Category Archives: 6 Star Games

Tom & Jerry in Infurnal Escape Review

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All right, it’s time for the 1st Game Boy Advance review in a very long time. I won this one over at a Super Smash Bros tournament at a Friendly’s restaurant. I can’t believe nobody wanted the prize earlier. As a major video game collector and a fan of the Tom & Jerry franchise, I knew that this was my big moment. It’s a fairly short game and tends to feel like a cash in for part of the adventure, but once you get going the adventure starts to get more fun. It’s just a shame that the game really leaves you in the dark to figure things out for yourself.

The plot is fairly dramatic as Tom finds himself in Hell. To escape, he’ll have to save some souls and defeat the King of Evil. This will be tricky, but Tom’s no stranger to facing overwhelming odds. Unfortunately, Jerry is also here to get in his way, but Tom will not falter until the day is saved. This title is fairly short at 6 levels and it can be completed in around an hour. That’s part of what hurts this game’s chances of getting a 7. I can’t imagine buying this game for its full retail price. There’s no replay value either as there are no collectibles to be found. There isn’t even a continue as it is all password based. I recommend taking a picture of the password or writing it down after each level just in case.

The difficulty tends to fluctuate quite a bit and typically it can only be difficult because enemies escape your punches at times. You only have 3 health points at a time and once they are gone you have 2 minutes to find some souls. If you can’t do that then you get the game over screen. Typically it shouldn’t come to that though since souls are very easy to find. The game can get a little annoying when you have been searching for a while only to not actually find anything. The level won’t end until you’ve found most of the objective. (Typically a prisoner or a Dog Bone) The problem is that you don’t know most of the controls at first. For example, I didn’t know that you could climb the flagpoles until about 20 minutes had passed and you can’t complete the early levels without doing that.

Tom & Jerry is your average 2D side scroller game. It is also part puzzle as you have to go back and forth as you press switches since previously inaccessible areas become open as you go on. The game won’t tell you this, but you can throw your baseball bat and you can climb various objects. Make sure you fight carefully since getting hit by an opponent is typically very dangerous. You can also light your stick on fire by holding the R button which is also necessary to complete some levels. I learned that one through trial and error as well. The gameplay’s nothing special, but it’s not bad either. It serves its purpose as a side scroller.

The graphics are fairly decent for the GBA. I was also impressed with the cutscenes as I was not expecting a whole lot of those here. The cutscenes are shown through illustrations which is always a good way to go about this for the GBA. They all look sharp as a result. In game, the character models are fairly solid as well. Unfortunately, there isn’t much of a soundtrack to speak of. There is really just one theme which keeps on repeating over and over again. It’s not a particularly catchy tune either so the game loses out in this area. The developers certainly could have put in some more effort and thrown in more tunes.

There is only one boss in this game, which you fight at the very end. He is extremely easy so you should have no trouble with him. You simply punch him twice to make the boss fall down and then you go for another punch. Rinse and repeat around 5-6 times. It’s a lot quicker than it sounds and the whole thing will likely just take you a handful of minutes. The final boss design is quite good as well and it makes sense that a dog would be the final foe to stand in Tom’s way.

The ending is not surprising, but still rather odd. Tom is given a choice as he can spend eternity with a cat friend that he is always chasing around or going back to his life of getting beaten up by Jerry. Tom oddly chooses the latter. I’m not sure what the rationale there was. Maybe deep down he simply wants to catch Jerry more than he wants to hang out with the other cat. Tom can be quite competitive so I suppose that this decision isn’t completely out of the question. Still odd though.

Overall, This is a game that I certainly didn’t expect to be playing, but I’m glad that I got the chance too. It may not be revolutionary or even all that good, but it’s a decent way to spend an hour. I can add it to my game collection and that’s bragging rights enough. It definitely could have been longer and that’s really the main complaint that I have with it. Along with the fact that the game doesn’t bother to mention most of the controls either. If you’re looking for a fun little side scrolling adventure, then this game is for you. That being said, you’re better off getting the legendary Super Mario World. Now That was a very fulfilling video game and it has a lot more replay value as well.

Overall 6/10

Young Justice Legacy Review

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It’s time to take a look at the Young Justice game that came out a while back. It was a decently big deal at the time since the show was basically over so this was the last chance for the franchise. It’s cool to see the classic characters once again, but I’m afraid that the game is a little disappointing. Mainly because just about any random superhero game can easily snag a 7, but this one makes it quite the struggle thanks to a large array of glitches that simply aren’t fun. It’s a shame since the game is a 7 no questions asked otherwise.

The plot is a little odd. So, The Light is after some stones or artifacts or some nature. They kidnap a scientist along the way and we free her. The Light is using these artifacts to try and resurrect something so the Young Justice members are called in to halt their ambitions. The Justice League would help, but they’re busy dealing with some other crisis. Ah well, the young heroes can handle this I suppose. Still, the plan just doesn’t seem like something that the Light would be after. The game hints at something grander the entire time, but nothing ever comes of it. Ultimately, you fight and defeat the giant monster and that’s about it. There still is a big moment here though as one of the team members dies towards the end. No worries, I won’t spoil who bites the big one here.

The gameplay is similar to Marvel’s Ultimate Alliance. It takes a overhead view as you attack wave upon wave of enemies. You can just spam the normal attack button and you’ll be able to win. This game is extremely easy in co-op mode and still decently easy with one player. You only die if all of your members die at once so you just have to hope that the A.I. isn’t too bad. Unfortunately, they fall into every trap that is laid out so they aren’t really dependable allies. They nearly cost me a trophy and they did cost me a few levels. That leads to a big complaint coming up. Still, the gameplay isn’t terrible. This overhead style just isn’t all that engaging though and it could have been handled better. Ultimate Alliance had better gameplay than Legacy.

