Minority Report Everybody Runs Review

Posted on July 21, 2014 by dreager1

On my video game quest to own all of the games worth owning, I sometimes like to take a step back and aim for a game that’s from the older generation. I got this one a quarter year ago and I have to say that it was easily worth the 4 dollars. This is one of the greatest movie tie ins that I’ve ever played and maybe The best one not including games that tied into superhero films. You don’t want to miss this action packed experience!

The plot is from the film I believe, but it involves a man by the name of John. He works at an organization where they target people who will commit crimes in the future and then take them out personally or lock them up in prison. One day, the future seers have a vision that John ends up murdering someone, but it’s not a unanimous decision as one of them does not report this. John knows that something is up and he aims to get to the bottom of this. Unfortunately, the entire agency made up of hundreds of fighters is out to get him. Will John be able to find out the truth about his alleged murder or will he be stopped in time!?

Since the game is based off of the film, I typically wouldn’t talk about any of the characters. I won’t here either, but I do have to comment that John made for a pretty good protagonist. He made the hero calls when necessary and he never lost sight of his goal. After experiencing a lot of twists and turns throughout his journey, John’s first words in the final level when meeting the final boss are “You’re under arrest.” Now that’s a dedicated hero!

The gameplay is where Minority Report really knocks it out of the park. It’s a mix of third person shooter and a 3D fighting game like Bouncer. It makes for the perfect blend of action types into the combat system. Shooting is pretty easy and linear as you have several guns. All of them are incredibly useful to a fight, but you don’t want to waste the ammo. More on that in a bit. The hand to hand combat techniques are surprisingly deep and there are about as many different combos in this game (20+) as in the average superhero game. You really feel the blows, but simple button mashing won’t be enough as you continue to progress through the game. You need something a little different.

What really makes the game interesting is how challenging it is. You don’t have a certain amount of ammo in each level. It really depends and sometimes you’ll be running on empty. You can spend some cash on it so have a temporary edge to beat the level, but then it can hurt you in the long run. Likewise, you can buy a permanent upgrade like extra health, but you’ll need to last through around 5+ levels without buying anything to work up the funds. Each choice has its amount of ups and downs. The items also aren’t unlimited for some of the temporary power ups like armor or an ultimate shield. I saved the armor for the final boss because…it’s the right thing to do. Trust me, you’ll want to save it! A helpful tip for the final boss is to use any combo that starts with A>B because it will stun her every time, which makes the boss fight a cakewalk after you get the hang of it.

Defeating any of the robots without a gun is very tough and almost impossible to be honest. They don’t flinch and you can’t risk more than 3 hits at a time or they will counter and knock you to the ground. Likewise, all bosses are impervious to guns as they’ll just jump over it or flip to the side. (With one exception.) This definitely forces you to think strategically about how you’ll want to tackle each situation. Saving up your bullets can be a wise move, but sometimes they can be useful to disperse a large crowd of attackers so that you can run by them. An attack that is really a must if you are to survive is the quick slide tackle. It can trip up opponents and deal damage so you should spam it to get the melee fighters out of the way so that you can target the gun fighters.

I also have to say that the game did a great job with the level designs. They do recycle a few old levels during the game, but the plot demands this since he goes to old locations. I especially loved the levels that take place inside of the base and the ones in the city. You actually get a jet pack to use for a few of the levels and it definitely comes in handy. It’s an amazing piece of technology and the gameplay for it is sound. You can move at high speeds and ram opponents to the ground instead of fighting them in hand to hand combat. Proceed with care though because the long range fighters are really good at hitting you no matter how fast you’re going.

The game doesn’t really have any replay value, which can be a little discouraging, but the actual story is pretty long. It contains 40 levels, which is certainly a lot more than one may have expected. The levels aren’t terribly long, but they’re long enough that you’ll feel like you got a good deal from the game. Not to mention that playing it at a higher difficulty will make things interesting. It was already very difficult at some points during the initial playthrough and the other levels of difficulty must be insanely tough. Playing through those would definitely be a fun challenge and that would likely keep you entertained for quite a while. (I would give it a whirl, but I have too many other games to try out….)

The soundtrack is great as you tend to expect from a Gamecube game. The random battle themes that play during the game are all very fast paced and they tend to really give the fights that extra boost. The themes are definitely very engaging and I would give it a 4/5 at the very least. Trust me, good music can certainly make the difference between a great game and a truly great one.

The graphics are pretty good for the game. The legs are realistically detailed as they turn into onion rings when you’re knocked to the ground. (They basically curl into a circle, which looks pretty painful for the main lead, but he tends to walk it off) The graphics definitely aren’t the next Wind Waker or Adventure 2 Battle, but they’re still good and that’s always fun to see from a Gamecube title. Gamecube is the King of Graphics after all.

Overall, This is a pretty great video game and I highly recommend picking it up. It’s going for a very low price and it’s a steal considering how flawless the gameplay is. There are also a few pain arenas where you get to face various copies of a boss, which makes for an unbelievably tough fight. How many games can you get for around 4 dollars that have 40 levels? The soundtrack is top notch and the graphics are good as well. You definitely don’t want to miss out on this title and you should stick around after the screen fades to black as there’s an extra scene in the post game. I can’t really say much more to hype up the game so you’re either sold on it at this point or you’re just not going to get it. Still, I have to say that you’ll be missing out if you pass on such a title!

Overall 8/10

Geometry Wars Galaxies Review

Posted on July 12, 2014 by dreager1

After Chaosfield, I feared that I would never again play such a chaotic shooter filled with terror and honor. Luckily, I saw Geometry Wars in the 5 dollar bin at Gamestop and I snagged it. You have to make a move on a game like this quickly if you want to end up with it. It looked intriguing from the back, but I can’t say that I really knew what to expect from it. Suffice to say, the game was much more enjoyable than I had thought it would be.

There is no plot in the game and you are just launched onto the level select screen. Every Galaxy has 3-8 levels and you must earn money to buy the stages. When you buy a Galaxy, you are given two stages and then you must buy the other 6. Rinse and repeat for quite a few galaxies and then you have the game. There must be at least 40-60 stages in this game and completing them all is a true challenge. There is also a secret world at the end, which acts as on disc DLC. Instead of paying 5 dollars to open it, you must buy the DS game and use it to unlock them. One could argue that this is a more expensive form of DLC, but maybe you’ll like the game so much that you have to get both! (I like the game, but I won’t be getting it on the DS)

Geometry Wars Galaxy also brings a mini version of it called Retro Evolved. It’s a nice tribute to the fans, although I mainly stayed with the Galaxies part of the game. I’m glad for extra options, but it’s a lot more fun to launch into the main game and start earning those records and medals. The gameplay is the same except that you don’t have a robot to back you up and the exp bonuses take much longer to build up so your score will likely be considerably lower.

The gameplay in the main game is pretty simple, but describing it is tough. It’s essentially Galaga, but you are allowed to move throughout the space that you are in. The shape and size of the area will vary depending on the stage and the important thing is to simply stay alive. You have an endless supply of ammunition so you’ll want to keep your finger on the button for the duration of the battle. (With a few exceptions such as the block level. Shooting at the wrong time can bring out more enemies than you can handle)

You are allowed to bring an ally with you during the battles. There are several types of robots to choose from and it can be an Attack, Defense, Turret, Collector, or another kind of ally. It’s pretty self explanatory as to what they will do and the only three that I would use were the Collector, Turret, and Attack. The Attack bot saw me through the first few galaxies, then I turned to the Collector for a while and I would sporadically use the Collector. Those are the three best robots in my opinion (I have not obtained the final two though) and I made sure to max them all out.

Now, Attack and Turret may make sense, but why would the Collector be so useful? Simply put, as I mentioned, you will need to keep on destroying the enemies and rack up points. There is no timer and no end to the monsters so you just need to survive. At first beating an enemy may grant you 100 points. After you defeat him, the enemy will drop a yellow orb, which will increase your EXP bonus to 2X. You can go all the way up to 150 and you can see how much of a help that is. That same enemy will now give you 15000 points instead of 100 and that’s one of the cheaper enemies. Later on, some enemies will give you almost one million points in a single shot if you are that maxed out so the Collector is pretty awesome. That being said, he doesn’t fire at the enemies so you are truly on your own at that point. The Attack and Turret bots will give you a whole lot of backup, but then you must dash for the orbs yourself. Getting them is important because staying at 2X bonus or less isn’t very efficient.

Sometimes the enemies will just be too vast to overcome. In those cases, you will have bombs to help out. A bomb will take out every enemy in the area or at least most of them if it’s a very large arena. The bombs do not give you any points though so it’s truly a last resort if you are about to die. Otherwise, it’s simply not worth using one of them. They are certainly good in a pinch though.

