don’t like how things are looking at the moment. It can also sometimes let you see hidden doors or treasures when you rotate the camera. It is a neat little gimmick for sure, though it really wasn’t used that much. Still, overall, the controls are fine, and really not an issue you are going to have to deal with during the game.


Replay Value

The replay value is actually better than you may think when it comes to an rpg. While most rpgs are very similar on repeat playthroughs of the game, this one has one big difference, and that is the recruiting of the monsters. While you are doing the same story and can choose if you wish to not do the side quests or not, the fact that each play through could result in different party members being used does bring a bit of randomness to each playthrough. Do you want to try to mostly use human characters, or do you want to try different mixtures of humans and monsters? Some of this will come randomly based on which monsters end up wanting to join the party, or if you try and find them all along the way. Still, either way, that’s a nice little replay bonus. While you still are going to be doing the same story with little to no change, that is a nice little bonus that I can see easily adding replayability. When you have no idea which party you are going to end up with in the end, that’s a nice little bonus for sure. There is also the fact that this game isn’t grind heavy when it comes to leveling. Yes, I spent some time leveling to make some areas a bit easier or more reliable, but often times, I didn’t need to stop as leveling seems to be very balanced, and unless you are just skipping all the battles you are usually going to be around the level you need to be when you are fighting the big boss and the local monsters of the area you are in at the moment. Leveling is a good idea at times though, but just be aware that this game was never a grindfest, which is such a good thing, as many rpgs go way overboard with it. That means making more playthroughs isn’t a hundred hour slog through mindless grinding over and over again. So yeah, there is a good amount of playthrough here still in my opinion.


Overall, I must say this is a nice little rpg and one that is a nice pick up for someone that likes rpgs and wants one on the go. Other than the few things I mentioned, such as the where the heck do I go now moments, you really are going to be a bit hard pressed to find many things wrong with this game. I know I’ve played other Dragon Quest games, and the fifth game in the series is another great addition and does make me want to play other games in the series at some point in the future. If you enjoy a good rpg, pick this one up.


Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride an eight point five out of ten.


Gameplay: 8
Story: 9
Graphics: 9
Sound: 8
Control: 9
Replay Value: 9

Overall: 8.5

I did the one on WiiU not long ago, so here is the 3DS one now.

Super Mario 3D Land

Another Mario game for us to play through. I think this will be somewhat easy to explain as I have played a few of these for you all at this point. Well, here we have the 3DS version of the main 3D Mario game that is out there. Is this one very similar to the others, or are there enough new things to keep this one interesting? Let us take a look at Mario 3D Land, and find out shall we?


Gameplay

The gameplay of 3D land is very similar to 3D world. I mean it is very similar. You feel like you are playing more of the same game. That isn’t a bad thing of course, as both games are very fun to play if you enjoy a normal 3D Mario platformer. As far as creativity goes though, it is not exactly the greatest here if you have another game that is almost identical to the other one. I’m not hitting them for that, as they do seem to be companion game. So yeah, the basic idea of the game is pretty much the same. You run to the end of a 3D level to get to the flag pole to advance to the next level. That’s pretty self-explanatory I would say. The main difference between Land and World as well is that this game focus’ on the Tanookie suit, and there is no Cat suit in this version. The suit uses the standard leaf power up to appear, though the traditional version with the statue does appear later in the game, just with a different color leaf. It is a little sad to see the cat suit not here, but the leaf is a good power up anyway and still very traditional and familiar. You will actually be happy to have it in many situations as well, as it does make 3D platforming much easier when you can slow your jumps down. The difficulty of these levels is actually not that bad. The game is basically split in half, where the first half is actually rather easy, at least to me. I could see anyone getting through the game with time or practice depending on your skill levels at these types of games. The second half though is definitely for veterans. The game gets much harder when you get to the halfway point, and starts to throw all the various gimmicks that have been thrown at levels in the past to start making them harder, such as the quick time levels and the shadow Mario levels. Besides that, if I mentioned it in the last review of a Mario game, then it still applies here. There really isn’t too much different in the gameplay department. It is just your standard Mario game. As I said, as much as that leaves a lack of things to say, that’s not a bad thing, as it will be fun for all I would say. If you have played a Mario game in the past, then this is an easy pick up and play.


Story

I’m almost at the point when it comes to story in these games that I think they should just not even try to put a story in these games and just have it be Mario running through levels. All this game is again is just Bowser kidnaps Peach and Mario has to rescue her again. That is literally it. There are really no twists, plot or anything in general. All they do is show a picture between worlds, and that’s it for story. That is just plum unacceptable in this day and age. I know they want to make the story simple, but there are ways to make a simple story without pretty much ignoring the story and just doing the same thing over and over again. Until they can fix this or at least make some sort of twists to make the same story over and over again seem interesting, I’m going to have to keep bringing this up. I have nothing wrong with the Bowser kidnaps Peach story at all, but there needs to be more to it than that.


Graphics

Even being a 3DS game, this game looks almost identical to the WiiU Version of Mario 3D. That’s pretty impressive for a handheld I must say. The game is just as bright and colorful as the other version and as you would expect just has the Nintendo feel to it. I didn’t see any glitches as I was playing. Everything looked smooth as you would expect and really I don’t have any complaints about how the game looks at all. I think at this point we come to expect these first party Nintendo games to look great, and this is another example as to why we think that. If you can make a 3DS game look similar to a WiiU game so easily, I will say that I’m impressed for sure on what Nintendo brought to us here. Believe me, this game looks great. There are no complaints here at all.


Sound

This is going to sound very similar to the last category, but really, the music here is just as great as you would expect. You have updated versions of the old classics, and a few familiar tunes from the other game as well. It has that memorableness that I constantly mention for this category. If you are humming songs from the game, you know you got a game that has great music. The sound effects are pretty traditional. The same jumping sounds, blinging sounds from coins and blocks, and really all the normal sounds you have come to expect. Hey, if it works, why change it. The voice clips are the same recycled ones though, but you sort of come to expect that at this point. Yes, I wish there were more of them, but most of that is sort of tied to the lack of story in this game. You don’t really need much voice acting when you are going to tell the story at all really. Just expect most of the sound to be Peach saying Mario or Mario doing his jumping sounds. So yeah, the sound is great here with what they got for sure.


Control

The controls here are alright, though there are still a few issues I must bring up when referring to them. Yes, the bulk of the control is good throughout the game, but the little issues will be noticed every now and then. One of them is that it feels like Mario could be moving a little faster than he is in the game. There are times where you want him to go faster, but it doesn’t feel like run really speeds you up that much. That is one issue I noticed, but the other was that I noticed at times that jumping to super high spots or getting to do the back flip was sometimes trickier than I thought, though some of that was also related to me not being able to move fast enough in certain areas of the game. Still, if those are the only issues the game has control wise, I must say, that isn’t that bad. The rest of the game controls just fine, and really, when those issues aren’t coming up, there are times I feel like I can speed run some levels and make it look rather neat doing so. So yeah, the controls here are alright, just with one or two little things that I noticed is all.


Replay Value

The replay value is pretty good here, and the reasons why is that the bulk of the game is just so easy to pick up and play, that I can see people that don’t play many games getting hooked into this game. I can see people wanting to keep playing to get every little collectible in the game, or to complete every level and then come back after a while and want to do it again. There are multiple save files if you want to just start over and not delete an old file, and really, with so many levels to choose from, you can pick and choose after a while which levels you want to play and get better at. There really aren’t that many cheap levels, even in the expert levels. It is very easy to earn extra lives, and in many cases you are going to be able to easily complete the levels. Getting all the big coins, like in the other game, is there for you to keep playing and to unlock more level as well. You need to be doing so anyway, as the game does require it to progress. However, you never really feel that forced to do so, as many of the coins are easy to grab. If you want them all though, you are going to have to work for them, or at least have a good eye for them in areas you may not expect or off the beaten path. Not only are the coins out there for you, you do unlock another character later in the game, and then if you wish, you can beat the levels all over again with another character. That’s some replayability for you for sure. Yeah, you are playing the same levels over and over again, but really, that’s the only thing that could hurt it, and even then, that’s a rather small detail at that. So yeah, I can see this being a very easy to replay game for sure.


Overall, I must say that Mario 3D Land for the 3DS is a good game, and actually very similar to the WiiU game with the same style to it. Really, other than the still lacking story, there isn’t really much wrong with this game. It is an easy to pick up game that people are going to have fun playing, and are going to be able to easily replay if they enjoy a good Mario game. I was originally going to say this was a short game, but it kept surprising me with more and more levels to play, so for those that stick with it, you have a nice long Mario game to play, that actually is an on the easier side for the casuals, but gives that extra hard kick later in the game for the veterans or those that want more of a challenge. So yeah, if you enjoy platformers, and Mario games, this is one I would say go pick up for sure. It is worth it.


Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Super Mario 3D Land an eight point five out of ten.


Gameplay: 9
Story: 2
Graphics: 10
Sound: 10
Control: 9
Replay Value: 10

Overall: 8.5

Doing a PSP game again for a bit.

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (PSP)

Puzzle Quest sounds like an interesting little title for your portable system. Taking something puzzle like on the go is definitely a good idea. Though this game has quite the twist from what I found out very quickly. However, is this twist a good thing or is it something that should have been thrown to the wayside before this idea got off the ground? Let us take a closer look and find out more shall we?


Gameplay

When you hear the name of this game, you think of it as a puzzle game right? Well, you are half right. This is a type of game that has a genre type that seems pretty unique and not that common to me. This is a puzzle/rpg. Yeah, not a genre I can say I’ve really seen that much before. In Puzzle Quest, your main gameplay objective is that you are running from battle to battle doing a puzzle like game where you have to make at least three of a type of gem to clear the gems from the board. That sounds like most puzzle games of this type, but here is a twist, how about you and your opponent are sharing the same board and are taking turns on it. When you simply clear three gems of a type, most of the time, it is then going to be your opponents turn to try and make a match from the same board. You and your opponent take turns making matches on the board until one person’s HP is down to zero. To lower someone’s HP, you have to match skulls on the board, which will then be used to attack the other person. However, you don’t always have to immediately give up your turn. When either person matches at least four of a type of gem, you get another turn on the board, and you can keep taking another turn until you can’t match four or more again. My leveling up certain stats, you can sometimes make normal matches give you additional turns, but this isn’t always a sure thing. Another interesting thing is that each of you also have a set of spells that you can use against either other, to either attack the other person in some way, or to manipulate the board in some way. You are able to use magic by collecting the gems you are matching on the field. When you make a match, you get some stock of the color gem you are matching. When you have enough, you can unleash various spells that you either earn or learn in various ways. The game goes back and forth until one person’s HP is zero, at which time, you can then progress in the story or move around the world map to possibly fight someone else. The world map is something you will be seeing a lot of in this game, as this is how you get from area to area, and also how you go from battle to battle. You select an area you want to go, and your character follows a set path as he goes to where you told him to go. When you get to areas where you want to go, you can get quests to go fight other people or do little tasks, or you can mess around with your inventory, or even with cities you capture them to make them give you money and to be able to do all sorts of inventory management. So yeah, there are various ways to make your character better, which is fun, but there are problems with this game as well, as much fun as all this sounds. For example, the AI at time during battle can be just downright cheap or brutal. The AI can read the board in ways that a real person can’t, unless you are a puzzle game expert. They can find ways to get four matches left and right, and at times it seems like they can read what is to come as well, as things from above the board at times just feel like they are falling into place for them, which rarely happens with you. There were several points in this game where I would get pissed at the AI, as it felt like everything was constantly going their way, while for me, things just felt like they were never going to right, or my matches were always limited while his weren’t. I get it that you want to make your AI not be stupid, but this also shows why sharing a board can obviously put you at a disadvantage compared to an AI. The later you get in the game, the luckier it feels they can get. Their spells will frustrate you, and with them slowly getting more resistant to them, will at times make your spells more luck based over a sure thing. This can be flipped around to your side as well, but it is going to take a lot of grinding to find ways to do so. Yeah, this game is definitely a grind fest. You are going to be doing side quests constantly to try and raise your stats in any way you can, as well as grow your level which gives you stat upgrades as well. Yeah, I believe if you were doing the main story this game would be a lot shorter than it was for me, but I was constantly doing side quests to try and make myself stronger. However, this also is something that is tricky, as your enemies constantly scale to your level. Unless they are a higher level than you, when you level up, your enemies most of the time will scale to match you. I know some games do level scaling, but here, it really does come across as very annoying. The world map also slows down the game so very much. You want to just get to your next objective when playing, but since you are following a set grid, you have to go certain ways to get to where you need to go. This doesn’t sound so bad, but random enemies constantly spawn on this path, meaning you have to do full battles to get to the full battles. Yeah, basically think of this as your rpg random battles. They can get rather annoying at times, and there is usually no way to avoid them if you are going certain ways. They slow the game down quite a lot. While normal RPG random battles aren’t that bad to me, mainly because they are quick, these can easily take five to ten minutes or more a piece, and you sometimes have to fight several of them depending on how far away you are from your target, as they do respawn a lot. These are some of the various things that will frustrate the player as they are playing, but still the game is fun overall. It is very unique to think of a puzzle game with rpg elements, and when the game isn’t being cheap, you are likely going to be having lots of fun with this puzzle game. It’s more in depth than what I have gone into here, but I must say, if they were to fix some of these elements that make you feel like you are wasting time, then I could see this being more fun, than at times just a time waster.


Story

In this game, you create your own character, who is an adventurer in training, who suddenly is called in to begin investigating a large number of undead that are appearing in your empire, as well as people suddenly starting to disappear or being taken away. You begin your journey in your empire, and slowly start to journey outwards as you grow stronger and also investigate what is going on in the world. As you expand outwards, you begin seeing that there are many problems in this world, but also you begin to see that strange things are happening in other areas as well. At times, you will drift away from your main objective, such as having to deal with a possible orc invasion, or why dragons have sudden gone missing. However, everything slowly begins to drift back to your main objective as to why there are more undead around, and your main task of finding your missing people. I have to say, other than some drift in story, you are going to be wondering who is causing this, and why there are more undead around, when they were said to be gone long ago. I enjoyed it. You don’t think of a puzzle game having a great story, but when you mix that with an rpg, it definitely keeps you interested and wondering why things are happening the way they are. It’s a pretty traditional medieval story that has some base around magic. I will say though, one of the only things that drag the story down, is also based around the gameplay problems I mentioned before. It just takes so long to get to the story, due to all the random battles and side quests you do, that you wonder when you are going to get more of the story. The side quests do some neat side stories for sure, I just wish things moved a bit faster is all. I don’t want to give away the reason behind all the story, but believe me, there are a lot more undead out there than they original let on in the beginning, and there is a reason.


Graphics

The graphics are fine here, but nothing super impressive. The bulk of the game is you looking at the puzzle board. It’s nothing impressive as you are just looking at a puzzle game with things sliding around, with some little sparks here and there when certain things happen. When you are outside of battle, the characters are somewhat minimalistic in detail when on the world map. They move a little bit, but it nothing impressive. During cut scenes, they are using static images that rarely ever move. They may change the picture sometimes, but the bulk of the images are all the same throughout the game. I have to say I’m not really impressed with the graphics here, but nor am I really bothered in any way. Everything here graphics wise gets the job done and just sort of that. It is a puzzle game though deep down, so you are going to be looking at the puzzle board throughout the bulk of the game, and that part is just fine. So really, everything is just fine. There was nothing really impressive, nor really bad deep down.


Sound

The sound is one of the lowest points of this game. It is very generic and something you honestly just sort of tune out as you’re playing. There are many times I would hear it looping and it really just felt like it was there just to be background noise. I have nothing wrong with there being background noise, but the bulk of the music is then just unimpressive nor something you really even remember throughout the game. You hear the same music over and over again, and really just don’t have much interest in it. The music I did hear wasn’t horrible by any means, but it just falls into that category of just being background noise. I think you may know what I mean. Again, it is stuff that is really not memorable by any means, but the music you hear isn’t glitchy or bad by any means. It is just dull really.