Let’s talk about the glitches since that is what really hurt the game. There are glitches everywhere. Most of the cutscenes have no actual sound effects so they can be oddly quiet. The character models don’t move at times when they are talking and the actual gameplay is glitchy. There will be enemies that suddenly become intangible so you have to exit the level or you may fall through a wall. The amount of glitches that are in this game is crazy and it makes Sonic Boom look like the most well crafted game imaginable. For most games, even if they have a history of being glitchy, you may never notice. That’s not the case with Legacy and I can certainly assure you that having to go back and replay a level is not something that I tend to enjoy. Especially if it’s a long one and some of these levels can be a bit long since you have to defeat the enemies in many situations. I skipped all of the enemies that I could though which helped trim the length of the game quite a bit.

Legacy isn’t all that long, but it’s not extremely short either. That’s due in part to the fact that you’ll want to grind a little in the game so that the boss battles won’t be exceptionally long. I grinded quite a bit to grab some extra boosts to my armor and special attacks along the way. That helps for replay value I suppose and there are a lot of trophies to nab. They seem to be a little difficult and time consuming so I’m not planning on getting them all right now, but dedicated trophy hunters should still find them manageable. There are a lot of collectibles to consider as well so you can be kept busy here for a bit. Not for a long while, but a decent enough time I suppose.

Graphically, the game looks pretty bad as you would expect. I rarely find graphics to be all that bad, but this is definitely not a PS3 game. I wouldn’t be bashing the graphics if this was on the PS2 since it would be roughly par for the course there, but these graphics simply don’t look so good. They are decently blurry and while the character models look accurate, that’s about all that I can say for them. They’re not horrendous or indie level as this game still got a decent budget, but that’s partially why it is bad. For the budget that this game got, this level of graphics is pretty unacceptable.

The soundtrack is pretty bad even without the lack of sound. I appreciate the voice acting, but the soundtrack is really just not there. Good music can always bring a game to the next level so not having it is really not doing the game any favors. The deck was really stacked against Legacy from the get go with the glitches so adding on these other issues is really not helping all that much. Some of the level designs were also not so good either. For example, just about every level where a Justice League member would appear. The game would take advantage of stock footage and you would have to beat the same wave of enemies up to 5 times. Those levels got old fast since you had to wait for the JL member and you would just be beating enemies over and over until the level finally ended.

Overall, Young Justice Legacy is not that good. It is a decent enough way to spend an afternoon I guess, but there are better options. Still, this is one of the only ways for you to expand your knowledge on the Young Justice universe and the game is canon so hardcore fans will enjoy it. It is also one of the few games to have the Justice League in it which is pretty big in its own right. I just wish the gameplay was more fun since that is and always will be the most important factor in a game anyway. It could also be a little more helpful with showing you what you are supposed to do. The final boss took me a very long time to beat because I didn’t know that the only way to beat him was with a team attack. That’s due to the fact that I didn’t know what a team attack was. Apparently you have to activate your rage mode with all members at the same time in order to do it, but I just figured that out through trial and error at the very end. Now the boss is super easy as a result. (Also a glitch kept him pretty much frozen which helped out a lot) You should never need trial and error for a boss fight though. So, Legacy isn’t a bad game and it goes for a fairly low price so you probably won’t regret the buy, but I’d sooner recommend the Superman Returns game. Yes…..that game was actually more fun.

Overall 6/10

The Invincible Iron Man Review

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After all these years, I finally got the classic GBA Iron Man game! I’ve always wanted to get this since this would essentially complete my Marvel collection and side scrollers are a blast. That being said, the game is even shorter than I would have thought. I knew about the length about a day before I purchased it, but it was still surprising. The game is easily under an hour and you’ll beat it right away. There’s not a whole lot to do post game either, which makes for an interesting concept.

The plot is that one of Tony’s relatives has broken into Stark Industries and stolen all of his armors. Tony is a little puzzeled at how easy this all was, but he takes it in stride and breaks out one of his original armors. Will it be enough to take back his armors and take down the likes of Crimson Dynamo and the Blizzard? One thing’s for sure, this will not be easy!!

As I mentioned, the game is quite short. There are 8 levels plus two bosses. Each level can be beaten in a fairly short amount of time, but rushing through the game is discouraged to an extent. There are moments where you can cheese the levels by running and jumping a lot, but sometimes that will lead you to tun in a circle and just waste time. The enemies are surprisingly powerful as well. There are no power ups to be found in the game so your health bar is very small. A few good attacks are enough to knock you out so slow and steady is typically the key here. Do that and you should be fine.

The bosses are fairly simple. The final one is just tricky until you figure out his gimmick. Once you do, he becomes one of the easiest bosses of all time. Just hit him with the Uni beam, jump over him and do it again and again and again. He will not be able to do anything and you’ll have beaten the final boss. Blizzard was a little more tricky since his ice attacks are no joke, but as long as you stop his regeneration, you’ll be okay.

The gameplay is fairly similar to the Spider Man games, but you can keep on shooting indefinitely. It’ll remind you of Vectorman at some points. You can store up some energy by holding the B button or you can just keep on pressing it to shoot the little beams. Make sure to duck a lot since that will help you evade a lot of enemy fire. It won’t be enough to stop them all, but a lot of them at least. You’ll expend energy whenever you fire a blast so expect your energy to be at 0 most of the time.

You can double jump and then boost, which lets you cross a large distance in a very short amount of time. It’s handy and if you get two power ups, you can emit an energy wave that destroys everything on the screen. It’s handy, but you won’t get that power up until about halfway through the game. That’s still a good 20 minutes though so not bad.