The gameplay itself is masterful and it really provides you with a challenge. It’s easily one of the hardest games that I’ve played in a while and some of the levels can take many tries. If the gameplay was boring, beating this game would have been pretty painful. I’ve earned well over 400 million points at this point and I still don’t find the gameplay repetitive. It’s simply a lot of fun and I could keep on playing it over and over again. There is really nothing that drags the game down except for one factor.

This factor would be the Wii Remotes. The game is sensor based and I’m sure that we are aware of how sketchy the Wii Remotes can be at times. The nunchuk is perfectly all right, but the main remote has a tendency to destroy you when you are about to win. It happened to me several times and I would have to let the console rest for a few hours. This game would be so much better if I could use a Gamecube remote. The classic controller is compatible I believe so that would fix this negative. It really helps your reflexes out and the levels would be a whole lot easier. It would still be a challenging game, but you would feel like you were battling on even grounds.

There is one other part that affects the game, but it’s more of an annoyance than a total negative thing. That would be the money system. As I mentioned earlier, you do have to buy the future levels in order to play them. Earning money is by no means an easy task. Getting a medal for the first time gets a lot of money and if you end up getting a lot of Golds, then it won’t be a problem for you at all. For me, I finally had to start replaying a lot of the levels by the final galaxy because I just needed the money. Eventually, I just kept on replaying the same level since I would always get at least 10000 a shot and I would earn around 50000 if I managed to win. The final levels were 200000 and around 130000 so I had to play the level quite a few times. It’s not as much of a grind as in other games since the gameplay is always fun, but it’s an artificial way of lengthening the game.

The graphics are pretty good. They aren’t all star material, but the graphics are definitely important in a game like this one. You’ll constantly be blowing up dozens of enemies when playing and the screen is filled with tons of bright colors and pellets for the EXP bonus. If the graphics were bad, then the game would be much harder to play. Luckily, the gameplay is very bright so you won’t bang into an enemy by mistake and every object looks pretty sharp. This isn’t Final Fantasy of Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, but it’s good enough. The soundtrack is pretty forgettable though. I don’t even recall hearing any music amidst all of the explosions and chaos. It’s something that you just forget by the end as the sound effects are what you’re focusing on. The sound of getting an extra life or bomb is pretty great!

Overall, this is a very good game. I dare say that it may even be better than Chaosfield. Gamecube remotes would have helped the game out even more and getting rid of the money system would have been great. It likely would not have jumped up to a 9 if those things had been appropriately changed, but it would still help the experience. The game is decently long thanks to the need for money, but you should still be able to beat it in under a week. Any fan of shooters or Chaosfield will enjoy this title and it’s a timeless classic like Pac Man. (The gameplay, not necessarily the game) The soundtrack could be better, but you can always mute the game and play a cool track from the computer. (At the risk of being unaware of a seeker alien coming out of nowhere) Hopefully, this game gets a sequel for the Wii U or PS4 someday. I do wish that something could have happened after the final level like a message or some bonus money to show that you’ve beaten the game, but nothing happens. Ah well, maybe I need to get all Gold Medals to unlock a message.

Overall 8/10

Transformers Rise of The Dark Spark Review

Posted on June 27, 2014 by dreager1

We are nearing the opening of the new Transformers film so excitement is certainly in the air. (Unless you’re a Jetfire fan) Likely to celebrate, Hasbro came out with a time travel game that features the heroes from the films and their older counterparts from the War For Cybertron games. In this game, they are of the same continuity and the Cybertron era merely takes place thousands of years before the current days. It’s nice to see both versions fight on the big screen. I can definitely say that this game holds up against the tough Transformers legacy. This legacy is powerful because all of the Transformers games that I’ve played (Minus Animated) have been awesome. I can safely say that they’ve all been 8s or very strong 7s. Transformers tends to have amazing gameplay and that’s what I expected from this game. Luckily, I was not disappointed!

The plot involves a ~~man~~ ~~machine~~ being by the name of Lockdown. He arrives on Earth and then decides that the Dark Spark will be his. The Autobots don’t know what he intends to do with this power, but they must stop him and put an end to these dangerous plans. Optimus Prime will have the help of his classic pal Bumblebee and the honor bound Drift. The three of them will foil Lockdown’s plans once and for all! Meanwhile, thousands of years ago, the Decepticons learn of the Dark Spark after becoming aware of the existence of the Insecticons. Optimus Prime realizes that if Megatron obtains such power, it could be the end of everything. Prime’s allies in this quest are Sideswipe, Jetfire, and Jazz among others. They face heavier resistance than their future counterparts as Megatron is aided by legendary figures like Starscream, Shockwave, and Soundwave. One Shall Find The Dark Spark and One Shall Fall To The Dark Spark!

Lockdown makes his big appearance in this game. I haven’t really seen him before now so it was interesting to see his personality. He’s definitely a little more..chipper compared to the other villains. That’s not the best word to describe him though. Maybe sarcastic or old? Either way, I can’t say that I’m a fan of Lockdown, but he makes for a decent final boss. His character design is humanoid, which is always good because bosses are much more fun to face off against when they’re your own size. His plan is intriguing and it makes a lot more sense than the average villain plan so I give him props for it. It’s an ingenious way to use the Dark Spark.

Optimus Prime gets a large role of course and now you can finally decide which Prime is more likable. The one from the movies or the one from the games. It’s fun because the movie version has had three games while the game version has had two, but they’ve both gotten to appear a lot. I prefer the game version slightly as he seems to be a lot more…intense. He’s in the middle of a war so he’s more serious and it’s great to see him ripping down doors whenever you go through a level. I can easily agree with the many fans of Optimus Prime that he is one of the best characters in the franchise. He takes Megatron on directly (At last!) and he certainly fights pretty well.

This is really the first that I get to see of Drift’s cinematic personality. The mask makes for an interesting twist and it probably takes his character a little too seriously, but I thought that they did a good job with Drift. He still follows his honor code and he’s kept his legendary speed and sword wielding. He’s one of my favorite characters to play as and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing him in the film. This could be the push that he needs to make it into the top 10 most popular Transformers. I hope so since he’s definitely one of the better ones.

Megatron surprisingly gets a small role in this game. He appears at the very end of the past storyline. He does still manage to take on Optimus Prime in a one on one fight, but you wouldn’t become an instant fan of his through this game. He’s not quite as threatening as he was in War For Cybertron. I still like his design in this game, but I would have preferred that they went with a classic G1 appearance of the one from Prime.

Bumblebee’s role is also surprisingly small, but they still manage to give him a lot of hype. He immediately figures out the villain’s plan and then it’s all up to him to save the day. That certainly takes a lot of character, but I wish that he could talk. Remember his epic voice from War For Cybertron? Ah well, I still like his movie design so that’s great to see.

There were naturally many other fighters, but their personalities are more or less what you’d expect. Jetfire seems like a likable character even if his accent can be a little tricky. Starscream is as likable as usual and he still tends to get the best moments. Soundwave actually gets his own level, which will certainly be fun for fans. The insecticons are decently cool in their roles and Shockwave remains as one of the best Decepticons. He’s powerful and he tends to take command when Megatron isn’t around. Cliffjumper is still around, but he continues to lose at every opportunity. I wonder if he’ll ever look really good again.
The gameplay is essentially what you would expect from the other Transformers games, but I shall talk about it in case you haven’t played them. It’s a third person shooter and you typically have to destroy all of the enemy robots. You’re playing as a robot, which can be a little dicey at times, but also epic as well. Believe it or not, the robot genre is probably one of my weakest ones aside from Golf. Games like Armored Core and Gundam have had me stumped in the past. (Albeit, not for long except for Armored Core) Luckily, it’s easy to move your robot around and it just takes a little getting used too at first.

I love third person shooting games and it’s easily one of my favorite genres. I would say that the only genre that I prefer to it is third person fighting like Dragon Ball Z/Dynasty Warriors. Third place would be 2D fighters. This one performs well for the gameplay as everything is smooth. Flying is always fun and it adds that extra dynamic to the game. Who doesn’t want to soar through the skies and defeat all who oppose you? It’s just a blast! I highly recommend using vehicle mode whenever possible since it’s great to just blast away at opponents with your rockets or missiles.

The gameplay is largely the same for all levels, but there are two times where you get to control large characters. Grimlock and Bruticus. Playing as them can be fun since the game essentially turns into a beat em up. You just hack and slash your way through all of the opponents and get to the goal. Two factors to the gameplay that I forgot to mention are the hacks and tech. The tech is essentially an item that activates for a little while 6X EXP, or maybe a little battle droid. The hacks aren’t the gameshark kind, but they make the game more challenging for extra EXP. One way in which this occurs is letting enemies do extra damage so that you can get double EXP. It lasts for the entire level or until you die from the overwhelming power. It’s a nice element to add to the game and it makes it a lot easier to reach level 25.