Control

The controls though out the bulk of the game is just you moving around on the puzzle grid as you battle your opponent by selecting moves or selecting the spells you want to use. This is pretty good most of the time, and very responsive. I would hope it would be responsive, as you would have a hard time doing a puzzle game if the controls were horrid. The only area that has some control issues is on the world map. It just seems to scroll so slowly that navigating or looking around the world map seems to be more of a hassle than what it is worth. I also wished it scrolled out so you could see more of it at a time. You have to use the d pad to look around the map, so that does mean looking around is a bit stiff. I really just wish you could use the c stick as that would solve a lot of problems when you are navigating the world map. Other than that though, you really aren’t going to have many control issues with this game. The controls are basic and do what you want them to do. I really didn’t have any other problems than what I just mentioned, so controls were alright for the most part.


Replay Value

Seeing as you create your own character in this game and stats and spells will be different each time you play through the game, there is a good bit of replayability, but it also limited by the fact that you are doing the same things over and over again as you are playing the game. If you don’t mind the puzzle aspect at all, and you aren’t getting bored from fighting so many enemies, I can see someone wanting to play through this game many many times, as it is a neat little puzzle game. Still, that limiting factor of doing the same thing over and over again, I can see as also the main replayability deterrent for some people and what could also scare away some people from this game as well. Think about it? If you are someone that wants something different, besides just stats and spells, you aren’t going to be that impressed with a second playthrough of the game. The same goes for a first play through. If you feel like the game is dragging, which I do feel like it was at times, then why would you want to continue as well? For those that don’t mind this though, I can see them having long enjoyment out of this game. So yeah, this is a case where replayability I feel is based on a person’s patience level. For someone with no patience, or very little patience, I would say they aren’t going to enjoy this game as much as someone that wants to think a lot about what they are playing. That does limit the people that will enjoy this, but for those that do enjoy it, I can see them getting a lot of playthrough time with this.


Overall, I would say this is a neat little game that is in a genre you don’t really see that often. For those that are fans of puzzle games, or have a little interest in rpg’s, then I can see them really enjoying this game. Those that can’t stand puzzles at all though should steer clear for sure. Other than the issues I mentioned with some of the blandness that is some areas, and how this game can feel like it can drag on longer than it needs to, I can see this being a game that could swing either way depending on the person as I mentioned above. It really does come down to how patient you are, and if you can stand some of the little quirks that are going to pop up from time to time, especially the AI. I know it bothered he sometimes, but in the end, the game is still fun, as long as you don’t mind yelling at your game from time to time due to the AI. I know that is sometimes the case with puzzle games being rather brutal at times, so really, as long as you know what you are getting into, I would say at least give the game a chance, as it is unique for sure.


Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords a seven point five out of ten.


Gameplay: 7
Story: 9
Graphics: 7
Sound: 5
Control: 9
Replay Value: 8

Overall: 7.5

A familiar series, but it is also still from the bargain bin.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz

Well now, it is time to look at another one of Sega’s bigger series. The Super Monkey Ball series has been around for a few years now, and here we are going to look into the Wii version of the series. People must like this series if it has been around for a few consoles at this point. However, you will find this game in the bargain bin instead of it keeping a higher price as some main series can have attached to them. Is there a reason for that? Well, let us take a closer look and find out for ourselves alright.


Gameplay

The gameplay of Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz is split into two different modes. There is the main mode which is your classic monkey ball game. You have eight different worlds with eight different levels in them. You have to get to the goal ring of each level while collecting bananas and not falling off to complete the level and go to the next one. If you have played standard monkey ball in the past, you know what this mode is all about. Though luckily, I will say that unlike the older games in the series, this game is a bit more beginner friendly in that a game over doesn’t force you to replay the older levels over again. This one lets you continue right where you got the game over at. If you want to fully clear a world though, you do still have to do it without getting a game over. The game will still let you move on though if you beat the levels and the boss in each world though, which is nice. Still, the difficulty does eventually start to creep up as you play more of the levels. Around half way through the worlds, the difficulty starts to get higher and higher to where you are going to be dying way more frequently. Just be glad that you have unlimited continues is all. Still, the bulk of the difficulty at times does come from the controls being thrown on top of these tricky courses. I’ll talk more about the controls later though, for good reason as well. The second mode is the party mode, which is a mode where you are given a large number of mini games and you are allowed to play any that you wish to try and get a high score, or to try and compete with your friends. The game offers quite a large variety of games, so if you want to try many different types of games, you got your wish here. You are going to be busy with them for a while, though of course some games are better than others. Some of these games are longer than others, and others are over very very quickly. That’s why you are going to have lots of fun with friends with all the variety of choices that you get from having so many games. However, when I said some games are better than others, I really did mean that. Many of these games are plagued by the controls once again, and that will really kill your enjoyment if you can’t even play the games right or in the way they were intended to be played. This is an area where the motion controls are going to create some frustration, which ruins your gameplay enjoyment over all. Some of these games are very good and work fine, but from my experience, the ones plagued by the controls tended to be a bit more common than the ones that weren’t. Still, I can see this being a game that is more fun with friends when you play party mode, and the single player being better for someone wanting to play the traditional levels like from the previous game. Each mode can be fun, but there are definitely a few flaws that hold them back.


Story

Not applicable, as this is an arcade game mostly. I think there may be a story in there somewhat, but there is really nothing said about it, so I’m just skipping this.


Graphics

The graphic actually do look really nice overall in this game. Everything has that cartoony look, and one that looks smooth and very well done at the same time. Unlike in the last review, you can tell some effort was put into making the cartoony characters look good and not like they were on some outdated console, even if it was the same console the other game was on. All the backgrounds look nice enough, even if you sometimes wish there were more of them. The mini games all look nice, and environments you are playing games in, same as in the main mode, all look detailed enough to get the job done. Sure, I wish there was a little more around, and it wasn’t still the floating out in the middle of nowhere type of thing, but I get why they do it still. I didn’t really run into glitches, nor did any of the characters or environments look out of place or wrong in any sort of way. You can tell some effort at least went into making the game good. Seeing as this is an arcade game after all, you would expect maybe not the best, seeing as it is usually about high scores and just completing levels, but Sega does do the job of giving you something enjoyable to look at as you play this game. I just wish some other areas were as good is all.


Sound

Sound is good and it gives you something to listen to as you are concentrating so hard to make sure you aren’t falling on your main levels in this game. Again, this is another game, that while it sounds good as you are playing it, that memorable feeling just isn’t there, other than maybe the sounds of the clock ticking down and what the monkeys sound like as they are making their noises during play. In fact, the sound effects are way more noticeable and what you are likely to be paying more attention to than the level music as you are playing. There is level music yes, don’t get me wrong, and it is good, but it does its job in my opinion without being super memorable to my mind. None of the sound effects or music is annoying in any way, so do enjoy it, as it is good, and would be something you wouldn’t mind listening to, I just couldn’t think of it being something you would always remember in your mind to be honestly for a long time to come. Again, there is very little else wrong otherwise, so really, the sound is just fine, which is good still.


Control

The controls of this game though are a major area of discussion that I need to bring up. When you are playing the traditional mode, the controls aren’t that bad and do make an alright use out of the Wii’s motion controls. You simply tilt the wiimote in the ways you want the board to tilt instead of using a joystick like the older games did. This does seem to work well, plus, you can still use a button to do jumps instead of having to fling the remote, even if that is still an option as well. With the main mode, you aren’t going to have many troubles, but in later levels where you have to be more accurate, you are going to slowly begin to get frustrated as you know motion controls aren’t always known for their accuracy and steady hand, even with a motion plus adapter. For those areas where you need to be so careful or you are going to fall off the map, these controls can definitely get a little irritating when it comes to making sure your character stops when you want it and also doesn’t go flying off in some direction due to a jerky movement from your controller. As tricky as that sounds though, there is nothing to prepare you for the party mode’s controls though. Oh my goodness, there are just some games where the controls just feel like they are flat out broken beyond belief. Not all games are like this, in fact, some games work rather well with motion controls, but others will make you full your head out. You will be swinging and doing the motions that the game told you to do, and nothing will either be happening, or your cursor will be flying all over the screen with the smallest of movements. There are literally some games that were near impossible to play because of this. You can’t believe how frustrating it is to think you are doing something right, but the controls just don’t seem to be responding to the movements described on the screen. I hope you have some understanding friends if you can get some together to play this with you. I can see some very frustrated people with this game if they start to get into some of the games that don’t respond so well. While the main mode is alright enough and just brings with it the traditional frustration that monkey ball normally has with having to be very accurate at times, the party mode just at times feels very broken when you are trying to play it. If you want to brave these games to find the good ones, then be my guess, but I would almost recommend just sticking to traditional mode and not playing this mode as much.


Replay Value

The replay value of the game is actually not that bad. Even with the somewhat broken controls in some of the games in party mode, there are still many games that do work well, and with so many to choose from, I’m sure you can easily find some favorites that you or your friends can enjoy for quite some time. This is just a game based on high scores as well, so there is no long wait time between games like in Mario party. You also get to pick the ones you want to play, and can avoid the ones you don’t like as much. Being able to do that definitely will increase the enjoyment over all, even if it is a bit sad that it can be somewhat bogged down due to the controls. The main mode is a bit short, but at the same time, there is the fact you can always try and do each world without using a continue. You can try and complete the levels getting all the bananas, or you can even try and beat your best time. They did a good job making the main mode very arcady, but also doing it in a way that lets you sort of pick and choose what you want to play, instead of being stuck in a very linear and one shot and that’s it kind of way that traditional arcade modes can be at times. I can see people that either don’t mind the controls or can figure out how to deal with them getting quite some enjoyment out of this game, especially if they want to become masters at the game. For those that are easily frustrated by the controls though, I can see a controller going flying as well, which can kill replayability for some people. If you enjoy those games that have a real arcade like feel to them though, you are going to get many hours out of this game.


Overall, I would say that Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz is an alright Sega title, but it does have some flaws that can ruin enjoyment for some people. The controls are the main downfall to this game, and certain modes and games do really suffer from the wii’s motion controls. The rest of the game though has that traditional monkey ball feel, and you get an honestly enjoyable arcade game, without the frustrating constantly restarting that some arcade games can throw out you to make them artificially longer than they really are. If you can get over the control problems, you got an alright game here, especially for the bargain bin price. Just keep the control problems in mind when you go and pick it up, but I would say you should at least give the game a try and see if it is for you or not. For the super cheap price it runs for right now, you aren’t going to be out much either way.


Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz a seven out of ten.


Gameplay: 7
Story: N.A.
Graphics: 9
Sound: 8
Control: 4
Replay Value: 8

Overall: 7

Time for a quick fishing game for the Wii, still from the bargain bin.

Rapala: We Fish

Well, we once again continue with the bargain bin games, and this time we have picked up a fishing game. Yes, I know fishing isn’t always the most entertaining type of game out there, but when done right, a fishing game can be quite entertaining. However, if not done right, a fishing game can get boring very quickly. What kind of fishing game is this one? Is it a hidden gem, or once again, is this in the bargain bin for a reason? Let us take a closer look and see shall we?


Gameplay

I will give this game a bit of a point in being a creative I must say in the way you think of a fishing game. Whereas most fishing games are all about being so slow and careful, this is pretty much a speed fishing game. What I mean by that is that you ride around on a jet ski like boat and you are trying to catch either a certain number of fish or a certain amount of fish up to a certain weight before your competitors get them back to the finish line. You rush your boat to certain spots on your slightly open map and you then throw your line out and try and catch a fish as you normally would in any other fishing game. The main difference in all this being that you are supposed to do it faster than the other people you are competing with. Most games that do tournament like gameplay like this from what I’ve seen in the past, just have you out on the lake on your own with a time limit. This game has you on the lake with the other competitors at the same time trying to make sure you can do it first. I will say, that is unique and something I’ve not seen done before. You can even shoot at the other competitors in a Mario kart like style to try and make them drop their fish before they get it back to the safe zone. If you get a fish back to the safe zone, it is yours and you are on to the next fish. If you don’t get it back before you are attacked or if you run into something going too fast, you will drop your fish and have to try fishing for it again. This sounds pretty interesting, and I have to say, I could be a neat little concept for sure, if not for the fact that trying to do all this rather quickly isn’t that easy, plus the AI is sort of ruthless with how fast they catch their fish. I played quite a few tournaments, and the AI won pretty much every single one of them. I would be just in the middle of fishing usually and the AI would just suddenly win. I have no problem with a challenge, but it seemed the AI is a bit hard and that was even on the easier difficulties. I couldn’t imagine it on the harder ones. I was mainly getting second and third in these tournaments, but it seems if you want to win though, you have to be quite fast. There is nothing wrong with that, but when you are just running around an open area rather quickly trying to catch random fish to fulfill an objective like this, it seems like if you want to win, it is pretty much luck and knowing exactly what you need to do. Maybe some of it was just me, but when it seemed like you are just running in circles for just a random chance to win, I didn’t see a huge fun factor in this. While I give the game some points for being unique, I do have to say that the fun factor isn’t there really. Sure, there are other modes, such as free fishing, which just lets you fish like normal, which is okay, but there is really no other objective other than just fish. There are multiplayer modes, but I obviously can’t play that stuff on my own, so I have to pass on that. Really, the game has the creativity to make a neat concept for a fishing game that I hadn’t seen before, but it suffers from repetitiveness. If you enjoy the game when you first get it and try it out, I can see this being one of those games that you will want to play for a while, but really, to me, it just seemed repetitive. The game is just okay really. It could have been better with more modes and an easier AI, but really the game is just okay, nothing impressive.


Story

Not applicable, as this is a fishing game, if there was one, I didn’t really see it.


Graphics

The graphics are okay, though they aren’t the best either. One of the main reasons I give this game some positives in graphics is that it looks very cartoony and bright. You can’t really go wrong with a game that is bright and cartoony, but you can go wrong with character designs that look a little odd and also look very out of date. I’ve seen cartoony characters that aren’t the best graphics before that still look okay, but these ones just seem a bit off, but not totally off if you know what I mean. Sometimes trying to describe a look can be a bit tricky, but really, you can tell what and who the characters are supposed to be you are playing as, though they do look a bit out dated. Of course that is because this is the Wii we are talking about, but I have seen better graphics on the Wii and I know it’s capable of better than this. The fish designs all look pretty good though, and they all look unique for the many types of fish that are available in the game. Each type of fish you encounter depends on the tournament difficulty you are playing through, so if you want to see more designs, play more tournaments, more about that later though. Still, the game looks okay, but the characters really could use more clean designs, like the fish. It’s odd to say really, but the fish are better designed than the characters in my opinion. I get that the fish are sort of the main point of the game, and so is the design and look of the fishing areas, which also look nice, but you could have put that same good effort into the fishermen. Other than that though, the graphics are okay, but they could have been better.


Sound

Ummm, right. I can’t even really describe the sound that well, which isn’t that good, as it shows memorableness is next to nothing. The boat and fish sounds are okay, but they are nothing to wright home about. Most of the sound effects are just generic really and nothing I can really even remember. While the sounds I remember hearing weren’t that bad, there was just nothing memorable at all about the sound. This is one of those areas where describing what I heard is pretty hard due to just not being able to remember very much of it. I think that should say something for it in itself if you can’t even remember it that well when you are writing a review about the sound of a game. The voice clips I remember alright enough though and those sounded fine to me. Everyone sounded as they should, seeing as all the fishermen are stereotypes of course. You wouldn’t expect anything less at this point would ya? So yeah, they sound alright, and the sound effects are okay, but the music is just not memorable at all and really I honestly wish I could say more. Yeah, that’s not good.


Control

The controls here are okay. When I mean okay, I mean that they do what they should do, but it often times seems like they could have made some better design choices, and that the motion controls sometimes need a second throw to make them do what you want them to do. You control your boat on the water, not how you would expect. This came requires the nunchuk controller, but you would expect that you could use the c stick on it to control the boat. However, you tilt the wiimote to control the steering of the boat. That’s an odd choice when the c stick isn’t even really used that much. The nunchuk is used as the real of the rod. This means you are twirling it in the way you would as if you were reeling in a fish. This works rather well, which is surprising, but really, most my complaints don’t come from the nunchuk, they come from the wiimote. You have to jerk your wiimote in certain directions when you are catching fish, but it doesn’t seem to register that well which direction you are jerking it in, plus, the signs in the game are rather confusing. It often times looks like you are supposed to be jerking the remote to the sides, but it doesn’t always work. The same goes with when you are trying to finish off a catch or even cast your line. It at times takes more than one throw of the wiimote to get things to happen. Look, I understand that its motion controls and you are trying to use them in a game like this, but at least make sure you don’t need to throw them several times to get them to register the hit. This is a big annoyance, though not game breaking. What you want them to do will eventually happen, but you shouldn’t have to jerk your controls more than once to get them to do what you want. Yeah, another one of those motion control games where it seems like there are either delays or errors reading your movements every single time.


