Tag Archives: Video Game Review

Dragon Ball Z Budokai 2 Review

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This is one of those games where you have to ask yourself…is more content always a good thing? I’m going to be honest, I’d like the game a lot more if it didn’t have the story mode that’s present in the game. It’s a shame that more modes can actually be bad for once and it’s a lose-lose situation since I’d be sad if there was none included as well. So I ask…does a bad story mode hurt the game enough for me to deduct a star or should it stay high?

The Budokai series is quite different from Tenkaichi in the sense that it is a 2D brawler. I always enjoy those although it’s safe to say that I still prefer Tenkaichi even though I’m going through a 2D fighting crisis right now. Tenkaichi just revolutionizes 3D gameplay and I never get tired or playing it. Budokai, on the other hand, feels a little limited at times. There’s only so much that you can do as your options are a little limited. It’s not as polished as something like Street Fighter, but the fundamentals are there and the controls are easy to grasp. The problem is that a lot of the game is locked out unless you complete tedious grinds.

For example…you start the game without signature characters like Vegeta and Frieza. I’m really curious to see how the character select screen looked at the beginning and I really should have checked when I had the chance. If you do not defeat them the right way in story mode, then you’ll continue to have to play the game without them and that can be a shame since there’s no way you’ll want to play Story Mode again. Just about everyone is unlocked through Story Mode or with the Dragon Balls, but the unlocks are not easy or quick. They take time.

Let’s go back to why Story Mode is no fun. You start on a Mario Party map and your goal will either be to make it to a location or defeat enemies multiple times. For a fighter like Frieza or Cell, you may have to win 3-4 times and then do that against some of the minions as well. Each turn feels like it takes a long time and you can imagine how sad it is to lose a level after going so far. It shouldn’t sound that bad in theory, but the fights really add up. Even the fact that the story takes a lot of new twists and turns cannot save the final product. You’ll end up just wishing that it was all over after a while. Without the unlockables at every corner I may not be as harsh on the Story Mode. As it is, it’s definitely one of the worst fighting game ones out there.

Aside from that you have other modes like Good ole multiplayer and Tournament Mode. Multiplayer is where you will spend the bulk of your time of course since fighting games like this one are best enjoyed with friends. That’s how it’s always been for the genre and it’s why nothing can beat a truly good fighting game. Tournament Mode should also be decently fun and you’ll earn some money out of it so you can buy some skills. Speaking of which…that’s another unlockable that is rather unnecessary.

Your characters actually don’t have their iconic attacks at first. Mind Blown right? It puts you at quite the disadvantage in Story Mode at times. Imagine playing Goku and being unable to use the Kamehameha. You can find the skills throughout the stages and get them at the shop, but locking a character’s moveset is unprecedented and certainly not in a good way. I really don’t know what they were thinking with this one and it’s a prime example of what I like to call “artificial replay value.”

The graphics are fairly solid. Goku’s voice acting is certainly great as he sounds a lot like Sonic. I feel like this started to change as the games got newer, but the retro ones still have this effect. The blasts are fun to watch and while more effort could have been put into the stages, they look good. The opening cinematic is also a blast and those always added an extra touch to the DBZ series. The soundtrack is a little more forgettable and I can’t actually recall any tunes at the moment, but I remember them being fairly good. Not every game can be the next Sonic right?

Budokai is a little on the old side and it shows, but this still did start the legendary franchise off right. If you like the gameplay here, then you should check out Shin Budokai. It’s a modernized version of this one and naturally it’s been greatly refined. Tenkaichi also came out due to this game so we owe it a lot. I also feel bad for the title since it didn’t ask to have such a terrible Story Mode. It just happened and the game ended up paying the price. We’ve asked the tough questions, but this DBZ title still beats some of the newer ones…sorta. It’s a closer fight than I’d like to admit.

