Tag Archives: PS3

Saint Seiya Soldier’s Soul Stats and Records

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Stats time!

PS3 Trophy% 23%
Play Time 13h 8m
Collection 46%
Gold 39570
Characters Unlocked 66/72
Challenges Cleared 66/110
S Ranks 40/49
Battle of Gold Win Rate 79%
Survival Challenges Cleared 25
High Score 23100
Galaxy War Bronze Cup Victories 2
Total Cosmo 769672
Costumes 90/144
Titles 196/435
Assist Phrases 50/169
Record 170-3
Regular Hits 2924
Strong Hits 427
Long Range Hits 54
Guards 505
Guard Breaks 30
Break Falls 90
Throws 144
Throw Escapes 1
Burst Dashes 0
Burst Hits 0
Cosmo Charges 61
Special Moves 620
Lightspeed Moves 148
Seventh Sense Awakenings 0
Big Bang Attack Hits 50

Saint Seiya Soldier’s Soul Review

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It’s time for a cool fighting game that didn’t get a US retail release, but luckily there are other English speaking areas around so we can always count on them for backup. Between the great story, graphics, and gameplay, there is a lot to love in this game and not a whole lot to dislike. There is a lot to do here so it completely justifies any price that you may have purchased it for. Even if you are not familiar with Saint Seiya before this, the game walks you through just about the whole series.

All right, lets launch into this. The main Story Mode covers the 3 big arcs from the manga as well as one from the anime. You play as Seiya and the other Bronze Knights as they take down many foes who appear before them and work to protect Queen Athena. They go to the depths of Hades, to the beyond of Atlantis, and even to Olympus to protect their queen. The heroes die a lot and go through many trials, but they always get back up. That’s the true skills of warriors like these. It’s easy to see why people consider this to be a classic version of DBZ. Each chapter in Story Mode has between 11 and 20 battles and most of those battles are a best of 3 or even best of 5 once in a while. You’ll also have some levels that are just cutscenes so those are fairly easy. I believe that there are 49 levels total by the way.

Getting all S ranks is actually fairly easy this time around. That shouldn’t give you a lot of trouble, but completing all of the bonus requirements before a battle will be fairly difficult. Some of them involve doing long combos or blocking a lot. It won’t take an extreme amount of grinding to obtain though. If you want the Platinum trophy, most of your grinding will be in gathering titles and obtaining money. You have to buy just about everything in this game and money isn’t extremely lucrative. Still, that’s why it’s good that this game has very smooth gameplay and replay value. The story mode took me around 10 hours to complete and I expect that trying for the Platinum would probably take me up to 30 or maybe even 40 hours. I don’t intend on getting it anytime soon, but I do want to buy all of the characters so we’ll see how close that gets me to the Platinum in that time frame. I already purchased all of the stages so characters are definitely next.

Okay, lets get back to the gameplay. It’s a 3D fighting game like DBZ. You can attack your opponents with quick attacks, power moves, or energy blasts. You can string them together to make some fun combos and you also have burst moves, which are effectively special attacks. Charge up your meter enough and you can use a final smash. Most of them are a little too slow to be useful since you can just block them, but the Gold Saints get instant attacks, which are really handy. Naturally you can block, dash, teleport, jump, and more in addition to hand to hand action. None of the combos are too over the top so you don’t have to worry about dying after one mistake. Nevertheless, it is important that you know when to strike and when to evade. The story mode is fairly easy, but you’ll get your real challenge once you tackle the Galaxy Cups and Survival Mode. Those do not hold back at all.

The soundtrack is incredible and makes the game that much more epic. The actual theme selection is a little limited, but they are all good. They put you right in the battle and help to emphasize the high stakes that are at play. The graphics also look pretty good. They have that fun PS3 anime brawler look to them and the energy attacks are fun to watch. It’s not the kind of game that’s going to outshine Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy in the graphics department, but it is still all on point.

Aside from the main story mode, we also have the Gold Saints mode. You get to play as each Gold Saint in 3-4 battles. It’s mainly a way to see how they interact with each other after the drama in the main story mode. It’s a fun little adventure although some of the fights can be a little repetitive. The normal Story Mode was also a little repetitive with how every arc followed the same formula, but if it works….it works. Seeing the heroes split up and take out the villains will definitely be a lot of fun to see in the manga and the anime. The series kept on increasing the power levels to the point where it got pretty crazy. (In a good way)

As mentioned before, there is a whole lot of replay value here. By the end, this game will definitely be up there with some RPGs when it comes to length. Unlocking all of the characters is definitely my top priority and I already have all of the stages. I probably won’t bother with buying everything else for a little while, but I can see myself coming back to this title and earning more trophies at some point. I also got the PS3 version so I can go online and take some people down for the count as well. You have to love the PS3’s smooth online, the other companies could learn a few things from them.