Replay Value

There is some replay value here, in that there are a good number of tournaments to play through in the game of varying degree of difficulty, and it doesn’t seem like you have to win all the tournaments to unlock more. If you want to unlock more of them to play new lakes, then that is a good aspect, but most of the courses all play the exact same and really it is just a matter of how big or small the courses are and if they are very linear or simple and such like that. There are a large number of fish to collect and catch if you want to see them all. They also give little tidbits about themselves to tell who they are when you click on them. Still, that doesn’t help that the game is very repetitive and honestly, not as fun as something like Sega Bass Fishing was in exchange. I know this game is way more creative than the other game, but the other game plays better and is more fun and realistic. This is just a speed fishing game with AI that seems like it gets off way too easy to where it can just demoralize you on how well they are doing compared to you. I was actually doing quite well at this game, but even then I was still losing to the standard AI with how fast they were fishing. It seemed like they could catch the fish in about half the time you could do it. I don’t know if I was doing something wrong or not, but it just seemed like the AI had unfair advantages and was just getting things done way too quick. This can really kill a games fun factor as I mentioned above, which kills the motivation to keep playing more or to want to come back to this game at some point in the future. While there are a good number of things to do in the game compared to some fishing games, when it really isn’t that fun to play, other than maybe trying to catch all the fish, I really can’t see people sticking around for it for too long. This looks like something you would give a kid really with the art style, but I could see them getting frustrated with the AI really quick as well, if it doesn’t allow them even a chance to win. So yeah, this just goes to show that being creative with a concept, doesn’t necessarily equal a better game than something that is simpler, but just works better.


Overall, I must say, that while the game is creative and looks okay, the rest of the game is just average at best and really not really appealing over all. There are just small annoyances with the AI, the difficulty, and the controls that just seemed to rub me the wrong way. This is one of those games that almost feels like you should see if it is your cup of tea, as I can see how this could be appealing, but I also see its clearly obvious flaws as well. Maybe if some of those flaws were ironed out, at least for example with the AI to make the levels a bit more winnable, then I could see this being worth a longer playthrough. With how it is though, this seems like to me at least, one of those games you play for a few hours and you either like it and want to get everything out of it, or you get bored very fast. I was in the second group. Maybe it was just me, but I didn’t see the large appeal, but I did see the possible potential as well.


Overall, in my opinion at least, I give out Rapala: We Fish a five point five of ten.


Gameplay: 6
Story: N.A.
Graphics: 7
Sound: 5
Control: 6
Replay Value: 4

Overall: 5.5

We continue with our bargain bin games.

Medieval Games

Well, we continue looking through the bargain bin and here we see something that looks interesting. It looks like this might be a game that is all about games that were played in medieval times, which doesn’t sound that bad obviously. However, this also looks like it could be one of those games that pull you in with an interesting concept but throw very little effort into the final product. Is this one of those games, or is this a diamond in the rough?


Gameplay

To describe this games gameplay in a simple manner, it would be that this is essentially the poor man’s Mario Party game. There are three modes, Story, Tournament and Freeplay. Story mode plays like Mario Party in some ways, but with its own twists of course. You run around a board, collecting coins and treasures, which are like stars, while playing mini games. You play mini games whenever you land on the spaces that involve a treasure. If the person that lands on the space wins, they get the treasure, If the other players win, that other player gets coins and blocks the treasure from being gotten. This means that you can keep others from getting treasures, while you work to get your own. It also means that each turn can either be very quick or long, as each player that lands on a treasure spaces, gets a shot at a treasure. There are also many event spaces, which can be good or bad, depending on what comes up. This could be another mini game, for coins or treasures; they could be zipping to other spaces, or even taking or giving coins. So yeah, I hope you enjoy loading a lot, as there is a lot of it in this game. You know how Mario Party sort of has this swift flow to it that makes the turns go faster, and mini games don’t really take that long to get between? Well, here you are going to be stuck loading quite a bit. Skipping text boxes to try and speed it up can be pretty glitch, and it sometimes doesn’t even work all the way. I have no problem with a game taking a little time, but I don’t want to be stuck in the same area for a long time because we constantly have to load more mini games that aren’t quick. Each game as well usually has a monologue that is read out with it as well. You can usually skip these, but if you want little tidbits about the story or things that are going on, you want to read them at least once. Most of the games are short thank goodness though, being between five to ten turns for a round of the game. I can understand why with all the loading and how often you can be playing mini games, even the same ones over and over again in a turn. However, a big downside though is that there are only three boards in the game. After you beat those three boards, you are done with story mode, and there are no more boards to play. The other modes, Tournament and Freeplay are just mini game free play modes. Tournament lets you play three games in a row to see who does the best, and free play is just as it sounds, you can play any game you have unlocked at any time you want. After that, you are done. Yeah, while it is a neat little distraction that is similar to Mario Party with the whole walk around the game board while playing mini games and gathering items, there just isn’t enough of the game to keep you at it for long in my opinion. I can see where they were going, the game just doesn’t have enough is all.


Story

The story of the game isn’t that bad, but it could be better. Surprisingly, while the main scenarios are pretty average at best, there does seem to at least be some mild world building as you play the mini games, as you will run into characters many times, and you learn a little bit about things that may be going on in the background while you are playing the main boards. Really though, the main story Is somewhat average as all three boards revolve around a kingdom and its prince and his love life. The first board is about trying to find him a girl. The second board is he has found a girl, but it’s from a rival kingdom. Then third, you have to save her from a dragon. Yes, all pretty generic, but at least they try and make things not super boring and do at least expand on their world a little bit between and after boards. Really, there is nothing wrong with the story, but as I mentioned above, there is just not enough of it, and you also will end up hearing some of the same tidbits and monologues many times, unless you skip through them. There just needs to be more of the game, and not have it be as repetitive as I sort of feel it is at times.


Graphics

Yeah, this is one of those games that you can tell was made on a bit of a budget. Things look a little pixelly and a bit blurry at times. You can obviously tell what things are supposed to be and everything looks to move okay enough, though not perfectly by any means. Things just don’t look as crisp as they maybe should and really, other than the still story book designs, the rest of the game is a bit unappealing to look at. The boards are nice, but they are just average at best in terms of design and what they look like. Yeah, the graphics are a bit below average when it overall comes to how the characters look, but the nice story stills in story mode and between mini games do at least save the game from being any lower than it is. If the game was full of more of those story stills, I could see this area being a bit better. It is only pulled down due to the not so great look of the 3D characters you see in the game. Other than that, the rest is just okay.


Sound

The sound is alright here. You hear lots of medieval sounds, which you should going with a game of this type. All the voice actors seem to do an okay job, though not the best, at acting out people in that very stereotypical medieval way. If you have ever heard of any type of movie or game that is supposed to take place in this era, you know how they have them talking. It is pretty stereotypical, but at least they don’t sound like they are just reading off a script. The music is almost unknown to my ear, showing how either quiet it was or very unforgettable it was. I can’t say much about it, but you did her the sound effects and voice alright and often enough that you don’t think of them of that out of place. The sound could definitely be a lot worst I must say.


Control

The controls are honestly, that type of motion control that can sort of tick you off sometimes, and other times work very well. There are some games where the motion controls thankfully take a big of a back seat or are minimalistic to where they work. There are other games though where they sort of get in the way. Thankfully, the minimalistic ones tend to be the ones that are in the majority. Those games are normally not that bad, though there can be little annoyances with them. The ones that focus more on the motion controls with aiming can be pretty wildly varied. You know how aiming works on the Wii. It can be very accurate, but also it can be very shaky, even when you are using motion plus or have a steady hand. Over time, motion controls I’ve noticed can be done right, when implemented in a way that doesn’t take over the experience. However, this seems sort of like your average ones, where some work, and others are a bit iffy really.


Replay Value

The replay value here is a bit low mainly due to there not being a very large variety in the game with it being so short. As I mentioned, there are only three boards, and you will get through them rather quickly. After you are done with the boards, you can either just replay them again, or play mini games, as there is nothing extra to really keep you drawn into the game for an extended period of time. While the game isn’t the best out there, if there was more to do, and the loading wasn’t such an annoyance, I really could see this being the cheap alternative to a Mario Party like game. However, just some small things like that really can kill the mood to keep playing over your initial playthrough. If there is very little to offer the player or to motivate him to keep playing some of these same games over and over again, then you have sort of missed the point of this being a party game. While I can see having a group of people to play the game together being not that bad, you are still going to run into the constant waiting and load times that bugged me as I was playing this game. It just needs more content and content that is made easier to playthrough is all.


Overall, Medieval games really is, as I mentioned above, basically the poor man’s Mario Party clone. The game is just average overall, with not much reason to come back to it again due to how short it is and how much it lacks in variety. Everything just seems average or slightly below, but you could actually tell this one was something that people at least tried to do an okay job with. It is obviously a budget title, but I have seen worst. If you don’t have a ton of time on your hand, or if you don’t want to shell out the forty such dollars that usually the price on a Mario Party game, then you might want to try this one out. If you are easily bugged though, or want something that is going to last you for a long while, then spend that money and get the real deal, as this is just a cheap substitute for sure.


Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Medieval Games a six out of ten.


Gameplay: 5
Story: 7
Graphics: 5
Sound: 8
Control: 6
Replay Value: 4

Overall: 6

Welcome back to the bargain bin again, guys.

Chicken Shoot

Yeah, I’m sure a name like this really gets you brain excited and thinking about a fun time right? Right? Yeah well, you wonder what a game called Chicken Shoot could be about. Could it be something that is interesting, or is there a reason this was another game that was in the bargain bin going for next to nothing? Let us take a closer look and dare to find out shall we?


Gameplay

Ummm, yeah, this is pretty much just a shooting gallery where you are shooting cartoon chickens. That’s about it when it comes to gameplay. There are around ten different levels in the game, where the only differences really are the backgrounds. There are various types of chickens you shoot at in each level, but they are just the same kinds in each level. There is no variety at all, and they do the same thing every level. Each level is literally just a background swap and that’s it. Even then, the farmer you are supposed to be playing as his picture in the bottom middle of the screen and all it does is get in the way. It is completely unnecessary and seems to serve no purpose at all other than to show some expressions and get in the way. The chickens show some form of expression if you get them, but really, everything just seems rather dull as you are just literally in a shooting gallery shooting chickens that are flying by you the entire game. It wouldn’t be so bad to play a shooting gallery game if there were some variety and what you were shooting was actually challenge, or if there was even any sort of penalty for missing, but all you are doing is just shooting and reloading infinitely. You are playing these games for a high score and that’s it. You don’t see many of those games anymore. Usually some of these simpler games at least have something extra in them which makes you want to keep going, but this just isn’t it. There are three modes in this game, however, I honestly would just say two. The first two modes, classic and arcade are the exact same mode, just one has a target limit and the other a time limit. That’s it. They are the same mode, with no differences in levels or what you shoot. You are just going for a high score then trying again. The last mode, egg catch mode just uses the wiimote to point to one of four corners to catch falling eggs. If you miss three eggs, it is game over. That’s it. Hmm, I must say, this sounds rather boring to me. As for being a shooting gallery game, yes it does that well, but there is just nothing extra. There are no frills or anything to this. You just shoot chickens as they fly around looking goofy.


Story

Not applicable, as this is just a shooting gallery.


Graphics

The game doesn’t have the most appealing graphics I have ever seen. I have seen a lot worst, but they are nothing really to look at. Each level has a pretty much static background that doesn’t do much moving, as most of the moving parts are just the chicken moving from all directions on the screen. The chickens are very cartoony, and shooting them really just makes them fall or look to be knocked out at times. They did make the game cartoony to try and make sure the game didn’t look too violent as you are shooting cartoony chickens and not just targets of chickens. The graphics don’t look to be that glitch thankfully, but really, they just aren’t that appealing to look at. It really looks like you were given semi still photos and you just animated something to play over these backgrounds. Yeah, that’s not a very impressive way of doing things I would say. I could picture worst stuff, but yeah, just don’t be impressed with this. If the cartoons didn’t flow properly or didn’t look as okay as they did, this would be much worst to look at, which isn’t saying all that much at the moment.


Sound

Not impressed with this either. The level music in this game is all just stereotype music of the areas you are shooting the chickens in. If it’s a country area, you get the banjo music, and if it’s in an Indian like desert, you get the stereotype Indian music. Yeah, not very interesting, and honestly again a bit boring and bit of an odd choice. I know what they were trying to do, but it just doesn’t work for me and in many cases becomes very annoying. Also, did you really need to make the wiimote throw out all those gunshot sounds as you playing the game? They are not only a bit on the loud side, but they get annoying very fast. You are shooting throughout this game, so having your wiimote react to every single shot you make is going to get old very fast. I know you want to take advantage of your wiimotes sound function, but there are better uses for it than that.


Control

The controls are just okay here. You point at where you want to shoot and you shoot. You point the wiimote closer to the edge of the screen and you scroll the screen in that direction you want to go. That’s simple enough I would say. My only real complaints are that shooting the chickens sometimes doesn’t seem to work all that well, plus there is the fact that the screen scrolling could be faster as well. It is nice that the screens are bigger than just a single little area that is only as big as the screen, but it could be easier to look around, such as using the nunchuk control stick to control the screen for example. Either way though, the controls are okay, but there are nothing to write home about.


Replay Value

The replay value is almost nonexistent here. There are only those three modes I mentioned and two of them are pretty much the same, with the only difference being a time clock or a kill amount. That’s not how you do different modes or encourage people to want to play more of the game. Even then, the egg catching mode is something you play once or twice and then move on to something else. I can see this being a slight distraction or something you would pop in if you had an hour to kill and nothing else to do, but I really can’t see people wanting to pull this game out again after playing it once or twice maybe. While you might play it again if you like gallery shooters, everyone else I can see getting bored of this within that one hour of gameplay. There is just no reason to come back to it and nothing pulls you from inside the game to do so either. It’s just blah.


Overall, I would say that Chicken Shot really does deserve the title of shovelware for the Wii and it really does deserve to be in the bargain bin. The game is just not that interesting, and with no modes to really draw any sort of replay value at all in this game, you are going to likely play this game once and then never again most likely. If you have kids that area easily amused, they might enjoy this for a day, but for everyone else, I would just say let this one pass, unless you have like a dollar to blow and want to try something different out. You aren’t missing much here though.


Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Chicken Shot a four out of ten.


Gameplay: 3
Story: N.A.
Graphics: 4
Sound: 4
Control: 6
Replay Value: 2

Overall: 4

We continue with our WiiU adventures.

Captain Toad Treasure Tracker

After playing 3D world, I’m sure you aren’t surprised to see this game nearby. They do sort of go together with each other after all. You play a few levels in Mario 3D world that sort of tease this game, and if you enjoyed those levels, then this game is more of the same concept, but added onto what you played before. Is this still a game worth picking up, when it is basically in a way a mini game with its own game? We shall take a closer look and find out.


