This is a video game that I had never heard of until I bought it. I’ve owned it for a few years without really getting to play it. I may have popped it in once or twice over the years, but it always got pulled to the side by other games that needed attention. Thanks to the wonders of Trophy hunting; I got to fully experience this game. It’s pretty fun and a great way to get into soccer!

I do own a few FIFA games, but I’ve only played them sparingly. It’s the fate that most of my sport games experience over the years. It’s going to be tough for the other soccer games to match this one. I’ve played both games in the Mario Strikers series and that always made me want to play other soccer games, but without gimmicks. This game does have a “super” attack which makes things interesting…

I’m not 100% against super attacks, but I typically prefer my sports to be realistic. In Pure Futbol, you can use Pure shots, which have a much greater chance of getting to the net than a regular shot. They don’t disrupt the game that much since you will have trouble blocking any of the attacks. It does take skill to get the shot in the pure section so the special ability isn’t as overpowered as others that you might see in other games.

There is a campaign to play and it’s surprisingly short. There are only 29 days so you really have to make them count. Each day, you can enter a tournament or just take on a team for fun. The battles aren’t very long so the game doesn’t drag on as much as Virtua Tennis. (I loved the Virtua Tennis games, but I’m only a little over halfway through the game and I’ve already put in so many hours…) Going for tournaments is always the best way to go since you can earn a lot of extra points, but you may want to focus on single battles so that you can beat the game quickly. I mixed and matched between tournaments and single battles; ending up with a 4 star ranked character. That’s definitely good enough for me! (My team was incredible by the end!)

While playing other teams in the campaign; you are given a chance to steal away their players. If you fulfill certain challenges during the game, then you get the player assigned to that challenge. For example, “Score a goal” could be one of the challenges. I managed to snag away quite a few players during my initial playthrough. It’s definitely fun to assemble a team of true elites!

The graphics aren’t bad for this game. They’re really what I would expect from a sports game. Aside from Madden; (Which seems to take pride in its graphics) most sports games are pretty underwhelming or average. I wouldn’t call the graphics bad per say, but I will admit that I’ve seen older games look much better than this one. Graphics are pretty unimportant in a video game unless you’re expecting it to look pretty great like Final Fantasy. If you’re the type of person that wants good graphics while playing soccer, you may want to skip this installment.

For Platinum seekers, it should be noted that the online servers are not operational anymore. You can still upload your character at the end of the campaign to get the quick trophy, but you can’t face people in online duels anymore. That’s too bad since I’m always up for an online brawl, but I suppose that there is always next time. Getting the Platinum is impossible and the trophies can be difficult or just very long. I got some trophies, but I’m not even at 50% so I can sympathize with how tough it can be. I may go back to get some more trophies someday, but it’s not currently a high priority.

Aside from the Pure Shots angle, this is probably the most complete soccer game that I’ve played. The penalty system is pretty good and the game doesn’t have to stop every other minute for a foul. If you commit too many fouls, then the other team is awarded a free kick. This doesn’t really disrupt the momentum and it keeps you on your toes. There are ways to tackle without hitting the player and you’ll want to master it. If you don’t want to take the risk; then you have the option of a step-in tackle, which has no chance of a penalty. It’s not as long range, but it’s very effective.

The soundtrack for the main menu is pretty good, but you may not remember the rest of the tunes as you finish the game. It’s definitely better than the selection in the Madden games. (Quantity loses to quality this time) I doubt that the soundtrack would really have any influence on your decision to buy this game or not, but it’s always an important feature to be mentioned.

That’s Pure Futbol in a nutshell folks. I highly recommend this title if you enjoy sports titles. As I mentioned earlier, I have not properly played the FIFA games (Yet!) but this is currently my favorite realistic soccer game. It’s not too easy and it’s not too hard. Passing the ball may be discouraged because of constant interceptions, but it also teaches you how to be careful when playing the game. While this game may not have online capabilities anymore; we’ve still got a fun local multiplayer setup as well as the campaign. There’s enough content available to keep you playing the game for a long time. Replay value is definitely not something that this game lacks. If you dislike soccer games, then you may want to invest your money into the M&M Racing game instead. (It’s on my wish list) Now, I definitely want to go and give Fifa a try. I’ll make sure to get my hands on one of the newer games at some point.

