Transformers Dark of The Moon Review

Posted on April 9, 2016 by dreager1

Transformers definitely has a very solid track record when it comes to video games. Although the same could be said for shows and comics, the video games are really something else as they all typically grab 8/10s. This one is no exception and while Dark of The Moon may not have quite as much depth as War For Cybertron, the gameplay is still great like always. The game doesn’t play like a movie tie in and it’s good to see the developers still give this game their best shot.

So…the plot. Well…you can beat the game while barely recognizing that there is one. Things are happening and the government calls in the Autobots to help out, but what is the grand scheme? Well, it leads to Megatron activating Shockwave at any rate and he makes for a pretty tricky boss. Interestingly enough, Megatron isn’t the final boss and I don’t think you even get to fight him. You do fight Optimus Prime while playing as Megatron though so I suppose that can count to an extent. It was an odd choice, but it was a curve ball so I can appreciate that. There is even a big cliffhanger left in the ending since the Decepticons are now stronger than ever. Who knows, maybe the movie tie ins will diverge even more than we thought or things will tie up nicely. (Shockwave being in Transformers IV suddenly makes sense.

Graphically, you probably could not tell the difference between this one and War For Cybertron. If anything, Cybertron probably looks a little more impressive as all of the levels are futuristic and high tech. At the same time, I do love the city/forest levels in this game so its certainly not a big loss there. The designs are bland if anything and that’s because it is based on the films. I still think the robots could have been a lot more unique and it was a big missed opportunity, but that’s on the films once again. The soundtrack is pretty nonexistent when I try to think about it, but I’m sure that there were some decent tunes while I was playing through. They just escape me at the moment, which is the price of being generic.

Now let’s talk about the gameplay. It is a 3D shooter, which is the norm for Transformers. You can also engage in fisticuffs or turn into a vehicle to throw the opponents off. I don’t recommend close quarters combat..ever, unless you are trying to get a trophy. It simply puts you at a disadvantage as far as I am concerned. Turning into a car is great though and you should do that a lot. I’d say that the game did a terrific job with this mode and the occasional driving level is much appreciated. It brings in a whole new element to the game. (Not the franchise tho) Towards the end of the campaign it will start to be less helpful, but it’s always fun. Normal shooting mode is slightly sketchier than usual as the aim can be a bit off and there is no good lock on as far as I am aware. I think the game mentioned one, but if I did use it, It definitely was not helpful.

The game is reasonably difficult so you can expect a bit of a challenge. There are also a lot of checkpoints which is good since nothing is worse than having to redo a large section from the very beginning. Watch out for large enemy hordes since they can take down your full health bar in seconds. Those guys will give you more of a challenge than the bosses in this game (Which are pretty easy since there are check points at various points so you can enter the fight midway with full health if you lose) and it may take a few shots to beat some of the minion hordes. Strength in numbers and all.

It is worth mentioning that each character has a special ability. I would say that the Machine Gun is the best one, but Invisibility can be quite handy as well. Just use your abilities wisely and you will be okay. They all have their uses and I don’t believe that there were any bad ones, which is good. As far as replay value goes, this game does all right. There are collectibles to grab and a lot of trophies to earn. Considering that the online is basically dead, it will be extremely hard to platinum this title so you’re just earning trophies for the fun of it. If you’re really serious about this, you can probably find some people to help you boost the trophy as well. I collect em, but I’ve never done the whole boosting thing. I’m not quite that into it and I want to earn the online trophies the standard way, with skills and brawn! This will definitely extend your play time in the game, but in the end a multiplayer mode would have been even better.

Overall, Dark of The Moon is pretty fun. It is easy to see why the online died quickly however, since you may as well stick with War For Cybertron. The multiplayer feels more epic and Team Deathmatch is still a blast. While the game may lose out to War For Cybertron, that does not mean you should completely take a pass on the title. The action and enjoyable gameplay still makes this a pretty complete game and you’ll enjoy it a lot even if the plot is very forgettable. We did have some good banter between one of the Autobots and the government in one level though. The Autobot talked tough for a while, but once he started to get pounded by the Decepticons, he knew who to call. I do wish that we could have gotten a game for the 4th film. Ah well, maybe the 5th film will get a title. If not, another stand alone title like Devastation will fit the bill.

Overall 8/10

Men In Black Alien Crisis Review

Posted on April 2, 2016 by dreager1

Looks like it’s time to take a look at Alien Crisis. This is the first Men In Black game that I’ve played and one of the only ones to have ever come out. It’s a pretty fun game and you could tell that some effort was put into it, but at the same time you can also see how the developers were a little lazy at times. There are parts of the game where there is no real explanation on how to handle a boss and that can make it last a lot longer than it really should. One boss took me nearly an hour until I realized that the game was actually showing me the wrong weak spot. That wasn’t very helpful.

The game revolves around a guy named Peter. He’s a thief who used to be a respected archeologiest until he started having theories about aliens living among us. He was discredited so he decided to get back at society by stealing things. He gets in a little over his head when aliens show up, but he dispatches them with his gun skills. The Men In Black organization is intrigued so they blackmail him into helping them, but as the journey goes on, Peter starts to realize that being a hero may not be such a bad thing. It may be a brief realization though since the Earth may not be around for much longer!

Unfortunately, Peter’s not a good character. He’s modeled after James Bond in a sense so while he makes a lot of good puns and one liners while in imminent danger, he also gets his undesired traits like constantly flirting and most of his lines are about that. It’s too bad that we can’t get a character who’s super confident and everything without being a flirt. Wait a minute The main heroine is the hardened agent who blackmailed Peter into joining. She’s no nonsense and keeps reminding Peter that he’s not ready for this line of work. I could have sworn that she has the same voice actor as Black Widow. She’s a good character and by default, she’s basically the best in the game. As you may expect, she’s naturally possessed at the end so the rookie (Peter) can save the day, but I guess she takes it well. If we ever get a sequel, their dynamic will hopefully be more like the duo from the original Men in Black films since Peter will have some more experience. The dog makes some cameos here and there, but his role is not as big as it could have been. There’s also a professor who tried to outwit Peter and the MIB a lot, but he always fails in the end. One thing you’ll have to think about though is whether you should be rooting for MIB or not. After all, they did destroy a guy who came to Earth for an arranged marriage as part of a truce between races, right before they murdered his partner. Well, you know what they say..Don’t Mess with Earth!

The gameplay is your standard shooter, but it’s not totally first person like you would expect. You can still see your character and to an extent it can almost be called a third person shooter. I wouldn’t really call it that because you can never move forwards or backwards, but sideways is always an option. You can choose to hide behind a wall and strike out at the enemies or you can just stand tall and keep on blasting them. Either way, you should have the edge here as the enemies can’t stop you so easily. One health pack is enough to get you back to around full health although I imagine that this will change on higher difficulty modes.

You have around 6 different guns and they’re all pretty useful. I really like the machine gun, but the others have their uses. The two weakest ones have unlimited ammo so you’ll go to them when you’re desperate or in a tough spot. Those two situations are almost identical though. You also have a few gadgets to help you out like anti gravity grenades that send enemies into the air and a freeze ray that can really come through in the clutch. There’s also a barrier, which I highly recommend using as it can block all enemy fire and will never shatter. If you’re low on health then there’s no reason not to use it and it recharges very quickly as well.

I’m going to give this game some props for the fact that it didn’t stop at just making one gameplay style. There are several levels where you have to play in a different way in order to win. For example, there are 2-3 car chase levels where you’re flying through the city and blasting away at the aliens who are chasing you. You have to be careful not to his civilians or cars as you do and it makes for a fun level. There are also the sneaky levels which are all about strategy and silently taking down your foes. I’m always up for a stealth game even if I admit that they can be a little more irritating at times. Carmen Sandiego did this style best with Shattered Dimensions being a close second. Men In Black pulled it off quite well and would probably make it at number 3 here. The Batman games ironically get wrecked in this department.