I’d say that the graphics are pretty good. These are GBA graphics that survive the test of time. Iron Man’s design is quite good and most of the enemies look like fun Terminators. Everything is clear and you can easily follow the action. The cutscenes are essentially illustrations with a little movement so I’m guessing that this had more of a budget than you may have suspected at first. Unfortunately, that didn’t equal into a very large soundtrack. Typically, you can expect to hear the same tunes many times, although they are not bad by any means. They’re fairly inspiring and at the very least, work well with the gameplay. The sound effects can be a little loud at times, but that’s just how it goes.

Really, the game’s a blast, but it does bring up the age old issue of whether length is really a factor. This game’s an easy 7 no questions asked if it had a decent length, but only 8 levels and it being under an hour is a little iffy. I always have a section for replay value, but it’s basically empty in this game. You can get the 7 pieces of artwork if you want I suppose, but that’s literally it and at most it can buy you a few hours, but if you search each level carefully, it could be less. I got one of them, but the other ones are typically hidden in little nooks and crannies. Not really worth it for me, but sometimes I do have fun with this kind of thing. Even without any other game in the back burner though, I can’t picture myself going back for the art pieces.

Overall, Iron Man was fun, but it is one of the shortest games that I’ve ever played. There are a few titles that are shorter like Rudolph, but this game is scary short. I can’t imagine buying this at the full retail price when it first came out back in the day. I can only imagine that a lot of people were very disappointed with it. Considering that I got the game for a few dollars, it’s not all that bad. I actually get thrilled when a game is short since it helps with the backlog, but naturally, length does typically make a game better as long as the levels have a good amount of quality. Take classics like KH II, FF XIII, or even Sonic Adventure 2 Battle to an extent. I still recommend this game, but you may be better off getting the Iron Man PS3 game.

Overall 6/10

Pac Man Fever Review

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Nothing gets you hyped quite like a new Pac Man game right? That’s what I thought when I first bought this game, but after playing it once, I put it in the backlog with a lot of other games and I figured that I probably wouldn’t see it again for a very long time. Years later, I ended up taking it out once more to play it with my brother and my cousin as a party game always has the potential to be a blast. It’s much better with multiple people, I can tell you that for sure. That being said, this is still a game that needs a lot of work and should have been much better, but terrible decisions on the developer’s part limited the title.

There’s no actual story mode, but that’s all right. I wasn’t expecting one. You can go into the main Party Mode or have fun in Minigame Mode. That’s the only thing to do here so the game is going for quality over quantity. Party Mode has 4 worlds I believe and each world has its own set of minigames inside of it. The actual stage has long loading times though and each turn takes forever. This is one of my big complaints and it’s a little sudden, but let’s dive into this issue right now.

The main drawback that keeps this game from being very good is the fact that playing a single board will take a very long time. After each turn, each character will do a little dance, strike a pose, and then slowly walk up to the final area of where to go. Rinse and Repeat for all 4 characters, play the minigame at the end of the level…and then do it all over again. This is why I was bored out of my mind when I played the game on my own the first time. If you aren’t playing with anyone else, it’s a very boring experience.

I’m not saying that the actual minigames are bad though. I actually enjoyed them and the ideas were quite good. There were kart minigames and even some classic “Press A as fast as you can” ones in there. Minigames about timing and memorization…just a lot of options. There are a very good amount of minigames in the title even if you will inevitably playing them more than once. It’s why I don’t think it was a good idea to limit the minigames to each world. Combining them all into one world would give you more variety. Still, I did enjoy them and the minigames help save this game from being downright bad.

It does bring up another issue though, which is that the minigames aren’t available for free roam mode. In Mario Party, once you play the minigame once, you unlock it. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works in this one. You have to use lottery points that you earn during the stage and that will typically come at the expense of actually winning the level, which is always disappointing. As a result, you’ll have enough coupons to maybe…maybe buy one minigame at the end of the level. So, you need to spend about an hour or 2 per minigame and there are quite a lot to unlock. It’s just not an efficient system and it takes forever to make any actual progress in the game. That’s not even counting the fact that each player’s coupon section is separate instead of merging the coupons from all players. It’s just terrible honestly and as a result, you’ll never want to play Minigame Mode since there are no good minigames to play. Better stick to Party Mode then.

The actual Party Mode is very much like Candyland or Trouble. You move along the course and the goal is to get to the end. You play a minigame and your rank in that battle determines how far you move. 5, 3, 2, or 1 step forward. Once you are near the end, you will need to come in 3rd, 2nd, and then 1st to finally win, which is actually a very good mechanic to even things up. This prevents a player from simply walking up to the goal line thanks to a few lucky rolls of the dice. It is sad to win a bunch of minigames only to find out that it still isn’t enough because you’re landing on bad spaces. It’s just not right!! I highly recommend playing the short version of each board to give yourself a nice estimate of how long the full version would take. Trust me, it does take a considerable amount of time so keep that in perspective.

I like the graphics to an extent, but I have to admit that they seem to be a little bad on a technical level. Everyone is very small, compact, and practically chibi. It’s very intriguing to see and it can be amusing, but the Gamecube can do better. The graphics are very dark and don’t seem to be very inspired. It’s possible that my Gamecube’s lighting is just starting to fade, but games like Sonic Adventure 2 Battle and Mario Sunshine still look great so it may have to do more with the fact that nobody can stop Nintendo’s powerful graphics. These were good times!

As for the soundtrack, that part of the game was pretty decent. There’s a nice Pac Man remix and a few other tunes scattered throughout the game. Unfortunately, the main theme that plays during your walk through the board is very boring and doesn’t make you excited for the games. It’s essentially just elevator music and I expect more from my Namco games. It had such possibilities, but couldn’t live up to the potential.