The game can also be a little difficult at times since the enemies deal a lot of damage. Once the blasts get through your shield, then it’s time to retreat for a while until they replenish. I died a few times through the story and it’s a nice change of pace to have some difficulty. It means that you’ll have to actually plan out your moves a bit instead of charging in and attacking all of the Decepticons.

The game got rid of the multiplayer fighting modes that we had in War For Cybertron and Escalation is all that’s left. (Online co-op story mode is around I suppose) Well, fighting against other players is certainly more fun, but I’ve always liked Escalation Mode so this is cool as well. There are 15 waves and you need to survive them all to secure a nice gold trophy. It was a little easy as my team beat the whole thing in my first try, but maybe they had already been playing for a while so they knew the ropes. I still managed 104 kills in the battle so I definitely contributed my part.

I haven’t gotten all of the trophies yet, but I’m about halfway and I can say that it seems fair enough. The multiplayer trophies aren’t as much of a grind as they were in War For Cybertron. I’ve already gotten just about all of them at this point. They all seem reasonable and a few of them merely involve finding collectibles or blowing up certain objects in a level. It will likely require you to play each level a few times, but that’s not much of a grind since you can accomplish with a few trophies at once as you go through the level. I’m definitely satisfied with these trophies.

The replay value in Transformers is strong thanks to the trophies, but the campaign mode is a little on the short side. It took around 7 hours to complete the 14 levels. Their were more levels than War For Cybertron, but they were also quicker so both games ended up being more or less equal as far as time is concerned. 10 levels is my minimum so with 14, Rise of The Dark Spark is clearly safe from being too short. The levels are pretty engaging and aside from the fact that you can’t skip cutscenes, going through them again shouldn’t feel like a drag. Another element for the replay value is the fact that you need to get all challenges, guns, fighters, and more. Obtaining all of that should take even the most serious gamers quite a bit of time.

The soundtrack is pretty good. There aren’t any really memorable tunes in it, but they’re all good while you’re battling against all of the cons. So, I would likely give it a 3/5. It’s a solid soundtrack, but nothing that you’ll write home about like Super Smash Bros. It’s just how it goes sometimes.

One thing that needs to be mentioned is the audio. It can be a little inconsistent which makes setting it up difficult. The narration is much lower than the sound effects and music, so I lowered those to hear the narration. The problem is that they all lower for cutscenes so I have to choose between too loud gameplay or soft cutscenes. I chose the latter, but the audio could have been a little better.

The graphics for the game are solid and the levels that really stood out for me were the ones in the movie timeline. I actually preferred them because what they lacked in tech, they made up for in scale. You’ve just got to love fighting other robots in such a large city and it’s a lot of fun. The gameplay is definitely the same, but I can safely say that the experience is much different in the movie levels than the game ones. Either way, the graphics are solid for both sections and you shouldn’t have any problem with it.

Surprisingly, I prefer most of the designs from the movie verse. Optimus Prime and Bumblebee simply look a lot more intense. They’re taller and more sleek in their builds. You can tell that they’re hand to hand combatants as the old versions are more boxy. Of course, you can’t top Starscream or Soundwave’s designs so both universes get their wins. The designs are all great in the long run and playing as any of the characters can be fun.

Overall, Rise of The Dark Spark is a great Transformers game and it can certainly hold its own against any of the others. The story was engaging and the game never felt as if it was dragging on. It may have been a little towards the short side, but there is a lot of replay value through the online escalation mode and getting all of the PS3 Trophies. The movie characters felt as if they got the shaft compared to the game ones, but they technically had around the same amount of levels. the game did freeze up twice, but I suppose that it would be hard not too with all of the action that was going on. The game has a pretty epic ending as a certain continuity gets involved, which makes things interesting. It would be awesome to see this character in a possible sequel. There’s no reason not to get this game and I’d say that there is every reason to purchase it right away. The gameplay is just about perfect and you won’t regret buying it. I highly recommend the game to all gamers!

Overall 8/10

White Knight Chronicles International Edition Review

Posted on June 25, 2014 by dreager1

I’m always up for a good RPG. I don’t tend to buy as many of them as your typical action, fighting, or sports game because of how long it takes to beat one. That being said, all of the RPGs that I’ve played lately have been great. The Last Story, Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2, Kingdom Hearts II, etc. I can’t say that I had outrageously high hopes for White Knight Chronicles at first, but this is also part of the RPG style of thinking. I usually don’t really get into it until the plot is underway. Because of this, White Knight Chronicles has been in my backlog for possibly over 2 years. I died instantly in the first level and never went back. Now, I finally got around to going back and completing it. White Knight Chronicles is certainly an RPG that I’d recommend to anyone and it’s one of the best that I’ve experienced.

The plot in White Knight Chronicles is surprisingly basic for an RPG. Of course, there are many subplots and other plots introduced to make the game longer, but I am covering the game as a whole so it’s pretty basic from the way that I am discussing it. Leonard, Terry, and Yulie deliver some wine to a castle during a party, but they are late as per usual. That’s when another army attacks and monsters invade the place. They are driven off, but not before the Black Knight murders the King. Much more importantly, the princess is kidnapped and Leonard quickly goes to protect her. The heroes ultimately lose the Princess and now the three of them must team up with a strange man named Eldore to rescue her. The adventure takes them through many areas and there are several plot twists. Seriously, there are about a dozen twists in the final few cutscenes.

The plot is fun enough and the open world feeling of the game makes it all cool. It’s typically sunny out so the game is actually very light hearted despite the calamities and the deaths. We have a subplot where a few guards are sad about this and go on a journey, but this goes nowhere. The end of the game shows that they are still walking so that unsubtlely hints that it would be covered in the sequel. The concept of saving the princess may be pretty old at this point, but it’s still good enough. There is also the fact that Leonard has the power of the White Knight within him and he can transform. There are 5 Knights in the prophecy and the heroes need to make sure that none of them fall into the hands of the villains. Let the games begin!

Leonard is the main character of the game and I can’t say that I really cared for him. He definitely wasn’t a bad character, but he didn’t have much of a personality and it was hard to root for him. Luckily, his worst scene was reversed as there was a plot twist behind it. He wants to rescue Princess Cisna and he’s earnest about it, but he’s more into romance than most leads. I just couldn’t really take him seriously and it got worse when he constantly let the villains get away with murder (literally) and never stops them. Why is Leonard so slow when it counts? (This also applies to the rest of the heroes for the most part)

Kara is introduced at around the middle of the story or perhaps a little earlier. She’s really serious compared to the rest of the cast and she is always exchanging hostility with Eldore. The party members may not always get along, but at least Kara isn’t petty about it. She usually just sticks to glaring as the group goes about their business. She’s skilled with a sword and also comes attached with a sad origin. She’s a good member of the group and definitely more likable than some of the others as she can fight pretty well.

Terry is easily the best character in the game, but that goes without saying. Terry is the avatar that you create and add into the story. Not only was Terry a whole lot stronger than the other heroes, but his design was incredible. He had a beard and he looked as if he was in his 70’s instead of being a teenager. Terry really stole the show for me and he towered over the other characters. It’s just too bad that he couldn’t talk.

Cisna is the main reason as to why the game lasted so long. It’s a classic save the Princess story and Cisna takes it all pretty well. She gets friendly with Leonard a little too quickly I’m afraid, but I suppose that it was inevitable. Cisna vaguely has some abilities, but unfortunately, she doesn’t have any real attack magic. It would have come in handy in so many different scenes, but I suppose that it was just not meant to be. I wasn’t a fan of Cisna, but she wasn’t a bad character either. She just didn’t get enough screen time to actually get a substantial personality

Yulie is one of the main characters, but her role is very minimal. She gets a smaller role because she doesn’t have any big plot twist moments and doesn’t contribute to the plot. She has her own subplot as she’s sad that Leonard is being more distant lately, but there are no time for friendships during war. She is all right, but Yulie really didn’t get much of a personality as the game went on.

Eldore is one of the original members in White Knight Chronicles and he’s around from the start. He always sounds like he’s very tired or just completely bored so I can’t say that he was one of the more likable characters. I really could have done without him and Eldore is always very vague even when he doesn’t have to be. He can fight, but one has to wonder how much help he will be since he’s so advanced in age. Eldore isn’t a bad character, but as with some of the others, he’s not really a good character either.