Gameplay

The basic gameplay of Captain Toad revolves around you being thrown into a level and you have to guide Toad to the star at the end of the level to progress to the next one. That’s pretty simple and easy enough, however, there are other things thrown in there to keep it from just being a get to the end of the level kind of game. This is more of a puzzle game after all, so getting to the stars is never as simple as just running to a certain spot and getting it. Most of the game lets you see the star and you have to figure out where you need to go and what you need to do to get the star. The puzzles vary in difficulty, but grabbing the star is rarely a problem and usually it is pretty easy to figure out how to grab it. The real difficulty comes from when you try and get all the diamonds in a level or complete the extra objective. The diamonds are spread out in hidden places or in hard to reach places and you need to figure out what combination of moves is going to get you to them. This is where the bulk of the game is spent. The diamonds usually taunt you in places where you can see them, but you have to figure out what needs to be moved or thrown in order to get them. Again, just like the star, most of these are usually easy enough to figure out, but the extra objectives are normally a different story. The extra objectives are usually involving things like finding a hidden golden mushroom, getting a certain number of coins, or defeating or not defeating all the enemies in a stage. This is where things are tricky, as most of these revolve around you having to do things you may not be thinking of doing at first. The mushrooms are the hardest usually, as several times they are hidden from view and even sometimes hidden inside hidden plants. You need to sort of have an eye for out of the way places to usually find them. Many of the other objectives usually just involve you not rushing through the level in a rash sort of way. Again, most of the game isn’t that difficult overall, but there will be some stages that will give you a harder time than others. That’s part of a puzzle game though, and the difficulty is pretty balanced I would say. Later levels tend to be harder and earlier levels tend to be rather quick and straight forward. They did a decent job with the difficulty curve and the majority of the items are findable without much trouble or the need to dig out a guide. There were a few of course, but that’s the nature of this kind of game. One big difference you discover in this game rather quickly is that you don’t just play as Toad. You also get to play as Toadette in many of the levels as well. That was nice of them to throw in another character, so you aren’t stuck with Toad throughout the entire game. I don’t mind Toadette at all, so I’m fine playing with her, as I do in other games as well. There are various bonus games that come up as well, which let you gather more coins for more extra lives. Extra lives are VERY plentiful in this game, so don’t be afraid of running out. It is very easy to gather coins, so don’t worry about game overs. I never even came close to one. There is some variety in the types of levels you play with those bonus games, and some of the extra stuff you unlock, but most of the levels are you just gathering the star and diamonds and doing it again and again. There are boss levels in the game, but they revolve around you running to the end of the level while dodging projectiles or throwing something at the boss. One last thing I have to bring up though about the gameplay is that one mode is there that I couldn’t even play because it is locked behind a paywall. To play the hide and seek mode, you need to have and opened a toad amiibo to play that game mode. That does seem sort of sneaky to hide another mode behind the amiibo like that, but I guess I get what they were doing with it, it just seems like you should be able to unlock it by other methods. Remember, Toad and Toadette can’t jump like Mario, so you have to simply run, throw and climb your way through these levels. Not jumping is what brings the puzzle aspect to this game, since if you could jump, the levels would need to be much larger and more complicated than they are in this game. Not jumping seems to be what makes the game simpler in a way, at least I feel that way. I would say if you want a casual puzzle game, or you want a puzzle game that younger people aren’t going to have a problem with, I could see this being a game you throw at them to not only give them some enjoyment, but to get them thinking as well.


Story

The story of Captain Toad, much like 3D world, is just way too simple really. I give it a bit of a boost for being something different and trying, but you run into one big problem with this story rather quickly when you get into it. It repeats itself over and over again with little change. The main story is that Captain Toad is that Toad and Toadette are exploring for stars, but during their expedition, one of the stars is grabbed by a large bird, called Wingo. He swoops down and takes the star and Toadette and you then need to go rescue her while gathering stars and Diamonds along the way. That’s actually not that bad of a set up for a game like this, but there is a downfall eventually. You see a cutscene every now and then that shows Toad on his journey to go rescue Toadette, and eventually he does. However, once you do that, the opposite happens and you gotta go rescue Toad. You see where I am going now? You run into the same bosses in her journey and even the same cutscenes. There is really no difference between the run throughs you get of this game. Even the ending isn’t any different as it is literally one of the same endings you get on other playthroughs. This is one of those games that starts out pretty strong, but takes a wrong turn in terms of story rather quickly. Look, I get simple, but you can also go too simple I believe, and that’s what we have here. You went so simple you just repeated yourself. Try a little harder next time.


Graphics

The graphics of this game are very good and look to be that same quality I mentioned in 3D world. Everything is well designed, and nothing looks odd or out of place. There are no slowdown moments, nor did I experience or see any glitches. That feeling of quality control is very prevalent here and you can tell some time was put into it. I must say, the game looks great, except it feels like one thing is missing to me at least. To me, it’s the backgrounds on the levels that are disappointing. Look, I get what they were doing with the levels, as they are smallish and floating around out in the middle of nowhere, isolated from other things to give you more room to see, but you could at least do a background to these levels. The levels are just floating around out in the middle of nowhere in a grid based area. You can’t see other things in the background. It is like each little area is an isolated planet in space. That sort of thing worked in galaxy usually because they did some backgrounds, or they literally were small planets in space, but you could have least made some connectivity with the levels or at least made them look more than just little puzzles floating around in nothingness. Other than that, I must say that everything else is on point and perfect as I would expect from a Nintendo game.


Sound

The music of the game is fine and nice to listen to. It does what you expect it to do, it keeps you happy while you are playing the game, but it avoids being overstimulating to where it distracts you from the thinking you may need to do. Again, this is one of those games where I think it lacks that memorable factor to the music, but it is still good to listen to. There really isn’t much to say on sound effects and voice acting, as they are pretty generic when it comes to sound effects, and voice acting is just Toad sounds for most of the game. It is nice to know that Toadette can actually be semi understood, but Toad is just nothing but the normal screeches you are used to. This is one of those games, where again, the music is pretty good when you are listening to it, but as I’m writing this review, I can’t really think of any of the music that I can hum off the top of my head. That shows me that the memorable factor isn’t there is all.


Control

The control of this game is pretty good as Toad does go where you want him to, and he is pretty sturdy as well. There is no slipping and sliding, and if you mess up, it likely is your fault. There really weren’t cheap deaths that revolve around the controls. You control the camera with the right analog stick, while you move with the left one. The camera is very important in this game, as you need it to view everything you can and be able to circle around the map freely to see all the little hidden gaps that may be missed otherwise. The camera is good most of the time, but there were some times you felt like you wish you could tilt it in certain ways that it wouldn’t let you. You didn’t fight it too much, but there were times. The gamepad’s touch screen is used sometimes for touch, which isn’t that bad, but it does make you want to use the pad only in some levels where touch is a big thing, as the touch’s you need to make are usually pretty precise. It isn’t like in Pikmin where you didn’t usually need to be watching the touch screen to use it. If you want to use it here, you need to be looking down at it to poke it precisely where you want it to be poked. This just seems a little distracting is all, but it isn’t that bad. You get used to it after a while and you can always just play those particular levels while only looking at the gamepad.


Replay Value

The replay value with this game really depends on what you want out of it. If you just want to play all the levels once, then yeah, the replay value isn’t good here, as you are going to be doing the exact same things again, but when you consider how many levels this game has and how it keeps throwing more levels at you during the game to keep you into it, it has pretty good replay value. At first, it looks like there are less than twenty levels, but after you beat those levels, it throws more at you, and then when you beat those, it throws even more of them as well. On top of that, if you have played 3D world, it throws even more bonus levels at you, which encourages you to have played both games to get even more levels. I will say, that’s quite the encouragement to play both games, if it unlocks more levels. Then on top of that, if you don’t mind the pay wall I mentioned and pick up the Toad amiibo, you get access to another mode that takes place during the regular levels, which gives you another thing to find in the levels. So, as you can see, the game isn’t shy about throwing more levels at you, and if you want to get all the collectibles, there are a good few hours here to play through. Multiple playthroughs don’t seem to be something you would want to do that often, but if you enjoy an easy puzzle game that you would want to play through at some point in the future, I could see this being something that could easily be pick and play with little to no problems at all.


Overall, I will say that Captain Toad is another good game for your WiiU library that has good gameplay, and a pretty good concept behind it, not to mention a good number of levels to boot. Just once again, don’t expect a great story behind the game, and also be prepared to shell out some extra cash if you want the extra mode as well. This is a good little companion game, that I can see people that enjoyed 3D world wanting. It’s a neat little puzzle game, and a neat concept that utilizes a side character as a main character, something you don’t see that often. Mario has had his fair share of games, but here we have Toad getting his own game, and a pretty neat little puzzle game at that. I would say give it a shot if you enjoy a good puzzle game, and one that isn’t going to make you pull your hair out as well.


Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Captain Toad Treasure Tracker an eight out of ten.


Gameplay: 9
Story: 5
Graphics: 9
Sound: 9
Control: 8
Replay Value: 8

Overall: 8

Now onto one of the normal pack in games for the WiiU this time.

Super Mario 3D World

Well, here we go with another main series Mario game. Obviously, most people know about Mario and explaining what you do in one of these games is pretty easy, since they don’t change the base gameplay that much. However, each game does have some slight differences that can either make them great or average. Which one is this game? Let us take a closer look and find out shall we.


Gameplay

The basic gameplay of this Mario game is really not that different from what you expect. You run to the end of a level, and jump on a flag pole to end the level. Simple enough and very classic I would say. There are a few things that keep this from being yet another clone of course, even if there are some similarities. For example, there are new power ups and returning ones as well. This Mario game’s main new power up is the cat bell powerup, which turns you into Cat Mario. (hehe, *looks at a certain someone* meow =P) Cat Mario’s main powers normally involve being able to be very mobile, use swiping attacks with his claws, and also being able to run up walls and even the flag pole. Being able to run up walls gets you to areas that weren’t accessible any other ways, and it also makes it easier to recover from certain jumps if you can cling the wall more easily. You will run into this power up often, and it is a pretty good one as well, and not that hard to find. It’s a good one to use or keep in reserve if possible. The Tanookie suit returns as well in this game. This suit allows you to basically hover your jump and slow it down or gain a slight bit of distance with your jump. See a ledge that is out of reach or you see a series of tricky jumps coming up? This power up will let you slow those jumps down to try and be more accurate, or gives you that slow downward boost that can help you reach further out ledges that even the long jump can’t get you to, sorry there is no flying in this game. One last one though that I would like to mention, is basically the cheating item. If you aren’t doing well in a level, the game will throw you a golden Tanookie suit, which is basically free invincibility for as long as you wear it. I never wanted to wear this, as it felt like cheating and the lazy gamer’s way out of a hard level. I know some levels were frustrating, but I was never going to use one of these items. I hated them in Donkey Kong, and I don’t like them here either. Other than this, most of the other power ups are normal returning ones, unless you count the boomerang koopa power up that lets you throw boomerangs. Also, during the levels you can find little collectibles, which isn’t an uncommon thing anymore in these games. Each level has three green starts and a stamp. The stamps unlock little stickers in a collection book of the different characters in the game, while the green starts are used to unlock future levels in the games. None of these are essential of course, but if you do decide to collect them, it does add a new lair of difficulty to the game. That is something I want to mention though, that is the difficulty of the game. When I first started this game, I was going to say this game is too easy, but after about four worlds, my goodness did the difficulty take a spike. The levels started to get harder, and the items started getting harder to pick up as well. There were a few levels that I felt were pretty frustrating, I’m looking at you lava levels, but the majority of them just require you to have some good knowledge of the controls. Some levels are going to make you mad, especially if you are going for the collectibles, however, the bulk of the levels aren’t that bad really. Even then, depending on if you have friends around or not, this game can be played with up to four players at the same time. Yes, still in the way the new Mario series did, you can have four players all running around at the same time. However, this time it is the traditional Mario 2 characters, meaning instead of two toads, Peach is playable this time. Even if you are playing on your own though, you can use any of these characters at any time, and each does play differently. Most of them have the standard moves you remember from Mario 2, such as luigi jumping higher and Peach being floaty. If you remember that, it plays just the same. Still, I bet most are just going to stick to standard Mario during most of the game. I just mentioned how this game has some similarities to Mario 2, but you will also see many Mario 3 references in the game that make this almost seem like it is an expansion to Mario 3 in some ways. When you die, it’s the Mario 3 lose a life music. The over world map is still grid based, though you can roam freely around on the over world in some matter, just not open world though. Also, there is the reserve basket that Mario 3 had. I’m sure there are other references from that game and others, but there is no need to go over them all. Let’s just say, they aren’t shy about referencing and using things from their older games here. So overall, your gameplay is pretty standard Mario platforming, just with a few new things thrown in, but also a few tricky levels thrown in as well. Gameplay overall does depend on if you are just going for main game completion, if you are going for collectibles, or if you are going for all extra levels as well, which there are many. Either way, I can see this being a very open game for people to enjoy of all ages.


Story

Alright look, I know this is a Mario game and there may not be a giant emphasis on story, but at least some of the other games at least try and tell a story. You can sort of tell in some games what the story is even about, but here, I honestly don’t have a clue. Bowser has kidnapped some strange pixie things, that I don’t even know the name of, and Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad go through these glass pipes to another world where Bowser is and try and free these pixie creatures. It is neat that they used something different than the Mushroom Kingdom here, but they didn’t do much to explain the new world at all. In fact, there is really no explanation at all as to what happened and why Bowser is doing what he is doing. There is no text at all in the game really and there is really no story progress to speak of. I can sort of see where they were going with this, but it almost feels like they just got downright lazy here or just were trying to cut story out all-together. Where are the other villains? Why is Bowser doing this, other than to just be bad? What is going on in this world? Things just seem like they aren’t explained at all. Definitely the low point of this game for sure and something that needs to be fixed big time.


Graphics

At this point with these first party Nintendo games, do I even need to tell you about how great the graphics look? These games are such a joy to look at. They are very smooth and everything looks very well designed. If something is in a level, it has a purpose. You are able to tell sometimes that the levels seems to be isolated from one another, but that is a very minor thing and not something even I can really complain about, when the rest of the game looks so good. All the characters animations are very smooth and nice looking. I don’t really think I ever saw anything graphically that did not look out of place, nor did I really see any glitches around either. Everyone looks great, and at this point, it shows the love and attention to detail Nintendo puts into these games. If you want something nice to look at, this is another great game to look at for your WiiU.


Sound

When I first heard the music in this game, it was a bit of a surprise as it wasn’t what I was expecting, but after a bit, I did find myself enjoying the music of this game. The main reason it sort of caught me off guard was because a lot of the music in this game seems to have this sort of Jazz like feeling to it. That’s not was I was expecting, but the more you listen to it, it really does feel like it works. One of the main reasons being, is that this music has that catchiness to it that I’m always mentioning when it comes to music. It is memorable and something that is going to occasionally get you humming it as you are listening to it. That’s how you know you got good music on your hands, when it can make you unconsciously start humming it as you are playing. Not only are there lots of good new themes, you do run into some remix themes, and some neat boss music as well. The sound effects are all traditional, and the characters all make their normal sounds and grunts. All those sound fine and nothing seems out of place really. So yeah, you got memorable music here, that has a neat little twist that is different from other Mario games in my opinion. I would say it’s worth checking out.


Control

The controls are different in this game. They aren’t bad by any means, but they are different. In a 3D Mario game like this, you sort of expect the controls to be more free flowing than they are here. What I mean by this, is that in the other 3D Mario games, you feel like you are running in all directions on a 360 axis at all times. Here, it feels like you are more on a grid than you are free roaming at times. While there is some of that freeness, the controls just at times feel like there is some kind of stiffness to them. I get what they are doing here though, and here is why I will still say the controls work in a way. They were trying to simplify things, and in many areas, you are still just normally going left to right or in some manner like that where you really just need to go straight and side to side. Sometimes yes, I did wish I had a bit more free control, and honestly, you got that a bit more with the cat suit as well. It would still catch you off guard at times though, and in some areas where you were trying to be a bit more accurate, the controls having that slight stiffness to them did throw off precision aim in my opinion as well. This wasn’t all the time of course, and really, once you can get used to this unique playstyle, you will start landing better and being able to control Mario better as well. You just have to make sure the slight stiffness isn’t an immediate turn off for you, as it is definitely different than what you are going to be used to in a 3D Mario title. They aren’t bad, just unique. This isn’t something I’ve seen done really.