The soundtrack is a little limited, but the tune for the main menu is catchy. The other themes are mostly non existent, but it’s your usual action fare. I wouldn’t say that the themes are bad and they’re fun to listen to in the heat of battle. The audio is interesting though as some characters sound robotic at times even if they’re trying to be charismatic. Ah well, I appreciate the effort at the very least. It can be annoying to hear the dialogue sometimes though since it is set to always replay if you lost in a level. I lost to the final boss several times before finally winning and to have to hear the same lines over and over again can get really old really fast. As for the graphics, they’re perfectly acceptable. It has that cash-in vibe, but the blasts are nice and colorful. I also like the designs of the enemies. The game did a good job of adding many different species unlike Battleship and the Iron Man inspired villain was also pretty hype.

I can’t say that there’s a whole lot of replay value to be found here. I read that the average completion time for this game is 2 and a half hours. I guess if you skip cutscenes and take out all of the enemies without a problem this can be true, but personally I’d expect the campaign to take you closer to 4 hours the first time. After that, you should have most of the trophies as well. The only things left to do are get the rest of them and maybe play around with the challenges a little if you really want too. I would say that the game is worth the current price although if you spent 60 on it (Not sure if this ever was 60 though. I personally doubt it) then you probably got ripped off.

The only real negative that I have with the game are the boss fights. As I mentioned earlier, the game really leaves you to your own devices, which means that you need to put on your detective hat and figure out what’s happening. Unfortunately, since the moments where the boss is actually vulnerable are few and far between, it can take a while. I lost to one of the bosses over 10 times before defeating her and I still don’t know what the problem was the first time. I basically just got lucky. As for the final boss, I did figure out that I was shooting the wrong target, but man did it take a while! The bosses were certainly the weakest part of the game, but they could have been worse.

Overall, Men In Black Alien Crisis is a pretty fun shooter. I found the actual gameplay to be better than Battleship, James Bond, and several other shooters. I even preferred it to Metroid Prime although that game naturally did have a better plot and more of an epic vibe. The story mode here did feel like a decent movie though and the snappy dialogue made for a believable main character. If you didn’t know any better, you could have easily thought that the movie probably had the same plot as the game although they are completely different. The writers thought it through and made a full on story mode so props to that. This may be a bit of a cash-in, but there was clearly more effort put in than usual. I’d recommend checking this title out.

Overall 8/10

Gravity Rush Remastered Review

Posted on March 29, 2016 by dreager1

I remember back in the day when Gravity Rush first came out for the Vita. I knew that I was never going to get the Vita so it was a shame to see a promising title so out of reach. Luckily, this is the decade of the ports. Look at all of the HD collections, remasters, HD remakes, and Hyrule Legends esque ports. It turns out that Gravity Rush got the same treatment and it even brought all of the DLC missions along with it. That’s definitely what I like to see and playing through the game was a blast. It was also fairly unique in the sense that it was the first game (That I can think of) where I preferred the fun platforming to the actual combat.

The plot revolves around a mysterious girl named Kat. People tell her that she is the legendary Gravity Queen, but all she can remember is waking up in a park amidst a dying world. A cat appears and with it (I say it because it may not be alive), she is able to fly and manipulate gravity around her which can essentially let her fly. Kat decides that until she finds out about her past, she’ll be a superhero. The first French (Well, the place isn’t really France, but it’s basically based on the place) superhero that I can think of as well. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t trust her and many of her attempts to do good just make people mad. It’s like being an X-Men, it takes a lot to get people to like you. As the game progresses, you can help people out in main missions as well as side ones to get the inhabitants to like you more. By the end, Kat is more of a Superman/Captain America figure than a Batman/Cyclops so she’s certainly doing well for herself.

As for the actual plot, keep in mind that this game seems to be more of a protologue than anything. You get hints at her past, but nothing has been fully explained yet. Fine by me though since I’m always up for a little mystery and intrigue. She befriends a Police Detective and helps him out in stopping Alias. Alias is a mysterious shape shifter who may not even be human and he helps the Navi destroy parts of the town. Navi are mysterious monsters that appear from the Negative Zone patches and it’s unknown how they got here exactly. It certainly has something to do with Kat’s past and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were her minions.

Either way, the government decides to do something about it. They build a Cyborg of sorts who can help lay waste to them all and they even make a Giant Airship which gives them a lot of power. There is a very long time skip during the game of a little over a year and the government did pretty well in that time. Unfortunately, the power also corrupted and they don’t seem to be quite as nice anymore. The ending seems to have humbled them though so maybe they’ll bounce back now.

Finally, one of the grander plots involves the creator of the universe. He lets Kat know that she can help bring back parts of the planet that were broken and tossed into the Shadow Realm a long time ago by defeating legendary monsters. In the game you get back the rest of the city, but I imagine that there is a lot left to build. A little kid is also the vessal for another super powerful being and there’s even a rival character named Raven who gets in your way from time to time. She hints that the Creator is actually using Kat and that he may not be a good guy at all. It’s hard to tell who’s right, but I’m siding with Raven since she’s the cool rival of the game and thus, she can’t be wrong.

By the end of the game, Raven and Kat get along so they’ll likely do a lot of teaming up in the sequel. The threats may be stopped for the most part, but you can tell that a lot of plots haven’t ended yet or they’ve barely even begun. We’ve seen glimpses of Kat’s past like the fact that she may have sacrificed herself or been betrayed by someone, but it’s told vaguely by a mysterious being. Kat also seems to be repressing her memories for some reason. The Navi infecting the Earth are still mysterioius and Alias may not actually be dead. Furthermore, why does everyone know Kat’s past except her? Even Raven knows so you’d think that it would be easy for Kat to ask them. Why doesn’t she? Maybe this is all some kind of dream or illusion. It’ll be interesting to see what the sequel does with this.

The plot was very interesting and fun, which is partially why it beat the gameplay. I would be pretty eager to just start the next chapter instead of defeating 30+ enemies to get past the section. It was also neat to see a superhero game with a newly created character who’s not from DC or Marvel. We’ve seen that a few times in the movies, but never really in the games. The way that the chapters are presented is also nice as they’re all fairly short, not too short, but easy enough to beat a level and then save if you have to leave for the day. There are roughly 20 levels and it makes for a pretty good lengthed game.

As for the characters, Kat makes for a good heroine. She doesn’t care for listening to orders when they’re clearly not the right one and doesn’t hesitate about it, which is always good. Her crush on a random detective who I was expecting to turn evil doesn’t do wonders for her personality though. At her core, she’s a fighter so she leads the game quite well. The detective is all right, but honestly he never impressed me all that much. He’s comic relief, but also competent at his job, which is an interesting mix. I want him to be more helpful when the going gets tough, but at least he always sticks up for Kat.

Raven’s a good rival and reminded me of Kyoko from Madoka Magica. It’s safe to say that she’s already been surpassed by Kat, but she still has a very important role to play. She knows all of the secrets behind gravity powers, or at least I would assume so. Kat really needs to ask her all of the questions that we’re still wondering about the plot. Apparently she’s going to have a bigger role in the sequel so that’ll definitely be neat. She’s definitely the best character in the game although Kat’s a close second.

There’s not much to say about Alias. He’s a bit of a generic villain who talks a good game, but gets wrecked in the long run. No way he’s actually dead though. Finally, we have the Mega Man homage. I forgot her name, but she works for the government and is easily the best “villain” Antagonist may be a better word. She has a Mega Buster and is the only normal person who can actually fight in close quarters against Kat and the Navi. I definitely want to see her in the sequel and her boss fight was definitely one of the best ones in the game. The concept of a Mega Man or a Mega Lady in this case is always hype.

As I mentioned earlier, the three DLC packs also come with the game. They’re basically filler of course. One of them has a story about Kat becoming a maid, another sees her join the government, and the third has her become the leader of a biker gang. They’re all decently interesting I suppose and the Biker Gang one was easily the best, but I think the DLC missions could have been a little more exciting. Some behind the scenes knowledge to reward players who bought the DLC for the original game would have definitely been neat.