Caesar joins the group a little later into the story, but he definitely lightens the atmosphere. He’s always talking and his skills are very impressive. He never really backs down when the villains appear and he’s brimming with confidence. Caesar isn’t the best member of the group, but he’s much better than what I had been expecting when he first appeared. He was very useful and he had a strong personality.

Grazel is the main villain and he actually gets introduced pretty late into the story. He is really the only good villain in the entire series who doesn’t hide his identity. He wants to be ruler of all and he’s very direct about this. His abilities are solid and one can understand his motivations. He may not be a villain that I’ll find very memorable in the long run, but he’s infinitely more interesting than most of the other characters. Grazel can also back up his tough talk, which is always an added bonus.

The Black Knight is a mysterious figure who appears throughout the story. After he took out the King, it was safe to say that few could match his incredible power. The Black Knight is one of the few characters who takes the heroes seriously at first and he gives it his all. The Black Knight reminded me a little of Darth Vader. I guess the big question is who’s behind the mask? It’s a question that you will be wondering about as the Black Knight faces off with the heroes from time to time. They never get a break! He’s definitely a pretty solid villain and someone who you can root for.

Belcitane is one of the big villains and he always acts like he’s in charge even if that assumption could be fatal. He’s definitely not likable as he can hardly fight and he’s really just an overweight politician who has gotten in over his head. He’s seriously not my kind of villain and there’s nothing menacing about him. He could have been cut out of the villain and nobody would be any the wiser.

Shapur is the right hand man of Grazel and he doesn’t do a whole lot in this game. I assume that he will do a lot more in the sequel to explain what his purpose is and why he has some interesting powers. Grazel should definitely watch his back whenever Shapur is around. Shapur makes for a cool boss fight design wise even if he wasn’t much of a challenge. I’m definitely waiting for an explanation as to how Shapur could obtain that form because it may have looked cool, but it didn’t make sense. Shapur isn’t really likable, but it’s always good to have more villains.

The gameplay for White Knight Chronicles is very similar to the .Hack series. Essentially, it’s a turn based system like Pokemon, but you can get into big battles of 10 against 3. When it is your turn to attack, you need to be close enough to hit your target or you can also use the turn to heal or transform. You are able to run around during battles and fleeing requires you do run far away from the battle that is taking place. I still prefer the typical RPG (Pokemon) style gameplay, but this one can be very fun as well. I have played the game for over 30 hours and I’m still ready for more. The gameplay doesn’t really get old during combat and you can fight for a long time without getting bored. I plan on getting the trophy for beating 3000 enemies and I likely wouldn’t try if the gameplay wasn’t fun. Outside of combat, you run from area to area and some of the locations can be long. That is really my only complaint and I wish that they could have shrunk the areas a bit. It is simply this large so that you can take your time getting through the levels and it can be fun, but not when you’re in a hurry. Still, the negatives could have been a lot worse so I’d say that this is ok.

In terms of the soundtrack, the game isn’t as good as you may expect. There were no really memorable tunes in the game and even the boss fight themes weren’t that good if they were around at all. I really only recall the minion theme and that’s about it. It’s definitely possible that the game just didn’t have a wide selection of music to play and that’s why I can’t remember them.

White Knight Chronicles’ graphics are not extremely impressive, but they will have to do. We get a few large scale CGI cutscenes that look impressive and get to show off what the game can do when it’s serious. We don’t get a whole lot of them, but they aren’t bad. Most of the cutscenes are really just the gameplay models moving around, which is still good, but not great. The characters aren’t very detailed, but look good enough so that the transformation scenes never get old. This is good because you’ll have to experience them a bunch of times. I do give the animators props in that we get quite a few battles in the cutscenes. They may not look amazing, but I’m still glad to have them. The graphics are certainly bearable and won’t take away from the experience.

One area where White Knight Chronicles excels in is replay value. It’s almost unlimited and you could end up playing this game for months or even a year if you tried to do everything. After completing the story mode, (Which took me 30 hours) you can complete it again. This is recommended because you can get some extremely impressive gear. After that, you are ready to enter the world of 50+ missions. The first few are decently easy once you are at around level 30. After that, the missions get pretty tough. I’ve only completed around 5-6 missions and the rest are mostly beyond me at this point. Without all of the legendary gear that you could have obtained online, it’s very difficult. Still, you can keep on leveling up and rebirthing until you have mastered all roles and have a very impressive fighter at your side. Just doing this will likely take weeks unless you get to some tough missions where you get a whole lot of exp. Just going to the stores and trying to get all of the gear to upgrade them to bind more gear will take hours as you have to keep going back and forth unless you get a checklist. (Highly recommended) Most of the missions can take anywhere from 20-50 minutes and you need to hope that you beat them off the bat. Either way, time is not an issue in this game and you can be certain that you got a lot of content for the price that you paid. (9 dollars in my case)

Of course, another factor involved in replay value are the PS3 Trophies. Unfortunately, this is one of those games where the trophies aren’t really well done. It’s all a matter of perspective of course, but there aren’t enough of them and you should at least get one trophy for completing the game. Completing the game and not getting any story related trophies is a little dicey. I got a decent amount of trophies considering that many of them are really made when considering that you would be in a group. The trophies are just too time consuming and some are borderline impossible at this point. I’m not going to spend the hundreds of hours needed to get the final trophies. It’s just not worth it to me. Of course, that is a lot of replay value so I suppose that it can be seen as a positive.

Overall, this was an excellent game and it was fairly close to getting a 9. Transforming into the Knight form is always fun and it really increases your attack power. The gameplay stays fun throughout the whole game and the plot is nice and light. It’s fun to experience the world and there aren’t many boring moments. There are definitely a few of them scattered around, but nothing too drastic. The heroes can get very annoying as they constantly watch in horror as the villains murder their friends or just let them escape to fight another day. The game ends rather abruptly on a cliffhanger, which is great news for those who plan on buying the sequel. Having such large amounts of replay value is great as well and I definitely recommend this to all RPG fans. You’ll love it and get hooked right away as the plot thickens.

Overall 8/10

Spiderman Edge of Time Review

Posted on May 21, 2014 by dreager1

Edge of Time is another video game that I’ve had my eye on for a very long time. I greatly enjoyed Shattered Dimensions and while I’ve heard that this one is not even comparable..I knew that it would still be good. I’m pleased to say that the game is definitely a lot of fun and it’s worth buying.

The plot is pretty sad for Peter Parker since he is destined to die. Spiderman 2099 is going to need to alter the timeline to save him, but will there be consequences to his actions? Someone is messing up the time stream and both of the Spidermen need to find out who the culprit is. The answer may shock long time fans and amuse people who’ve never heard of Marvel before. Either way, the plot is solid and you’ll definitely enjoy it!

I definitely prefer this story to the one that was in Shattered Dimensions. For one thing, this game has more actual cutscenes as opposed to moving stills. You really feel the danger when Anti Venom gets involved and the beginning of the game is very epic. Seeing Spiderman 2099 take on Anti Venom was also pretty awesome. The start of the game is easily the best part and the rest is still good…just not as epic. There are three acts in the game, which results in around 15 levels. Acts 1 and 3 are great, but Act 2 isn’t quite as exciting. Less stakes and less danger, but that makes sense since the middle is usually the low moment for just about any game.

One factor that may hurt your experience is the portrayal of the two Spidermen. They’re constantly arguing and both of them come across as being unnecessarily mean to each other. Spiderman 2099 yells out pretty much all of his lines and he likes to insult Peter. Peter is quick to take some shots at Spiderman 2099 as well and while he doesn’t yell as much, he’s always very snippy. They just did not seem to be in character and I can’t imagine Spiderman acting like that. He even gives up at one point and resigns himself to oblivion. Finally, Peter was pretty overconfident during his fight with Anti Venom, which was okay….but letting down his guard is not cool.

Gameplay wise, this game tries to be the same as Shattered Dimensions. We still have the free fall levels and Spiderman’s gameplay is what you would expect. That being said, it’s not quite as smooth as Shattered Dimensions. I had to get used to this during the first few levels, but it’s great by the end of the game. I’m inclined to prefer Shattered Dimension’s fighting style, but this game is still solid in that aspect. The Spider Sense can’t stay on like in the last game so you can only use it as a short burst. Meanwhile, you can automatically dodge all attacks as long as you hold L2 while in Spiderman mode. It’s cool to watch, but it makes his fights extremely easy. The enemies cannot hurt you at all in that form, no matter what attacks they may try. Yes…that includes bosses! Spiderman 2099 doesn’t have that ability, but he can fire clones made out of energy which help you fight and it’s just as useful. All of the enemies will immediately go after the clone so you can get some free hits off of them.