Overall, Saint Seiya Soldier’s Soul is a great fighting game. The gameplay is fairly deep and there is even an equipment system that will add to the strategic element of the game. You won’t run out of things to do here and the character roster is very impressive. I believe that there are over 70 characters to be found here and almost as many stages. With all of the technical aspects like the graphics and soundtrack being good as well, there’s really nothing to dislike here. I would call it one of the best PS3 fighting games. On a pure gameplay level, I’d say that it is better than J Stars and it is certainly a better overall game than PS All Stars. I have to still give Raging Blast and Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm the edge though. It’s definitely a must buy for any fighting game fan and I hope that more series get to have a big budget fighting game like this one. I think Bleach has earned a chance by now.

Overall 9/10

Sly Cooper Thieves in Time Stats and Records

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Stats time!

PS3 Trophy% 33%
Game Complete 87%
5/60 Masks
Bottles 18%
Treasures 0%
Safes 0%
Masks 8%
Chapter 1 88% 11/30 Bottles 1/11 Masks 0/12 Treasure 0/1 Chest
Chapter 2 86% 4/30 Bottles 0/12 Treasure 0/1 Chest 1/11 Masks
Chapter 3 86% 6/30 Bottles 0/12 Treasure 0/1 Chest 0/11 Masks
Chapter 4 86% 4/30 Bottles 0/12 Treasure 0/1 Chest 1/11 Masks
Chapter 5 85% 2/30 Bottles 0/12 Treasure 0/1 Chest 1/11 Masks
Chapter 6 98% 1/5 Masks

Sly Cooper Thieves in Time Review

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This game was on the backburner for many years, but I finally got around to completing it. The story takes a while to get good and honestly it is probably the weakest game in the series, but it was still pretty good overall. I just think that the game should have been a little less formulaic and should have gone for a more connected and changing story. It would have made the whole thing a lot more interesting and Ratchet and Clank is always adapting like this. It would have been simple enough for Sly to have copied that approach. Well, it is what it is.

Sly had finally gotten his happy ending after the third game. He pretended to lose his memories so he could live a peaceful life without having to force Carmelita to choose a side. Unfortunately, someone is messing with the timestream and Sly can’t just let this go unpunished. He must bring his thieving skills back to work with his old gang as they time hop to find the source of the problems. The trust that has been lost between him and Carmelita may be hard to repair so this case is going to be a very personal one. Is Sly up for the job?

As always, this Sly game is a 3D platformer. You use stealth for most of the game as you get from point A to point while getting past obstacles. You can also fight enemies and take them out easily enough, but it’s usually faster to slip past them or use the one hit KO stealth attack. Each area is very large so you have a lot of room to maneuver and you can also use that time to grab some extra collectibles. They’ll all come in handy by the end if you want to earn the shiny Platinum to add to your collection. You can never have too many trophies right? This is the only Sly game that I have not Platinum’d yet so I aim to fix that at some point in the future.

Aside from playing as Sly, you get to play as a lot of other characters this time around. That’s because one of the gimmicks in this game is that you finally get to meet Sly’s ancestors. Each era in time has a Cooper and they all have their own special abilities. One can climb walls and another has a gun. This results in some new twists that are added to the usual gameplay and that’s a good way to make the gameplay more diverse which was good. Bentley also gets his own minigames as one is like an overhead version of Tron and another is a 2D shooter. His minigames were always fun so I was glad to have them around. Murray’s is probably the least exciting as you just go around punching people. Finally, we can’t forget the short driving levels as you play in the mini car. Those were a nice change of pace as well, but in the end, the classic Sly gameplay is still the best.

As always, the gameplay is handled really well and the controls are very smooth. It makes the cases fun and going around the city is so streamlines that it makes the grind for all of the collectibles very manageable. The quick time event bosses were always handled well and they always feel great no matter how many games use them. Final Fantasy XIII-2 still did the best job out of all the games, but it’s a little hard to match the level of epicness that title was able to attain.