As for the gameplay, the platforming is similar to Mario or Sonic. Naturally, there’s the added gravity aspect, which lets you fly/fall in any direction. You can also levitate humans and objects around you. There’s always the option to attack, even in free roam. Kat has 4 special attacks although I’ll admit that I never used any of them aside from the Claw until after I’d beaten the game. They’re all fairly useful though so I recommend exploring your options. The combat system is a little less enjoyable compared to the average title because it’s very easy to miss an opponent and just go spiraling off into the sunset. You can quickly stop and head back, but after a while it can get a little tedious. Once you get into a rhythm though, it goes by pretty smoothly.

I still had fun playing and replaying the side missions though so the combat isn’t bad by any means. The boss battles are typically pretty interesting since those require more strategy and finesse. There were also one or two gravity races, which were pretty fun. One fight/race against Raven was certainly very tricky and that was definitely a blast to get through. You can also level up all of your abilities from gravity control, to kicking power, to health, which makes all of these things a little easier. To upgrade, you use the gems that you find around town and gathering them up is pretty quick and efficient so you’ll never have a problem leveling up. It’s probably one of the best level up systems that I’ve seen in a non turn based game. You don’t want to have to grind forever to get a level up like some other titles.

The soundtrack is pretty soothing and quiet. Usually that’s not really my thing, but they’re all pretty catchy and memorable. The soundtrack is fairly small so it was definitely important for each tune to be able to stand on its own. The graphics are also solid and the style is interesting because I can’t really place it. The colors are definitely vibrant regardless and everyone’s powered up mode looks a lot like something you would see out of Tron.

As for replay value, there’s a lot of it to be found as mentioned earlier. You’ll want to go after the Platinum since it’s one of the easier ones out there. I haven’t had time to grab it yet, but I picked up most of the trophies. Beating the side missions is slightly difficult, but you should be able to beat most missions within 3 tries. They also get you a lot of gems, which is very helpful. Exploring the town and finding all of the secret areas is fun as well and the loading times are all very quick when there actually are any (Very rarely. Only when you teleport) so that makes the whole experience very smooth.

Overall, Gravity Rush is a great game and I highly recommend it. The platforming is spot on and it’s almost too good as it makes the combat style pale in comparison. The plot was very engaging and minus 2 unnecessary interrupted while getting changed type scenes (Which are pretty minor so they’re not as bad as they could be) it was pretty much perfect. I think games are actually improving with the plots as opposed to other forms of media where I say that the oldies had the best ones. Gravity Rush, Cyber Sleuth, Street Fighter V’s June Story, and more all have that level of excitement and depth that you didn’t used to get in a game. It’s why I’m still sad that Super Smash had nothing like that. A good story can always elevate a game to the next level. I’m eagerly awaiting the sequel and look forward to seeing how they handle the plot. I don’t think we need any more time skips since that would introduce a lot of new plots along with yet another status quo, but the more ambitious the plot, the better right?

Overall 8/10

Street Fighter Ex 3 Review

Posted on March 9, 2016 by dreager1

With Street Fighter V out, I decided that it was time to actually get into the Street Fighter franchise. It has always looked like an epic franchise, but SF IV is the only game that I had played. Well, that’s all changed with Ex 3 and I also bought the Alpha collection as a nice backdrop for after this title at some point. Ex 3 feels like the good ole Arcade Style of the olden days and it works really well here with one of the best Arcade Modes of all time.

Unfortunately, there is no real story here. Usually Arcade Mode has a nice opening and an ending, but that isn’t the case this time. There is a small block of text for each character upon beating the game, but that’s all. No rival cutscene and no opening makes this a standard fight the CPU mode. Luckily, that’s where the cool design comes into play. The first battle is always a 3 vs 1 fight. Let that sink in a bit since it’s rare to see this in a Street Fighter title. It’s a blast! You then grab one of your defeated foes as an ally and rinse and repeat as you go through the mode in other formats like 2 vs 2 and 2 vs 1. Finally, you go up against Bison in the ultimate battle as it’s 4 vs 1. I have to say that it would feel pretty bad to lose to him with the odds so heavily stacked in your favor. It does make the fight that much more epic though.

There are 27 fighters in the game, which is definitely an impressive amount. Oddly enough, it seems like over half of the characters (Or roughly half) are made up for the Ex series. You can tell because while their designs may have some slight personality, they feel a little generic. One character is literally called Area and some of the others have names that may sound eccentric, but probably didn’t have a lot of thought behind them. The characters were quickly just created and thrown into the game. Most of them at least seem to have fairly good controls and combos so there’s always that. I like the two Superhero/Supervillain character combo. Those guys are definitely a blast.

The actual gameplay is what you would expect to find in a Street Fighter game. It’s 2D and you have to punch and kick your opponent until his/her health bar goes all the way down. There are a lot of combos that you can work towards completing and you can learn them in the trials/training mode. More on that in a moment. Street Fighter basically invented the term “Button Masher” so you can still do pretty well against the computer is you just keep on pressing buttons. Due to the retro feel of the game, it feels like you can move very fast and fluidly. I also can’t forget to mention how the team function is so fun. You can switch out and pull off a devastating team combo before your partner leaves. It’s also risky if your partner gets hit in the crossfire though because you’re then taking roughly double damage for each hit. So, watch out, but it adds another layer to the game. The Arcade Feeling is cemented in the game and that’s definitely a good thing.

Back to the Trials Mode. This mode has you pull off combos and challenges so that you can gather EXP to unlock new attacks with. They can then be used on your original fighter so you can give him your personal 4 best special abilities. Imagine having Zangief’s Cyclone and Ryu’s Shoryuken. The possibilities are endless so your fighter will be very tough by the end. I did a lot of the challenges for fun, but they do get really difficult later on and without any actual prize besides buying abilities for a character that I’ll never use…there’s not much else to do there. Before going to multiplayer mode, you’ll just want to make sure that you have all of the characters. Beating the game 10 times will get you the 10 normal unlockable characters, but you have to beat it 8 times as Ryu and 8 times as Bison to get their true forms. They’re really like glorified alt costumes, but you’ll still want to have them unlocked for parties.

The true replay value as always is simply playing the multiplayer mode with friends. There are enough characters so that you won’t ever have to get bored. Whenever you want a break from Ryu, try out Bison for a bit and then go back to Ryu. Evil Ryu and Bison 2 are secret characters, which also shake things up although they are not quite as intense as they will be in future installments.

The graphics are a little more pixelated than you may have assumed, but it does help that retro vibe. It’s also interesting to see the characters use their moves from SF V. It shows how true to its history Street Fighter has stayed over the years. Just about every combo in SF V is still around here even if it’s no longer a true combo or the attack may have become less effective. The final stage in particular looks great and I’m sure that a lot of effort was put into that one.

As for the soundtrack, it works fairly well. Once again, I’ll give a shoutout to the final stage for that. Beyond that level, the themes are a little more forgettable than your average Street Fighter game. It’s a good soundtrack while you’re playing, but you probably won’t remember it quite as vividly as you would for a title like Street Fighter V. I haven’t played that game in a while and I can still recall all of the big themes. Still, Street Fighter can’t knock it out of the park every time.

In case you’re curious, this game still loses to Street Fighter IV and V. It’s a blast of course, but those games are simply too good. I also have my doubts on whether or not it’ll be able to beat the Alpha games. It probably beats the original though (I played the mobile version) so there’s always that. Getting another Ex game someday would be a blast. Bringing back that team angle would make for some fun tournies!

Overall, Street Fighter Ex 3 is a complete success in my book. I know that reviews for the game weren’t quite as positive as the others, but it shows what a high standard Street Fighter games have set for the franchise. I’d still say that Ex 3 isn’t just a good game, but a great one. It really forces you to put on your nostalgia goggles and the gameplay has aged very well over the years. You can just pop it in the console and play it at any time and you’ll have as much fun as someone who played it when it first came out on March 4th in the year 2000. If you don’t own this forgotten Street Fighter game yet, then I highly recommend goinng out there and getting it ASAP!