Overall 7/10

Aw yeah, it’s Iron Man time! I enjoyed the first game on the DS and the gameplay was pretty unique. This is one of the bigger Marvel movie tie ins and also one of the final ones since they don’t seem to make them anymore. It’s a pretty fun game and while I can’t say that it was great, it was pretty good considering that this game probably didn’t get a huge budget.

The plot is pretty different from the movie and I can’t really say that it was very memorable. You get to fight big names like the Crimson Dynamo and Ultimo while helping SHIELD get through some serious situations. All you need to know is that the villains keep trying to steal Tony Stark’s data and we can’t let that happen. I would have a better picture of the story, but when I played through it the second time around, I decided to skip all cutscenes. The graphics just weren’t worth it and the story is decent if I recall correctly.

The graphics are pretty good for the game. Surprisingly good! It seriously doesn’t feel like a movie tie in game and the animation is pretty good even considering that the PS3 can have some excellent graphics. The cutscenes don’t look quite as smooth, mainly due to the human designs. Still, while you’re blasting away at enemies, it all looks pretty realistic. That’s probably one of the biggest pros for me.

The gameplay is your standard 3D shooting game. It plays out like War For Cybertron, but you have unlimited flight which helps. (Can’t be Starscream all the time in War For Cybertron) Firing your weapons and engaging in hand to hand combat can both be pretty fun and you have a good selection of weapons. Using Ironman’s lasers in combat is a must and everything becomes much easier. Maybe the lasers are overpowered, but they’re still fun!

The gameplay isn’t all fun though as the controls can be a little tricky. It’s very tough to change directions while flying and you’ll wish that you hadn’t flown more times than not. Usually, it’s better to just dash where you want to go. Setting up your weapons system is also a lot more complicated than it should be. There’s a reason why I didn’t even know about the lasers until way after I had completed the game.

The customization can be pretty cool once you get the hang of it. You can unlock various Iron Man suits, which range from Extremis to Ultimate and it’s fun to switch around. The weapons can also make quite the difference in battle. It may not be a very extensive customization, but you get 4 weapons per armor and you can use your exp points from battle to create new gadgets. It’s a decent addition and I’ll take what I can get to make the gameplay deeper and more fun!

The trophies in Iron Man 2 aren’t unreasonable and I managed to secure the Platinum. Basically, you just need to defeat a lot of opponents and be prepared to face the game on hard mode. You’ll be okay if you have the lasers at the ready. Playing as War Machine can be more than a little difficult, but his gameplay isn’t as bad as you may think. Trophies don’t really affect the game’s score, but they’re still nice to have around. I typically give a game a second look if it has some nice trophies.

The game has 8 levels and I admit that this isn’t a good thing. 10 levels is the absolute minimum amount for a video game and anything lower than that is pretty unacceptable. One factor that tries to disguise this is the trophy system and the upgrades that you acquire through the levels. They help the overall replay value, but you should still be warned that the game won’t be lasting very long. You’ll be done with it pretty quickly. Unfortunately, there really isn’t anything to do aside from Story Mode. A few bonus modes would have been nice or at least a wifi option/leaderboard. Story Mode is basically the only thing here so I hope that you enjoy those 8 levels.

Still, in the end, gameplay is what counts the most. I found it to be pretty enjoyable and it does beat the gameplay that we got in the first Iron Man as well as the Thor video game. I doubt that this will help in Marvel’s battle to surpass DC in video games, but it’s a start.

Overall, this was a pretty fun superhero game. It’s definitely on the short side and I wish that we got to have more missions where you don’t have to worry about protecting something. The gameplay is what you’d expect from any movie tie in, but it’s a formula that always works. The soundtrack was above average and the graphics were downright impressive. I recommend this game and it’s a bit of a step up from the first game. (Albeit that I own the first for the DS) It looks like Iron Man 3 won’t be getting a true video game spinoff so that’s more reason to get this one. I wouldn’t recommend it to you if you don’t like games that are too short, but considering the price….I’d say that it’s worth it. 8 levels is under the 10 level standard, but going back for the Platinum helps the overall time right? I say go for it!

Overall 7/10

Dead or Alive is a fighting series that I’ve heard a lot about, but I’ve never gotten to play any of the games. Unfortunately, most of them have lost their original fighting purpose or have become a little too graphic. Luckily, this one fit the bill and the game is definitely a fun one that I would recommend.