Graphically, Sly looks good. It may not stand out the same way that something like Super Smash does, but it holds up well on the good ole PS3. When it comes to the soundtrack, that part is a little more bland. You aren’t likely going to remember a lot of the tunes once you’re done. They’re passable, but just aren’t anything all that grand when you really get down to it.

There is a good amount of replay value here as you can go back to all of the chapters to grab treasure, collectibles, and open the safes. Buying everything from the shop will take some time as well and each story level is roughly an hour or longer. It’s certainly a game that gives you a lot of content for the money that you paid, which sounds good to me. It’s not artificial length like some other games either as you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment as you go through.

I do want to take a second to say that all of the past Coopers were annoying. I felt like the game wasn’t even trying with them as they were all super gimmicky. The cave man Cooper was the most annoying as you couldn’t understand what he was saying and he just wasn’t that smart. All of the Coopers had a lot of attitude, but it wasn’t deserved as we had to save them all from the villains. None of the Coopers were able to do anything on their own so you have to question how they got such a famous legacy. Evidently, Sly is the only cooper who can hold his own. It just makes you wonder.

Sadly, the classic banter that we had in the previous games is gone in this one between Sly and Carmelita. It’s an unfortunate side effect of their dynamic completely changing thanks to the third game. I’ll definitely miss it since the Sly games had the strongest dialogue from the three main Naughty Dog series for a while. The writing’s still good, but it’s just not as clever. Sly’s still a good main character even if he made a lot of the wrong decisions. Carmelita’s also good as the tough rival who is always making threats although this is not her best portrayal. Murray and Bentley are around as usual. I can’t say that they’re my favorite characters though. The villains are all right I suppose, but while they all technically have personality and character thanks to their origin stories, I never got too attached to any of them. The main villain is also a Skunk who is comic relief so he isn’t meant to be taken seriously either.

Overall, Sly Thieves in Time is a good installment to the series, but it’s not the game that I want to be known as the final in the series. It’s certainly a step down from the other games and that’s partially why it took me so long to complete it. I was never able to play the game with the same gusto that I tackled other titles with. It was a good throwback since a game hadn’t come out in a very long time for this series, but the plot did hold it back quite a bit. The supporting cast just weren’t all that good and this game lacked the impact that the first three did. It really survives on the gameplay alone because every other part of the game was either not that great or simply could have been better. To be fair, gameplay still is the most important quality in a game so that is enough to justify a good score. The cliffhanger for the game is pretty intense although to fully see it you better get that Platinum Trophy ready. It does make you wonder about some things though. All those months…what was Sly doing? It depends on how you interpret the ending I suppose, but another game would clear that up. This is certainly a must buy for Sly fans and generally, I think any platformer fan will be able to appreciate this title.

Overall 7/10

De Blob 2 Review

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I actually enjoyed the first De Blob game quite a bit. It was a lot of fun and took a unique approach on the Platformer genre. Painting everything in the city before moving on was a lot of fun and it made for a peaceful adventure. My main problem with the game is the fact that it drags on a lot this time around and they actually decided to switch the gameplay up rather dramatically. It makes for an easier Platinum, but that’s about all that I can say for the game and trust me…it’s not saying a whole lot anymore. It’s a shame that De Blob 2 couldn’t stay true to the original.

Comrade Black is back and once again he has decided to eliminate all color. Yeah..the plot is basically the same exact thing as the first title. The story is easily one of the weakest aspects in the game. Who thought it would be engaging for every character to speak gibberish while gargling water the whole time? It gets annoying very quickly. Even ignoring that, all of the characters are really annoying. None of them come across as particularly annoying and could Blob have been given a worse design? He is always making a lot of “cool” poses after accomplishing a mission, but they all come across as arrogant or mean. A cool character can pull that off, but not Blob.

For example, Blob was actually trembling when he first made it to the villain lair? Really!? Keep in mind that Comrade Black is a baby himself who is always getting teased by his subordinates and crossdresses once in a while. He has a little horsie float to keep himself from drowning and he’s comic relief the whole game. To be fair, every character is comic relief in this game and a lot of innocent civilians die and are blown up, but this is also used for comic relief since they are just made out of ink.