Web slinging is the biggest negative compared to other Spiderman games. It’s hard to gain altitude and you constantly have to let go and just do a classic third jump. Unlike Shattered Dimensions, you can’t infinitely jump so you have to pause and swing around for a sec before continuing. It’s not a terribly long process, but it really wasn’t needed. They shouldn’t have altered the web slinging process! Defeating enemies can be a little tedious during the beginning of the game because the health bars on these minions are pretty large. It takes a lot of hits to finally bring them down, so I recommend upgrading your attack power right away. While the gameplay may not be as good as Shattered Dimensions, it’s still in 3D and we still get a lot of action. I would give the combat an 8/10, which is great!

One slight negative for the game is the lack of bosses. We get to fight Black Cat, Anti Venom and the final pair of bosses. That’s not as many bosses as I would like in a game. Throwing in some more would have definitely helped the game and it would have also lengthened the story. The game may be under 10 hours in length, but we have the Web Challenges to keep you busy. There are over 60 of them (Significantly less than Shattered Dimensions) and they are simple enough. The Free falling challenges can give you some mild trouble.

My biggest negative with the game is the level designs. Yes, even more so than the fact that you can’t skip many cutscenes. You never get to set foot outside, which is very sad. What happened to swinging across buildings? That’s typically one of my favorite parts about playing a Spider Man game and I was sad to see it go. There may be around 15 levels, but some of the designs actually appeared to be copied from each other. After a while, you’ll feel like you keep going to the same rooms and labyrinths. The bland level designs can take away from the fun and the scenery just isn’t fun to look at. It’s basically always night time. I really hope that they never cut out NYC from another big Spiderman game because that definitely hurts the experience.

The Graphics aren’t terribly impressive. It’s definitely using a different style than Shattered Dimensions, but the graphics during gameplay are pretty good. The ones that I was not impressed with were the scenes that took place in the cutscenes. At one point, Peter has his big scene and he takes off the mask…only to look nothing like Peter Parker. I had to wince at the design and the graphics did not really look like a PS3 game. It felt like I was looking at Madden character models. Either way, the game doesn’t have a whole lot of cutscenes and the gameplay graphics definitely suffice.

The trophies in this game are considerably easier than Shattered Dimension’s. You have fewer things to do and long challenges like getting all of the Golden Spiders have become pretty simple. Your Spider Sense will tingle if you’re near a spider and the game did a very good job with it. You can obtain just about every Gold Spider through a normal play through. I don’t have the Platinum yet, but I just have three trophies left so I should be getting it pretty soon. You don’t need to worry about any “unfair” trophies so that could help you decide to pick up this game.

I can’t say much for the soundtrack. It defeats Shattered Dimensions in this aspect, but it’s pretty close. I really like the main menu theme for Edge of Time and the epic music that occurred during the Anti Venom moments were also pretty intense. Beyond that, the rest of the music was pretty forgettable and we didn’t have much in the way of boss themes.

Overall, this was a very good Spider Man game. It may have lacked Shattered Dimension’s combat mastery, but the epic story line made up for it. The gameplay is solid and the graphics are good enough. The game isn’t terribly long and you can complete it in under 10 hours. That being said, the replay value will help you out and it’s definitely worth the current price. (Around 15-20) I guess this means that I need to go and pick up the Amazing Spider Man game for PS3 at some point, but I doubt that it will be able to beat this one. Still….we shall see! I recommend this game to all action fans and to anyone who is a fan of Spiderman.

Overall 8/10

Prince of Persia Review

Posted on May 17, 2014 by dreager1

The Prince of Persia franchise has always been an exception to my desert rule. I typically do not like adventures in any form of media that take place in the olden times or in a desert. This game manages to accomplish both while still being a very good game and that takes a lot of skill. I’d say that the film is what got me into the franchise and then I quickly went and bought most of the games in the series. Currently, this is my favorite installment and it even passes the other PS3 title. (Forgotten Sands)

The plot involves a guy who has lost his donkey in a sandstorm. We don’t see the Donkey for the rest of the game so it’s safe to assume that it decided to go to New York. The hero then notices that a few guy are trying to attack a lady so he steps in. Her name is Elika and she needs to cleanse all of the lands. Unfortunately, her father has succumbed to the powers of darkness and all of the legendary villains have been awakened. Our hero must now go on his greatest adventure yet and save the planet!

Pretty safe plot and it’s good enough for me. Who doesn’t like a plot where the Earth is going into darkness and must be purged? It’s not super original, but it makes for a good formula. Naturally, the gameplay determines how well that will work out. During the platforming part, it’s a little bit like Mario. You run and jump through and place and Elika can give you a double jump in a sense. The gameplay is not quite as smooth as Mario and you’ll likely fall a few times due to unresponsive controls. You can temporarily run on walls and use grass to climb along them. You don’t have to worry about falling because Elika will make sure to save you.

Yes…you can’t really die in this game. If you get hit enough to the point where you get a red warning, then you have a chance of dying. I believe that it may have happened to be once, but I can’t really verify that. Aside from that instant, it’s extremely hard to die even if you end up throwing the fights. You can jump into an endless abyss for eternity and Elika will keep on saving you.

The Combat Gameplay is definitely my favorite part of the game and it’s what makes the title so enjoyable. You’re basically fighting in Dynasty Warriors mixed with Spiderman style. You can use slashing attacks, athletic maneuvers, or classic grabbing. Elika will also help you by charging into the opponent with her blue energy abilities. You can link these attacks to hit the opponent as many as 14 times in one combo. Mastering each of them is fun (and necessary for a trophy) and the gameplay never gets tiring.

The only problem with the fighting is that it is way too easy. The first boss is pretty much as simple as the final one. The final boss is a bit of a joke because you can beat him with ease. If anything, you just don’t want to beat him too quickly if you’re trying to get a 14 hit combo on him. This is a game that could have greatly benefited from an online vs mode. Testing your mettle against other players is always good and it would have been especially fun in this game.

The Main Character never really gets a name. Mostly, people refer to him as the Prince (Prince of Persia…it all makes sense now) but it doesn’t really matter as far as this review is concerned. He’s not one of the more likable main characters. He spends a lot of time flirting and he should concentrate more on the fight. I did like his decision at the end, which gained back some respect from me. He’s definitely a good fighter and that’s always a plus.

Elika is around for the entire game as well and she doesn’t always get along with the main character. I can’t say that I was really a fan of hers as well. She could get pretty irritated at the main character for no real reason at times. Her abilities are great, but she put too much faith in Ormadz all the time.

The King isn’t very likable either. He turns evil without really having a good reason. He’s also not very powerful and even after his super forms…he’s not much of a threat. The main character is still more than a match for him and that’s a little embarrassing for the King. So much for the power of darkness eh?

There are 4 main minions of Ahriman. The Warrior, The Hunter, The Concubine, and the Alchemist. The Concubine is really the only one that talks a lot. The Alchemist may have spoken, but I do not remember if he did or not. The Hunter and The Warrior were silent. I didn’t care for the Warrior. He struck me as a jungle fighter and he wasn’t very powerful. Quick, but that’s about it. I didn’t care for the Concubine and she wasn’t a terrific fighter. Usually she would just try to get Elika out of the picture so that she could win. The Alchemist was all right, but he didn’t really have any character so it’s hard to know if I’d really like him. The Warrior had the best design from the group, but that’s about it.

Graphically, this game is pretty underwhelming. The animations aren’t really fun to look at. The character designs are pretty good for the villains, but the graphics don’t really help their cause. I’m not saying that this game looks as if it were on the PS2, but it’s just not very good. It’s possibly because they were trying to get the game to look old or gritty, but it didn’t work for me. Give me Mario 3D World anytime!

Unfortunately, the soundtrack isn’t very good. I can’t really say that I liked any of the themes. The boss themes were uninspired and the stage music begins to get old as you listen to it for the 50th time. Considering how great the soundtrack was in Warrior Within and other Prince of Persia titles, this was a little disappointing. It’s not a terrible soundtrack, but it’s definitely one of the weaker ones that I’ve heard in a while.

The trophies in this game are definitely reasonable and none of them are insanely hard. I should know since this is one of the select games where I achieved the Platinum. It shouldn’t take you too long and one playthrough could be all you need for all of the trophies if you play your cards right. I ended up using 2 playthroughs with a few stages in the third one to get them all. Trophies are always an incentive and they can make a great game even better by adding that extra boost or replay value.

One extra negative that should be mentioned is the fact that you can’t skip cutscenes. That can be very frustrating when you have to start a new playthrough since the cutscenes are numerous and they can be very long. You should always have the option to skip cutscenes in a video game and I never like it when games stop you from doing this. It’s not large enough to take points away from the game, but it should definitely be noted. I suppose that the game would be pretty short without the cutscenes, but that’s no excuse.