Replay Value

The replayability of this game is pretty good, because of a few different reasons. First, the collectibles in the levels do add a degree of difficulty to the levels that make you want to replay them to get them all before moving on. However, some levels do frustrate you in a way with this as well, and there were many places I was just doing suicide moves to try again, rather than replay entire levels for one shot collectibles. The one shot collectibles were the cheap-o ones that I didn’t like too much. The ones you could simply miss but go back for or try again with felt fairer to me. Another thing is that there are a large number of levels in this game, even after you beat the game. The game kept feeling like it was throwing more and more levels at you as new worlds kept appearing, each with a number of new levels to play. If you were expecting a small number of levels, you won’t find that here. Then there is the fact you can play this game with up to four friends at the same time, and not just on your own. Four people playing is definitely going to be a different experience than just one player, the way I play most of the time. I did mention before that the difficulty was somewhat of a stepping stone that is going to have to be overcome if you want the full experience here. There are levels that feel like they went a bit overboard, plus some levels do have some very cheap death traps, and also a lot of one hit instant death areas as well. Most of these wouldn’t be too much of a problem if you are just going for level completion, but if you want the collectibles, you are going to have to work for them. It is nice when you finally get them, but you are going to have to work for them, and if you are easily pissed off or give up easily, then I don’t see you going for all the collectibles or for trying to complete the harder levels in the game. Other than that though, I can see this being a game people would want to come back to if they want some simple Mario action of course. The fact it is cheap now and was the pack in game for a while as well means lots of people must have liked or tried it before and people seem to keep coming back for more.


Overall, I would say Super Mario 3D world is another good addition to the Mario series. It tries a few new things, while sticking to its traditional roots as well. It brings back many concept from previous games, but keeping some uniqueness to make sure you know it is its own game. However, if you are looking for a good story, you aren’t getting it here at all, and the controls are a bit funny for a 3D game at first. Still, if you don’t care about story, and you can get used to the controls quickly enough, I can still see this being another game you will want to come back to time and time again, and who knows, maybe even invite some friends over to try the multiplayer mode out, or even the little bonus Luigi Brothers game, based on the classic arcade game that comes included for free in this game. Either way, I would say pick this one up. It’s cheap, and a blast for under twenty dollars, which for a Mario game, is a great price. Go pick it up is what I would say.


Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Super Mario 3D world an eight out of ten. Meow =P


Gameplay: 9
Story: 3
Graphics: 10
Sound: 10
Control: 8
Replay Value: 9

Overall: 8

Back to the WiiU again.

Pikmin 3

Pikmin is another one of those well-known Nintendo series out there, and we are going to take a look at the third installment on the WiiU. I never got around to playing the second game in the series, because it is so expensive. Due to this one having a recent price drop, I figured it was worth going in for another try for the series, as I did enjoy the first game on the Gamecube. Well, is this series still going strong, or has it started to fall off a bit over time? Let us take a closer look and see for ourselves shall we?


Gameplay

The basic gameplay of Pikmin 3 is really unchanged from what I see. Your main objectives is to grow your pikmin, by defeating enemies or bringing other various growth tablets back to the Pikmin onion in order to make more Pikmin. You use these Pikmin to fight other enemies, fight bosses, and to collect fruit that is spread around the various levels. The fruit is one of your main objectives, as that is what the story is about, more on that later. The fruit is spread around the level and it is up to you to get your Pikmin to return them to your ship. Besides it being the main objective of the game, it is especially needed as it is a source of food and also the method of allowing the game to continue. Each day, your crew members will drink one containers of juice. To get more juice, you have to bring fruit to your ship, which at the end of the day, is made into more juice. The more fruit you get, the more days you can play the game and give yourself a buffer against starvation. Each fruit is worth anywhere from around a half of jug, up to three jugs per piece of fruit. There is a limited number of fruit in the game, but if you get it all, you have way way way more than enough to make it through this game. You likely aren’t going to run into problems on supply of juice, unless you are really slow in this game. But speaking of crew members as well, you actually get to control three different characters in this game at the same time. There is the Captain, Charlie, and his two crew members, Alph and Brittany. You can have all three characters in the group at once, or you can actually split your members up to do different tasks at the same time if you wish. You might want one person to go get some fruit, while another is to stay behind and gather Pikmin as they return to the onion to possibly go out again. You can tell other crew members to auto walk to certain areas, but you have to do this planning with the gamepad, so do be ready to pause every now and then if you want to plan things out, as the gamepad does also act as an overview map for you. While your members are auto walking, you can then control another character to do other things as needed. If you want to get through this game quickly, then taking advantage of this feature is essential. If you never split up, you will spend many more days than needed to get things done. There also several large bosses in this game, and you need to be very careful when taking these on, as they can drain your Pikmin supply very fast if you aren’t careful. They require strategy and knowing what kind of Pikmin are needed to be most effective against them. Speaking of Pikmin, you have five types in this game. There are your standards, such as red, which are fire resistant and good fighters. There is Yellow, which are very light and able to be thrown high and also conduct electricity. There are Blue, which are the ones that can go into the water. There are also two kinds that I believe are new, which are the Black Pikmin, which are based on rocks. These Pikmin are very strong and heavy, so they can’t be squashed easily, and they can also shatter hard crystal. Then there are Winged Pink Pikmin. These Pikmin actually fly and are able to hover over areas and attack flying enemies more easily, however, these Pikmin are very frail and weak in general in terms of combat. Taking advantage of these different types of Pikmin and knowing when to use which types of Pikmin and also when to carry multiple varieties is how you get through this game faster. You will notice that I mention how to do things more quickly several times already. That is because this game is all about how fast you can complete it in. Each day is around fifteen minutes or so, so you have limited time each day, but you don’t have a limit, at least an easily reachable limit on how many days you can take in this game. As long as you are still getting fruit, you will have more days you can play to get to the end. This means you have some flexibility in how you get the game done, be it fast, thorough, or both. The difficulty can at times vary depending on how you want to play it, so keep it in mind, but do know that this game is lenient on how many days you can take to finish it. Most of the time, as long as you are prepared and know what Pikmin to use in certain situations; you shouldn’t have any trouble getting through this game. It is challenging at times yes, but it is easy to figure things out as well. I can see most people having fun with this, as it is simple, but also has a great deal of strategy as well, if you wish to go for speed or high scores.


Story

Your three crew members are from the planet Koppai, which is currently struggling from a food shortage and a growing population that seems to be eating their food supply faster than it can be made, due to poor planning. It is up to your three members to go to another planet that was found with their satellites to recover some edible matter to be brought back to Koppai to be grown into new food for the population. That’s the basic plot of the game, and it also explains why you are gathering the fruit during the game. Once you get to the planet, your ship crash lands, and you lose your cosmic drive key, which is what allows you to fly out in space for long distances. This means you are stranded on the planet for the time being until you find this device, but you also need to collect the food as needed to survive and to be able to take back home. The bulk of the story of this game then revolves around your crew as they go from area to area collecting fruit, gathering Pikmin, and trying to find this person that seems to have likely found their drive key as well. The story isn’t that complicated, but it is effective for what it is worth. There are a few twists, though they aren’t incredibly hard twists if you know who the characters are as well. You are going to run into the old characters in this game, so assuming you know the older games, you will know what is going to happen and who has the key. So yeah, not the hardest story to follow, but I will still say it is effective, just short is all.


Graphics

Okay, once again, Nintendo shows they know how to make rather pretty cartoony worlds when it comes to how this game looks. The world is like a smaller version of our world when you look at it, so all the woodland areas and such look like you are a small person roaming around as the size of a bug at times. All the areas are so very detailed and look so nice. When you see leaves and sticks and things like that, they all have the texture you look for, and everything just looks so well done. It really is like getting a very close up look at nature. It is almost hard to describe as everything looks so shiny and well done that they really do look like their real life representations. All the fruit you are collecting, though they have different names, do look like very detail versions of the real life fruit. All the characters animate very well, and they all look like they really are running around in a large open area of nature. I don’t think I noticed any slowdown or graphical glitches at all. I don’t believe anything was really lacking in the detail department, so I must say, these graphics are near perfect and are something you should look forward to when playing this game.


Sound

The sound is pretty good I must say, as you do enjoy hearing the little Pikmin making their various sounds as they are performing the tasks you ask of them. It is worth paying attention to their sounds and the sounds of your surroundings to know if enemies have spotted you or are trying to kill your Pikmin. The background sound is good, but it does lack that memorableness that I often bring up when it comes to the music of a game being something you would want to listen to over and over again. While it is good and would likely be very relaxing to listen to if you wanted to calm down, it just lacks that memorable feeling. There really isn’t any voice acting in this game, as the characters all speak in this odd language that you can’t understand. I assume this is a made up language, but if it isn’t, then they speak it well. Most of the speech is all in text boxes though, so it isn’t essential, though it is nice to know they went to the trouble of making this speech in the game, even if you can’t understand it.


Control

The controls are going to be some people’s main stumbling point as they can be a bit complicated at first. I played with the gamepad, and it is the way I would still recommend this game be played. You can use the Pro controller, which I don’t have, but from what I read, the gamepad is still easier. This is a game that utilizes the touch pad of the gamepad heavily, so you do need to get the pen out and be ready to use it during the whole game. You use the touch pad to throw your pikmin, and to also do things like access the auto walk modes, or to check the map. This does mean that you are going to have to get used to balancing the pad on one hand sometimes as you are using the pen, or have it balanced on one leg as well. You need to keep the pen in your hand at all times, so you need to be ready to use all the buttons as needed, while also balancing the pen in your hand. This does mean that your hands may get tired after a while of this, as you aren’t holding the controller in a normal fashion. I did get used to it over time, but when you first start the game, the controls just feel a bit awkward and the way you have to be ready for the touch screen all the time as well. Overall, the controls aren’t bad when you get used to them, but I can see how some people would find them very awkward at first. I did, but the more I played the game, the easier the controls got. However, I can still see how this control scheme can mess with your hands as bit, so at least be ready for this. Other than that, once you get the hang of it, you barely even notice it anymore. They aren’t bad, just a bit odd at first.


Replay Value

This is again where this game shines as this game is meant to be played several times. The game is short, but the main part that brings replayability to this game is that there are various reasons to play the game again. You could play the game again trying to make sure you get all the fruit. You could play a game where you grow more Pikmin and try and lose as few as possible. You can play a game where you are trying to finish in the fewest number of days you can possibly bring yourself to do. There are various combinations of these you can do, so you can shoot to see how well you can do. No two playthroughs are likely to be the same, as you can pick and choose what things you do first at times. Yes, the levels play in a bit of a certain order until the end when you are very free with all types of pikmin, but what you do still has quite a bit of variety in what you can pick and choose when to do and get certain items. Besides that, there are extra modes in the game besides the main story mode. There is a side mode where you have various objectives you need to complete in a limited amount of time. For example, get as many fruit as you can before time runs out and the highest score. You can also defeat all the enemies instead to get a high score in a limited time. This is a neat little mode and an extra add on for those that want something else to do. You even run into two other style of Pikmin. I believe the white and purple Pikmin must be from 2, as I’m not familiar with them. However, you can only play half the levels, as the other half are locked behind pay walls, which does suck as you have to pay for them off the E-shop. There is also a two player specific mode as well, which looks to play like bingo from what I read. However, this is two player only, so I couldn’t try it out personally. So yeah, despite the game being short, there are many reasons to want to replay it, so Pikmin definitely scores high in the replayability department.


Overall, I must say that Pikmin 3 is for sure worth of the Nintendo Selects status that it recently got, which is why it got the price drop as well. The game looks great, plays great, and has a lot of replayability to boot. While the controls will take some time to get used to with the odd way you hold the control pad at first, it can be gotten used to to where it won’t bug you so much. If you enjoyed the previous Pikmin games, then you will definitely want to play this game, as it adds more to the base gameplay and does what you expect from a sequel. I know this game isn’t for everyone, but if the concept sounds neat to you, then I would try it out for sure. There is a reason it is now one of Nintendo’s staple games at this point. It is worthy of being on that pedestal with the other greats.


Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Pikmin 3 a nine out of ten.


Gameplay: 9
Story: 9
Graphics: 10
Sound: 9
Control: 8
Replay Value: 10

Overall: 9

It’s time to play one of the Pokémon games from the main side series of Pokémon games.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity

I haven’t played a Mystery Dungeon game in quite some time, and this is the first one I am playing for the review series as well. Pokémon mystery dungeon I know isn’t a game for everyone, as many people are used to the main series, but after being around this long, apparently some people enjoy this side series quite a bit. Let us take a closer look and see if this is another Pokémon game worthy of a good score or not shall we?


Gameplay

The basic gameplay of Gates to Infinity is essentially unchanged from previous games, though with small tweaks here and there of course. You still are taking control of a team of Pokémon, as you explore grid based dungeons where you go from floor to floor, collecting items, and battling other Pokémon as you work to get a job done. That part of the gameplay is the same, but the small changes can be noticed by long time veterans, but newbies likely aren’t going to notice them or even really care I bet. If I hadn’t looked it up for example, to remind myself of past games, I would have forgotten that there was a hunger meter in the older games, which is absent here. While some people will feel this takes away some of the challenge with having to stay fed as you play, this does mean there is one less thing to worry about and you can explore the dungeons at your leisure without having to worry about them starving and losing health. You are still roaming around attacking other Pokémon as you naturally heal yourself as you roam around. You just don’t run out of that ability due to a hunger meter. While it is an added challenge when you had it, I honestly don’t mind it not being there. While I could have seen that being some sort of difficulty option maybe, I don’t think it’s essential. You can now just concentrate on exploring and battling. Between missions, you are in your hub area, which is a town and a customizable area where your Pokémon lives. The town is for when you want to talk to local Pokémon friends, or if you need to do some side shopping. Your home area is like your secret base in a way, because you can customize it. You get to make areas be a certain setting type, such as plains, or a forest, and in those areas you can create your own shops that grow or do what you need them to do. For example, you can have yourself an oran berry field, or you could have a little mini game area where you can win some prizes. This is all customizable and up to you what you do with it, so it is a neat little gameplay option that you are essentially making your own little town around your house. Most of this isn’t really required, but I found it neat. I just wish there were more shop options or I wish it was possible to make it a legit town and not just tons of shops. You go on story missions often in this game, and these will be a bulk of the game as the side missions are about half the gameplay, and the main story is the other half in a way. You run around a dungeon or dungeons in some case one after the other, and you have to advance the story. Here is the thing though, you do at times feel and are forced to play the story and not the side missions. There are many times where the game flat out tells you, you have to go on these story missions now and that you can’t train or gather supplies at this time, which is a bit often as well. I don’t mind getting the story over with, which I like to do at times, but I would like the choice of when I could go sometimes as there were a few times I might would have wanted to do some of the side jobs. The side jobs consist of you and your partner taking a note from the bulletin board by your house and going out to fulfill a mission during the day. This mission is how you get supplies to build your little village, and it gets you some money and needed supplies. However, one drawback is that you are only allowed to do one mission at a time, even if multiple missions take place in the same location. You can only do them one at a time. I remember the older games letting you do many at a time if you wished, but here you are restricted to one. I feel this does slow progress on side missions down quite a bit, but it can still be done. It just requires more trips to gather needed supplies, which can be interrupted by forced story missions. The difficulty isn’t too bad either, as long as you train your Pokémon at least somewhat, get a good move pool that you can work with easily, and you carry plenty of items for just in case situations to where you need to either heal, recover, or defend yourself in some way. The only time I felt cheated was with the multi hit moves, as they are so random to begin with, and some Pokémon get very lucky with them, and it can end up KO’ing you without warning at all. I’m glad there are revive items in the game, but for those that have friends, you can still use the friend coming to rescue you thing. You have to have that street pass thing though, and that isn’t something I have, so it wasn’t useful for me. One last thing I do have to mention, that maybe I should have mentioned earlier though is the Pokémon that you play as during the game. Unlike some of the other games, you only have five choices. You basically are picking from the gen four starters, Axew, and Pikachu of course. You get to pick which one you play as and then which will be your partner throughout the game. While I like getting to pick my own Pokémon and partner to play with, just having five choices is very limiting in my opinion. That is pretty much the basic gameplay of the game. You are really just going in dungeons, exploring, doing jobs, and getting money and items to help with you other missions and your town. It’s not too bad, but I did point out a few flaws I noticed as well. Still, the game is pretty fun I would say.