Unfortunately, there just isn’t a lot of replay value here. The actual games take way too long and you can’t even have fun just playing the minigames on your own because they are just too expensive. Buying them is simply not worth putting the time into the games so the only form of replay value here is to grab a few buddies and have a quick game. As a group, it’s decently fun and that’s the only reason that it barely manages to pass a 5, but if you’re on your own, the game turns into a 4. It’s a shame that the game missed these opportunities since there’s no reason it should have even gotten under a 7. This was no cash in party game in terms of how the minigames went on. They all had heart and it felt like the developers put some effort into them. This was just nullified by the bad system of unlocking minigames.

Overall, Pac Man Fever is no Pac Man. I gained some respect for the game after playing it as a group, but that’s still not a good sign for any video game. You can buy it for a terrific price so that at least helps you to get your money’s worth, but there are better party games to get. Buy one of the older Mario Party titles and experience a true party game. Mario Party was and likely will always be the greatest party game on the block. (Smash Bros doesn’t count!) Everything that Pac Man Fever can do, Mario Party can do better. So despite the positive score, I don’t recommend picking up Pac Man Fever as long as better options exist on the market.

Overall 6/10

M&M’s Break ‘Em Review

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Red and Yellow MnM’s debuted in 1954. I felt like throwing that out there to start the review as it’s a fun fact in the game. The characters have been around longer than I would have guessed and that’s definitely pretty neat. It shows that the game will always have a history behind it. Unfortunately, this was not a very good game at all. I started to get a feel for the gameplay at the end, but it really could and should have been much better than the final product that we were given.

There is a loose plot so that’s neat. The MnM’s seem to be starship captains or something and they’re ordered to stop this mean peanut looking villain from destroying or conquering the world. To do this, they will have to travel across many different lands and defeat all kinds of strange and powerful creatures. They definitely aren’t scared of a mission like this and head off into the bold unknown to conquer it all. While there is a story, we only get an opening cutscene at the start of the game and one at the very end. It’s the bare minimum, but I’ll take what I can get here.

The gameplay is similar to Tetris except that you are the block. To eliminate other blocks, you just bump into them. Most of the blocks are color coordinated so you need to find a pipe to turn you into that color and then destroy them. Bumping all of the colored blocks will open the gate that leads to the end of the level. If you take too long, a gray skull will chase you and a single hit will mean your death. It’s like an old Mario game, but without the mushrooms. You should be prepared for complete obliteration from any contact with an enemy.

There is no way to stop as you will bounce forever. Your only good options for escaping are simply bouncing away or altering your speed. L is to slow down and R is to speed up. These techniques are crucial to completing the game so I would advise you to practice using them as soon as possible. There are also a lot of treasure chests so you can gain extra points. Every 8000 or so points will award you a new life. That’s a good thing because you don’t get any new lives otherwise. This can make some levels very hard if you happened to waste a life during the early parts of the game.

Some of the bosses are very tough to beat with a single life as you have to completely anticipate where they will move. All of the bosses have the same gameplay, their movements just differ from each other. Unlike you, they aren’t bouncing, but just fly across the screen. You have to hit their glowing weak point around 5 times and you can let them touch you while in motion. It’s fairly simple, but I still had to play one boss battle about 50 times before I finally nailed him.

One trick that I would recommend is just turning the game off if you lose a life to a boss and don’t win the fight. That way you’ll keep the life. It’s worth keeping the game on if you lose a life, but beat the boss though as you can just keep on losing levels until you earn another life through the points. I’m glad about the point system as the game could have been verrrry tedious otherwise. In a way, the no life system was just an artificial way of making the game seem longer than it is.

The length isn’t bad though as there are around 7-8 worlds and each one has 3-4 levels, which have 3-5 levels within them. This will certainly last you for a few hours, which will justify the low cost of the game. That being said, there is absolutely no replay value to be found here. Once you beat the game, your progress in the story is deleted and you get to start from scratch. I suppose that you can just play the levels again, but I don’t even count that as story mode as it is just old content with no real multiplayer features.

As for the soundtrack, it’s pretty forgettable. I wouldn’t call it a bad soundtrack, but having one or two good pieces would have gone a long way for the game. I remember the boss themes being fairly decent, but you could tell that no real thought went into it and you could easily find better music themes in every Nintendo game. Pick a random Nintendo theme from any of their games and it will probably be more memorable than this whole soundtrack. That is Nintendo though so it’s to be expected.

The graphics are decent I suppose. The Nintendo DS has never been great in that department as the sprites and character designs usually look a little stretched. That is naturally the case here as well, but it would be hard to avoid. As long as you can easily identify everything, then I’d say that the graphics are a success so I’ll give it props there. It won’t be earning the game any points, but it won’t hurt the title either.

Overall, I got this game for around 2-4 dollars so I would say that it was completely worth the purchase. I’d probably be upset if I had gotten it for something like 20 though so I’m glad that didn’t happen. I was thinking of giving the game a 4 when I first started it, but then I played the game more and as I mentioned earlier, it grew on me. I had to play some levels dozens of times and yet I kept on going. It’s the kind of game where you don’t mind losing a whole lot. Like Flappy Bird in a sense. The losses don’t really frustrate you after a while and you just want to keep on challenging the level until you win. It’s one of the reasons why the Mario games do so well. It helps that the levels are decently short, I believe that the timer is set to a minute or two, so that’s how long each level would likely be. I may be lowballing that though as it’s just an estimate. 3-4 minutes could be a tad more accurate. If you see this game in stores, I’d recommend checking it out. At the current low price, it’s worth the purchase. This isn’t a great game and it’s not even as good as the standard title (7) but if you want to use up some hours on a decently short game, this one is as good as any. At the very least, you will actually find it to be decently challenging even if some of the bosses are a little fake. (Not showing any color so it’s literally impossible to injure them) Some nice irony is that the final boss is weaker than the rest of the villains in this game. I only have a few more MnM games to go and then I’ll be completely caught up!