I have to say that the ending to the game is awesome! More games should end like this and it was a good move on the main character’s part. It may be a little controversial, but I believe that he made the right move. The ending is almost worth getting the game for. It’s just that good and it’s definitely one of the best endings for a video game. If only a Mario game could utilize this ending…it would be one of the best Mario games out there! This game got a sequel…in a sense. I own it for the DS and it’s in the same continuity. I should probably go back to beat it someday….someday.

Overall, this is a pretty fun action game. It’s a mix of platforming and cool sword action which is great. The combat is definitely the best part about it since the soundtrack, character cast, and graphics aren’t the best. Sometimes, the gameplay is all you need to be a great game. I highly recommend checking this game out and it’s at a very low price right now. I don’t see why you wouldn’t enjoy such an epic adventure!

Overall 8/10

Dragonball Z Battle of Z Review

Posted on March 30, 2014 by dreager1

DBZ is pretty huge and it is easily one of the greatest franchises out there. The anime was revolutionary, the manga was excellent, and the movies were intense. Despite those successes, DBZ is especially known to have incredible fighting games. I dare say that the games surpass the anime in epicness. This game got a lot of hype as the next Budokai Tenkaichi or Raging Blast. That’s a lot of hype to have on it’s back, but if anyone can do it…it is DBZ.

Well, I will start out with the biggest factor that was hyped for this game. 4 player fighting action! The battle scenes can get really chaotic and that’s in a good way. You have 4 fighters on each side which makes for a fun environment. Now, its time to get into the negative side of this. The game put so much emphasis into this that it destroyed the game’s chances of reaching Raging Blast or Budokai Tenkaichi level. The best part of DBZ is playing with friends and really testing your limits. Unfortunately, Battle of Z only has two real modes. Story Mode and Online Battle Mode. That is the crushing negative which keeps on coming. Not having any extra modes like Survival, Local Vs Mode, and Time Attack Mode is basically unheard of. Unfortunately, local multiplayer is starting to get rare as more and more games head to the world of online gaming. I love playing online, but its no excuse eliminate the local aspect.

One consequence of this is the fact that the game doesn’t have much in the way of replay value. Once you beat the game, that’s basically it! The online battle system is a little like Brawl’s. There’s not as much stakes or depth as in War For Cybertron or Tron. It’s fun, but not something that you’ll be playing a whole lot. You’re essentially done with the game at that point and it’s time to go and play the old ones. Hmmmm…

As far as the graphics are concerned, the game is decent. They had to limit them to an extent because of how much action is on the screen. I’d say that it’s harsh to compare them to PS2 games because the graphics are still good. It may not be the best PS3 game in this area, but it’s definitely good enough to be considered solid. The energy attacks can definitely be fun to see from afar as it strikes an opponent.

The soundtrack is a little on the repetitious side. There aren’t a large variety of tunes, but the ones that we do get are pretty good. The themes are typically suitable for this game and you’ll hear them unless a lot of action is currently happening on the field.

The actual gameplay can be a little hit or miss. There are a lot less combos and attacks in this one than the usual installments. Each character really has one finishing string of attacks, but you can change it up by using a power attack or an energy blast. The fighting can get a little repetitive as you’ll find yourself using the same combo a few hundred times through the course of the game. That’s the miss part that may deter many.

I’m pretty fine with it because I’m a repetitious player. I’m the type of guy that will use the same combos in advanced games like Tekken and Marvel Vs Capcom. Once I find a combo that I like, I make sure to keep on using it. I may have to disguise it by starting off with other combos and chain attacks, but I’ll make sure to get back to it. I mainly stuck to playing as Goku and Sage Mode Goku. Sage Mode Goku has a really good power attack that I would spam over and over again. I did a lot of KOing in wifi battles.

Ultimate attacks aren’t really a factor as you’ll never be able to use it in a real fight. It takes about 3-5 minutes to charge up the attack and you’re completely vulnerable to attack. The Ultimate technique instantly destroys all enemies on the field and the battle is over, but it’s not worth it. The move is riskier than Exodia and the chances aren’t very good for your success. Only a handful of characters have an Ultimate Attack anyway so you may not come across it. (Aside from a mandatory Story Mode battle)

Beyond that, you’ll typically have enough energy to throw in a Kamehameha or two. So, the battles are pretty fun. The gameplay may not be the greatest out there, but it’s still DBZ and that’s enough to make anyone want to play. We’ve got a good amount of characters to use and they can also be customized. Increased attack, defense, etc.

PS3 trophies can’t really be a negative since they’re optional, but I can’t say that I’m a fan of some of them. A few trophies require that online strangers agree to help you as you form a specific group. Without boosting, it’s very hard to get this. You can ask them through the microphone and hope for success…but you still have to win the round. Those kind of trophies should not be in the game! Still, this doesn’t affect the overall score.

The story mode now covers the complete DBZ saga while also including many of the movies. This includes the new Battle of Gods film that came out recently. It’s a pretty difficult mission since you have to defeat those two fighters after defeating a few movie villains and Hirudegarn. Unfortunately, story mode covers a lot…and yet it doesn’t do it very clearly. You will know what is happening from the manga, anime, and other video games, but you may get lost from this one. You’ll understand the basic plot, but they skip a whole lot and include scenes that don’t really make sense. You just know that the villains are evil and that they will do anything to realize their ambitions.

A positive for the game can be the fact that it can get pretty difficult towards the end. Unless you’ve customized well, you’ll find that defeating the Bills level is nearly impossible. Tough DBZ games can be nearly impossible traditionally, but this battle style helps to make that a reality through team deaths.

Ally deaths is a feature that I skimmed over so I’ll go into it now. Instead of dying when your health bar fades, you just have a number of lives like a Mario game. How many lives your team gets depends on who your partners are. For example, Broly may have one retry while Krillin would get three. To make up for this, Krillin is a lot weaker than Broly, but it’s effectively 4 fighters against two. In this case, Krillin may be the way to go. So, during a battle you’ll want to protect your allies as you fight. There will be a timer that will give you a few seconds to save your partner before your team loses a life.

I may not have listed a lot of positives, but the game still gets a solid 8/10. You may wonder why the game would get such a high rating. Well, in part it’s because of the franchise. The fact that the game is about DBZ and that we get to relive the storylines is always fun. The gameplay may not be 5 star material, but it’s pretty great. When looking at it without comparisons; I can definitely say that it’s a good way to play. The game may have its holes, but it doesn’t take away from the good aspects of it. If I’d never played the other DBZ games, then who knows…maybe this could have gotten a 9. It’s one of those hypotheticals that is interesting to think about.

Overall, DBZ definitely experimented with the formula a lot in this game. Like Ultimate Tenkaichi, this game would be a disappointment if one thought of it as the next BT game. The new style of gameplay and lack of replay value were not good ideas. Story Mode was watered down and I’m not a huge fan of the online gameplay. I do like the idea of a 4 player battle royale, but without a console like the Gamecube where we had 4 slots right off the bat, it’s tough to really make use of this feature. Still, the first game is usually the trial version so I’m sure that a sequel would work out many of these issues. This is still DBZ and I recommend it if you like a good action game. Maybe not at the standard retail price. Wait until the price goes down and then snap it up! You won’t regret getting the next big DBZ title! I don’t have the platinum for it yet, but I got most of the trophies and in a way, that helps to fix the lack or replay value.

Overall 8/10

Spiderman Shattered Dimensions Review

Posted on January 16, 2014 by dreager1

Unlike Batman, who has a bit of a sketchy track record when it comes to video games, Spiderman has the greatest track record for any superhero. Sure, his portable games may not be the best, but I’m just talking about the big console Spiderman games. Spiderman 2, Ultimate Spiderman, the Original Spiderman…they were all fantastic games. They revoloutionized the super hero genre and showed us that 3D fighters can still have stealth built into them. While I did not play Spiderman 3, Edge of Time, or Amazing Spiderman yet, I have a feeling that they’re pretty good! Time to see if this game could keep the Spiderman reputation!

The Plot for this game was ambitious since it brings together the 4 big Spidermen! We’ve got the Ultimate version of Spiderman, The 2099 Spiderman, Spiderman from the Noir universe, and….the original Spiderman! Right when I heard that the original Spiderman would be back, along with the Ultimate version..I knew that the game would be good. (Yes, the original Spiderman is in all of the games, but he’s still a deal breaker) The big villain of the game is Mysterio (Unfortunately. Marvel went through a phase where he was The villain for Spiderman games) and he has a relic.

See, these relic (Sort of) objects have a lot of power and they’re messing with the universes. Madame Web is able to contact the 4 different Spidermen and tell them to quickly locate the pieces. Unfortunately, it is Spiderman’s fault that it shattered, but how was he to know that it would have such devastating effects? That being said, he should have beaten Mysterio very quickly due to his spider sense. Now that we have the objectives in mind, it’s time to take on the bosses!