Story

This is the bulk of this game and it always has been with the mystery dungeon games. The base story has the same plot of the previous games, in that you are a human that has been turned into a Pokémon and you are wondering why you are there and if there is a way to go back while helping out the other Pokémon around you. However, the rest of the story seems to be unique and is what the bulk of the game is about. The Pokémon of this world all appear to be turning cold and mean to each other as everyone seems to slowly growing to trust no one and everyone is looking out for themselves and that’s it. Basically, other Pokémon are constantly not able to trust each other and make friends as everyone seems to just be out for themselves or just trying to make things up to constantly get their own way. Everyone is trying to use each other instead of actually trusting one another. Your Partner Pokémon, that you pick when you pick your own character, is trying to build his own paradise on a set of land he purchases in the beginning of the game. Your character has suddenly appeared at around the same time your partner is getting this land and the two of you are then setting out to try and help your partner fulfill his dreams. Your Pokémon though has been having odd dreams about some Pokémon that is in danger and you are trying to figure out what they all mean and where this trouble could possibly be taking place at as well. The bulk of the story after that is you and your partner building his paradise, as you work to try and gain new friends, get more people to join your team, and you try and figure out why have been brought to the Pokémon world. The story is actually pretty good and moves at a nice pace as you watch your partner slowly become more open and as the people around the town slowly become nicer. More and more Pokémon that are cold or not too friendly slowly start wanting to join your team, which makes you have more choices for Pokémon when you are in the dungeons. Some of the key Pokémon you recruit would be Pokémon like Dunsparce, Emolga, and Verizon. These three will be common Pokémon you will learn a lot about throughout the game, and they do a good job with their personalities and making them all unique and likable characters. This is one of those games I feel you should experience for yourselves in a way, because the story is pretty good. I don’t want to tell you every little detail, but you really do grow close to these characters, and I honestly wouldn’t mind seeing more with them really. This is honestly good material I could see people using to make their own stories with really. It’s good, other than the game using some of the same material with you being the human in a Pokémon’s body scenario that has been used several times in this series now.


Graphics

The graphics are pretty good throughout the game. The town is detailed nicely, the cutscenes look smooth and well done, and really, most things look well done and not skimped over really. Everything is usually bright and sunny, but the game knows how to make things sort of dark or dreary when you go to areas that exude such feelings as well. The pictures of Pokémon when they are talking aren’t just still pictures either all the time. When your Pokémon or the other Pokémon show expressions or emotions, the still photos change to match it, which is a nice touch and something that does add to the emotion of the story, as there are lots of emotions throughout this game. Some of the only things I would say with the graphics that are below the high standards I see though this game is that some Pokémon do look a little odd when they are roaming around the dungeons. You can sometimes tell Pokémon that are not meant to be moving around much look a little odd when they are moving around a lot, plus you are looking at smaller versions of some Pokémon as well. The still photos of the Pokémon are great, and often times look better than the models themselves. They still look pretty good though, and really, other than some areas that I feel could use some cleaning up, the game looks pretty good and does well with its emotions.


Sound

I must say, at first I wasn’t thinking too much of the music as it was sort of average, but the more of the music I listened to throughout the game, the better I felt it was getting. It never got to that point where it was feeling like it was super memorable, but I could see much of it being very relaxing music someone would want to listen to while they were working or something like that. It is just very relaxing and does a good job at times of being a nice little sound distraction while you are roaming the dungeons of this game. You do at times wish the game was more than just text of course, but I think I get it. Even if this game is about Pokémon talking, you don’t need the voices when the emotions and writing are done well enough that expressions and emotion are done well enough to where sound isn’t needed to get everything you want to express across to the audience. This is a good example of that really, so mostly you are just listening to sound effects and the music, but they are still good and something pleasant to listen to overall.


Control

The controls seem find to me really. I don’t think I really had any problem with the general play of the game as controlling your Pokémon in the dungeon and having them do their moves is pretty straight forward and easily explained. My only thing is that I sometimes think there were a few control issues in the speed of certain things that controls normally can sometimes make better. For example, doing certain things can sometimes take too many steps I feel that could have been accomplished more quickly otherwise. The biggest thing though is that there doesn’t appear to be any text speed up button. You are at times waiting for text to finish going up for you to read that you sometimes wish would go by a little more quickly. Maybe that’s a little nitpicky thing, but after a while, you do at times want the text to speed up a bit, especially if you accidentally click on an NPC more than once. Some of the NPC’s can talk for a bit, and if you accidentally click on that long conversation again, you have to sit through it at the slower speed yet again, instead of being able to speed it up when necessary. That is a little small thing with the controls, but in a game with so much text, you do sometimes want it to go by a little more quickly than it does. Other than that though, the controls are fine and pretty self-explanatory once you learn what they want from you.


Replay Value

The replay value is pretty good here in that there are a massive number of dungeons you can go roaming through, and making your paradise be the way you want it is going to take some time as well. There is also the part where you can go out and try and recruit all the Pokémon out there to be members of your teams, and just trying to get so many of the large number of items out there while you are getting the dozens of Pokémon out there to level up and be good members of your team. There is lots of replayability after you finish the main game, if you wish to play through it some more. Replaying the main story is only going to be different in that you can choose different Pokémon to play as on your do go through, but the main story is the same. Yes, the way paradise gets arranged and what Pokémon you take along with you during side missions and such will all be different, it is just the main game that won’t be that different. This is one of those games where a lot of your hours are going to come from after the main game things to do, if you wish to do them, as lots of this stuff is optional. That does make for good replayability if you wish to get more out of it or feel you don’t want to move on yet. With so many different dungeons to explore, you are going to be at it for a very long time if you want just want to level up, build and recruit for your team. That’s what the bulk of the replayability is about, which to some people is going to feel like quite a bit of grinding, which at times it is. Just be sure you are okay with that when you get this game. Though if you are familiar with Pokémon in general, you know there is a lot of grinding involved with it anyway, so you likely already know that and are used to it or don’t mind it too much. Still, other than grinding and a similar story mode experience, there is still a lot to do after you beat the main game.


Overall, I have to say I was impressed with this entry in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series and I feel it is another good entry in the series. I know it isn’t perfect, as there are a few flaws here and there, such the game forcing you to do the story a bit quickly, and the main story not being that different on multiple playthroughs, or even the story still using the base human in a Pokémon’s body idea, but overall, I must say the rest of it still has that mystery dungeon feel I’ve grown to know over the years, while still having enough to keep me interested. The story is a real treat I must say, as there are even parts in it, especially at the end that can leave you a bit teary eyed if you like certain kinds of stories. I know I knock the idea of the human in the Pokémon’s body again scenario, but you can sort of see why they still use it, as it does still work, even if the ending is a bit predictable. I would say if you want to try a Pokémon side series, this is the one to get and there is a reason this series has been around since the GBA. It is a good series. Who doesn’t want to see the Pokémon actually talk and have personalities instead of just being monsters that fight each other at the command of a human. It’s neat, and good story to boot. Go give it a try, and let your imagination run wild. Who knows, these are the kinds of universes that fanfics seem to easily be made out of it.


Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity an eight point five out of ten.


Gameplay: 8
Story: 9
Graphics: 8
Sound: 9
Control: 9
Replay Value: 9

Overall: 8.5

A cheap PS3 this time instead of cheap wii games for a change.

Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon

This was one of those inpulse cheapo games I picked up that while looking interesting from the cover and first glances, you have to really play to understand what it is all about. You hear a game that says something about an insect Armageddon and you wonder what in the world could that be about. It was cheap and another game for us all to check out to see if that price is a deal, or if the cheap price is that way for a reason. Let us all take a closer look and find out shall we?


Gameplay

The basic gameplay of EDF is that you are a soldier running around an open city area shooting giant insects that are trying to kill you. That’s about it. You run from objective point to objective way point on the map, with each point being another large wave of bugs that are going to try and kill you and your team mates and you have to shoot them all while surviving, so you can move to the next waypoint. Yeah, it is that basic. There is really no variety at all, as the bulk of the game is just running around, shooting and moving on. I know they are trying to make something simple, but this is really just mindless shooting. On top of that, most of the creatures you are shooting take so much gunfire and there are so many of them that you just feel like waves last for longer than they should. I wouldn’t mind long waves if it felt like was dealing good damage to the enemies, but it just feels like you are continuing to shoot and shoot and shoot and are barely getting things done at times. While I can see the appeal this game could have, that appeal likely comes from this being a game that would work well if mainly played online, and less in a single player mode. This game does have an online mode, but at this point, I’m sure it is likely offline anyway. Even then, the AI you have doesn’t help that much. They do shoot and do get kills and such, but they just aren’t smart about it. They will help you out in some ways, but they just don’t know how to do the small things that can make a human player likely the better way to play this game. They don’t know to cover you when you need to blow up nests, and they can sometimes delay coming over to you to revive you, which could mean the difference between continuing on and game overing on a long level. Yeah, the AI isn’t that much help. While they are helpful in their own ways, I just more and more, the more this game went on, could tell how a human player would be way more beneficial than an AI player would be. This is especially so when the AI isn’t as bright as you wish it could be. A big problem as I said is that the game is just the same thing over and over again. When it is just move from way point to way point without really any change, you get bored rather fast. This is something I’m going to bring up again later, but really I think you can already tell that if you are doing the same thing over and over, you are lacking gameplay variety quite massively. While there is a survival mode that is separate from the main campaign, all this mode is, is literally just shoot more things, you are just doing it on your own, with not as good equipment. Yeah, as you can see, the bulk of the gameplay is nothing but running and shooting. While this is okay for a short while, the lack of variety, and the tough enemies, along with long levels just sort of wears on you after a while. Even then, the game isn’t even that long with their only being fifteen levels in the game, and you are done. Yeah, I must say, while you can get off to an interesting start here with the gameplay, you just yearn for more from this game is all.


Story

The story here is honestly just pitiful. While I can see bits and pieces of a story here, it just doesn’t make sense overall as this game feels like the story was just an after-thought. You are playing as a small three man team, which is a part of the EDF. You are in New Detroit and you are trying to kill the invading alien like insects that have invaded the city and all around the world. You not only are meant to just be killing them, but you are also trying to find something that is lost in the city, but you barely find out anything about it until the end of the game. Most of the game, as I mentioned, is just your team moving from waypoint to waypoint as you kill giant insects. You just feel like you are being led along most of the game and you really don’t feel like you are accomplishing anything at all. I know some of that is the point, in that you are just fighting endless waves of enemies that make it seem hopeless, but you should at least feel like something is happening in the story. There are bits and pieces of story here and there, such as this mysterious object you are looking for later in the game, and the fact you are trying to get out of the city after a while too, but it is just so minimalistic that I can’t help but feel they just tried to make this just your generic online shooter with a watered down story mode. Even when it does try for story, the game just ends when you get to the last mission. There is really no explanation of how this all happened, nor is there any explanation about what happens in the end. You are left on a cliffhanger that isn’t very good. Yeah, not only did you not tell your story well, you don’t even have the decency to end if properly. I gave it a few points for trying, but that’s about all the game does in the story department, it just tries.


Graphics

The graphics of the game are just alright. They are nothing impressive by any means, but at least the game doesn’t just look ugly either. There are many characters on the screen at once, and the city is impressive when you look at it as a whole. When the city isn’t falling apart of the insects or your teams stray shots, it really does look like a legit city that you might see out there. While it lacks those small details to make it great, I have to give the game at least some credit for at least making a game that has so little depth and variety look at least somewhat decent. Lag was minimal, and often times only showed up when there were lots of explosions and such very close to the camera really. This is a common thing in many games, so I’m not surprised it is here. Still, if that’s all that is wrong with lag, I can sort of understand. So yeah, the game looks okay, but there were still those fine touches that could have been thrown in to make it great ya know? Like more details, and more variety as I have mentioned several times at this point.


Sound

This is another area where this game is just showing its average side. The music isn’t something you really notice much at all. I can’t even really tell you much about it at all. About all you do hear in this game are gunshots, explosions, and the random chatter of your team mates, with your main radio going off of course to tell you what is going on. While the radio is fine and the voice acting that you do hear is okay, when the bulk of the game is just shooting and explosions, you really just have most everything else drained out. What can I really say about the game when most things are sort of drowned out and what you do hear is just a lady spilling out objectives of what she wants you to do? Really, it’s just so blah and boring. It’s not horrible, but I just can’t say much good here either, other than the lady doing the main hq radio does an alright job at directing you. Other than that though, get used to gun shots and explosions. That’s all you really notice for the most part.


Control

The controls are actually fine in this game. They are mostly responsive, and they seem to fit what you want them to do for the most part. Really, other than taking a small bit of time to get used to them, I can’t really say there is much of a problem here. While I could think of a slightly better controller layout possibly than the one given here, it really isn’t that bad. I know it could be better, but really, when controls are just alright and there is nothing spectacular, but neither is anything bad about them, you really don’t have much to say about the controls overall.


Replay Value

The replay value isn’t that great here really. While there is some replayability in that this game has multiple difficulties, a survival mode, and lots of things to unlock in the form of achievements and weapons and armors, there are things that can keep some people coming back for more, but the base gameplay really doesn’t offer much replay value to your average player. This is one of those games that you may play through once or twice and you are pretty much done with it. Unless you don’t mind trying to grind for little extras, or going through even longer levels due to enemies taking even more of a beating than they already take on normal, then you might have some case for replayability in the long run. Really, when your base gameplay isn’t even that interesting, even collectathons can’t hold your attention for as long as they could if the gameplay was a bit better. Even though collectathons and mass unlocking of items in games isn’t for everyone, if the game overall is fun, it can become passable. In this game, it just can’t hold up in my opinion. While there are multiple difficulties, that just makes the enemies unbearablity hard to take down due to just how much damage they can take. I know that’s sort of the point in some ways, but again, your base gameplay doesn’t offer the overall incentive to care. I have to give the game some pass for trying with so many different things that can offer some replayability, it just doesn’t do them all well in the long run due to the below average gameplay. So yeah, I’m not impressed here, even though they sort of try.


Overall, I must say, while I can see EDF: Insect Armageddon having some good sides for an initial playthrough and it possibly being a game that would be alright online, the game is just not fun in the long run. The gameplay is lacking variety desperately, the story is a bit of a joke, and really the game just doesn’t have much lasting appeal. I can see where they were going with a game like this, but with some glaring problems that keep it from being good, this game sort of falls into the slightly below average territory. There are just some flaws that cannot be ignored, and I feel really need to be fixed if they plan for this series to last a long time. I know there are other games in this series, but after this experience, I don’t know if I will be trying another game in the series any time soon. This is one of those games where if you just must have a squad based shooter, or you have someone else to play with, if that is even possible with this game anymore, I can see you wanting this. Otherwise, I think this is one of those cheap games that is cheap for a reason and is likely one that should most likely be just passed on really. While it isn’t terrible, there is just no overall appeal that is going to make people come back for more, at least in my opinion. So yeah, just let this cheap one pass on by people.


Overall, in my opinion at least, I Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon a five point five out of ten.


Gameplay: 4
Story: 3
Graphics: 7
Sound: 5
Control: 8
Replay Value: 5

Overall: 5.5

You have to expect at least one or two warriors’ games every review year.

Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2

I do usually enjoy my Warriors’ games so here we go again with another entry into the vast Warrior’s series. This time, we are finally returning to the Gundam version and now I will be reviewing the second Warriors Gundam game. I reviewed the first one last year and now we have the second in the series. Is this game an improvement on the series or is it more of the same? Let us take a closer look shall we?