The only deep part of the game is at the final level where Blob must make a difficult decision 3 times. Save the civilians who are stranded on a planet which is about to explode or keep on going to stop the main villain. I went to save these guys two times, but it never helped at all and the people weren’t even grateful. It’s still heroic to save them, but I didn’t want to by the end. I did try to help the third group once, but then I died and the game took me 10 whole minutes back. I was not going to make that mistake a second time. A cutscene played and we saw the planet blow up with all of the civilians on it. For a second I was worried, but for the wrong reasons. I thought that maybe it wasn’t optional after all, but luckily it was okay. The sidekick didn’t even care and told me to keep on going.

That brings me to another negative, the lack of check points. If you die in a section, prepare to possibly be brought back 10 or more minutes into the level. When you consider the fact that each level is around an hour or even 2, this can get old fast. Towards the end of the game, a single hit from some enemies can easily destroy you. Multiplayer mode helps a little with that as you can have a second player fire some blasters at the enemies. Still, the enemies were a little overpowered. I like a challenge, but I don’t like it when one mistake can send you back such a long ways away. This isn’t Chess after all! (Chess is hype)

Luckily you do have power ups that you can give to Blob. I decided not to buy any upgrades during my playthrough for an extra trophy, but if you do use them, it should make the task a little easier. I highly recommend grabbing more lives and decreasing the cost to roll out since these are related to my two biggest problems. The roll out will help you get rid of the Helmet enemies and the lives will keep you from losing 10 minutes of your time. Keep in mind that if you are trying for the Platinum, then you shouldn’t buy any upgrades. If you don’t, you only need to complete the game two times to be done with it. If you do use the upgrades, it’ll possibly take you 3 times or just a verrry long twice.

The platinum is fairly doable as just completing the game should get you over half of the trophies. That being said, replaying the levels sounds like a huge drag at the moment. Even if there are only around 13 levels, beating them all again could take around 20 hours. Who has that kind of time for a Platinum nowadays eh? If the levels were shorter, that would help this game tremendously. I recommend that to all games. Having a bunch of short levels is better than having a few long ones. I’ll take 60 3-5 minute levels like the Mario games over having 7-13 1 hour long levels. It’s just a lot easier to plug and play with the shorter levels.

This probably won’t come as much of a surprise, but the graphics aren’t all that great. They actually aren’t all that bad though. This game certainly looks like it is a PS3 title so I’ll give it some props there. The soundtrack isn’t even all that bad either. It goes for a full on party feel, but it’s one that works pretty well for De Blob. At the very least, De Blob is actually good on a technical level, I just wish that the gameplay could have held up as well. After all, gameplay is the most important part of a game.

Instead of painting everything to move on in the level, you have to beat a lot of missions. “Beat all of the enemies.” “Infiltrate a building” etc. This gets very repetitive as per usual and of course, if you die while infiltrating a level, get ready to do it all again. You can’t skip cutscenes either by the way so that also adds onto the time. I’m not sure how long it took me to beat this game, but it may have actually been around 20 hours, which is crazy. To think, I had actually picked this game as the next one to play because I thought it’d be a short breather before tackling FF VII as my next RPG. I couldn’t be more wrong!

The sidescroller parts aren’t even that terrible once you’re in the buildings. If that was the only part of the game, I would probably like it a lot more. There are some puzzles, but none of them are all that bad and it’s fun enough. The 3D part which I liked so much in the first game is what hurts this sequel because of the bad level designs. Ironically, the game only gets good once you are close to beating the level. After the final challenge, you are given the option of leaving the level of playing around for a while. By this point, the timer is gone so you can take your time having fun. That is when the game finally looks appealing, but by then it’s a little too late. It is convenient for the trophies of course, but beyond that….it’s way too late. By then, you’ll have very little interest in taking the game up on its offer.

Overall, De Blob 2 is a very underwhelming sequel to the first game. While the final level is the best one and the game shows promise at several points, it simply comes across as lazy and uninspired. There are only two bosses in the game and they’re both tackled the same exact way. The final boss even turns large for no reason except for the fact that it could then have the same boss mechanics as the first one. The rest of the mini bosses are the same wheel that you fight over and over again. The plot is terrible and one of the worst…if not The worst plot that I have ever played. The game should have been as good as a 7, but all of the negatives add up rather quickly and the result is that we’re given a game that I never want to play again. Trophies may lure me back in, but otherwise…it’s over!

Overall 4/10

De Blob 2 Stats and Records

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Stats time! Who knows, this could be a decently easy Plat to get at some point.