Overall, This review may have been a little on the negative side, but this game is still a good one. When you take away all of the fluff, gameplay is still the most important feature in any game and that part is still done well here. Learning how to block and fight effectively is what will make you a true DBZ warrior. Part of why Story Mode was so difficult was because I didn’t know how to charge my Ki. I still have no idea how to do that even though it’s usually very easy to figure out. Still, the extra difficulty made everything a little more intense so that’s good. I definitely recommend getting this game, but don’t play the Story Mode as it will sour your experience. Despite this game being on the legendary Gamecube console, I actually prefer Budokai 3. The amount of in game lockable content is just too much. It would be good if you could unlock them naturally, but otherwise….I don’t think so. In closing, ignore everything about the game and just head straight to Vs. Mode. That’s the best way to have fun, but good luck with that since you won’t have Vegeta or a number of other cool characters. Maybe they could animate Story Mode and then take out the gameplay when they do a remake someday. That would be the best of both worlds.

Overall 7/10

Street Fighter V Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As a character I can’t stand Birdie, but sadly his controls are actually pretty good. His command grabs are great and they come out of nowhere so your opponent needs to have very fast reflexes to keep up or he’ll be completely overwhelmed. Now we’re getting to the characters that I’m not a big fan of. Mika has a lot of the tools that the others possess, but I just find her hard to use. Likewise, Necalli is strong, but he feels so slow and I haven’t been able to get a hang of his combos. Rashid is the most perplexing character as he feels like he should be very fast and easy to use, but he just isn’t. Dhalsim’s great since you can spam his long range, but he’s incredibly slow and even worse..he’s boring to play as. I don’t care if he becomes top tier, I just can’t play as this guy. Zangief has no projectile which is a huge no no plus he’s a slow character. That’s a lose-lose situation if you ask me. Vega’s just incredibly weak and jumps around too much. F.A.N.G.’s another slow/boring character who I wanted to stop playing immediately. Trust me, he’s not someone that you want to play and I haven’t seen anyone use him yet so I’m guessing that a lot of people feel the same way.
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Overall, Street Fighter V is a phenomenal game. I can see why some people already call it the greatest fighting game of all time. I will never say that as Super Smash Bros wins by a long shot, but aside from that?….Yeah, I think this may earn the title. It’s amazing just how well balanced and diverse the characters and their gameplay are considering that there are only 16 at the moment. I could easily play this for hours on end (When the free PS+ weekends are around) and I’m still partially a button masher at this point. It’s just such a fun game and everything about it just reeks of high quality. It’s definitely a very incomplete game at the moment, but if you have PS+ then you’ll barely notice. If you don’t…just play Survival Mode until you can’t take it anymore and then put the game down until March hits with the first new character and a lot of new features.

Overall 8/10

Avengers Battle For Earth Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 8/10

Spyro Shadow Legacy Review

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Ah…this game was definitely intriguing. I’ve got to say that it’s probably the glitchiest game that I’ve ever played and I can’t help but feel that the developers didn’t spend a whole lot of time on it. The game must have been rushed or just made for some easy $$$ because the creators could have done better. The core game is actually pretty fun, but suffers from a variety of issues.

The plot is fairly light. The Shadow Realm has been claiming the inhabitants of the entire world so it’s up to Spyro to use a crystal to travel between the world and the Shadow World. You free 3-9 people in each area, rinse and repeat. It’s possible that Red is behind this, but Spyro thinks that the true mastermind may be someone who’s even stronger and possibly more deadly. He’s in for the fight of his life!

The interesting thing about this Spyro game is that it’s basically an RPG so it’s quite different from the other Spyro games. You obtain level ups and complete a lot of side quests to advance the main story and earn easy EXP. Grinding out level ups can take a long time with enemies so the quests are important and a lot of them are necessary to complete the game anyway. By the end, I had completed every side quest, but that’s where the tragic part of the game comes into play.

I made it all the way to the final boss, but I didn’t have enough emblems to fight him. No matter, I’ll go and beat the mandatory side quests to get the final emblems right? Wrong! The instant I left the final boss island, my fate was sealed. There’s no way to get back since the airship that took me there the first time was no longer in service. I was now stranded on the regular island and the ironic thing is that I can’t even beat the side quest with the orb because I need to buy something from the final islands. I doubt this was an intentional level of risk to the game so it just speaks to the lazy game developing once again. I’ve heard of games with game breaking bugs, but this is quite sad.