Overall 6/10

Club Penguin Game Day Review

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It’s time to take a look at one of the new WIi games that I got to play. This game was a steal over at Gamestop since it was only a little over a dollar. How can you beat that right? The short answer is…you can’t! This title is very short as you would expect and I’m not even very familiar with the Club Penguin franchise, but it’s easy to enjoy the game anyway. It’s really short so I likely would have been sad buying it for 20, but it’ll give you some fun.

There is a light plot as you decide which group of penguins you want to hang out with. I went with the red team of course since I always go with the red group. Red is such a cool color right? You are tasked with conquering the island by taking over the bases of the other teams. There are a few areas and each one has 4 minigames so the game is fairly short, but still long enough that it doesn’t feel as rushed as your average 1-2 dollar game. The minigames are also quite fun for the most part. I’ll list a few of them (The ones that I remember) to show you just how fun they were.

One of the minigames rips off the Mario Party series as everyone is on top of a ball and you have to knock the other Penguins off of the arena to score a point. Keep on doing so and you will win! This was probably my favorite minigame. It’s a lot of fun and the game has heart. Another fun minigame was the sledding one. You get into a canoe and you have to make it to the goal line as quickly as possible. It’s rather self explanatory.

One minigame that I wasn’t a huge fan of was the sack race. You have to wave the Wii remote around a lot, which does a number on the wrists. I do like races though so there’s always that. We get a snowball fight towards the end of the game, which is fun since it’s like playing a third person version of Call of Duty. It takes a lot of skills and gets quite competitive by the end. There’s also a level for rolling a snowball and you have to grab as much snow as possible to win the match.

There are around 12 minigames and you can see how they are higher quality than the average Wii party game. My only complaint might be that some of them can be a bit long, but they’re still quite fun on the whole. If you don’t have a Mario Party game to play, I could definitely see you deciding to play this title from time to time. There is some replay value as you can beat Story Mode with all 4 colors for maximum personal satisfaction. The game’s short enough that this won’t really feel like an obstacle for you. Sounds like a plan right?

Between the minigames, there is a little free roam through the various areas. With a little more of a budget, I could see some big things happening here. We could have had rival encounters with other Penguins and some bonus minigames with high stakes! As it is, any dialogue is fairly rare and the only real cutscene is the final one of the game as the other Penguins are forced to acknowledge how awesome you are for winning the gold trophies. It was probably the proudest moment of the main character’s life and he’s just getting started with the wins.

The soundtrack is ultra generic and you’ll forget all about it as soon as you turn the console off. That sounds a little sad, but no worries, it beats having bad music right? If you strain yourself, you may remember the main theme of the game as it’s a little catchy. The graphics are decently good. They’re not as bad as they could be, but they’re not exactly at Mario Galaxy levels. They serve their purpose and the game is always nice to look at.

I’m already starting to run out of things to say about this title. There really isn’t much to discuss past the gameplay and the replay value here. The game is 4 players so you can have a blast playing it with friends. I’m not sure how long it can last as entertainment, but hopefully long enough to make you feel like you got your money’s worth. I know that I got mine even though I may only play this game one more time in my immediate future.

Overall, Club Penguin Game Day is another good find in the 5 dollar bargain bin over at Gamestop. With Wii games soon to be discontinued, I had to make my move fast before things could get out of hand. The graphics and soundtrack are decently good and the minigame selection was actually a lot better than I could have expected. It’s hard to recommend buying this game with a straight face since it’s really short and you could just buy Mario Party for the superior experience. That being said, it’s not a bad game by any means and you can buy this instead of a slice of pizza the next time that you find yourself needing some entertainment on a rainy Friday night. This game will not disappoint you there and you will realize the wonders of the Club Penguin world!

Overall 6/10

Wario Land 4 Review

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This is the first Wario side scroller that I’ve played so far so it was definitely interesting to see how it would stack up against the average Mario or Yoshi title. I can definitely say that it’s not quite as impressive as those, but it’s good to see Nintendo taking a fairly original stance here. This title brings some more strategy into the typical side scrolling genre. It’s more of a miss than a hit, but fun nonetheless.

There isn’t much of a plot since Wario is just out for treasure as per usual. He wanders into a Pyramid and it has many labyrinths full of treasure and danger. Beyond all of the tombs is the legendary Pyramid of Gold. Wario will have to find all of the locks and jewels so that he can gain entry into this wondrous place. Can he handle all of the guardians who stand in his way? There is also a cat that seems to be guiding him somewhere the whole time….hmmmm.

The soundtrack is noticably different from the average Nintendo game. It fits Wario’s character I suppose….but I have to admit that I’m not a huge fan of it. The music during the gameplay is not bad, but every level has a timer effect on it (Which I shall talk about in a second) so it drowns out the music for at least half of the level. What we do hear is good though. The cutscenes have odd songs in them though with lyrics that aren’t really pleasing to the ear. I think the game dropped the ball in this area.

The gameplay is pretty smooth. You can move and jump like in Mario and a lot of emphasis is placed on grabbing objects and throwing them with your super strength. One of the new features in this game is a shoulder throw which can let you break through blocks and other objects. Wario can also run fast enough to shatter walls that cannot be broken with a dash. The key difference in this game is that your goal is not to get to the end of the level. It’s actually to find 4 gems and a key that are hidden inside of it and then making it back to the starting point before the level’s timer runs out. There are secret passages to watch out for and you have to really be observant so that you remember where to go. Each level also has a puzzle area where you have to figure out where to go and all the things to do. You can only second guess yourself once after all.