PS3 Trophies 18/26

Level Stats

Level 1 Rank C Score:39t5196 Lightbulbs 9/40 3 Medal Ranks: Silver, Bronze, Bronze
Level 2 Rank C Score: 398821 Lightbulbs 7/40 3 Medal Ranks: -, Silvr, –
Level 3 Rank C Score:337210 Lightbulbs 5/50 3 Medal Ranks: —
Level 4 Rank C Score:558660 Lightbulbs 2/50 3 Medal Ranks: Bronze, -, Bronze
Level 5 Rank C Score:563961 Lightbulbs 5/50 3 Medal Ranks: -, Bronze, –
Level 6 Rank C Score:397413 Lightbulbs 10/50 3 Medal Ranks:-, -, –
Level 7 Rank C Score:420892 Lightbulbs 12/40 3 Medal Ranks: Bronze, Bronze, Silver
Level 8 Rank C Score:242360 Lightbulbs 3/40 3 Medal Ranks:-, -, –
Level 9 Rank C Score:459571 Lightbulbs 12/50 3 Medal Ranks:-, -, –
Level 10 Rank C Score:356050 Lightbulbs 10/30 3 Medal Ranks:-, Bronze, Bronze
Level 11 Rank C Score:490682 Lightbulbs 6/30 3 Medal Ranks:-, -, Bronze
Level 12 Rank B Score: 1173415 Lightbulbs 2/10 3 Medal Ranks:Bronze, -, Silver

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan Review

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It’s been a while since I played a Ninja Turtles game. Platinum has been doing a good job with their titles and they are well known for their combat mechanics so this definitely looked like a fun adventure. Reviews have not been kind to it, but this is definitely a solid game. It may not be quite as polished as their Transformers title or Bayonetta, but it’s definitely still a solid game. Platinum leaves their signature combat mechanics and level of difficulty on this title so don’t expect it to be a walk in the park.

The Turtles are called back into action when their old villains start to make some moves. Alien Invasions, Bank Robberies, and more things occur as the villains continue their onslaught of attacks. What is their goal and are these just distractions? The turtles will have to stay on their toes if they don’t want to be caught off guard, but can they really hope to defeat the Shredder? The plot is fairly standard for the TMNT and it doesn’t go for anything grand, but it’s possible that it’s meant to feel like a normal episode. To an extent, that’s what Platinum seems to do for their retro games.

While the gameplay is fairly intricate, I don’t think it’s all that good. The way that the buttons are configured does take quite a bit of time to get used to. You may have beaten the game by then so I suppose it could be useful for the second run through. R2 is to block and evade while attacking is with the SQ button. You can also throw shruiken with L1 although that is really never necessary. It is good for getting some trophies like blowing up cameras though. It’s just very difficult to utilize the blocking button on instinct with how quick the villains strike and how odd of a button it is. I’d prefer for blocking to be R1, but you can possibly switch that somewhere.

You do have quite a few options for attacking though and a lot of ninjutsu can be purchased. I personally liked Stealth Mode, Combo Attack, Super Shruiken, and Healing Circle for my set. You can have 4 at a time. Charms can also be equipped, but they didn’t make much of a noticeable difference. I may just need to buy better ones. You can switch between turtles at any time and you only lose a level if all 4 of them are defeated at once. In that case, you are taken back to the lair to eat some pizza and recharge your strength before going back to the level. For most levels, you are taken back to the exact point of time in which you died, but some bosses regain their full health. It seems to depend on the level.

There are a lot of collectibles and trophies so obtain so there is a solid amount of replay value here. That’s definitely a good thing because the campaign isn’t all that long. It’s around 4 hours, which is quickly becoming the average for games nowadays. That, or maybe games were always that short and I never noticed. Maybe that’s why people love RPGs so much. If nothing else, they’re always long, but I gotta admit that turn based gameplay can also be a real blast as well. Seriously, I love grinding those level ups. There are over 50 trophies so it should take you a while to collect them all. I only got 11 of them while beating the game. Most of them aren’t hard though, but simply rely on repetition. Play the levels again and again enough times and you’ll earn most of them. For example, one of them is saving 10 pizza trucks. I maybe saved one during the whole game. It’s partially chance that you end up getting that mission which is what makes it a little tricky. I’m not a huge fan of that and some trophies are tricky and may require online help from other players. It’s a doable Platinum, but not an easy one by any means.