Gameplay

The bulk of the gameplay of this game, compared to the last warriors’ game, is really not that different. Though that isn’t surprising as the bulk of warriors games all follow the same format, just with different settings and stories to go along with them. You run around a battlefield attacking foot soldiers and officers and conquering the various enemy fields to make them your own while trying to eventually take out whomever the main objective or target of the battle. This is all good and works the way many warriors games have always worked. That’s the thing though, there isn’t much new added here, but sadly, one of the big new concepts that was added to the general gameplay of this game isn’t the best idea in my opinion. Other than the basic run around, attacking enemies and conquering fields, there are now giant enemies as well. Some Gundam’s are now two or three times your size, for example, the first one you encounter being Big Zam, will proceed to pretty much kick yours and your allies butt very quickly if you aren’t careful. To fight big enemies, you have to do some tricky foot work to take them down. Big enemies will pretty much shrug off normal attacks and will do very little damage. You have to wait for the right time to attack. These large enemies have weak spots and openings when they are attacking. Your Gundam can charge up and attack with a smash attack which first, can for a very short time show the openings and weak spots, but it will close again real quick. However, if you use a smash attack or a special attack on them when their openings are showing, the large Gundam will fall over onto their back and they are wide open to finally be attacked for greater damage. However, this isn’t always easy to do, and in the meantime, these large enemies are kicking out big damage. While yes, you are in danger as well, your allies are the bigger concern. They will just rush up to these enemies and attack them like normal instead of attacking at the right time. If allies get into your fights with the large enemies, there is a good chance they are going to be taken out, which in many missions will leave you failing the mission. Plus, large enemy attacks often lock you to the field so getting health can be tricky as often the only way to get more is to attack the foot soldiers at the same time as you are dodging the large enemy. Yeah, this is pretty frustrating and honestly, while having big enemies is a neat idea, it is your allies that are going to cause so much frustration. You can dodge attacks and slowly heal if need be, though your allies constantly dying from either the giant enemy or from other things and you not being able to help them due to being locked down can be quite annoying. I think they could have executed this better for sure. While giant enemies aren’t always a problem, constantly locking you to fields or stupid AI allies can really ruin it for you. Now, when it comes to the modes of the game, there is official mode, which is basically the normal story mode from the first game that follows the events of the anime with four different characters. Yes, just four characters. While each story mode has many more missions than the first game, and the story of the anime is shown more, there are just four characters to use, Amuro, Char, Kamille, and Judau. Not exactly sure why they wanted to just do four characters here at all. There is still mission mode though, which is where you get to use all the various characters throughout the anime series. There is just one thing though, unlike the first game that had an overall story that the characters all took part in, this time, mission mode is just each character doing five story missions that don’t really have much connection to each other character, along with lots of friendship and side missions to just gain relationships with other pilots and make your Gundams better. Yeah, it feels like the side mode has taken quite a nosedive as well. While this mode is just more of the same stuff, it just feels like it could get a little dull after a while, which I will talk more about later. Really over all, while there is still some fun in this game, it just feels like they didn’t add as much as most series advancements in the Warriors series tend to add. It almost feels like things were taken away in some ways, while only some new things were added. Yeah, while the game still feels like a warriors game, it just doesn’t have that unique punch that makes it really worth it, but not really bad either.


Story

The story in the main mode is pretty much the same as the first game, it is just expanded upon, which you expect in the warriors games. Each warriors game is like there, where the next game in the series expands slightly on the first main modes story to keep adding more and more to it to keep it interesting. This game does this, but it is the side mode that is so disappointing. The side mode in the first game was this interesting unique story that while you were playing the same story over and over from many different angles, it was interesting to watch and listen to. In this game, it is just bits and pieces of different stories all over the place that are over so quickly that they really don’t feel like they are having much of an impact at all overall. While I get what they were trying to do, I just wasn’t that impressed really with the way they went about it. Maybe it’s just me, but I liked the way they did it in the first game where it was showing an overall unique story from different people’s prospective. This game just has everyone having these little side stories that don’t really connect at all, and it has people fighting with each other that normally wouldn’t be without any explanation why and such. This just seems so confusing really. I don’t know why it was about this game, but really, while the story wasn’t that bad and the main mode did add something as it always should, the side mode was just a bit of a step back in my opinion.


Graphics

The game has the standard graphics that you expect in a warriors game along with some cutscenes here and there that look alright. Nothing is really impressive and such, but there is nothing bad here either. You don’t see any sort of clipping nor slowdown that are often times pretty common in these warriors games. It actually looks rather glitch free. There may have been like what one moment where something odd happens, but if that is all there is, that’s pretty much glitch free to me. Then there is the standard graphics, they do the job while making everyone look unique when it comes to the character models and gundams. The cutscenes are okay and really just get straight to the point and do what you want them to do. I must say, the graphics looks good, but aren’t just the amazing stand out that they could be. Really, I’m not surprised, but I thought it could be better. So really, the game looks pretty good, but I just always wish it could be a little better, as there are many areas that are just simply plain and simple. It is just the two fighters and an empty area either on the ground or up in space. That’s a common thing with these games. You gotta keep them simple really to cram more people onto the screen at one time. They did a good job on doing that, but I still wish these series would add that extra detail if they could.


Sound

The music of this game is your standard warriors’ music. The rock music that you normally get in these games is good and does a good job of being background distraction music that can, when you notice it, get you into that pumped up state to keep on fighting. I don’t think I’ve ever disliked the music in these games, and this one is no exception. The voices are good and are very well done. They aren’t drowned out by the music and they take center stage so you don’t miss any of the story at all due to the music or sound effects. The only downside to the sound is that many of the voice clips are reused quite often and you are going to be hearing some of the same lines over and over again as you play the main story and especially in the side mode where, while they did make some unique voice clips for it, there is so much reuse, that you are going to be hearing that way more often than the unique stuff. That’s what you get when you don’t make a unique story mode like the first game did for its non anime story mode. While it is good to hear actual voice acting at times, I just wish they had taken the time to add a lot more of it and make it more unique is all.


Control

Control is good and honestly, I don’t have many complaints about it. The few things I do have to say are honestly just about the combo system with the buttons. It is the same in all warriors’ games though, so you have to sort of be used to it at this point. What I mean is that to do certain moves you have to press the buttons a certain number of times or in certain combinations to get certain things to happen. You are going to run into times where you want to just mash the button instead of trying the different combinations, which can be great additions when done at the right time and even extend combo’s to where you don’t give the enemy a chance to block. You are just going to have to get used to it. It is more something the player has to learn and get used to as it is not the fault of the game at all. I’ve seen this in many games, and while yes I would like it simpler sometimes, I get why they did it and it is more on me than it is the game. So overall, the controls are good and match all the other games as they should.


Replay Value

The replay value is where this game does take another small hit. Why it does, you have likely figured out by this point, but it does have to do with the side story mode not being the best It could be and that it is a lot of just grinding and doing missions over and over again doing little side things really. I get that it is supposed to be a mode you do this in, but it could have been done in a more interesting way and in a way that made you want to use more of the characters as well instead of just doing the mini stories and switching to other characters. There is also the fact that this game can be very cheap at times when it comes to those large enemies. When the AI is constantly doing dumb things around them to where it then costs you a mission to where you are getting game overs all the time, you are going to become very frustrated. I don’t think I’ve had a warriors game in quite some time cost me as many game over’s as this one has. While some of the early games are hard and can be frustrating, that was sometimes more to make up for the limitations of not being able to add as much as they wanted, so they made the games harder. In this game, often time it is cheap AI or sometimes bosses being way too hard, even on easier difficulties that it sometimes just makes this game feel frustrating at times. There were actually times I wanted to get very mad at this game and there were sometimes I actually did. That’s not a good sign when even on normal you are having such a hard time, due to the AI either being cheap or stupid depending on what side you are talking about. While there is a lot to do in the game, which does keep this from being lower than it could be, I really do have to say that I think they could have done better. While there is a lot to do, it is just doing the same things over and over again. It is more just filler than making you feel like you are accomplishing something. I’m just so surprised really. Maybe it’s me in some areas, but I do think this game could have been so much better with just a few changes to certain areas.


Overall, while this is still a good game, there are definitely some flaws that make this game be better. If the AI wasn’t dumb about certain situations they get into, and the difficulty of the AI sometimes wasn’t a problem, you might be able to continue playing this game for a longer period of time. This would be especially so if the replay value was better due to the extra mode being sort of a disappointment compared to the first game going all out with their extra mode. Really, the game isn’t bad, but you will have to contend with these small low points and have to be able to stand game over after game over in certain areas. This is an alright game, it just could have been so much better I think. I would still say give it a chance if you enjoy warriors games or are looking for a Gundam game, but I can think of better warriors’ games to let people start with than this one. This one I feel could give a first timer a bad taste compared to other ones. It is still alright really, I just wanted a little more is all.


Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2 a seven out of ten.


Gameplay: 6
Story: 7
Graphics: 8
Sound: 8
Control: 9
Replay Value: 5

Overall: 7

Another one of those long rpg’s, this time for the PS3.

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

Another PS3 exclusive, and this time it is a traditional JRPG. You don’t see as many of those anymore. When you look at this game, you can tell that it is unique just from first glances at the cover and the back. I’ve heard good things about the visuals and feel of this game, so let us see for ourselves if this is one of those games you need to get, or if this style of rpg is something that should be on the way out?


Gameplay

The gameplay of Ni no Kuni is your traditional jrpg in that you level up, you roam around and battle enemies and defeat bosses, all the while you listen to a story. That’s not what makes this game more unique and also a something that I can see being fun for many people. This game takes notes from more modern rpg’s in that you are using an active time battle system where you can run all around the battlefield as you please while selecting spells as you wish or choosing to attack at will if you wish. However, here is the kicker with this as well. While you can use your main party member characters in battle, they usually are not going to be your primary choice to do so. In this game, you tame the enemies in the game and have them join your party and have them battle for you instead. While you can battle yourself, most of the game, you are going to be using the monsters to fight for you, also called familiars. You level them up as well using their own stats separate from your own. They have their own attack and defense, but they share the main characters HP. The familiars are basically an extension of your main characters, so if a familiar’s HP hits zero, then your character will be knocked out as well, so you have to be aware of this. Your familiars do have their own level up levels compared to your main character. The reason for this is that at certain levels you can metamorphos your familiar into a stronger form. You can choose when you want to do this, be it right away, or let it max out its level in this first form before upgrading it to the next form. I’m sure you are already getting what this is similar to aren’t you? Yes, this is similar to how Pokémon all works. However, one difference between these games is that when you metamorphos your familiar returns to level one when it upgrades. However, it retains ten percent of its stats from the previous form and it gains levels back rather quickly at first. This means it won’t be long before it gets back to the stats it had in the previous form, just at a lower level, meaning you get to use that familiar more and get to let it get even stronger. This means there is an advantage to waiting to change them later. Another big difference in this game compared to some others is that your main character is a magic user and so is your main second in command. You are usually used to the main characters being all about physical characters but in this game, everything is heavily magic based. This does mean you have to manage your MP very well at times. The AI isn’t always good at this as it will try and use all its MP rather quickly. Just be glad that restoring it isn’t too difficult, at least in certain situations. You can either use items to recover it. You can rest at the inns, or the most useful and free solution is to find the little stones that double as save points that also heal all your HP and MP. Just be sure you know where these are located as you need them, plus they are useful when you are training for levels. Yes, this is a game where you will need to do some grinding in the normal mode of the game, but they even thought of this as well. Don’t want a harder time where you have to grind and everything, well just play the game in easy mode, where you can enjoy easier battles and instead just play through the game and enjoy the story. There are several things you can choose to do in the game if you wish to do so. There is a business in every city in the game where you can go and visit to do side quests that will give you more money and items. These quests either involve a bounty, which is killing a strong monster, or they involve town errands. These usually are small favors for the people in the cities. A large number of these involve another key aspect of the game, and that is that many people’s hearts are out of balance. People are missing sections of their heart and you need to find those missing pieces that you borrow from people that have an excess of that particular emotion. These can range from things like enthusiasm, restraint, love, and courage for example. When you restore the people, they go back to normal, and they are no longer lazy, or mean and such like that. Another big thing is something that while a bit minor is something I’m happy to see this game include and that is the inclusion of an open world, world map to roam around on. The world feels more alive like this, and it allows you to roam all around it as you see fit, especially late game when getting around is much easier. Monsters in this game are on the map itself, so encounters are not random. Honestly, I think many people prefer this as well, as it does allow you to somewhat manipulate the encounter rate. This is especially the case in older areas as enemies will often times now run away from you instead of trying to run you down to start an encounter. This does mean as well in newer areas that monsters are going to try and come at you and star the battles themselves. Just be sure you are ready to fight if monsters see you. You can surprise them for a sneak attack to get about five free seconds of fighting against them at the beginning of a battle, but they can do this as well if you are trying to run from them. This is what a bulk of the gameplay of the game is like. I honestly can’t see many flaws here, and honestly, the main flaws I can see some people having that you will sometimes have to grind to make sure you are ready for bosses. You don’t have to do this much if you fight normally as you progress. This is even less so in easy mode, so they even took that into consideration for people that may not enjoy grinding for harder battles. I have to say, they did pretty good here and seem to have taken everything into consideration and allow you to play the game as much or as little as you wish to do so. That’s pretty impressive that they thought about all that I must say, but is the story just as thought out?


Story

I must say that this game is pretty much structured around the great story that goes along with it with easy mode literally saying at the beginning to pick this mode if you just want to enjoy the story and not have as much of a difficult time as you may have otherwise. The story involves a kid named Oliver living in a small town, called Motorville, in the fifties or so from the looks of style of the game. He lives with his mom and he and his best friend are obsessed with cars. However, very quickly a tragedy happens. Oliver’s mom dies! Yeah, what a way to start your game. A kid’s mother dies. Oliver is beginning to go into isolation and depression from being left along, however, suddenly one of his toys that his mother made for him suddenly becomes real and changes into a real fairy, named Drippy. Drippy is quick to show Oliver that he is different and is a wizard that is able to use magic, thanks to a magical spell book and wands. This is when Oliver is shown that there is a whole other world that is in peril due to a dark wizard named Shadar. Oliver sets out on a journey with Drippy to hopefully be able to not only learn to be a better wizard and safe Drippy’s world, but Oliver learns that there may be a way to still save his mom. This is the main premiss of the game, but is very quickly turns into Oliver going from town to town trying to fix the problems in the towns, which usually involve people being heartbroken from Shadar, and Oliver is working to fix the people to make them have hope again that Shadar can be defeated. This is what most of the game involves, Oliver going from town to town helping people, while also making a few new friends along the way as well as learning how to control familiars to help him along his journey to defeat Shadar. I have to say, this is a very well thought out story, and I can say that there are twists and turns all over the place, and it constantly feels like the game is throwing new challenges at you to try and not keep things boring. Shadar isn’t waiting around to just let you come defeat him. There are sad turns, and there are cool things that are constantly happening throughout the game to keep you on your toes. There are rarely points where it feels like the story just stalls out and you aren’t making progress or that every city is just a mirror copy of each other. While you may be doing similar things in each area, they are different enough to where it does feel like you are traveling the world slowly fixing it a little at a time. I don’t want to spoil it all for you, that’s how I feel about this game. You are going to be hooked to the story if you get into it, and I can see it holding your attention all the way to the end. Even when you think the game may be over, it kicks it up again and gives you more of the game as almost like a bonus I would say. You are going to be constantly figuring out how Oliver is going to fix this world fully, and I must say, they wrote the story well.


Graphics

Not only does the game play well, and have a great story, the game looks amazing as well. It looks like one of those classic animation styles that you have seen in classic Japanese anime movies. The game has that style similar to something like Kiki’s delivery service. I’m pretty sure it’s the same company. Not only does the world match this style in its brightness and detailedness, there are several points in the game, where the game goes full on anime to where it looks like it could be part of an actual anime movie. These are very well done and a welcome addition to the game. They could have just used the in game graphics throughout the entire game and everything would have still looked great. However, they took that extra step and went the extra mile to include these anime cutscenes in several important points in the game just to add that extra step of beauty to make this world feel more alive and like you are watching something on TV at times. The world just has this very bright and lively feel about it. The cities are very detailed and the world itself is very life like as well. That’s what you get when you go to the work of adding in a world map. It feels like a real world instead of just a collection of cities with a dungeon here and there. There is a lot in between, and it really adds to the immersion that you are in another world that needs saving. This is one of those games that not only looks great, and has plenty of detail to make everything not looks plain and boring, but I don’t think I saw a single graphical flaw at all in this game. Glitches were pretty much nonexistent, and everything was smooth and not laggy in the least. I must say, they seem to have put as much attention in the graphics as they have in everything else. I could definitely see this game being changed into a long anime movie or series and it working just as well, that’s how good this game looks, especially with the full anime cutscenes that are in some areas.