Graphically speaking Wario Land 4 isn’t very impressive, but what Game Boy Advance games were? They were fun portable games to play and we didn’t really care about the graphics back then. They were simply sprites and those can look good or bad depending on how they are used. I don’t think that they look quite as good as your average Mario GBA title, but they’re still not downright bad. On the contrary, the blurriness actually works well for some of the spookier bosses.

Which, I do have to note that some of the boss designs were quite clever. We had a giant Teddy Bear and there’s even a mysterious being who has many faces. It’s pretty intense and it’s a fun way to wrap up the game since it has the abilities of all the previous bosses. I think some games could take notes on this since this is a very good formula to use for the final boss. It makes you think back to all of the old fights to remember how you should go about fighting this thing. One section involving a hammer took me a while since I forgot how to hit myself.

The game doesn’t really have any big negatives, but there is naturally a reason why I am only giving it a 6 and not a 7. Most side scrollers automatically get 7 stars so something did hold it back a little. The puzzle route of going through levels may be unique, but I don’t think that it worked out so well. Maybe if this just occurred for some of the levels, but it’s in all of them and sometimes you just want to jump your way to the goal. One of the reasons why Mario is a series that will always be considered elite is that the levels are always fun. Whether you keep losing on an insane long jump or breeze through a world 8 stage in under a minute, you will have fun. The game never feels unfair or intellectually challenging to the point where you’ll need to go watch a Transformers film to feel relaxed again. This game just wasn’t as fun as your average Mario game and that’s because the puzzles made it feel more slow paced than it should have been. I still can’t call them bad per say…the gimmick really wasn’t bad. The game just works better as a fast paced, race to the finish kind of game.

The game’s length is pretty decent. There are roughly 20 levels in all and each one can take 5-10 minutes. For replay value, you can try to get all of the jewels and swirlies along with the maximum number of treasure chests by beating each boss as quickly as possible. This will also allow you to get a longer ending so that’s a decent incentive right? I’m definitely satisfied with the length of this title and it’s worth the big bucks. (Although I got it at a relatively cheap price anyway)

I’ve now played around 3 Wario games and I’ll improve that soon with Wario Land Shake It or Wario World. His series definitely loses out to Mario, Luigi, DK, and Yoshi, but that can always change with one really great game. I haven’t played Super Princess Peach yet so I really can’t comment on that one. The gameplay also seems slightly different from the norm so it’ll be interesting to see how Nintendo switches it up. It’s a little regrettable that none of the Wario supporting characters have ever managed to be popular, but maybe they will someday. The Final boss from this game should seriously appear again because it was just that awesome!

Overall, Wario Land 4 is a pretty fun title. It’s interesting to see Wario play the lead character for once. The ending was a little much, but I can at least admit that I didn’t see it coming. Stay tuned for the after credits scene as well to see what Wario spends his riches on. It certainly fits his character and you have to wonder when he will go on his next treasure trip. I can safely say that I will be buying Wario Land Shake It at some point, but I also wouldn’t expect to see a review for it this year. Bottom line is that I recommend Wario Land 4 is you like side scrollers or if you want to see some strategy in a game. It can be a little slow paced, but it’s ultimately still a pretty fun game. The portable video game marathon continues next with another strategic game!

Overall 6/10

M&M’s Kart Racing Review

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I’ll admit that this was a title that I have been wanting to buy for some time now. Who here didn’t grow up with the famous M&M candies? They were and still are awesome. I feel like having a bag of them right now. They’re just sooo good. Well, that was one of the reasons why I wanted this game, but I also noticed that the reviews for it were rather negative. I like games that tend to get poor scores (especially on the Wii) and I like the M&M’s so throwing in the racing genre was an added bonus. It was about as good as I had expected although it should have been 4 players.

There’s not really a plot in this game so you’ll probably just jump into the tournament mode. There is only one tournament, but it is over 10 races long so it should last you a good 30-40 minutes. The first stages were pretty dicey, but the backgrounds get more interesting during the later levels. You actually get to go to space as well as a chocolate mountain. That sounds pretty fun right? Most of the levels are around 2-5 minutes so they shouldn’t take you very long to complete. One of the levels was especially funny since it’s basically just a generic circle as you follow the road and there’s no danger of bumping into anything. You can just coast along and chuckle at your brilliance.

There’s not much to say about the gameplay. You accelerate with one of the buttons and then you head for the goal. There is only one item in this game and it takes the form of a cup of tea. (It looks like tea anyway) If you run over it, your character will get a slight boost in speed, but your kart will also start shaking a lot so it’s a gamble. It’s great on the easy stages without many turns, but it’s typically not worth it on the earlier levels.

I liked the final 5 stages much more than the first 5 ones. The main reason is that the camera is pretty bad and you won’t be able to see where you’re going until it’s too late. I crashed quite a few times on those levels, but I still managed to squeak out a first place finish every time….except for one level. It was a boat level and I got stuck for so long that I was firmly in last. I quickly redid the level and nailed it, but it’s nice to know that the computers do have a little fight in them. My recommendation to beat the camera is to put on the brakes a lot and keep your foot off the gas when you see any kind of turn approaching.