Overall 8/10

Street Fighter V Review

Posted on February 28, 2016 by dreager1

Ah, this game is so controversial. Capcom basically made headlines with this game in every way possible. I was unsure about pre ordering this title since there are always remasters and such so I could potentially wait a year and get the game for the same price, but with more characters. That being said, I wanted to get into the hype right away and see the game as the meta was evolving like with Super Smash. I’ll never get into this game professionally and I’m content with being a casual, but getting it day 1 was fun. Especially since I don’t get games day 1 all that often. This was due to winning a Football Fantasy League (Along with Pre Orders for Pokken and Star Fox Zero. If I win again next year, it may go towards Kingdom Hearts III and FF VII depending on when they come out and if something else that’s even bigger isn’t on the way)

This is Street Fighter so I don’t really need to explain the gameplay right? It’s about as iconic as Mario or Sonic at this point and dare I say even more than Sonic? Next to Pac Man and Mario, I’d say that Street Fighter is the most popular game of all time. You can quote me on that one. If you want to get more technical, this Street Fighter game is different from the previous ones in the sense that it’s more about mind games. The health bars are more like Tekken in the sense that each hit deals massive amounts of damage so you’ll want to be very careful about attacking. You have to take risks in this addition and that’s part of what makes the game fun. It’s the kind of game where you can definitely picture yourself beating a pro and I have to admit that the balance is spot on. A relatively new thing is the introduction of the V Gauge. I only say that it’s sorta new since the idea of a final smash gauge isn’t new, but you can do reversals with this. Either way, you get the point about the gameplay.

Let’s go to some of the controversies. First is the censorship one. That’s easy since I definitely agree with the move. Cammy’s win celebration was toned down and likewise with R. Mika. I heard that Zangief’s was as well, although nobody ever mentions it so it’s possible that this isn’t the case or that nobody cared. It was a good move because these things weren’t necessary to the game. In fact, it’s a little disappointing to see how over the top the females were designed in this game. It almost goes to Dead Or Alive (Not the spinoffs, now that’s terrible!) levels here at times. Laura is very over the top and her introduction is really unnecessarily bad. This has never really been an issue with Street Fighter before so hopefully this isn’t a trend that sticks around for long. I doubt that I would have mained Laura anyway, but it definitely assures that I’ll stick with Ken and Chun-Li for the long haul. Either way, everyone has combos in this game so aside from a character like Zangief or F.A.N.G. they’re all good.

The next controversy is the fact that Capcom basically shipped out a 60$ beta. I made a topic on it over on Street Fighter Faqs and it was so inflammatory that it was taken down. You need to have PS+ to play online so let’s ignore that for now. Without that mode, you really only have 2 options. Survival Mode and Story Mode. Let that sink in for a little bit, there is nothing else to really do in the game. I know people like to spend time in Training Mode, but I find that boring to be honest and would rather train against a computer or play someone. Story Mode consists of 2-4 fights per character and you can beat all of the stories within 90-120 minutes. After that, it’s just Survival Mode and that’s not the kind of mode that you usually want to play for very long.

Survival Mode on Easy is very doable. It’s only 10 matches long and you should be able to beat it with everyone without any kind of struggle. Normal Mode gets very difficult as the first 25 matches are super easy, but then the difficulty ramps up to Hard Mode for the final 2 fights. It’s always very annoying to make it to the very end only to lose. Hard Mode is 50 fights and once again it’s easy until the very end where you’ll lose at the final level. I’ve only beaten this difficulty with Ken so far. After that is Hell Mode, which is an incredible 100 levels. I made it to the 70’s I believe, but it’s so time consuming that I’m definitely not tempted to give it another whirl anytime soon.

So, when you keep that in mind, you’re paying 60 dollars for what will amount to around 4 hours of fun gameplay and then you’re stuck unless you really like Survival Mode. Survival Mode is unique in the sense that you can spend your score to buy things like extra health or power, but it also makes the mode a lot longer as it needs to load between every match and it’s why the longer difficulties can be over an hour long. This game is really meant to be played for local versus mode and online. I can’t fault the gameplay so it succeeds there, but there is no excuse to not have other modes like Arcade or Trials.

A disclaimer is the fact that they are all coming for free soon. It’s just obvious that the game was released way before it was ready. What would probably get an easy 9 is definitely bumped down to an 8 for me. I may update the score with a brief update post at the end of this once more updates are here, but the question is…was it worth it to release the game this early? I’m going to say yes to be honest since I’m still glad that I got to play the game right away, but I can definitely see both sides. Some things are inexcusable like the long loading times and the fact that there is no penalty for rage quitting. That’s really bad and has been hurting a lot of people in the higher ranks.

The soundtrack is great and an easy 5/5. All of the themes are inspirational and they get you in the mood for some good fights. I have no qualms there. The stage selection is really small and I would have liked some more maps. I barely even notice them to be honest, but some are clearly better than others and more variety is never a bad thing. I don’t see why the game has no more maps unless….it’s going to be for DLC! The graphics are also very solid. I’m definitely not a fan of the character designs and the illustrations in Story Mode can be comically bad at times, but you can tell that a lot of effort went into the game as a whole. The graphics are certainly top notch, but it’s not as visually striking as Super Smash Bros.

Another big issue with the game is naturally the fact that it’s going to be very DLC heavy. There are already 6 DLC characters planned this year along with Premium costumes. The game is expected to be supported for many years to come so it’s actually very likely that we will get at least 20 DLC characters or more by the time this is through. Supposedly there will be no other versions and this original one will always be relevant. Whether that is fully true or not, it is good to know since I wouldn’t buy any new versions. They’ll probably have some updates, but it’ll be in place of buying them separately. I definitely won’t spend any money on SF V, but the good news is that I won’t have too. There’s a new feature here called Fight Money. Every 100,000 that you collect is enough to buy 1 character. I currently have 300000 so I can buy the first 3 and the upcoming modes should be enough for me to earn some more. There’s already enough in Survival Mode to get over 1 Million I believe, but good luck beating Hell Mode with everyone. I’m sure that some people will manage to do it and I’ll be thoroughly impressed, but it’s too time consuming to be worth it to me. Still, the concept of fight money is very progressive and an awesome move on Capcom’s part. This is something that I can get behind.

Also, as mentioned earlier, the online component is very good. It’s heavily sophisticated and I’ll admit that it makes Nintendo’s look bad by comparison. You can look up any player by their tag and then watch every battle that they’ve ever had. So, you want to learn some Ryu combos? No problem, look up the highest ranking Ryu players in the world and just sit back as you take in the matches. I can’t emphasize enough how incredible this feature is. Everything’s out in the open now and there are no restrictions. Naturally, this means that all of you matches can be viewed as well, but it’s a good accountability features. Now if someone claims that you didn’t actually beat them, you can just point to the profile. It’s quite possibly the best new online feature that I’ve ever seen. While waiting for a ranked match, you can also chill out in Survival Mode or Train a little. Everything is connected and the game even tells you if you’re an offensive or defensive player. There are full ranks and tiers as well unlike Super Smash where there sadly isn’t a system like that. I deeply wish that there was and you could bet that I’d be playing a ton of For Glory every day if that was ever implemented. Ah well, it’s how it goes.

As for each individual character, Chun Li’s style is my favorite so far. Unlike Ryu and Ken, I don’t really know most of her specials at the moment, but she gave me the most success online where it counts so that’s definitely a good sign. I also heard that she was one of the better fighters in the game so that helped. In a game like this one, they’re all “One of the better fighters” so it may not be saying a whole lot, but she’s officially my main. My secondary is Ken. He’s just so easy and intuitive to play. I also gained a lot of respect for him in this game as he’s portrayed as a really cool character. I also like the redesign that he got as well as the emphasis on all of his fire moves.