Each of the characters get their own mini story mode so I’ll briefly discuss each of them except for Bayman since he never got to appear in Story Mode. All I can say is that he doesn’t seem very impressive from his moveset. Ein is one of the big characters of the game as everyone keeps calling him Hayate. Is that really his name!? Ein is having trouble with his memories so he can’t really be sure. He seems like a pretty good character and one could be tricked into thinking that he was the main character!

Leon is a military person and he’s not one of the better characters. He’s all right I suppose, but a little bland at this point. We don’t really get to learn that much about him and his story wasn’t very interesting. Helena has one of the deeper stories as her mother is defeated by an unknown assassin. Helena goes on a quest to find this person and it’s definitely a lot more epic than most of the other stories. Helena is one of the better characters alongside Hayate.

Leifang reminds me of Xiaoyu from Tekken. They’re both pretty similar and Leifang is a decent character. As with Leon, she doesn’t really get that much development, but at least she’s a tough fighter. Her fighting style is quick and that’s always a good thing. Bass Armstrong is another character and despite the epic name, he’s the worst character! He’s really proud of how epic his daughter has become, but he can get a little too intense and he brings shame to the name. He’s a really slow fighter and the game could have definitely kicked him out!

Ryu Hayabusa is epic as always. He seems to be one of the only professionals in the game and he definitely proves his skills. His fighting style is nice and complex and he’s definitely a cut above the rest. As with Ayane, he’s a skilled ninja. Ayane is possibly more sinister than I had thought as they hint that she is basically a villain in this game. She seems like a good villain, but it’ll be interesting to see whether she is guilty or not.

Kasumi is known as the main character for the series and she’s decently cool. I mostly know her from the Dead Fantasy series, but that’s really enough to tell that she is an excellent fighter. She naturally gets one of the biggest plot twists of the game! We’ve also got an American in the game who calls himself Zack. Zack isn’t that great, but he does have an epic line. “Check yourself before you wreck yourself!” is his catchphrase as he tosses a mirror at his opponent. That was probably the best line in the game and it earns him some epicness points.

Jann Lee probably has the least development from all of the characters. I really have no idea what he’s doing here, but if he’s having fun…then that’s the important thing. He basically represents the average joe and he’s a decent fighter. He’s pretty cool, but I don’t have much to base that off from for now. We’ve also got Tina Armstrong. She has a heavy accent, but there’s not really much else to say about her. She seems like a decent character as well and she gets to enter a fashion show, but her storyline didn’t have much of a plot. Gen Fu is the final big character, but he’s basically the generic old person that’s actually really powerful. We’ve seen guys like him appear in fighting games so many times that it’s scary. His ending is actually one of the darkest and most intense ones.

The ultimate villain in the game is known as Tengu. Everything is apparently his delusion and he makes sure to say this every time you fight him. He seems to have some mind manipulation powers through his dancing. I can’t say that he’s a very good character and he’s pretty full of himself despite his unimpressive abilities. As far as final bosses go, Dead or Alive can definitely do better!

The actual gameplay for Dead or Alive feels pretty unique. It’s very fast paced and the movement makes you feel like you’re back at the arcade. You’ll definitely be trying some button mashing at first, but learning the combos can make all the difference. The critical element in this game’s style is the countering system. It’s pretty critical and it makes you double think all of your attacks. Each of them can easily turn against you. Your health bar can go down very quickly so this is the type of game that makes you want to have a lot of rematches. One thing that I can definitely say for it is that the game definitely has replay value.

The graphics are pretty good and this is definitely one of the better looking PS2 games. You really get to appreciate the animation when you blow up an object. The stages are pretty interactable so you can throw someone off a building and then follow them to the next stage. The stages themselves were really fun and that helped the overall experience. The soundtrack is pretty generic. I can’t really say that there are any exceptional tunes to be heard in this game. Still, the songs aren’t bad…I just don’t remember any of them.

A negative would be the fact that story mode and vs mode are pretty much the only things to do. The game could have earned an 8 if it had just added a few more characters or a longer story mode. Still, this is a fighting game so I wouldn’t expect much more. There are under 15 characters so you really need to hope that you like one of the available ones. That shouldn’t be a problem as they all have pretty different move sets. I became comfortable with most of them, but I’m not a fan of any of the slow characters. It’s unfortunate that this game series became distracted by spinoffs and stopped making good games. Hopefully we could get a nice DOA fighting game for the PS4 at some point.