Don’t worry folks, this isn’t the next Casper! Once you beat the Tournament there is still one thing to do. You have to keep on racing the levels over and over again until you get enough coins to get every kart with every character. It shouldn’t take too long since 30 races will be enough to get enough coins for one character so you just need to enter the tournament like 20 times. Of course, that’s the long way. The best way is to just find the level with the most coins and keep on playing it until you have them all. I’ll probably attempt this someday……if video games stop coming out. I have too much on my plate to worry about this at the moment so it’s going to have to take a back seat.. (Smash Bros on the 21st, DBZ early next year, Big Naruto game late next year…etc)

I got enough coins to unlock one or two cars for the blue (or yellow) M&M and that’s good enough for me at the moment. You can tell that the game was made rather quickly due to the lack of replay value. There really isn’t anything else to do in single player mode and that’s where the multiplayer mode comes in. This is the kind of game that will only have a lot of replay value if you have someone to play it with. The gameplay definitely pales in comparison to the other racing titles, but it’s not that bad when you’re actually playing it. It’s actually fun and you just don’t want to play it in super large batches. As long as you keep this in mind…you’re set! Of course, one flaw in the multiplayer mode is the fact that it only goes up to 2 players. In this day and age, that’s a little unacceptable. It’s the kind of game that would be perfect for 4 players so I don’t see why they didn’t do that. It would be hard to see where you’re going, but that’s already the case in single player mode.

The graphics are definitely not that good. They are better than some of the other Wii games from the bottom of the barrel, but they’re definitely not the next Mario Galaxy. I would actually compare the graphics to some of the older DS games like Alex Rider. While you are going through the course, it’s usually still loading. So, you’ll see parts of the wall not be there in one moment and then they’ll suddenly appear. You’re simply going too fast for the actual game to keep up so the animations are a step behind. It’s a pretty bad sign to be honest, but it’s mostly just hilarious. I imagine that there are a ton of glitches here just waiting to be found.

There’s not really much of a soundtrack here. I seriously don’t recall any specific themes during the races. Maybe I was too excited to notice them, but I’m assuming that they were just unmemorable. I quickly turned on the game as I was writing this review so at least get the theme song (And my stats post) ready to go and it’s not bad. It’s just ultimately generic so you will forget it instantly. I should also mention that the loading times can be rather long so you should hope that you don’t dislike the music since you will be listening to it a whole lot. There is no opening or ending cinematic in the game for beating the tournament so there’s no chance for music at those points.

Finally, you can rest assured that this game does provide each character with a few taunts. Feel free to use them while racing since it won’t slow you down and the voice acting may cause your opponent to crash into a wall while they try to cover their ears. The M&M’s are very sure of themselves and you should hear how confidently they insult the others. The character designs did make me pick the blue (or yellow) one by default since they all looked pretty bad, but at least they mean business. It should be noted that while you are driving at over 200mph, the gameplay speed is very slow. You’re basically going through the stage as if you were on a real toy cart. Since some of the stages are only about 2 minutes, this means that the scenery is pretty limited. (30-40 seconds per lap after all) So, that can be interesting, but maybe it just makes the game more strategic.

Overall, M&M’s Kart Racing won’t last for very long, but it’s not an unpleasant experience. I may not actually play it again until around Christmas, (If at all) but I knew what I was getting when I bought it. It was a little over the usual 5 dollars that I’m willing to shell out for a game, but I knew that it was worth it. If you are going to use the multiplayer option then feel free to add an extra number to the score and if you’re by yourself, then you may want to keep it as you see it. I had a tough time deciding whether this game deserved a 5 or a 6, but I went with the latter in the end. After all, the game is still entertaining and there is a little replay value thanks to the coin collecting. I would sooner recommend Mario Kart 8 or F Zero GX, but this is a fun title if you’re looking for a Wii Racing game that you can get for a few bucks. How can you go wrong with eatable main characters? Also, don’t fall for the hype! There are 15 levels, not 10. Everyone reports it as 10 and it’s the most false advertising that I’ve seen in a while. It’s good for the game not to spoil the secret levels, but everyone else should catch on. We don’t want to underscore the game now do we?

Overall 6/10

Backyard Football 2009 Review

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I really wanted a quick Football game to play on the go and if Smash Bros can pull it off…why not right? I needed that experience so I ran to Gamestop and made the intriguing decision to buy this for the DS instead of Madden 2009. Madden is probably the better game, but it was also 3X the price….I made the right move. It’s a simple and easy Football game, but it’s still pretty fun and you won’t get bored of it for a while.

There aren’t a whole lot of modes to choose from. We have multiplayer, quick “Play Now” games and the Season Mode. I ran for the Season Mode and that’s where I spent about 90% of my time. I set the difficulty to Hard (Although it seems like it still went back to Normal for some reason) and turned off powers. It was pretty fun and I was undefeated as I crushed the opposition with really lopsided scores. The season ends once you complete it and there’s no continuing on to the next year as with the Madden titles. Instead, you’re free to just give it a whirl again with another team.

After I finished Season Mode, I went back to the quick matches and decided to play a Hard battle with items on. The games are insanely easy with items since you can literally steamroll right through the defenders or cause them to fumble whenever they make contact with you. Items are interesting, but I prefer sport and car games that don’t have them. It’s just more fun without the gimmicks.

Ultimately, the A.I. isn’t very good. Even on Hard Mode, you’ll be able to crush the CPU with relative ease. They cannot stop the run and throwing the ball will almost always work. You do have to watch out for the occasional interception, but they aren’t much of a factor here. This is the kind of game where you’ll need multiplayer since the CPU doesn’t provide you with a threat. Defeating them over and over again will eventually start to bore you. Towards the end, I just started rushing the games so I could finish. It was fairly easy since you can just run rings around the stadium to take out an entire quarter or more with a single play.

The graphics are decent. As far as DS games go, they’re not downright bad, but I’ve never found the DS to be very impressive in this regard. We have the 3DS if we want true portable graphics. Everyone is in chibi mode though so it’s hard to tell how much is intentional or not. It’s cool to see everyone as kids and the graphics won’t distract from the gameplay so I give them a pass there.