Supposedly, the only way to avoid this is to make contact with the teleporting pad on the final island so that it’s activated, but I had activated it (Which is how I used it the first time) but it simply stopped working. It seems like the pads go dead after a while since most of them don’t show up on my map even though they did on the walkthrough that I saw. Was my copy also glitched individually aside from the well known game break? I don’t know, but either way it’s not how I wanted to end my experience. I was running around the game for hours trying to figure out where it all went wrong and this is what I get in return.

It’s a shame because the game was mostly enjoyable otherwise. It did have a terribly slow start, I’ll grant you that. The game didn’t explain anything all that well so there was a lot of trial and error at first as you had to teach yourself everything. Once I was mostly done with the first world (Out of 3) I had finally gotten the hang of it all and that’s when I finally began to enjoy the game a lot. Leveling up and completing the fairly simple quests was a blast. I learned each area like the back of my hand and things were going well.

The graphics are sub par though and I’ve seen better looking Game Boy Advance games like Sonic Advance or Mario World. Everyone is really pixelated in this game so I think the character models must have been too big or something. The soundtrack is also a little laughable since there are like 2-3 themes in the entire game and whenever you are in the Shadow World it is just one theme. The same one for the entire game, which is more than a little iffy. They can afford more tunes…right?

As I mentioned earlier, there are quite a few glitches aside from the game ending one. You’ll constantly find yourself falling through the ground or through the sky. You’ll die for no reason or enemies will become invincible. It happens quite often to the point where you actually grow used to it. It’s still no excuse though and it’s part of the reason why this game, which should have gotten an easy 7 drops all the way to a 5. Partially also because I was pretty salted about having to end the game right before the final boss. That’s just such a sad way to go.

Naturally, there is no replay value since you can’t actually make it to the end anyway! If not for the glitch, you could spend some time getting the final level ups and beating the final quests, but that wouldn’t last very long. The actual game is of a decent length though and it should last you around 5-10 hours I’d say. It depends on how quickly you figure everything out for yourself.

There were 2 boss fights before the final battle. They were interesting because the game turns a little 3D, which came out of nowhere, but did help to capture the epic scope of these fights. These bosses weren’t playing around and were a blast to fight. It’s too bad that the game didn’t have more bosses since they were actually created with a lot of detail and dedication. It’s a shame that the whole game couldn’t have that.

To use magic in this game, you have to draw on the screen with the stylus, but it’s very picky so you’ll be drawing the same object many times. It’s a little annoying, but not as bad as the fact that you have to teleport around the place a little bit at a time and usually run out of magic energy so then you have to find some enemies to beat. Otherwise, you can run from area to area, but you can spend a good 15-20 minutes just getting somewhere, which is tedious. Again, if you can teleport anywhere in most versions, then this isn’t an issue. Maybe my game was glitched. If not, then this is just bad game design if you ask me.

I didn’t really touch on the gameplay right? It’s overhead and you can ram opponents, whack them, or shoot fire. You can glide and you’ll get stronger throughout the game. It’s fun since you’ll get abilities that are actually very useful and you’ll wonder how you survived without them. Trust me, they save you a lot of heartache and grief.

Overall, Spyro Shadow Legacy is the kind of game that can break a person’s heart. It had a lot of potential to be good and by all accounts it should have been great. Unfortunately, that’s simply not what happened. Instead, glitches completely destroyed this game and made it create sad memories instead of happy ones. It could have brought a whole new direction to Spyro, but instead it will forever be remembered as the worst game in the series by a long shot. The others were all great, but Shadow Legacy will simply be forgotten. If you want a good RPG, play Final Fantasy instead. Shadow Legacy does have a legacy all right, just not the right one!