Ryu is a close third and his attacks are tried and true. It’s cool how just about all of his attacks and combos have endured since the original Street Fighter. I don’t care for his personality and how it was depicted here though. Look at SF IV and Super Smash for how he should be acting. I suppose Cammy would be my 4th best character. Like Chun Li she’s really quick and has a lot of good offensive tools to work with. Not to mention that she seems more heroic than most of the fighters in her game and I can get behind her goal of trying to save everyone. 5th place would be Laura. It’s safe to say that I won’t be playing her very much, but her combos and command grabs are really good. If you land the hit, you’re almost guaranteed a grab and that’s a blast against opponents who like to block a lot.

6th is Bison. He’s a little slow for me, which is what hurts him, but he’s very cool. Since Akuma is not in the game, he’s the best villain by far and all of his attacks remind me of Bass EXE, which is really neat. I’m going with Nash next although it’s really close. He’s similar to Ryu, but maybe a little stronger while sacrificing some of Ryu’s safer moves. His final smash is definitely really cool and the teleporting gimmick never gets old. After that would be Karin. She’s a little slower than the other heroines, but her combos are very long and powerful. You can basically link two special attacks into a Critical Art and the laugh at the end of it is certainly classic. I have very little experience with her as most of what I’ve seen is from visual experience rather than hands on.

As a character I can’t stand Birdie, but sadly his controls are actually pretty good. His command grabs are great and they come out of nowhere so your opponent needs to have very fast reflexes to keep up or he’ll be completely overwhelmed. Now we’re getting to the characters that I’m not a big fan of. Mika has a lot of the tools that the others possess, but I just find her hard to use. Likewise, Necalli is strong, but he feels so slow and I haven’t been able to get a hang of his combos. Rashid is the most perplexing character as he feels like he should be very fast and easy to use, but he just isn’t. Dhalsim’s great since you can spam his long range, but he’s incredibly slow and even worse..he’s boring to play as. I don’t care if he becomes top tier, I just can’t play as this guy. Zangief has no projectile which is a huge no no plus he’s a slow character. That’s a lose-lose situation if you ask me. Vega’s just incredibly weak and jumps around too much. F.A.N.G.’s another slow/boring character who I wanted to stop playing immediately. Trust me, he’s not someone that you want to play and I haven’t seen anyone use him yet so I’m guessing that a lot of people feel the same way.

Overall, Street Fighter V is a phenomenal game. I can see why some people already call it the greatest fighting game of all time. I will never say that as Super Smash Bros wins by a long shot, but aside from that?….Yeah, I think this may earn the title. It’s amazing just how well balanced and diverse the characters and their gameplay are considering that there are only 16 at the moment. I could easily play this for hours on end (When the free PS+ weekends are around) and I’m still partially a button masher at this point. It’s just such a fun game and everything about it just reeks of high quality. It’s definitely a very incomplete game at the moment, but if you have PS+ then you’ll barely notice. If you don’t…just play Survival Mode until you can’t take it anymore and then put the game down until March hits with the first new character and a lot of new features.

Overall 8/10

Avengers Battle For Earth Review

Posted on February 15, 2016 by dreager1

I’ve wanted to get this Avengers game for years. Ever since it first came out, the game has looked like a blast and a half. Alas, it just never quite made the cut when I was looking to buy games for Christmas or my Birthday. Well, the wait is over and the game has certainly lived up to my expectations. It’s great even if you can tell that it’s not exactly a AAA title of technical mastery. A sequel would have definitely been a blast.

The plot of the game is based on the Secret Invasion arc from the comics. Skrulls have taken over the planet through deception and the heroes have to weed the fakes out from among the real heroes. The best way to do that is to beat them all up and that’s exactly what the heroes do. Some villains even decide to join in by the end like Magneto, Loki, Venom, and Dr Doom. Together, these guys can’t lose to the Skrulls right!?

The main campaign for the game is fairly short. There are 40 battles and each battle is a best of 3. Each individual round can sometimes only take about 10-20 seconds while the later battle are harder. This is one of the only games that you can play and complete for the most part with your eyes closed. With the exception of the final level in each of the 5 areas (5 Areas with 8 levels each) all of the battles can be won by simply flicking the nunchuck’s control stick up. Do that and you’re guaranteed to win just about every fight. It’s probably one of the easiest games of all time.

You can take a snooze while playing if you really want too. Granted, you can also use the Gamepad for similar results. Surprisingly, I found that the Wii Remote is much more effective in this game. Using special attacks is much quicker with that setup, which gives you a noticeable advantage in battle. For the remotes, you just have to flail around. For the gamepad, you have to draw the correct shape to use the attack. It’ll work out if you just main 2 characters and memorize the shapes, but if you’re playing around with a bunch of characters, you’ll be at a noticeable disadvantage. Such is the fate of Gamepad users this time around although I’ll admit that it may feel like more of an actual fighting game since you can just keep on swinging to victory with the Wii Remote.

The main reason why I used the Wii Remote in the first place was that using the Gamepad meant that you could only see the cutscenes on it. A work around is using the Wii Remote to shift the camera angle, but then you have to do that for every fight, which can get quite tedious. It’s an odd feature and one of the main hints that this isn’t your big budget 60$ Avengers game.

If fans were mad that Super Smash Bros had a few clone characters, they would be furious at this game. All of the characters are essentially clones. Sure, there are some cosmetic changes to the attacks, but every fighter basically has the same 5 moves along with a final smash. Some look better than others, but aside from the gestures being different (Or in different areas anyway as it cycles from around 5) you’re basically playing the same character the entire time. Hey, I said that it was fun, not that it was high budget!

The graphics are decently good, although this is where I may disagree with some of the reviews. The character models aren’t incredibly detailed and can come across as a little “free to play.” Certainly not what you’d consider Next Gen, but a lot of the attacks are very flashy and the character designs are all on point. The opening movie was a blast even if the graphics would not wow someone. The fights were neat to see and the animation certainly isn’t bad. It’s not great, but it works for me and I was satisfied with what I saw. Once again, I have to point out that all of the energy attacks look great.

The game also has an epic feeling to it. The story mode is actually really engaging. It’s a shame that there are only 11 big cutscenes in the whole game as the other levels just get a quick line of dialogue. Still, the cutscenes that we do get really show the importance of why comic panels can be good if used right and not as rather uninspired pages like in Mario Galaxy 2. The game’s ending also leads up to Siege/Dark Reign, which would have made for a very enjoyable sequel. Obviously, this game did not succeed nearly enough to warrant a sequel, but boy would I have enjoyed one!

The soundtrack’s a little forgettable, although it wasn’t bad. Mostly the themes are the kinds of music that you would expect from a game that doesn’t want to spend a lot in that area. Luckily, the presentation before the fights is always good as each character has a quick introduction and the 2 vs 2 format works well. It pops out at you and the matches feel really official. I wouldn’t mind Super Smash Bros taking a cue from that and having a similar introduction for 2 on 2 battles someday. It could be optional of course so it wouldn’t always slow a match down.

I can’t say that there is a whole lot of replay value though. You can finish Story Mode in under 2 hours and probably much quicker than that if you’re good at spamming the nunchuk control stick. Once you’ve beaten the game, you can play Arcade Mode, Challenges, or Trials to unlock costumes and character panels to use as your avatar. The unfortunate part is that there is a lot of on disc DLC like Street Fighter X Tekken. Some of these things you have to buy on the E Shop and others are related to UPlay. I’m not sure if UPlay is even up and running anymore, but either way it’s always unfortunate. I’m cool with DLC, but don’t clutter the mission select with it. As a result, my Game Completion% looks a lot smaller than it should because the DLC is actually counted. Boooo. There’s really no reason to play the game again unless you want to have a good multiplayer match.