As per usual, Platinum hits us with a great soundtrack. The rock themes are always a blast to have even if it seemed like the game started to reuse them a little after a while. It’s fine, I’ll still take this over 70% of boss fights in the average games. A good theme can go a long way. That being said, the actual boss fights could be a little annoying at times. I feel like the bosses had too much health and our attacks didn’t deal enough damage. It could take quite a while to take some bosses down and I can only imagine what it’s like on Hard Mode since they gain even more health on that difficulty. Each level isn’t all that long with the boss taking the most time, but it does hurt the replay value of the level a little. Especially with the annoying bosses like Wingnut.

Graphically the game looks good. There is only 1-2 day-time levels though so the graphics usually have it a little easy in the dark. It’s not as impressive as Transformers Devastation by any means, but it certainly doesn’t look bad. The graphics will suffice. Whether it was a glitch or not, a funny thing occurred during the final level though. The game actually replayed an old cutscene in its entirety. For a second there I thought I had clicked on the wrong level, but nope, it still ended up being in the right place. So…what’s up with that? It wasn’t a particularly good cutscene either which was unfortunate.

They reuse a lot of gags in the story mode even though it’s fairly short. For example, Michelangelo always wanting pizza. The turtles should be used to it, but they still act a little surprised and reprimand him each time. I mean, the Turtles are known for this and it’s supposed to be nostalgic I suppose, but this definitely wasn’t my favorite portrayal of them. Leonardo definitely looked the best as he was down to business and had a plan each time. Splinter isn’t quite as good as he seems rather nervous the whole time and subtly recommends retreating for a little while. Seeing Shredder actually be a lackey for once was also rather interesting. Krang’s the boss this time eh? He’s certainly moving up the ranks and if he also calls the shots in the new live action film, maybe he will eventually replace Shredder in that role completely.

I tried going to the online mode, but nobody was online. That’s not a good sign considering how new the game is, but I may have just missed everyone. The online mode is basically a way to play the game co-op, so I imagine there is not a whole lot of incentive for people to do that besides the trophies. Local Co-Op should have been a thing. This isn’t bad if you have a friend who is far away, but it’s definitely not optimal. I suppose TMNT fans will still be thrilled that the series finally has a new game. Granted, it wasn’t amazing, but this game is still a big improvement from games like De Blob and maybe it’ll get a sequel at some point. Platinum doesn’t really do sequels very often, but you never know.

Honestly, I’d probably say that this game does lose to the rest of the TMNT games that I’ve played except for the PSP title. They’re all fairly close, but the Gamecube game was just a little more fun and the plot was certainly a lot more intense. Being related to the 2003 show helped quite a bit as well. It just shows that the series sets the bar rather high though. Transformers is also held at a high level, but each game tends to be roughly equivalent to the rest. Likewise with TMNT, but in the end its weak plot and less likable characters hurt it a bit.

Overall, This is a solid TMNT game, but not one that I’d really recommend for 60 dollars. There’s not enough content here to justify the price, but once it goes down then I’d definitely recommend snagging it. It’s essentially a beat em up with today’s graphics and that’s always fun. In the end, the plot may not have been great, but the most important part is still the gameplay and that’s solid. There are a lot of attacks to mess around with and for those who like difficult games, you’ll get a kick out of this. I lost quite a few times, but luckily the other turtles would revive me. I only had my full team lose twice, but if you don’t adapt and block a lot, prepare for that total to go up quite a bit.

Overall 7/10

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan Stats and Records

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Stats time!

16/99 Charms
Level 15
11/51 PS3 Trophies

Stage Stats

Level 1 A Rank 3503
Level 2 S Rank 7130
Level 3 S Rank 6624
Level 4 S Rank 4969
Level 5 S Rank 5569
Level 6 S Rank 2520
Level 7 A Rank 4276
Level 8 S Rank 17834
Level 9 A Rank 4265

Attack Stats

Stealth Mode Level 3
Combo Attack Level 3
Warp Dash Level 2
Shell Crusher Level 1
Super Shruiken Level max
Spin Attack Level 1
Shruiken Rain Level 1
Super Sumo Slap Level 1
Ninja Drop Kick Level 1
Spin Slash Level 1
Flying Piledriver Level 1
Healing Circle Level 3
Turbo Mode Level 2
Decoy Level 1
High Jump Level 1
Barrier Level 1
Invincibility Level 1
Rain of Fire Level 1
Homerun Swing Level 1
Slash Roll Level 1
Teleport Attack Level 1
Shark Attack Level 1
UFO Attack Level 1
Beam Cannon Level 1
Giant Hologram Level 1
Ground Pound Level 1

AquaPazza Review

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AquaPazza is a game that I really decided to buy on a whim. It is a 2D fighting game with random anime characters, how could this not be epic? Well, the story mode is unfortunately very bland and the gameplay is rather lackluster which makes this one a bit of a miss. It is still a good game purely thanks to multiplayer, but there is so much lost potential here that it is quite scary. Seriously, the series that the characters are coming from are either the most bland ones ever or the writers just didn’t understand them. I can say with confidence that even if I did not know who the characters from Dengeki Bunko were, I would have still enjoyed the story quite a bit more.