Overall 5/10

The Invincible Iron Man Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 6/10

Rodea The Sky Soldier Review

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Honestly, Rodea’s situation was pretty sad for its fans. It’s universally agreed that the Wii version of the game is the definitive one, but it was held back for around 5 years so that the Wii U one could get made. Furthermore, the only way to get the Wii version is to buy the Wii U game day 1. Pretty interesting eh? I like to draw myself away from the crowd though so I went ahead and played the Wii U version (But I have the Wii one as well for future reference) anyway. Besides, I don’t care how bad the controls are supposed to be. They’ve got to still be better than using the ole Wii Remote right?

It is the future and robots are the enemy of humankind. One day, a robot named Rodea is fixed by a girl named Iron. She isn’t afraid of robots and just wants to have a good time. Rodea has lost all of his memories and doesn’t know why but he has made a promise to protect Garuda. (Earth’s greatest civilization. Or Garuda is actually the name of the planet) Together, the two of them aim to save the planet and hopefully restore Rodea’s memories, but knowing the past could force the team to part ways so…do the memories really need to come back?

It’s definitely a fun game and I easily would have awarded it an 8..if not for the controls. Unfortunately, the reviews are right about the Wii U’s controls being quite bad. Naturally, I can’t vouch for the Wii ones, but I have heard that they are significantly better. Prepare to die a few times because you end up flying in a different direction from where you wanted to go. Jumping and flying often ends up being a lot riskier than you would have guessed. It’s also worth noting that the Wii U version changed a lot of things from the Wii one. The Wii U took out all of Rodea’s power gimmicks. Think of Sonic Colors or another video game where you would find items that give you temporary powers. There’s none of that in the Wii U version so it’s more of a straight platforming adventure as you try to reach the goal with your original abilities.

The most intriguing change is that the Wii U has a very dark color scheme. It’s more grayscale and takes itself very seriously compared to the Wii version which has a more anime type feel to it. The Wii version certainly looks far superior, but the graphics for the Wii U are still quite good. It’s relatively bad, but absolutely good so just don’t let yourself compare it to the Wii version or it’s cooked. I enjoyed the soundtrack as well. There aren’t a whole lot of themes, but most of the ones that are present are quite catchy. Upon beating the game, you even get a lyrical song that you can play during the levels instead of the background music. It gives the game a more cinematic experience although since it’s just one song, you don’t want to overuse it.

The game takes a lot of cues from the classic Sonic Adventure days. The final world looks a little like the climax of Sonic Adventure 2’s Hero story and Rodea’s whole character arc very closely mirrors Shadow’s from Adventure 2 Battle. Even the gameplay feels a lot like Sonic’s if you used your homing attack a lot back in the day. Naturally, flying is very important in this game and the aerial combat is fun. You’ve also got a gun which you can use and while I never used it at first, it came in handy towards the end. Don’t forget that you can also roll away from an attack, but typically jumping is your best bet. Your homing attack (Dash Attack) is your best form of attack against most villains and just remember that you can use it in rapid fire mode against bosses in order to end them quickly.

The bosses typically have fun attack patterns. The only one that wasn’t fun to fight was ironically the last boss. He’s a classic example of why bigger isn’t always better. It’s not so much a fight as it is just a long adventure of trying to get close to him. More parrallels to Sonic here as it’s very similar to Sonic DX’s Final Chaos, but with more jumping around before actually charging in. The best boss was probably in the second last level with the Geardo attack followed by his subordinate. It was pretty tough.

That being said, all of the bosses were a little limited in the sense that they would have 3-4 attacks and would always use them in the same sequence. The whole time I was expecting them to shift tactics upon crossing the halfway mark of their health bar, but it never happened. As a result, the battles would be more about waiting for the inevitable weak spot than actually doing anything. Still fun fights though and they never felt “cheap.”

The game’s story was pretty fun whenever the villains would show up. I didn’t really care for the supporting characters here. Ion’s grandfather was a boring character who would always yell each one of his lines because that was the only personality that he ever got. The other townsfolk were just there to slow Rodea down. Ion’s a good heroine. Her personality is essentially that she’s ultra happy the entire time and may be smarter than she lets on, but her fixes don’t always work. It would be great if she learned how to fight in the sequel, but I couldn’t ask for much more out of her.