Naturally, that’s the big hook of the game. The multiplayer is a lot of fun and even if it is a total button masher, it’s the kind of fighting game that is easy to play and you can have a lot of rounds in it without getting bored. It’s like a discount version of Marvel vs Capcom 3. Certainly not as good as that game when it comes to gameplay, replay value, graphics, or soundtrack, but it’s good for Wii U fans who want a piece of the action. The character roster is also quite good with non Avengers like Dr. Doom, Venom, Spider Man, and the Phoenix. It may just be me, but I feel like Phoenix is the strongest fighter in the game, although Black Widow has the best charge attack. You can easily defeat a foe just by spamming her slide attack. It’s quick and packs a punch.

Overall, Battle For Earth is a game that’s worth your investment. The price isn’t all that high nowadays anyway and you’ll be surprised at how well done the gameplay is. Considering that the game must have had a limited budget, it’s actually very exciting. There’s voice acting for all of the characters, the avatar pictures are cool, and the character roster is solid. Not to mention that the opening scene was a blast as well. The whole game had an epic feel to it, yet you can still tell that a higher budget would have improved the game immensely. I can only imagine how much fun a sequel would have been. Naturally, this game is best if you have someone to play it with you, but if not there’s still enough here to satisfy you with the single player experience.

Overall 8/10

Dragon Ball Z Extreme Butoden Review

Posted on January 10, 2016 by dreager1

It’s been a while since I got to play a new DBZ game so now I’ve finally gotten to end that draught. It’s great that the Butoden series has finally reached America. DBZ has had many great series like Budokai and Tenkaichi so this just adds onto that list. The fact of the matter is, DBZ has a great track record with the video games. Battle of Z was a little disappointing and likewise with Ultimate Tenkaichi, but most of the games are all stars that didn’t just start out as amazing titles, but have withstood the test of time. This one is a portable incarnation so it may not have the same amount of depth as some of the other DBZ fighters, but certainly enough to keep you going for quite a while and the gameplay is solid.

There is a story mode in the game, which briefly covers the manga series. They cover it all in 10 battles so you can imagine that this is a heavily abridged version. It can be quite funny to go through if you pretend that you’ve never seen the show since you would be seeing a very different version of the events. There are also “What If” stories for many of the main characters like Goku and Vegeta. I use the quotation marks since they can barely considered What Ifs as you are mostly just going through the story mode from their points of view. A pretty big missed opportunity if you ask me. A fun What If was the final story that you unlocked after beating the others though, which shows it all from the villains point of view. We get to see Broly and Bardock with new origin stories to fit them into the canon universe and it’s pretty fun. The story doesn’t make a whole lot of sense though and most of the events have no real logic or rhythm to it, but these things happen.

The soundtrack is solid and there are quite a few good tunes to be found in the game. The action themes are memorable and there are a few good villain themes as well. It’s a very small soundtrack, but one that works quite well. The graphics are good as well and should remind you of the classic DBZ arcade games. It’s fun to see the characters standing tall, which makes the fighting gameplay more fun. It’s part of the appeal for the Street Fighter games. You like to have tall 2D fighters who aren’t minified so that you can really feel the combos. The opening cutscene that plays when you turn the game on is also really good and it’s always great when the DBZ games add this in for that extra impact. You can see some cool hypothetical battles this way.

As far as the character roster goes, there are 25 playable characters. You’ll be able to play as just about all of them in the story modes, but not all of them so that gives you an incentive to play some regular battles or enter the Adventure Mode. Adventure Mode greatly helps the replay value of the title since it’s quite long and should provide you with a bit of a challenge. There are around 75 support characters who will jump in to help you if things get rough. Naturally, these allies are extremely useful if you decide to increase the difficulty or if you want to play the game competitively. I never really used them and just focused on my standard combos, but that’s not technically the right way to go about this.

As for the core gameplay, think of it as your average 2D fighter. You have your normal combos and projectiles to mix things up. Each combo can be extended and you can also knock an opponent into the sky to start following up with some aerial attacks. The two dimensions are fun and having support characters naturally deepens the actual combat system. On easier difficulties, you can get by with just spamming the Y button over and over again (Which is what I did) but naturally that won’t work against stronger opponents. The gameplay is definitely solid and that’s certainly the most important part of the game.

As referenced earlier, there is definitely a lot of replay value to be found here. You can play through all of the stories and complete Adventure Mode. Doing all of the stories should take around 4 hours and I’m not sure how long Adventure Mode is. There are a variety of other modes to delve into and the fact that this is a fighting game also strengthens the replay value since it can be fun to just pop it in and start winning once in a while. If you have a friend who owns the game, then all the better!

I looked around and it seems like Japan has online play for this game. At the time, the U.S. version did not and I can’t tell if we ever got the mode. If we didn’t, that’s a little unfortunate, but certainly not a dealbreaker as I wasn’t really planning on doing online all that much anyway. If it does/did get patched in, that’ll still be a fun bonus though. Online play is the future and as long as it doesn’t come at the expense of local play, then it’s always worth it.

Overall, Dragon Ball Z Extreme Butoden is a solid fighting game and a nice way to continue the DBZ saga. It’s good to see the series alive and well as the franchise is getting its second wind with the new Dragon Ball Super anime and other merchandise that is now readily available. I look forward to getting some more Dragon Ball Z games eventually. I definitely recommend this title and any fighting game fan should definitely enjoy it.

Overall 8/10

Kirby’s Dream Collection Review

Posted on January 3, 2016 by dreager1

This was definitely a very big title when it first came out and it’s safe to say that just about everyone was hyped to finally get to play this big masterpiece. The Dream Collection brought back 6 classic Kirby games to introduce them to the new generation. I haven’t really played any Kirby game before aside from the classic Epic Yarn so this was an enticing offer. I stayed my hand for a while until Christmas rolled around and then I made my move. I was able to blast through the games and can definitely say that it was worth the money. The Kirby series is here to stay. I’ll go through this review game by game.

Kirby’s Adventure is a fun little Kirby game. You got to suck up monsters and get their abilities, which was cool, but I decided not to use it. The ability’s not really worth it, nor would it be until Kirby 64. There’s not a whole lot to say about this game since the plot is fairly direct and not really deep…until the ending. The twist that King Dedede was just trying to help out is brilliant and Nightmare is super cool. The final boss is really intense and has the best final boss theme from any Kirby game. It’s also very difficult as you try to face off against both forms and I won with just one health point remaining. It’s truly a well crafted boss battle. Difficult, but never unfair. It’s all about learning the patterns and pressing on as you try to take the win. Kirby’s Adventure started the series off with the deep plots so I’ll give it credit for that. The graphics also look quite good considering how old it is.

Kirby’s Dreamland was the first of the Kirby games. It’s really short as this came out a while back and the plot is fairly minimal, but it was a fun way to start off the collection. I took to the air quite a bit as you could “break” most of the levels that way since dodging enemies became an easy thing to do. It’s slower than dashing so that’s the cost that you have to pay for choosing such a strategy, but it was worth it for me. The gameplay was simple and effective. You could pick up the game and 5 minutes later, you’d know what to do. Facing off against King Dedede and his cronies is also fun because the iconic character keeps his moveset across every single one of the Kirby games so there is definitely a strong sense of continuity across the titles. King Dedede also seems to be misunderstood and is actually a nice guy once you get to know him.

The sequel was naturally an improvement over the first. Kirby’s Dreamland 2 did everything that the first had done and also made some improvements. For starters, I actually liked the gimmick of having animal sidekicks to help out. When you would jump on one of them, you would gain a second health bar (For the animal) and then you could use their respective abilities. Super swimming, faster flying, etc. They were very helpful and while you couldn’t use your sucking ability while on them, you could still deal a lot of damage and didn’t have to worry about taking damage. This game also improved on the plot angle as the Kirby series finally began to get high tier in terms of the power levels. This was the first time that the Dark Matter would appear and the aerial boss fight was epic. You needed to do bonus things in the game to reach the final, final boss so I didn’t get to play it myself, but looked up videos of it afterwards. It’s impressive that the Kirby games had such cool final bosses back in the day. Kirby is certainly a skilled swordsman.