I didn’t really discuss the gameplay. I’ll let you look at the NFL rules on your own. The main thing to note is that you can only dash for short periods of time and pressing Y/X while near the ball will usually result in an interception. A more efficient method is to just rush the quarterback and get some sacks. Once you get a sack, it’s easier to get more since the CPU will keep on trying for some deep balls. The offense is fairly simple to handle since you just run on handoffs and press the button over your intended receiver to throw it. It’s simplicity itself and this is more like how the old Madden games would play. They were still more in depth, but they were easy to pick up. I’ve been buying each Madden as they come out so I have fun with the new upgrades, but this came around the peak of Madden. (Slightly after though since 2004 is where it’s at.)

The soundtrack isn’t anything special and you’ll probably start to tune it out by the 4th game. It’s just very uninspired and you want something a little more fast paced for a Football game. These themes just don’t get you very excited and you want to be thrilled about facing off against new teams. I think there might only be one theme in the game, but there must be more so I’m just going to assume that they all sounded the same to me.

There are a few made up teams in this game as well as some made up players. Each of the real teams basically get one player to represent them and then you put them together for your dream team. Since each of the players have reverted back to their kid years, it’s like putting together a team on the sandlot. A trust system is in place, which means that there are no penalties to slow you down. Just get ready for some fun Football action!

Overall, Backyard Football 2009 is a pretty good game to get. As far as Football games go, just about any other title is superior, but it’s fun to have on the mobile. The gameplay is more like the classic arcade games than the current sport titles and it may remind you of the Techmo Bowl. (I may get that one someday) For a little under 5 dollars, you can’t go wrong with this title. If you play the whole season, it should last you around 5-8 hours. If you’re willing to shell out 15, then I guess I would sooner recommend Madden 2009 for the DS. This is a good title, but it’s a little lacking in content and it just gets beaten by the other titles. The big edge that this game has is that all of the players are kids of course. You can’t go wrong there.

Overall 6/10

King of Fighters Ex: Neo Blood Review

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The King of Fighters series has never been quite as popular as Street Fighter. It got pushed over to the obscure arcade brawling side along with Virtua Fighter. There are definitely many fans of this series, but it just doesn’t get a lot of publicity anymore. At least the PS3 game is typically in stores. (And I will get to that era someday) I’ve owned the sequel to this game for a long time to I always knew that I’d buy the sequel someday. What I couldn’t have expected…was that I’d be playing over 400 rounds in this game!

Yes, I played over 400 rounds in this title. Shocking isn’t it? Well, there are over 20 characters and you have the typical Arcade Mode for each of them. The matches consist of a best of 5 rounds set so you’re guaranteed to be playing at least 3 rounds for every match. There are 8 battles per character so then you just do the math. 8*3*22= Over 400 Matches. The only problem with the Arcade Mode is the fact that it’s not very well done. There usually isn’t a whole lot of effort plugged into it, but you still expect some kind of opening and ending. There are no openings, but each character does get an ending. The problem is that most of the cutscenes are identical for each character. The dialogue is slightly reworded and it doesn’t even make sense half of the time. The writing can be so bad that it’s funny.

Of course, you begin to tire of the gameplay after the first 200 matches or so. I would actually say that it’s a decently good feat that I was able to complete the 400 rounds without feeling too exhausted. So, I have to give the game some props for that. Unfortunately, Arcade Mode is really the only thing to do in the game. This was in the era before Wi-Fi so I can’t say that I expected a real multiplayer option. Connecting two Game Boys together as a last resort was fun back in the day, but I need Wi-Fi!

The actual gameplay barely needs to be explained, but I’ll quickly reference it anyway. You essentially press your buttons as fast as you can to try and attack the opponent. There are likely combos and other tricks that you can try, but button mashing is enough to win. It’s like Street Fighter, but the gameplay isn’t quite as deep yet. This is a GBA game so it definitely had its limits at the time. The actual gameplay can still be fun for a while, but it’s not a real page turner like Smash Bros.

The soundtrack is pretty good for the game. The themes are pretty catchy although you may find yourself putting the game on silent to tune out the sound effects. The characters yell for every action and that can definitely get old pretty quickly. The graphics are decent. The game uses sprites and the actions flow together pretty smoothly. The sprites could definitely look a lot cleaner, but they do have to be compressed into a pretty small screen. The graphics definitely aren’t bad considering that this is a GBA game. The Battle Network titles definitely show this one up though.

I bought this game for a penny and then I gladly paid the 4 dollar shipping. For this price, it’d be a shame not to play one of the big fighting titles! This won’t make the series begin to compete with the others like Street Fighter and Tekken, but it’s a start. I remember Terry from the olden days of Capcom vs SNK. Terry is my official gamer name across all of my titles so it’s definitely good to see a fighter with the name. I can assure you that he is one of my go to fighters in the game. Assuming that I ever play it again of course.

The problem is that there is no replay value. Beating Arcade Mode 2-3 times will likely be enough for most people. After that, there is only so much that you can do with the game. The rest of the modes are more of the same. There is a team option, but it will just mean that each battle will be a whole lot longer. You can always increase the difficulty to test your limits and to see what the game has in store for you, but that will only buy you a little time at best.

Overall, This was a decent fighting game. It’s basically what I expected, although the score is slightly lower than I had envisioned. The one thing that didn’t come through for me was the Arcade Mode. I expected better endings to be honest and a more diverse experience. Having the same thing happen over and over again can get pretty tedious. The roster of characters is pretty large, which is always great and their attack methods are diverse. I recommend this game to the truly hardcore fighting fans who want to see how the mechanics will work on the Game Boy. The game is going for a pretty cheap price right now so it’s really a steal. I recommend going for it, but if you want more of a lasting experience..get Ultra Street Fighter IV!

Overall 6/10