Rodea’s a pretty hardcore main character. It’s too bad that we couldn’t see too much of him though since he’s still in shock for about half of the game. Once he decides to just roll with the current situation, he becomes a lot better. He’s similar to Shadow The Hedgehog at first and then Pit from Kid Icarus Uprising. He’s now a little cocky and overconfident, which are great traits for a main character. I doubt that he will be remembered all that much as the years go on, but I was satisfied with him.

The villains were a little less engaging. Most of them were Rodea’s friends, but as they never grew a heart, they were forced to simply obey their orders. They were like the enemies in Mega Man Powered Up and Maverick Hunter. Rodea destroyed them all, but they all missed the days when they were comrades. It was interesting how Rodea took no prisoners, but the ending was still happy for everyone since Rodea ended up going back in time and the future is essentially a utopia. The only one who didn’t turn good was Geardo and he was a pretty poor villain. I liked his design in the second to last level, but his giant monster form was pretty bad. He also went delusional and thought that Ion was his daughter, Cecilia. He may regret it now, but Geardo is the reason why Cecilia jumped off a cliff so the villain is way too late. He should have changed his plans sooner.

Speaking of which, the whole scene was a little odd. Rodea went back in time to save the princess, but made a very half hearted attempt to do so and basically watched as she plummetted down the mountain and died. Then he somehow found out that she survived the fall and nursed her back to health as she led a golden age. It was all rather unbelievable. She’s a good character and essentially the Maria of the Rodea universe, but it felt like the writers couldn’t actually think of a way to make her survive so they made the reason up. Also, jumping off of a cliff is essentially giving up and it would only delay Geardo’s plans so she may as well have just kept on rebelling for a while. Even if she was kidnapped, she would have been fine since Geardo was definitely not planning on destroying her.

One level was a total 3D flying stage, which was cool. It would have been more fitting as the final level or if it at least had a boss in it. It came out of nowhere and was a fun level although I wonder why the game didn’t take advantage of this more. Meanwhile, the game has a lot of replay value if you want to keep on playing through. You can try to get all S ranks and all of the medals to unlock various things like more level ups, music, and levels for an island where you can grab more materials. Beating the main game took almost 9 hours so gathering everything else should take a considerable amount of time as well. The actual gameplay is pretty fun as well so this is definitely a game that’s worth the time and commitment.

Overall, Rodea is a very fun game and I agree with the opinion that this would have been known as one of the Wii’s final big sendoffs had it actually come out on time. The story and presentation make this feel like a big AAA game (Which it may be, I actually don’t know what it’s categorized as) and it’s a blast. Unfortunately, the controls are quite annoying. You’ll learn how to effectively make do with them by the end, but they’re a lot more trouble than they should be. At 25 levels, the game’s duration is quite good so you won’t feel cheated out of your purchase. You can easily think of this game as a spinoff of the Sonic Universe since it really plays out like one and it’s a game that you should add to your collection. Trust me, I’ve played a lot of cash grab games as of late so when I play a game that’s really polished like this one, you can feel the difference. Just remember to grab as many materials as possible so you can upgrade your gun, it always comes in handy.

Overall 7/10

We Ski & Snowboard Review

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I didn’t really care for We Ski after I had bought the game. I only gave it a 4/10 and the game simply wasn’t all that much fun to play. The controls were bad and the game lacked any real heart to it. So when I saw the sequel, I knew that I had to instantly buy it. After all, there’s no way that it could be any worse than the first right? This game is an improvement, there’s no doubt about it. But if people said that this game still wasn’t good…well…they’re not wrong. They’re really not wrong! Still, I like to see some improvement.