The Gameplay is what you would expect from a traditional Spiderman game. In case you haven’t played one of those before, it’s just a 3D fighter. You get to use your web slinging abilities along with quick combos to maximize damage. The gameplay is very fun and definitely something that you can enjoy. There are a lot of attacks in your arsenal and while Spiderman is the most fun to play as, 2099 can get pretty intense at times as well. Noir and Ultimate are fun in their own rights, but they definitely lack the replay value that the first two have. I’ll go more into depth with their gameplay styles later on in the review.

There are also quick time events for the boss battles, but they play out a little differently than most. Instead of using buttons to counter, you’ll usually use the joy sticks to throw punches in first person mode. After playing quick time events like Naruto and Final Fantasy XIII-2, this game doesn’t hold up as well. The quick times just aren’t as fun and you’re really just spamming the attack buttons. That being said, it only happens once a level so it’s definitely not going to hurt your enjoyment of it.

The gameplay for Spiderman is what you would expect. He uses his web abilities a lot and you can tie opponents up. I like to drag them to me in the air and knock them away, only to drag them back up and continue the combo. It’s a nice way to look cool and get those combo ratings up since the combo doesn’t do that much damage. Spiderman is the most fun to play as and while nothing has really changed in his fight style, he’s just too fun to stop playing as him!

Ultimate Spiderman is drastically different from Spiderman and while they both use combos, Ultimate uses his symbiotic abilities to hit his foes. This gives him a longer range and his attacks can be very chaotic. He doesn’t seem as durable as Spiderman, but you can heal some health while playing as him in rage mode. He did get one of the better levels in the game since it’s Deadpool themed.

Spiderman Noir uses a stealth tactic to fight with his opponents. Apparently, he can be destroyed almost instantly in a straight fight. That’s a little disappointing to his fans, but it makes for some fun gameplay. His style of fighting can get old a little sooner than the others, but it can still be fun for a while. You need to stay in the shadows and then quickly take the opponent down in a single hit so that he can’t signal the others. You use the same approach against bosses, but it takes more than one hit. It’s still a unique way to play a Spiderman game, so that is a good reason to try it out. (Not like you’ll have a choice if you plan on completing the game!)

Spiderman 2099 is the futuristic member of the group and his unique feature is that you get to do some pretty cool dives. You move at incredible speeds while dying and it can be easy to get hit by the objects if you aren’t careful. His “Spider Sense” lets you go through the levels a little easier and while you may not actually stop time, it will definitely help. His charge attack is the best since it allows you to teleport, but all characters have a weakspot. His is the fact that his combos aren’t very good so melee attacks can get pretty dicey. I had to retry one of his levels a few times for that reason.

The game has a lot of things that you can do once you complete it. This is good because the game only has around 12 levels and you can beat it within 4-6 hours. I completed the game on Hard mode later on (For the trophies!) and while it is challenging, it is definitely doable. It’s not as insane as some other hard modes can be and it still feels fair. The villains are tougher, but you’ll do fine if you’re used to the gameplay. Aside from completing levels, there are many challenges to complete to fulfill the Web of Destiny. There are a lot of challenges and the toughest ones are definitely the Gold Spider parts. This is one game that I probably won’t be getting a Platinum in, but it was still a lot of fun.

The Graphics for the game can be considered as an acquired taste. It likely won’t sit well with everyone because they went for a comic book look while also making the animation gritty. The first person moments definitely highlight why this doesn’t work. The game’s cinematic cutscenes look great, but we only get a handful of those. The rest of the cutscenes just aren’t really my style. That being said, this is still PS3. While the character animations may not be my favorite in cutscene form, they look good in real time combat. Likewise, the stage backgrounds and the effects all look really good.

Regarding portrayals, the characters looked pretty good. I think that the heroes looked a little too weak since there are many cutscenes where they are knocked out. That would definitely be my gripe since the villains are no match. Each hero got three villains from his universe. Spiderman dealt with Kraven, The Juggernaut, and Sandman. Each of these guys can be considered as a formidable threat (Except Kraven) and their boss battles were fun. Sandman’s had the most gimmicks, so it wasn’t quite as good as Juggernaut’s or Kraven’s boss battles. There isn’t anything wrong with their portrayals.

Ultimate Spiderman had to fight Electro, Deadpool, and Carnage. That’s definitely an all star cast and Carnage’s level was very intense. Electro had a nice setting and Deadpool had the best level in the game. He’s constantly mocking Spiderman and he makes for a really fun (and difficult) boss fight. Deadpool looked amazing and this is probably his best video game appearance. Spiderman Noir fought Vulture, Goblin, and Hammerhead. His villains are definitely the dullest and I can’t root for any of them. I’m assuming that this is how they act in the comics, but none of them are likable characters. Spiderman 2099 fought Scorpion, Doctor Octopus, and Hobgoblin. Naturally, these are the 2099 versions, so they’re a lot different than what you may have expected. Hobgoblin was cool, but the other two are your average villains. There isn’t really anything remarkable about these guys at all.

One improvement that the sequel could make is the story mode. As mentioned earlier, there are only a few cinematic cutscnenes. After you find out what the goal is, the story basically stops. I would have liked a deeper plot in the game. It just wasn’t that engaging and Mysterio can’t be taken seriously. It’s not a bad plot, but it just didn’t go into that much depth. I have heard that the next one has a deeper story, so it seems like they fixed this problem.

Overall, this is a intense and awesome Spiderman game. It features a lot of reasons to keep on playing and playing as the hours go by. This game should last for a decent while and the gameplay is very fun. One thing that may give you pause is the lack of a soundtrack, but it could definitely be worse and I’m hoping that the sequel will correct this. It might not be able to handle some of the older Spiderman games, but it’s still a very good game to buy and I recommend it. Fans of any super hero game that’s come out in the last 10 years should enjoy it and anyone who likes to see some action. I know that a sequel has come out for the game and I have my eye on it. That being said, they also made one based off of the new film which could prove to be interesting. Decisions, decisions. In the end, There’s really no reason not to get this game!

Overall 8/10

Ratchet and Clank Size Matters Review

Posted on December 30, 2013 by dreager1

Ratchet and Clank is easily one of Sony’s best game series and I have to admit that it does defeat the other two big ones. (Sly and Jak) Don’t get me wrong, Sly and Jak are solid gaming series, but Ratchet and Clank is just so much fun. I love the whole weapon leveling up system and the plot is always a lot of fun. This game was also on the PSP so it’s a lot shorter than the average game in the series, but was it still able to live up to the older games?

The plot is pretty simple as a little girl asks Ratchet to do “Heroic stuff” so that she can take pics and show them to her friends. It’s such a noble request that Ratchet takes her up on it and he takes on a lot of robots. Unfortunately, the little girl isn’t actually human and she is prepared to take over the world with an army. Ratchet and Clank must embark on their most dangerous quest yet as they quickly go into action. It’s too bad for Ratchet since he had been enjoying such a nice vacation. Captain Quark also has a subplot where he wants to find out the truth about his parents! Get ready for an “I’m your FATHER!” plot twist coming up!

The game is very easy to get into and you’ll find yourself hooked immediately. I ended up playing it for much longer than I had planned when I first played the game because I could not tear myself away. (I had received other games and wanted to beat some of them first which is why I didn’t have time for this one) Even if you have not played a Ratchet and Clank game for a while, you will quickly remember how epic Ratchet can be. He’s still one of the better main characters out there.

He starts out the game in an epic fashion as he is relaxing on the beach. He quickly goes into hero mode when the little girl appears and he proves that he hasn’t lost any of his skill. He has a “Rage” moment once he finds out that he’s been cloned and the scene is pretty epic. It reminded me of Jak’s big change from game 1 to game 2. Ratchet goes back to his lighthearted nature again, but the moment is not something that he will forget. Ratchet doesn’t seem to mind “Crossing the line” as much as other protagonists, but perhaps he is kidding at times. He definitely loves to mess with Captain Quark and his methods usually lead to the galaxy being saved.

Of course, Ratchet does have help from Clank. I’ve always found Clank to be a much better sidekick than Daxter, but Bentley may still be the best. Clank has his cool mecha titan mode which enables him to fight some pretty tough customers. His boss battle on land is fun because it definitely has a Godzilla feeling to it. He always speaks in a monotone voice which makes Clank easy to root for and he always gives the job his best. He may have had an epic fail moment when he short circuited due to a virus, but he looks pretty good beyond that scene. He’s a good companion for Ratchet on his adventures.