Kirby’s Dreamland 3 took a few steps forwards while also taking a step back. The main negative that I had with this game was the fact that while on the animals, you did not get an extra health bar this time. As a result, I avoided them entirely. I also avoided obtaining any special abilities because most of them simply are not worth it. Sucking up enemies is still the best way to play if you ask me. This was the first Kirby game where I actually didn’t spend a whole lot of time in the air. Flying felt slow for some reason so instead I played the games more like how they were meant to be enjoyed, on the ground. It was fun and I do enjoy playing that way even if I took more damage. This was the first Kirby game where I didn’t get any Game Overs though so that was a plus. The final bosses were even cooler in this title and the games continued to have that dark, cosmic angle that Nintendo’s other titles did not have. The stakes continued to get higher and higher, but things would really get ramped up in Kirby 64.

Kirby Superstar is a party game that’s mixed in with the other Kirby games. I’ll admit that I spent the least amount of time here compared to the other titles. Since it’s less plot oriented I suppose that I just gave it lower priority. I do like the fact that it feels like an Arcade Game. One of the minigames essentially plays out like a mini Kirby’s Dreamland, but with arcade gameplay. It’s hard to describe, but everything is just a little simpler and more to the point so you can dash through the levels and take the win. Absorbing abilities is actually useful here although it’s odd that the Gamecube controls randomly switched over a little here. It should be noted that you actually can exit a minigame once you start it. Just hold A and B along with 1 and 2 on the Wii remote and it’ll take you back to the main menu. A great way to get out of a jam. Another minigame is a reaction test one where you have to use a hammer to smash a star in half. It’s why Kirby’s so massively powerful..he just can’t be stopped! There’s another reaction test where it’s a sword duel. The minigames hold up quite well and make for a fun experience.

Finally, we had Kirby 64 in this collection. It was the first 3Dish Kirby game and also played out more like a home console experience than the others. We got full cutscenes this time and a big team up as Kirby allied with King Dedede and some other friends. Dark Matter and Dark Star are back and are corrupting everyone with the powers of darkness. It was very intense to make it to the ending as we actually get a horror esque stinger unless you have enough of the gems to see the true ending. Man, that’s definitely an ending that would scare and excite a lot of people and I wish that Nintendo would have more endings like this. Certainly the best ending to a Kirby game and one of the best endings to a Nintendo game in general. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, this was easily my favorite Kirby game. I beat it very quickly in a few hours and didn’t get any game overs as I stuck to the ground, but the plot and the fun gameplay are why I really enjoyed it. The stages had a nice amount of variety and I actually used the abilities a little bit this time since you could always just spit them out and use them as a powerful projectile. Finally, I had a reason to absorb these abilities. It’s not hard to see why Kirby 64 can be seen as the ultimate Kirby game. It’s really tough to top it and Kirby continues to show us why he’s a great lead. His physical powers are amazing and the aerial fights at the end continue to help show why he’s a top tier fighter. Kirby 64 is short, but that’s fine since it’s such a great game.

This collection is certainly jammed pack with content and you can imagine how much replay value is in store here as well. There are lots of things to do even once you have beaten the main stories. You can go back to each game and collect the necessary artifacts to grab the secret endings and each game will take you quite a while to pull that off. The games are also a lot of fun so you can easily just replay the stories for the fun of it all.

The soundtrack from the games is certainly great as well. It’s a blast to hear all of the iconic Kirby themes from over the years. Many of them have certainly become popular through the Super Smash Bros. series and you can see where the popular fighting/party game series got a lot of inspiration from Kirby. Melee’s Adventure Mode as well as Brawl’s Subspace adventure incorporated a lot of elements from the classic Kirby games including the colored walls that would try to squish you and the gameplay in general. It’s like a great blast to the past.

Overall, Kirby’s Dream Collection is a must buy for all Kirby fans and even just for anyone who likes a good platformer. You can’t go wrong with the Kirby games and each one is fairly short so most can be beaten in a day. I typically tried to beat 1.5 Kirby games per day and it was a strategy that worked out quite well. In particular, Kirby 64 and the first Kirby game are probably the shortest ones and you’ll beat them before you know it. A lot of levels can be broken by flying the whole time in each game, but it comes at the expense of speed so you have to decide if it’s worth it. I did that for the first 3 games and then for the final ones, I mostly stuck to the ground. So, it really depends on how you like to play since both work out. The game officially came with a soundtrack, but my copy didn’t bring it. That’s fine, but worth noting as it is why I did not discuss the soundtrack CD in the review. Once you’ve played the collection, you can properly compare it to other 2D titles like DK and Mario. Mario still wins out for me, but Kirby holds its own. I look forward to playing more Kirby games in the future, I’ll probably end up getting Kirby’s mirror and the DS games before I get the next big title, but eventually I aim to complete the Dreamland saga.

Overall 8/10

Transformers Devastation Review

Posted on October 22, 2015 by dreager1

It’s been a decent while since the last Transformers game although the gap wasn’t incredibly long or anything like that. Devastation got a lot of hype before it came out and I was certainly on board as well since my favorite iteration of the Transformers would be returning. The game lives up to the hype and then some with the only weakness being the game’s short length. Aw well, short games let me really feel the experience in a short burst so I can roll with that.

It starts out like a classic Transformers episode. The Decepticons are causing trouble so the Autobots storm the city to save everyone. The humans have already been evacuated so they don’t need to worry about that, but hundreds of insecticons have flooded the city and Megatron’s plans for conquest are not even close to being finished. He wants to terraform the planet…or cyberform in this case so that Cybertron can virtually live on Earth again. Prime and the other Autobots are a little hesitant to stop him because it may involve destroying the entire history of Cybertron (Kept on a device) but if it’s the only way…then they shall be ready!

Devastation is a very fast paced game. You’re thrown right into the action and are confronted with bosses and enemies at every turn. The game was done by Platinum and I mostly know them for their reputation through Bayonetta as one of the best game developers in the biz. I can certainly see why they are known as such a great company as the gameplay is tight and very exciting. The focus is more on hand to hand than in shooting down your enemies and while Transformers Prime attempted this first, Devastation does it best. You’re essentially in a 3D fighting game while playing. There are numerous combos that you can use with each character and the weapons system allows you to keep crafting bigger and better weapons. You can also level up your characters to really get an edge in the battles.

There’s even a counter/dodge system in place. Essentially, if you dodge right before an opponent attacks, time will slow down and then you can really hand out the pounding. The timing is surprisingly tricky and a nice test for your reflexes. The A.I. is also nice and strong on Normal so I can imagine that they are quite impressive on hard. To an extent, their ability to break any of your combos is a little OP and I did have to retry one or two bosses a few times as they could be OP at times, but the gameplay is really fun so you definitely won’t mind doing the battles again. The combat system is really good and it’s nice to see Platinum really give the game their all.

That’s why it is disappointing that there is no multiplayer mode here. If ever a game needed a multiplayer option other than Mario Maker, it’s this one. Granted, the gameplay may be a little too advanced and intense to incorporate a multiplayer…that’s the argument that I can envision people making. If we can do Super Smash Bros or Dead or Alive, I’m sure that this game could have pulled it off. It would have added some nice replay value and simply would have been a great feature to have at the ready.

The graphics are very good. The faces could be surprisingly cartoony at times as the villains will make all kinds of faces at you, but it’s all in good fun. G1 was a great series in part because of its great character development and action, but also for the camp factor. I also liked the cutscenes where the heroes got to fight, albeit briefly and seeing more of that would have been awesome. The visuals certainly hold up quite well and I dare say that the game looks better than the other Transformer titles. It’s close though since the War for Cybertron series does look quite good.

In terms of music, there’s never been a Transformers game that was more impressive. Just about every musical piece is a guitar strum or some kind of epic rock music. Your blood will be pumping through every fight and the game feels that much more epic. It’s like being in an episode and you can duke it out with all of the classic villains. There are 3-5 bosses per level and that means you will be in store for quite a lot of action. It’s why I recommend saving your signature skill for when they show up.