The Snowboarding angle is really what hits it home for me this time. I didn’t like Skiing and I still consider it to be a little dicey although it is certainly possible to make a good video game around it. That being said, Snowboarding is a lot more fun and an instant improvement as far as the gameplay is concerned. Once you go with the board, you’ll never go back to the original way to play. One of the improvements is that the hub world has changed to a more structured mission system. You can still have fun in free roam, but it’s not as mandatory to scour all of the mountains. You simply talk to someone for a mission set and then you work to beat all of the difficulty levels for each minigame. Racing is naturally the best one if you ask me. That one actually had some thought put into it.

Furthermore, the soundtrack wasn’t all that amazing in the first game. Luckily, the developers realized this and acted accordingly by adding in some classic music from various Namco games. This includes Pac Man and I may as well say that this was a very good move on their part. Nothing beats listening to good music if you’re riding around the world right? So, that was definitely a solid improvement. Not to mention that the free roam was also a lot more fun. The areas were bigger and more varied. When you fall down, you even do a quick bounce on the snow and you can fall into large fissures. It’s pretty awesome and adds a level of danger that the first game simply did not have.

Unfortunately, I’m not here to gloss over the negatives of the game so let’s take a whirl at it. For starters, the gameplay is still really bad. Being better than We Ski is a slight start, but it’s certainly not everything. It’s still hard to make any real traction at times and you will often find yourself struggling to keep your balance. I always think about greater things while waiting for the game to end. Still, I did play a good amount of it to ensure that I was ready for the review.

The sad part is that the gameplay for the multiplayer events actually isn’t that bad. Likewise, that includes when you play the minigames in single player mode. It shows that the game at least has a little hope, it simply gets thrown to the wayside when things get rough. If you’re just playing it for the multiplayer then you have gotten your money’s worth. If you’re just going to play this for the single player, then you may as well be eating Cinnamon Crunch because you’re in for a long ride. The difficulty levels almost seem unfair in how they’re handled and it makes me wonder if you need some kind of level ups or power ups in order to actually take the win.

There are a few different minigames to be found here like races, Curling, Slopes, Tricks, and I think there’s another one that I’m forgetting. Moguls is fun (Basically the slopes game) because you have to navigate your way through the hills and have a blast while doing it. Keeping your balance is pretty tricky though. Races are definitely the best minigame for sure, but make sure to keep on swinging your Wii Remotes to stay at full speed!. After that, you’ve also got the tricks minigame which isn’t bad, but I kept on performing the same trick over and over! I still appreciate the dedication though. So….not a bad array I suppose.

I actually like the graphics though. They tend to grow on you after a while and that’s always a good thing. The characters are clear and the snow is fairly exciting…….well, there’s not a whole lot of other things to see here! Still, I stand by my theory that this is one of the better animated cash in games. That’s a start even if you can’t see a whole lot of difference between this game and the first installment.

This game actually has a level of replay value thanks to the multiplayer games and the fact that there actually is a lot to do here. It may not be the ultimate game in that area, but it serves its purpose and for that reason, it’s certainly worth the 2-5 bucks that you would have to pay for the experience. It’ll also bolster your Wii collection and that’s always a good thing.

Overall, I guess this game is a fine purchase, but make sure that you don’t get wrecked by the price. Make sure you get it for the 2-5 dollars that it is worth. Otherwise, you’ll feel bad and the game will make you feel even worse. Honestly though, the game can be a little amusing even if I’m struggling to write enough for this review to reach 1000 words. That’s my target for just about every game, but it can be tough to reach sometimes so I’ll just let it end naturally this time. Just know that it’s better than the first We Ski and actually a fairly decent game. It’s not bad, but it’s not good either. It’s a way to spend 30 minutes, but you may prefer just using it as a CD via Free Roam. These Pac songs basically write themselves! Spoiler Alert: I reached the 1000 heh heh

Overall 5/10

Deca Sports Review

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I’ve played a lot of Wii games and lately, most of them don’t seem to be that good. Luckily, this one’s a winner. Deca Sports may have only been a few dollars to purchase, but the 10 games inside of it are definitely very good. Trust me, I’ve played a lot of Wii Sport games and most of them suffer from bad controls. This game is not like the rest and may just be the best Wii Sports game out there. I dare say that it may even be better than Wii Sports…maybe. It’s a close battle between the two.