Overall, this was a pretty fun fighting game despite the empty cover. There may not be a lot of extras and the characters are limited, but it succeeds as a fighting game thanks to the incredible gameplay. That’s the important part and the fact that it has a story mode for everyone is pretty good. It’s deeper than the average Arcade Mode and the stage selection is pretty fun. Dead or Alive can easily hold its own against the big fighting series like Tekken or Street Fighter and it would likely be a household name if all of its games were this good. I definitely recommend this game to all fighting game fans and it won’t disappoint you.

Overall 7/10

Terminator is a pretty solid movie franchise and it should be noted that the Terminators are still some of the greatest film antagonists out there. That being said, could the video game really match up to the films? In theory, it should be easy to make an incredibly awesome game based off of the films, but not everything is as good as it should be. I guess you’re about to find out!

The game’s plot is pretty simple. The resistance has been fighting the Terminators for a very long time and both sides are weakened. The planet is running out of resources which has heavily affected both sides. We decide that it’s time to finish things once and for all and quickly head to the main base to finish things. Unfortunately, the master A.I. has the same thought and begins his final plan. Things quickly heat up as we’re met with drama, betrayal, and epicness!

Now, there are only 10 levels in the game which can be a cause for panic. That’s not usually a very filling amount of time and you may figure that the game won’t last for long right? Well, the levels are decently long and while they’re not as long as Shattered Dimensions or something like that, they’re all right. It is still a negative since the game can definitely be beaten quickly. Luckily, the rest of the game is still good enough to warrant a purchase. 10 levels is the bare minimum of what I would consider legitimate and not an unfinished game, but it is still cutting the whole thing a little too close for comfort.

There are only two big negatives that I would really care to mention and they are pretty unique. One is the fact that the camera can be supremely annoying. It will shift at the worst times and sometimes moving from one door to another can be pretty time consuming. There’s just no stopping the camera and it seems to have a mind of its own! It doesn’t go around switching the opponent that you’re locked on too by itself like Armored Core 2, but it definitely moves around way too much. That can definitely get a little tedious during big boss fights where a slip up can mean instant death via infinite (and unavoidable) grenade attacks.

The other negative would be the poor lighting. If you play the game with a high setting for brightness, then you’ll be okay. Otherwise, it can get really hard to tell what is happening and you could get lost since the map is not helpful at all. This isn’t the first game to suffer from lighting problems and Indiana Jones is the main one that comes to mind. I’ve only come across this on the PS2, but I personally just blame it on the games. The PS2 is too awesome to be at fault.

The actual gameplay is still really great and it should be the main selling point for you. It’s basically a 3D Shooting game that plays our like Freedom Fighter, but with much cooler opponents. You’ll quickly get spoiled on the rockets, but the laser blasters are fun as well. After the last few games that I’ve played, it was fun to have such intense action. This is definitely my kind of gameplay and it essentially guaranteed that the game would at least get a 7/10 rating. This gameplay is not found in a whole lot of games and I’m always happy to run into one of them. The boss fight in level 7 was extremely intense and did a good job of making you feel the danger and suspense.

The Soundtrack is easily 5 stars and it was a lot better than I ever could have imagined. Nearly every theme used is fast paced rock music and it really puts you into the game. I doubt that I would have enjoyed the game quite so much if the soundtrack was not present. I dare say that it’s one of the best soundtracks for an American game. I definitely won’t be forgetting the themes anytime soon!

You play as different characters as you go through the levels. We’ve got the main character who is equipped with a good ole gun and some other standard weapons. We’ve got the Captain, who comes with all of that plus a rocket launcher. Finally, we’ve also got the lady who is likely the sub commander and she has the same weapons as the main character. For the final level, you get a cool ray weapon which does massive damage to the enemies. It’s pretty fun, but you won’t have much of a chance to really use it. I would go more into the characters and say how cool they are like with most reviews, but this just isn’t one of those. It’s like the Prince Caspian game. If a game is totally based off of a movie then it may not need character bios, but there can be exceptions. On the other hand, if a game is as short as this one and the characters don’t really get much character….then I won’t really talk about it either. The only names that you’ll walk away remembering are Reese and John Connor. Needless to say, they were decent characters at best.