Sound

I must say, this game sounds great as well. Most of the music in the game has a catchiness to it that makes you enjoy it, and it even knows how to set the scene in certain situations. For example, if something big is coming up, the music will just cut out entirely to raise the tension. When something happy is going on, the music reflects it. The same goes for the other way as well. That music is very good at setting the scene and reflecting the mood of the current situation at any point in time. On top of that, a good portion of the game is voice acted for your enjoyment, while a good bit of the game is still in text form, almost everything that involves main parts of the story, and some in between, it is all fully voice acted. The voices are heavily British based throughout the game. Many of the characters have British accents, at least in certain areas. Many of the people in Motorville where Oliver is from have similar accents as well. Even then, most areas that don’t have that influence tend to match where the area is sort of based off of in general. Once again, I can’t seem to find anything wrong here, even with the sound effects. You hear plenty of fighting, grunts and magical sounds from the battles throughout the game, and they all fit. Sure, you may get tired of some of those sounds, but the battle music will keep you from getting distracted from that, and all the voice acting helps plenty. Again, I can’t seem to find anything wrong with this game’s sound. Everything seems to match, and all the music and voice acting is perfect in my eyes. I really can’t complain at all. All the voices sound natural, and the story’s script matches that to make everything sound natural to the player. Sounds good to me!


Control

What can I say about the controls of this game? Well, the bulk of the game is roaming around the world map or towns just to get to place to place. Then in battle you are just roaming around and selecting attacks and asking the game to do what you want it to do from the menus. There really isn’t much to screw up here, other than to make sure your controls are responsive to what you are asking them to do. Really, I can’t really complain as all the movements are very responsive and navigating the menu’s isn’t too hard, sure there are times where you wonder why it is taking a bit to do another reaction, but that was actually a built in feature. You can’t just instantly switch between attack, defense and magic without a penalty. There are cool down periods between attacks, and you must wait, even if you cancel them early. You just have to be aware of this, as this is also something that can get you into trouble if you don’t learn to read your opponents and know when to attack or defend. I must say, that is a neat feature to make you have to learn to read it like that or else you face punishment. I really see nothing wrong with the controls either. I wonder if this holds true in the final area as well.


Replay Value

The replay value is good here as well. While you may be playing the same game over again when you replay the game, there are various things you can do when you play this game or when you first play through it to constantly extend your play time. First is that each playthrough, you can easily go with different familiars if you wish to try different familiar types to see if you have a harder or easier time with different familiars. This means that no two playthroughs could be the same battle wise as least. Next, is the fact that there are a large number of side quests throughout the game that you can choose to do or not do depending on if you are just interested in the main story or not. If you aren’t interested in the side quests, there is nothing stopping you from not doing them, or even just some of them if you need some side money to buy more items or equipment. If you want to do them all though, you are welcome to do so, as it does give you opportunities to level up and find better equipment and cash. There are also things you can do after you finish the game, though this is often just more side quests, but if you want a challenge, the ones after the game are harder bosses and harder quests. I do sometimes wish there was a little more here, but a lot of the replayability does come from the different familiars you can play though during the game, and the fact that of course, this being a PS3 game, means there are trophies to unlock if you wish to do so. While not perfect, I would say it is pretty close to it still. They thought about the player and added in the feature pretty much to allow you to get more out of the game if you wish to, or to just play the bare minimum to get the entire story out of the way for your enjoyment. It is still a good story, and sticking mainly to the main story line is not a bad thing at all. For those that just want to enjoy it, stick to it and you will move through the game a lot more quickly. All the side quests though, will easily add dozens of hours of gameplay though, and that isn’t something to gawk at either. So really, most of the replayability is more what you want out of the game and less about things being fully different on each playthrough. Even then, I could see someone wanting to play this again to try different strategies or to show off the story to other people. Either way, I could see someone wanting to come back to this game, even if just for the story.


Overall, I must say that Ni No Kuni does a great job of showing that JRPG’s aren’t a dying genre and that they can be done very effectively in this modern day and age. The game plays great, looks great, and has a great story to boot. I really don’t see much wrong with this game. I mean sure there is the fact that replayability may have some limitations, but other than that, really this game offers a lot and lets you take what you want from it. If you take advantage of what it offers, you have a great game on your hand. You rarely see games like this these days, and that is sad as this is a game I must say that had to have slipped under the radar and really is one of the real hidden gems in my opinion of the PS3. If you enjoy RPG’s or games similar to Pokémon in a way, I would say go get this game immediately. IT’s not that expensive and it is worth it for the enjoyment you are going to get out of the gameplay, and the wonderfully animated story to go along with it. It really is a gem.

You know, I didn’t know if I would ever do this, and I likely won’t be doing this very often, however, I don’t think there was a moment I didn’t enjoy this game, other than maybe during some of the grinding moments, but other than that, I really must say, I would enjoy finding other games like this. However, in the meantime though guys, I must say, I think it is time I finally break one of these out and put my name out there saying this is one of those games that should be a must have for your PS3 systems if you have one. It is finally time I put one of these out there. So enjoy it, you won’t see them often.


Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch a well-deserved and definitely rare for me, a perfect ten out of ten.


Gameplay: 10
Story: 10
Graphics: 10
Sound: 10
Control: 10
Replay Value: 9

Overall: 10

Cheap 3DS game is next on the docket.

Crush 3D

Well this is a game I didn’t know much about when I saw it. This is another one of those that just looked interesting and then you see the cheap price and figure why not give it a try because it is one of the older games on the 3DS. It’s another Sega game, and you know I gotta see what those are about usually. Well, let us see what a game called Crush could be about huh? Just having a name like that, there is no telling what is in store.


Gameplay

Crush 3D is a puzzle game that makes use of the concept of 2D and 3D being both mixed in the same world. Your goal in each level is to collect enough marble that are scattered around to open the exit to move on to the next level. To do this though, you need to be able to manipulate the way the environment works. This is when you need to begin to crush and uncrush the world. Crushing the world, will turn the 3D world into a 2D world, which is based on the camera angle you are currently looking at it. This means if you are looking off in the distance, the world will suddenly crush and all the distant items will fly towards you and the world will suddenly become 2D and flat. This is how you reach objects in the distance that you could never reach in 3D. This can of course work the opposite though of course. When you are in 2D, this means you sometimes can’t see ledges that are there or ways you can go around barriers that aren’t there when you can move in all directions. By uncrushing and going back to 3D as well, it allows you to sometimes see the world in a more open way that 2D may not always show. You really just have to try and look at the puzzles from all directions, both 3D and 2D as the solutions are a mixture of both. This is also the biggest complaint I will have about this game and what is likely to turn a lot of people away from this game, is the fact that it isn’t an easy game at all. It isn’t uncommon for levels to take thirty minutes or more a piece because of how much you have to experiment at first to try and find the solutions to all these puzzles. The game gets progressively harder and the levels slowly get longer and more complex, the more you complete them. There is a steady difficulty curve up, and by the time you are getting to the end levels, unless you can spot the solution right away, you are going to be at levels for quite a while. This can lead to frustration and for those that give up easy, this is a game that I can see many people just throwing to the side from the difficulty. I can’t stress enough that this game is tough, but it is also a fair game and any hardness you encounter is you just not seeing the solution yet. Any time I really did get stuck, the solution was just something that was kind of obvious or wasn’t that far away from where I was looking. You just have to keep at it and never give up. You also have to be willing to accept if you want to collect everything in a level, or if you want to just beat the level. Just beating the level involves getting half the marbles in a level and getting to goal spot. Mastering a level involves getting all the marbles, getting an art book, and a trophy in a level. Mastering levels is much harder as finding ways to get everything in a level is what adds a lot of time to a level. Just say right away when you get this game if you want to just beat the game or if you want to master the levels. If you choose mastering them, just be ready for a hard time. Still, the difficulty is fair. There is nothing unfair about a game that really does have fair solutions by just wants to make you think really hard about what those solutions are. This really is what the bulk of the game play is in this game. It is a simple concept, but they really did ramp that difficulty up for sure in this game. I’m just glad, that despite it being tough, that they are at least fair about it. I still have to give that hit though about sometimes being a bit overly difficult at times is all, as I can see people easily giving up on this game if they have no patience.


Story

The story in this game is simple. You are Danny and a professor friend has you testing his invention called C.R.U.S.H. In this machine, you are being thrown into your own memories and you have to solve puzzles to get out of the machine. However, what should have been simple is now much more difficult as the machine doesn’t want to let Danny out of the machine. The professor sort of acts like this isn’t much of a big deal though and just goes along with the experiment anyway. That’s pretty much what the story is in this game. Something has gone wrong with this machine and you are just trying to find a way to get out of this machine by solving more and more puzzles. That’s about all the story you are getting out of this game. There are a few twists and turns that will pop up after every ten levels of this game, but the story they put in here is just too minimalistic to really be that effective. The only reason that it isn’t lower is because what story is there does have some interesting twists of course, but there is just not enough of it. I can understand this is a puzzle game, but you could have had the story points happen a little more often I feel. So yeah, just an average quick story to go along with your puzzle game is what you have here.


Graphics

The graphics here are alright. The switch from 2D and 3D is smooth and the way the game makes use of the way the camera is looking and how things in the background now fly in when in 2D mode show that these people took some real care in the way this game plays, seeing as this is a very visual game. While the game isn’t something amazing to look at, you have to give the game some points for doing what needs to be done to where the difficulty isn’t because you didn’t render things properly. When you are looking at a puzzle, you need to be able to look at it and look at it in a way that can show you the solution. The backgrounds for the levels are interesting and are a bit creative or creepy depending on the level you are playing through at the moment. You have to give them a hand for doing backgrounds when this game is just about puzzles after all. Still, the game is just a puzzle game and there isn’t anything impressive to look at here either. So really, the graphics are fine, and do their job with a few nice little touches here and there, but it could have been more for sure.


Sound

The sound is a bit poor and very ignorable here. You will half the time not even realize there is even music in this game at all. You have to turn the game up pretty high to even half the time hear the music as it is so low and just usually uninteresting. I know you want make the player concentrate on the puzzle and not be distracted by the music, but you want to at least have some music that is more than just simple hums or very soft music. When you can actually hear the music, you do realize that the music is a bit calming and is there to just try and calm you down or be peaceful background music, but I think this could have been implemented better for sure. Half the time all you are hearing are the sounds of you crushing and uncrushing and the sudden praising sounds when you complete a level. Yeah, the sounds aren’t that great here. Most of the game is just crush and uncrush sounds so get used to that and don’t expect much else overall. This is definitely the low point in this game.


Control

The controls are luckily pretty responsive and done very well. You need to move Danny around the map to get where you need to get. You need to be able to crush and uncrush when needed. You need to sometimes make tricky jumps to get to little areas that get you access to the extras in levels. You need to be able to control that camera and you need to be able to twist and zoom as needed. The game does this well and you need it to figure out what you need to do, as these puzzles will test your observation for sure. The only problem I see with controls is the camera controls when you want to look at the big picture of a level. When in 3D mode, the camera is stuck to you and rotating around you instead of letting you fly around to look at things more where you want to look at them from or from the angle you really want to see. Most of the time, this will be the only time you are going to have control problems. It is only a small thing of course, so I really don’t have much else to say as the controls are just fine here.


Replay Value

This games replay value is alright, but the main reason it is going to go down is difficulty. As I said, when it comes to the main levels there is the fact you can either just beat the level or completely master the level by getting all the collectables in a level. That gives the player a choice on which way they want to beat the levels, and also lets you choose if you want to do both of those at once or if you want a second play through to get everything else on the next go through. There are forty levels, so they didn’t give you just a few levels to play through here. Then there is an entirely different mode as well that you can add in as well. There is a mode where now not only do you have to complete everything in a level, you have a strict time limit and your crushes are limited. If you thought the game wasn’t hard enough, this mode makes it even harder. Yeah, I don’t see many people enjoying this mode as the main game is hard enough. But for those that want to be total masters at this game, the game does offer an even harder difficulty for those that want to play through it. If you don’t though, there isn’t a ton of replayabilty here, unless you just want something even harder than what you already playthrough the first time. Sure, you wish the game was easier, but that’s what this game is, it is difficult and it makes you think hard about what the solution is.


Overall, Crush 3D is a pretty good puzzle game, but it is definitely not for everyone. If you have limited patience and don’t want a game that is going to make you think hard about what its puzzle solutions are, then this game isn’t for you. If you want a challenge though for your brain, you will enjoy this. The story and sound are a bit lacking overall for sure, but the gameplay and puzzle elements over all do their job of making this a convincing puzzle game for those that really want that challenge and want a good puzzle game for their 3DS. If you see it for cheap like I did and you want that tough puzzle game that is really going to make you think, go pick this up quickly. If you are easily frustrated though, do yourself a favor and stay far far away from this game. It isn’t worth the headaches it will cause if you don’t enjoy a good tough puzzle game. Overall though, it is still an alright game with just a few hiccups here and there is all.


Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Crush 3D a seven out of ten.


Gameplay: 8
Story: 6
Graphics: 8
Sound: 4
Control: 9
Replay Value: 7

Overall: 7

Wow, I've been doing this for two years now guys. I really have committed to doing this, even if I still don't really have many that want to look at these reviews. I'm happy I do them, though there are times I do sort of get tired of doing them as well.

So as with last year, this is the journal that has all the reviews from this year all organized from best to worst, with another explanation of my rating system for you all. Though I will try and put last years games in the list as well in case anyone wants to check them out.


10= Perfect
9= Great
8= Very Good
7= Good
6= Average
5= Below Average
4= Bad
3= Very Bad
2= Horrible
1= Unplayable


2016 Games from Best to Worst


Pokémon Black = 9
Pokémon Moon = 9
Super Mario Galaxy 2 = 9
Yakuza: Dead Souls = 9
The Last Story = 8.5
Mario Kart 8 = 8.5
Megaman Zero 3 = 8.5
Resident Evil: Revelations = 8.5
Samurai Warrior’s Chronicles = 8.5
Zone of the Enders = 8.5
Bakugan: Battle Brawlers = 8
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia = 8
Dead Rising: Chop till You Drop = 8
De Blob = 8
Donkey Kong Country Returns = 8
Harvest Moon 3D: A tale of two towns = 8
Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 = 8
Lego Batman = 8
Mario Party 7 = 8
Megaman Zero 4 = 8
Song of the Deep = 8
Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice = 8
Star Fox Guard = 8
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune = 8
Megaman Zero = 7.5
Megaman Zero 2 = 7.5
Star Fox Zero = 7.5
Assassin’s Creed 4 Black Flag = 7
Finny the Fish & the Seven Waters = 7
Mario Power Tennis Wii = 7
Ape Escape: On the Loose = 6.5
Brunswick Pro Bowling = 6.5
Extermination = 6.5
Mario and Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games 3DS = 6.5
Mighty No. 9 = 6.5
Battleship = 6
Domino Rally = 6
I-Ninja = 6
Steel Diver = 6
Wii Play = 5.5
Amazing Island = 5
Guinness World Records the Video Game = 5
Ultimate Board Game Collection = 4.5
Jeep Thrills = 4
Loony Tunes: Acme Arsenal = 4
M&M’s Kart Racing = 3





Previous Years Games: 2015


Shovel Knight = 9.5
Valkyria Chronicles = 9.5
Batman Arkham Asylum GOTY = 9
Grand Theft Auto Five "PS4 Edition" = 9
Hyrule Warriors = 9
Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds = 9
New Super Mario Brothers Wii = 9
Sim City "SNES" = 9
Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War = 8.5
Fortune Street = 8.5
Mario Kart Wii = 8.5
Pokemon: Alpha Sapphire = 8.5
Bioshock Infinite = 8
Bioshock 2 = 8
Little Big Planet 2 = 8
NES Remix Pack = 8
Resident Evil "GC" = 8
X-Com: UFO Defense = 8
Bioshock = 7.5
Dynasty Warriors Gundam = 7.5
Grand Theft Auto Three = 7.5
Little Big Planet Karting = 7.5
Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal = 7.5
Devil Kings = 7
Little Big Planet GOTY = 7
Resident Evil Operation Raccoon city = 7
Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric = 7
Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier = 6.5
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 = 6.5
Wheel of Fortune = 6.5
Wordmaster = 6.5
Dynasty Warriors "PSP" = 6
Moon = 6
Carnival Games = 5.5
Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip = 5.5
Sudoku Mania = 4