Due to getting the game through Gamestop, we got Nemesis Prime and the Dark Starsaber unlocked from the get go. I equipped it after the first 3 missions and the weapon is quite useful. The shockwaves that it sends out are huge and deal a considerable amount of damage. You don’t have to worry about it becoming pay to win as you can easily find comparable sword attack-wise within the game, but the visuals are what really makes the weapon a lot of fun to use. You can opt to mainly use guns, but close quarters combat definitely has the edge in this title.

This game would have been an easy 9, but the story mode’s short length is definitely something that needs to be mentioned. There are only 7 levels and while the first two are decently long, they get a lot shorter after that. I beat the game in around 3 hours and did have fun grabbing some collectibles so it’s certainly possible to complete it quicker than t hat. Sure, there is replay scattered throughout the game, but without a multiplayer option either, I feel like deducting a star is worth it. Especially for the current price. Drop it down to 20 and that will help your case.

As for what the replay value entails, there are a lot of collectibles throughout the levels. That will take you some time to grab them all. There’s also a Mission Mode with 50 missions to tackle and they were pretty fun from what I saw. You’ll mainly be replaying parts of the story mode there. Finally, you also want to get all of the trophies to obtain the Platinum. The trophies are fair and don’t seem too hard, just time consuming. In a sense, all Platinums should be this way as you should need dedication without trying a level 1000 times. It’s a fair compromise I’d say.

Don’t forget to stick around for the after credits scene. It sets up the sequel quite well and you can tell that the boss will make for an intense antagonist. I’d be very hyped for a sequel although it’ll hopefully have a multiplayer mode or be a little longer. I feel like Platinum was aiming to make this title feel like an Arcade Game with its dynamic action scenes and quick soundtrack. If this was an Arcade Game, then 3 hours wouldn’t be so bad. I definitely trust that they will continue to make the gameplay 5 star material in a sequel.

Overall, if you’re a big fan of the original Transformers anime, you’re going to love this title. If you like action games where you are constantly fighting, then this is also right up your alley. The game really handled the gameplay perfectly and did justice to the Transformers name. Few franchises can say that they’ve consistently had 8 star games over and over again, but Transformers manages to pull it off. The only game in the franchise that I didn’t care for all that much was Animated and it still wasn’t downright bad. If you picked this up, let me know what you thought of it.

Overall 8/10

The Amazing Spider Man Review

Posted on August 4, 2015 by dreager1

After looking at the cover in Gamestop for a very long time, I finally took the plunge and bought this title. There was no chance that the game would be under a 7 due to the style of gameplay and how fun the Spider Man games are so it was a safe investment. While the graphics and plot may not have been the greatest, the solid gameplay ensured that Spiderman has hit it out of the park once again. Spiderman may not be the best in all forms of entertainment, but when it comes to video games, no superhero consistently dishes out such great titles!

The plot of the game takes place after the first Amazing Spider Man movie. Smythe has taken over Oscorp and is developing a lot of robots to protect the city. Unfortunately, a virus gets out from one of the old human/animal hybrid experiments that had been going on. The city quickly becomes infected and Smythe orders the robots to destroy everyone. The only way to protect the human race is to eradicate it of course! Spiderman breaks The Lizard out of jail so that a cure can be developed. Will Connors be able to make one in time or is the city doomed!?

So, the plot is rather standard and I wouldn’t call it that engaging. It does try to play out a little like a movie, which is commendable, but probably utilizes the first person camera angle too much. We rarely get to see Spiderman on camera except for when you’re doing the Xtreme challenges later on. It’s also interesting to note that most of the bosses have nothing to do with the plot either. Spiderman just randomly runs across them while going from place to place. Just about every boss is a hybrid in this version so they are basically immune to the virus. The other bosses are typically robots.

The cutscenes do provide some unintentionally funny scenes though like when Peter and Connors are yelling at each other after the first cure doesn’t work. They keep spinning each other around trying to be menacing, but failing epicly and then Peter just faints. That was certainly not his best moment although I’m sure that he gave it his all. I felt bad for Stan Lee’s apartment though as Peter allows Connor’s to trash the place and also use up a lot of Stan’s money. The poor guy can’t catch a break right?

As for the graphics, I can safely say that they haven’t aged too well. It’s mostly that I don’t really like the style/colors that were used. Everything looks detailed, but in more of an unattractive/ugly way than the polished Spiderman 1/2/3 games for the Gamecube/PS3. Those games as well as the original PS1 titles just look better than The Amazing Spider Man. That’s just how it goes sometimes I suppose, but I expect better from a PS3 title. The soundtrack is really good though and the fast paced themes will really make web slinging around the city a lot of fun. The bosses and minions are also more engaging as a result. It may have the best themes in a Spiderman game as most of the other games were not that memorable in that respect.

All right, time to talk about the gameplay! That’s the aspect where the game really hit it out of the park. The hand to hand clashes have never been better as you are really in full control of when you want to dodge, web out of the fight, web the opponent, or throw some punches. The way that the controls are set up makes it so easy and so enjoyable. You could really just have fun beating up the opponents for quite a while, but if you are in a hurry then you can just throw something to stun them. Of course, the point is that you will rarely want the fights to end! Naturally, the boss battles are an extension of this and you will have fun laying into them. If you want to crush them all with ease, my favorite strategy is to punch, punch, punch, web away when the spider sense flashes, then immediately web back to them and punch some more. It works quite well for most of the bosses.

The web swinging part got a lot of mixed to negative reception back in the day and it is quite different. I’ll certainly admit that it’s weaker than it was in the older games. Webbing higher and lower is more difficult than it should be here and you also feel like molasses at times. Luckily, that’s what we have Web Zipping for. Also, it’s still not bad though and just doesn’t live up to the older games. I also like the free fall aspect as I have fun free falling for the lolz. It’s a nice effect.

Everything’s just so smooth and that’s a good thing because the game has a very nice amount of replay value. Naturally, collecting all of the trophies ensures that and I am actually aiming for the Platinum in this title at some point. For starters, there are 700 comic book pages to collect. No matter how fast you are at completing the levels, this is bound to take you some time. Playing the game in the night setting is the best way to go about this. There are also 20 Xtreme challenges to complete although those are rather short. There are a lot of people to rescue on the streets, Getaway Cars to snag, Police Copters to Assist, and many other missions throughout the city. We can’t forget the classic “Stop the muggers” missions that are a staple in the Spider Man series. The missions aren’t excessive, but they will definitely bump up the play time. You’ll also need to beat the game on hard mode to get some of the final trophies while also taking a lot of photos. The post game content is long without feeling over the top in terms of how much grinding you will have to do.

While it’s essentially been mentioned, I can’t stress enough how great it is for the city to be back here. Just web slinging across the city for no real reason can be a lot of fun and I missed that feature when they took it out for Edge of Time and Shattered Dimensions. Seeing it back in its full glory was great and the game did a tremendous job of recreating the place. You may even recognize some areas as you explore the place. I also liked the twitter feed that the game added during the loading screen. It’s cool to see what everyone’s saying as the disease spreads. I think it was a bit of a missed opportunity as there were no guest stars there are hidden references, but it was still a blast.

Overall, The Amazing Spider Man is a really good game for the PS3. It really keeps in all of the core Spider Man features that you have come to expect over the years. The plot isn’t as engaging as any of the older games (Friend or Foe not counting) and especially pales when compared to Edge of Time. Still, the gameplay will always be the most important factor for a game and it’s so much fun that the game will really pass by before you know it. The replay value just adds to the excitement! I would have liked some bonus costumes to wear though as those were fun in older games. Maybe I just haven’t found them yet. I highly recommend buying this game and you can experience the city like you used too!

Overall 8/10

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Category Archives: 8 Star Games

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Transformers Devastation Review

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