I nearly forgot to mention that there is also a level up system. You can upgrade health, ammo, etc. Upon beating the game, I’m not even close to upgrading everything. It would probably take quite a few playthroughs for that so I have to wonder what the actual point of it is. I just don’t think that it was really balanced enough. Sometimes, you can go a whole level without getting any upgrade points. Perhaps you get more if you play on the higher difficulty levels, which would make sense. Still, it was an interesting thing to add and I definitely went for upping my health. That never hurts after all!

Overall, this was a great game! It may look like a cash in at first and maybe it could be called that. Still, once you start playing it, you will realize how much fun it can be. It just doesn’t get much better than this and it has only helped me to become an even bigger Terminator fan. The ending is pretty great (Although, not fighting in the past as the final boss was a missed opportunity) and while you will be expecting it, it doesn’t take away from the coolness factor. I know that there is another Terminator game for the PS3 and I plan on getting it soon, but it’s going to be tough to match up against this one. This is definitely one of my shortest reviews in a while, but there’s really not much more to say about this game. I highly recommend it and you should enjoy the game as long as you like shooters. There isn’t really any replay value though and if you don’t like shooters, then you don’t really have a reason to play this one. Still, how can you go wrong with such a low price? (Got it from Best Buy for 5!)

Overall 7/10

After playing the first Starfighter game, I knew that I needed to play the sequel right away. The first one was better than expected and I expected more of the same in the sequel. This game is mostly the same as the first, but they have improved it in one key area. That would be the plot! Let’s see how the game fared in the other areas as well!

It is good to be able to have a paragraph for the plot once more! This game also has 15 levels for Story Mode and it goes up until the climax of Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Clones. First of all, a Jedi is assigned to help out a group of Pirates because we’ve finally realized that they were correct and the Trade Federation is up to no good. The Jedi helps them fight a lot of battles and eventually we are the last stand against the Trade’s big assault. They have hex equipment and are going to incinerate the Jedi Warriors who are fighting on the planet. (AKA, Anakin, Obi Wan, and many other fighters) The main villain of the game would definitely be Captain Toth.

Captain Toth is a pretty menacing figure and he succeeds in destroying three key officials in one shot. That’s definitely not something that should be overlooked and he makes for a nice final boss. He may not have any Force Abilities, but it’s good to see humans try to fight once in a while. The main Jedi is named Adi Gallia. She is strong in the ways of the Force and she can make large shockwaves that can destroy a number of ships at once. It is really up to her to save the day as her allies also play critical roles. She’s a solid protagonist, although she may come across as a little generic. Yoda makes a cameo as you can hear him giving advice during the climax missions of the game.

The gameplay is mostly unchanged from the first Starfighter game, but there are definitely additions. Since Adi is a Jefi, we can use Force abilities in her levels. She has 4 Force abilities, but only two of them I have found to be useful. One ability is that she can make a barrier around the fighter. This can definitely come in handy, but you most likely won’t need the shield as your ship is very sturdy and will not be destroyed so easily.

Force Lightning is another ability and it’s one that I used for a while until the Shockwave came into play. It’s good for hitting a number of opponents, but it never seemed to finish the job. I did skip the tutorials for the game so it’s possible that I’m not using it correctly, but the lightning definitely wasn’t my favorite force ability. There was another ability that would slow down the opponents and increase the player’s reflexes, but I could never get that ability to work. Finally, we got the Shockwave which is easily the best ability. The Shockwave can defeat a number of opponents in a single shot and while you may not always hit the target that you were aiming for, you’ll likely take a few other enemies down. The Force gauge recovers very quickly so you don’t always have to defeat them all in a single shot.

The regular ships also get more abilities as you can fire Super Rockets, Mines, and quick rockets. The Super Rocket is a very good attack for hitting large vessels. It may be slow, but it can completely rip apart barriers and nearly take down the ship’s whole health bar in one shot. It’s a great weapon to use as long as the target is immobile. For moving targets, you’ll want to use the quick rockets. They are able to go right through a barrier and directly impact the target’s health bar. It’s definitely a useful way to save time if you have a lot of targets that you need to bring down. One shot turns into a flurry of many shots that deal some solid damage and spread over a decently large area. I can’t really say that the Mines are useful for anything and I just didn’t use them. There was really no need to do so at that point.