As for the gameplay, it is your average 2D fighter, but it is simply not as smooth. The gameplay can be very choppy. This seems to be due to how slow the gameplay can be at times. After working on some trophies for a while in vs. mode and score attack, I grew a little more fond of the game. Not enough to say that it beats any other big anime fighting game, but I suppose it will still be a positive in the end. It is cool to see that every character has a fully animated super attack. That is a solid amount of dedication and work from the game.

Unfortunately, this game is also a prime example of cheating A.I. programs. The semi final boss/ final boss both have incredibly high attack power. This means that you can be winning the whole match only for you to die in one super attack. The opponent also gets to rewind time and get a full health bar back. It took me many tries to beat the semi final boss and I didn’t want to burn another hour or two on the next one so I just left by that point. The trophy was all that I needed, but I do think that the attack power was too high. If I had been playing the mode for fun, I would have definitely been more upset.

The story is as bland as you can imagine. A comic relief witch unleashed a spell that merged all of the worlds somehow. As a result, the heroes have to join forces and stop her. Unfortunately, the characters are not interesting. For some reason, none of them are intense characters. None of them are overconfident, tough talking heroes like I would have wanted. It is possible that a different story would be more interesting, but after the first one I knew that I was done with it. I even tried out the second story for the initial character, but it was not any better. Story isn’t too crucial in a fighting game but every pebble ends up hurting the final product a little more.

There is a decent amount of replay value to be found here. You can probably forget about getting the Platinum since nobody really plays online anymore, but you can still get a lot of the other trophies in the game by learning how to pull off some rather advanced combos. I grabbed quite a lot of them and someday I’ll go back to get a few more. It is definitely rewarding to pull them off. You can also work on clearing score attack and both stories with each character. That should definitely take quite a while and vs. Mode itself should add quite a bit of time to the overall length.

I didn’t really go into the specifics of the gameplay earlier, but each character has around 5 super attacks and one ultimate move. They all take up meter so you can choose to wait for the ultimate or go for a lot of supers. You also have an assist character at the ready who will jump in to help when you summon him/her. Some are better than others since they are vulnerable to attack so you probably want long ranged assist. As mentioned earlier, it is a little slower than most other fighting games. Getting close to the opponent can be tricky as a result since neither side will really want to approach as a result.

At the end of the day, I am still surprised that the character models are so bland. Most anime games are hype because the characters look really cool. Only a few of the characters have interesting designs in this game and most of the movesets could use some work as well. It is a PS3 game, but it is not even close to being as polished as Dengeki. I don’t see this one getting a sequel, but I’m sure that it would be able to improve most of the complaints that I had with this one.

Graphically the game holds up rather well. The animated attacks look sharp. The character models aren’t bad either and the stages are all right, although they can be a bit bland. The soundtrack is also on the generic side. I believe that I only particularly liked one theme and it was for the final boss or the semi final boss. The rest of them weren’t bad, but I certainly forgot them. I could use the time to compare this to Dengeki again, but by now you can the general idea. Anything AquaPazza can do, Dengeki can do better.

Overall, AquaPazza is a decently good fighting game, but that is where the buck stops. The story and characters aren’t all that great. Some of the designs aren’t bad, but the personalities just aren’t there. That being said, it is not all that strange for this to be the case in a fighting game. To an extent, this was the situation in Virtua Fighter and King of Fighters. That being said, Virtua Fighter had the clearly superior graphics and gameplay on its side. It was also more interesting due to how you would rise in rank as you fought stronger and stronger opponents. I’m very early in the King of Fighters series so that title still has time to improve as well. If you’re looking for a solid action title to last over the weekend and play with some friends, this could be a good purchase. Otherwise, you are better off….just buying Dengeki Bunko.

Overall 7/10

Young Justice Legacy Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 6/10