Captain Quark is the third main character and while he is not playable, he has a big impact on the game. The plot twist about who is parents were may be pretty emotional for fans and you almost feel bad for him as he keeps on falling for the villain’s tricks. His character design also makes his scenes pretty funny and he’s definitely one of the better characters in the franchise. I dare say that this may have been his best appearance yet.

I won’t go too in depth about the little girl because her plot twist is intriguing. Ratchet takes a shot at her when she first shows her true colors, but beyond that..she seemed to have the edge. In a true fight, Ratchet would definitely win, but they never get to have that match. The true main villain shows up at the very end and he’s intense. He can be a little generic, but he admits this and doesn’t try to hide it. He just wants to beat people up and take names. Soon, he will conquer the galaxy!

One of the big positives of the Ratchet and Clank series is how original it can be. In one level, we get to go into Ratchet’s dream world and it’s very intense. Captain Quark’s have buzz saws and they aren’t afraid to use them. We also see a flower that grows Quark’s head and you can use it as a bomb. The whole level is very trippy and also very awesome. The whole game could have been on that level and it still would have been awesome.

Now, let’s not mistake gimmicks for talent. The levels may have had their quirks, but they were not a walk in the park. The game shouldn’t be too challenging because you have a solid array of weapons and gadgets at one’s disposal, but the final boss’s final phase is pretty tricky. He has a barrier that protects him for about half of his life bar and it keeps on regenerating after you break it. That’s why the first half of the fight is a lot tougher than the second half. During the second half, he has no barriers so you can just keep on firing at him. The main reason why the boss fight can be tricky is the fact that you’ll definitely run out of ammo. I tried to keep on refilling it, but that costs a lot of money for the rockets and laser tracer so I just had to keep on upgrading and leveling up until I could win. The boss battle took me several tries and a lot of play time. I would have beaten the game at least 1-2 hours sooner if not for that fight. Still, it is great to see the game make a tough final boss. Final bosses should always be challenging so that you can truly feel at peace when you defeat it.

The animation holds up pretty well on the PS2. It may not be spectacular, but it’s very good and will suffice. Captain Quark is awesome to behold with the animation and they did a great job on the dream sequence. I definitely give the animation a thumbs up and it does not hold the game back.

The array of weapons may be pretty small in this game, but they are fun to use. I obtained 9 of them and they were mostly cool. The Laser Blaster is my favorite weapon and while it does not deal a great amount of damage, it’s really fun to spam. The Incinerator is also a solid weapon and easily one of the most deadly. The Shock Rockets are a lot of fun since they home in on the enemy and also deal a lot of damage. The Suck Cannon lives up to its name and it’s the worst weapon in the game. There’s no point to it and I definitely wouldn’t use it. The Stealth Scope Gun (Close to the name anyway) is good, but hard to use in actual combat. There’s a long range cannon that is good once you have fully upgraded it, but the damage output is pretty low. The Laser weapon is pretty good, but also hard to use in a fight and you get it right before the end of the game so you won’t have much time to use it. One weapon lets you send out mini Clanks to get the opponent, but I didn’t find those to be very useful. There is also an Acid Grenade attack, but I don’t see why you would use it. All in all, the weapons are solid for the most part and I highly recommend the Laser Blasters and the Rockets!

Overall, this was a very good addition to the Ratchet and Clank series. It may not have been quite a match for Deadlocked, but it’s still an incredible game. The fact that you can beat it in a few hours may be a little disappointing, but these games always have a substantial amount of replay value. Collecting weapons, skill points, gadgets, etc. There will be plenty for you to do after Story Mode. There is also a very solid multiplayer mode where you can fight others with the incredible battle style. It’s like playing Star Fox Assault. You are definitely getting a lot of bang for your buck! Ratchet was portrayed perfectly and he also made sure to mention the R.Y.N.O. when the villain claimed that nothing could beat intelligence. Ratchet sure showed him eh? Nothing can stop the R.Y.N.O.! I look forward to playing the next game in the series and finally starting its PS3 run. I highly recommend this game and you will greatly enjoy it. There aren’t any real flaws in this game.

Overall 8/10

Street Fighter X Tekken Review

Posted on December 21, 2013 by dreager1

Street Fighter X Tekken got a lot of hype when the game was first announced. Two of the biggest fighting series in the world would be fighting it out on the big screen! Who could resist such an awesome game in theory right? Well, it was a little underwhelming in certain aspects of the game, but the gameplay lives up and that’s the important thing….right!?

Well, let’s go back to the amazing hype before the game came out for a little longer. They actually released cinematic episodes to increase the hype and boy were they awesome. I could barely believe my eyes as I saw Ryu getting completely annihilated by Kazuya and also had to take a step back when Bison challenged Jin. I could finally see all of the big Tekken vs Street Fighter matches that fans had been dreaming about for years and it was in movie format. The cinematic episodes had pretty awesome animation and it was a perfect way to hype up the game although it was a bit of a mixed bag.

The flip side of this was that it hinted at a story mode that wouldn’t actually happen in the game. It’s not uncommon for Capcom to do this since we’ve also got Marvel vs Capcom 3 in that regard, but it can still be sad. If you have enough money to make such awesome cutscenes, why not form a story line around them? (Smash Bros 3DS could also learn a thing or two from that, although there is still hope) Still, it can be forgiven since it’s still awesome to have cutscenes to watch on Youtube. What can’t really be forgiven is the extremely lazy Arcade Mode.

When you have a two vs two battle system, then you should unlock both endings in one shot or at least one ending. In this game, unless you are the correct pairings that the game wants you to be, you are basically toast. That was pretty disappointing since it’s sad to play through an Arcade Mode and not be rewarded with any cool cutscenes. There also isn’t a theatre mode which makes you wonder what the point of playing Arcade Mode is in the first place. You can only watch the cutscenes when you replay Arcade Mode and that can get old fast. That was a pretty big negative for the game, but I guess that means that I’ll just need to ditch Arcade Mode and focus on the other choices.

One thing that you’ll be able to appreciate is the fact that the game is pretty difficult. Mission Mode is insanely hard and you’ll really want to have a lot of Street Fighter knowledge before you begin the battles that will change everything. Trial Mode is also pretty tricky if you’re not familiar with the correct buttons to use in Street Fighter. They do a bad job of translating the symbols into the PS3 controller scheme. Since every character has a lot of trials, there should still be plenty for you to do and it’ll keep you busy for a while.

The most important part of a game is always the gameplay so….how did this one fare? I’d say that it’s essentially Street Fighter style, but a little quicker like the Capcom Vs games. It’s fun to see how the Tekken characters fare in SF style and they’re pretty cool. This game also has the Pandora mode which sacrifices your life so that your partner can gain unimaginable power! It’s not a technique that I recommend since it’s highly risky, but the payoff can be pretty good as well. 2 on 2 is always fun because you can use team combos and use strategy to plan on how to fight your opponents. Switching out is the key to success!

The soundtrack is pretty forgettable, but it’s all right. While you’re fighting, the soundtrack will seem to be pretty good. You just won’t have any recollection of it once you are done playing. The stages are all right, but they seem to be lacking in variety. They aren’t exactly the next Tatsunoko vs Capcom in that regard.

The character roster is pretty good as well although this leads to a negative. First of all, it’s awesome to see Pac Man and the truly original Mega Man back in action. These guys practically invented the gaming industry and to see them in a modern fighting game brings tears to my eyes. It’s pretty disappointing that Pac Man uses a robot to fight in this version, but I guess that we can’t win them all. Cole MacGrath is also present in the game and his thunder abilities can be pretty fun to use.

The problem is the fact that a lot of the characters who are on the screen can’t even be used. You have to buy them as a DLC pack and that’s pretty disappointing. On disc DLC is even worse than regular DLC because you have to see them every time that you head to a character select menu. They shouldn’t be on the disc if you have to actually buy them.

Not counting the cinematic episodes, the graphics are only decently good. I’d say that Tekken 6 actually looked better in pure animation as this one just seems a little grainy or unfocused. There’s something about the game that just doesn’t look right and I intend to find out what it is! Considering that it’s a pretty modern PS3 game, the graphics definitely don’t impress me and I believe that they could have put more of an effort into that. Graphics aren’t immensely important, but it’s still fun to have good graphics.

Overall, this is a pretty good fighting game as long as you are getting it as a fighting game. You can’t really expect anything from the Arcade Mode and Trial Mode isn’t very interesting. Mission Mode is insanely hard, but definitely fun to play until you defeat the opponents. In pure gameplay, the game is a lot of fun and you’re bound to love it. Air combos are still epic and your tag combos can come in handy as well. The best part is still the fact that you can go online and challenge opponents to ultimate battles of skill and precision!

Overall 8/10

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