The rest of the gameplay remains unaltered from the first game. The ship that the Jedi uses can be difficult to navigate at first as he can turn much quicker than the ships in the first game. After a few minutes you’ll have adjusted and may find this to be pretty useful. It’s tougher for the minions to escape your field of vision with such speed. The gameplay is still very fun and definitely one of the definitive space shooters out there. You can do 360’s and hit opponents from very far away. I went into the gameplay a little more in depth in the previous game’s review. It’s essentially one of the ultimate shooting games and is definitely better than you may have suspected upon first glance.

The graphics are slightly better than the first game, but the change is barely noticeable. The humans on the ground still look like dots unless you zoom in while you are very close to them. Beyond that, the graphics are pretty solid and everything looks pretty good. This game has more actual cutscenes than the first one and they’re not bad. There is definitely more of a sense of danger in them than the previous installment in the series.

Overall, if you liked the first Starfighter, you should definitely enjoy this one. It’s essentially the same as the original game. There are things to unlock in this one which should help the replay value. That’s a good thing since the story mode is only 15 levels like the first game. The game was a slight improvement over Starfighter since it didn’t make anything worse and only made things better by adding new abilities/weapons and making the actual story a lot more memorable. If you like the shooter genre, then you will likely enjoy this game. It’s one of the best in the shooter genre so I highly recommend it! (Also, hopefully it gets a sequel because the game ends on a total cliffhanger. Someone may be in trouble!)

Overall 7/10

Star Wars has had many games in the past and they have all been decently good to great in the past. This one plays out like the Rebel Strike Star Wars game for Gamecube, but the gameplay is more refined. Could this game keep up the solid reputation of the Star Wars games or would it end up crushing out hopes? Only one way to find out!

Well, usually I would go into the plot right away, but that’s tougher than expected. There is definitely a plot, but you continue to switch characters are you go through the levels and while I do like the main, main character the most, the others are still cool. It’s just hard to follow the story and you’re really just focusing on the action. I’m sure that the story is very engaging and epic, but you won’t remember it by the time that you complete the game. Instead, we shall spend our time focusing on the gameplay and graphics.

The graphics hold up pretty well for the most part. The ships look good and the energy attacks are also solid. It reminds me of the retro N64 (Awesome) days while also throwing in some modern Gamecube action into it. The graphics are definitely a + and the only parts that don’t look very good are the humans. Still, they play a very small role in this and what really counts are the battles.

One of the reasons why I like the Starfighter series so much is that it finally takes Star Wars back to its roots. Originally, the whole concept of Star Wars was about how there would be climatic battles in space and how it would be awesome. After the first few Star Wars films, they started to diverge from that. In this game, fighting in space is all that you will do and it’s definitely a great experience.

The gameplay is essentially a 3D shooter. You can play it in first person mode or seeing from behind the ship. In this game, I find it a lot more convenient to use first person mode and you can attack foes that are incredibly far away. The game was definitely designed well because in most other shooters, you simply cannot attack from that far away. The blasts would just fade away into nothingness and you would have to wait until you are closer. There are usually dozens of enemies that continue to attack while you have to try and fend them off. You are able to lead your comrades into battle, but I never really used the function. By the time you tell your comrades to destroy an object, you will have basically finished the job.

Most of the missions involve destroying a lot of enemies and protecting your allies. There are 15 missions in Story Mode and it doesn’t drag on. The game could definitely be considered to be on the short side and it could have used some more levels. I’m not sure that 15 levels would have really cut it for me if I had bought the game at retail price, but for the bargain of 4 dollars, I’m all right with it. It’s still no excuse to be such a short game, but there is a decent amount of replay value through bonus missions.

You only have a few weapons to use in the game, but they’re all that you truly need. You have rockets which do heavy damage, but they do run out of ammo quickly and you cannot reload. There are energy grenades that automatically replenish and also deal great damage, but they are harder to aim as they cannot travel great distances. They are best used from a high point to drop on unsuspecting enemies. Of course, nothing beats the classic machine gun style energy bullets that you can fire to take down any enemy given enough time. You have complete control over your vehicle and you can turn it around as you dodge enemy attacks and counter. By turning it around, I mean that you can make your vehicle fly sideways or even upside down as you do 180s and 360s. Yes, this is one of the best pure shooters out there and the gameplay would usually make the game an 8/10.

The only reason that this game does not crack an 8 is because the gameplay does not have enough support from the other modes. As I’ve mentioned, the game is pretty short and the story is completely forgettable. If the game had been longer and if the story had been more memorable, then I likely would have given the game an 8. It was just lacking something. Maybe an epic 2 player showdown mode would have added to the score and likely would have made the game an 8.

Overall, this is a fun Star Wars game. It’s not going to be hailed as one of the all time greats and you may not even remember it after a while, but it’s very fun and is that not the main function of a video game? Ultimately, having fun is the most important part of playing a video game and this one definitely succeeds. I highly recommend this game as long as you don’t mind the lack of length and you definitely need to like the shooting genre. If you didn’t like Star Fox Assault or Robotech’s aerial combat system, then this is not the game for you. This game only features aerial combat, but it’s some of the best space fighting that I’ve encountered. You will not want to miss out on this game!

Overall 7/10

Mario has always been a pretty fun series throughout the years. We had Mario 64, Sunshine, and Galaxy to show us that Mario games can be a thing of beauty. They can launch you into a world of adventure, but we started to miss the good ole days where Mario could punch. Then the space theme started to bear down on the gamer until you just couldn’t take it anymore. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of the space theme and I was glad that 3D Land brought things back into perspective. 3D Land is easily the best portable Mario game and even the big console games could learn a thing or two from this one.

Should I even bother mentioning what the plot is? I probably should, so here goes! Princess Peach is captured by Bowser and now Mario must embark on an adventure of epic proportions to save her. He may appear to be heroic and not afraid of anything, but this game shows that Mario does tend to panic at times and that he must hurry. Peach must not be allowed to stay in Bowser’s clutches for long….not if Mario can help it! Evidently, the Castle guards aren’t coming to help and Luigi must have better things to do. (Although, you find out the true reason why Luigi isn’t here towards the end of the game. All that I will say is that it was a pretty interesting twist!)

The gameplay is the main reason as to why we play Mario games in the end. Ultimately, that is still the most important factor of a game and Mario never fails. The traditional 3D gameplay feels like Mario 64 and the level designs are a great help as well. The game feels like it could be a sequel to Mario 64 and we get a lot of grass levels that are pretty fun. There aren’t really any bad levels and you can breeze through the game without needing a break from the gameplay. (Prince of Persia stylus gameplay was not quite as fun)

The levels are all pretty short and they can typically be completed in around 2 minutes. The levels are short, but there are a lot of them and you also will likely need to replay them for Star Coins. The game would be very short if not for the Star Coins since you can breeze through the game. That being said, there is a decently large amount of replay value because of how fun the levels are and because of the Star Coins. There are over 10 different worlds because of the bonus levels so you will definitely have a lot of levels to complete.

The graphics are solid and are some of the best that you will see in a Mario game. Mario looks sharp and the levels pop out at you. The soundtrack is also pretty solid and they’re catchy. You may not remember a large amount of them, but they won’t get in the way while you’re playing the game which is always the important thing.

Mario is the selfless hero as per usual, but he doesn’t look all that great. He’s a decent character I suppose, but he’s just not as cool as Sonic. I’m glad that Peach fought back and it would appear that she continues to get tougher. She nearly took out Bowser and his legions of minions! It should be noted that Bowser really means business in this game since you face him right away. His fireballs are impressive and he gives Mario a nice fight, but it’s ultimately futile. Mario isn’t the type of plumber to lose when it counts.

Mario 3D Land definitely holds its own against the other Mario games. I dare say that it may have been more fun than Mario Galaxy and Galaxy 2. I didn’t care for the space theme and it was great to be back on the grassy levels. It still couldn’t defeat Mario 64 or Sunshine, but I doubt that any future Mario game could match up against those elites. Mario 3D World looks promising and it could be an extension to this one. I will definitely keep you tuned about that game. This may be the ultimate new Mario game and the perfect starting point for a next generation of fans. Mario games will never become outdated and a thing of the past as this game shows that Mario is as fun as ever.

Overall, this is a pretty solid Mario game. Think of it as the Mario 64 2 that we never got to see. Aside from the fact that Mario still can’t fight back, it definitely feels like a sequel. If you’ve been waiting for Bowser and Mario to finally meet up again in battle, then you’re definitely in luck. I recommend this game to all gamers and it’s something that just about everyone will enjoy. It’s a step up from most Mario games and that in itself is pretty impressive. This is one game that will ultimately receive a lot of play time and still have replay value when other games are on their last legs.

Overall 7/10