Let’s go through each of the 10 games. First we have a Snowboard game. I love the fact that a sports arrangement game has a better snowboarding game than a game called Wii Ski and Snowboard. A little ironic isn’t it? The Skiing minigame has you going at high speeds, which is already an improvement over the other title and it’s a blast. You have to outrace everyone else, which is self explanatory, but this game really set the collection off on a high note. The next game was Archery. This one was pretty fun and the gameplay was a little different compared to what you may expect. You have to accurately shoot an arrow across a large space and it’ll test how well you can hold the remote without shaking. Definitely a nice test and it felt rather fair.

Badminton was a little dicey. It’s really hard to aim your shots and spiking is also difficult, which can lead to some really long points. It’s just hard to do anything in this game and while Badminton should have been one of my favorite games, it was probably the worst one. Still not a bad minigame, but I do think that the mechanics were handled poorly this time. After that was Basketball, definitely a solid game. You have to try and score baskets, but the opponents won’t make it easy. The game is simple to pick up and play, but still feels like it has some depth to it, which makes for a very compelling minigame. This is another one to write home about folks!

Beach Volleyball is fairly solid. You have to rely on your partner a lot though due to the nature of the game, which can make the games stretch out a bit since the computer doesn’t like to get too aggressive. Still, the actual game is fairly fun. Curling is another game that I’m not crazy about. It’s not so much the gameplay as the actual game that I’ve never enjoyed all that much. This will automatically have to be one of the weaker ones if you ask me. At least this game is relaxing though.

Figure Skating is next on the list and it’s an all right minigame. You have to follow the motions and skate on the glowing circles. That’s simple enough and the game is easy to get into. It’s not as competitive as some of the others, but you can still try to get some high scores while playing. Soccer is a lot of fun as you would expect. Try to score your goals before the other team does! The physics are a lot like Basketball’s, which makes for another fun experience.

Kart Racing is certainly a dynamite minigame and you really get to test your limits as you drive through the stage. It’s a blast and another well done minigame to add to the collection. The array of games was really well picked for this title. Who’d have thought that you’d have Basketball, Karts, and Soccer? Finally, there was a Motorcycle event. That was another fun one although the controls were a little iffy this time. Your vehicle would move very quickly which was great, but it was super hard to turn, which made things a little iffy.

All in all, I couldn’t ask for a better roster of games than this! I played the League, which lets you try out each game once, but there is some extra replay value to be found here. You can play tournaments of just 1 game so that you can become the champion for each title. Alternately, you can also try to beat challenges for each game, which will make you a stronger player. The games themselves are actually a lot of fun and even more so if you have people to play them with. That’s ultimately what you’re looking for from a party game like this one.

I like the graphics for the title. Naturally, they are hardly groundbreaking and don’t test the limits of the Wii, but that’s fine. It’s still easy to identify everything that is happening on screen and that is certainly the important part right? The soundtrack is also very forgettable. That’s a little unfortunate as a good soundtrack can really make everything better. That being said, it does have a very inspirational song that plays on the main menu so that’s one good song. One is better than none after all and I also like the theme for looking at the records. I probably liked some other themes, but just forgot about them.

It’s no surprise that Deca Sports got some sequels. If they keep up this level of quality, then they are definitely games that I’ll keep an eye on. I’m sure that the price is very low so who knows…maybe you’ll see a review for those titles on the site someday! The sequels will be under a lot of pressure to be quite as good as this one though so it’ll be fun to see if they can live up to the hype or buckle beneath it.

Overall, Deca Sports is a title that everyone should have on the Wii. When you consider the extremely cheap price that the title goes for..it’s a steal! No matter who you are, I’m confident that you will enjoy at least 5 of these games. Most of the games are unique and a whole lot of fun to play. 10 good games is better than 30 iffy ones (Like certain other Wii Party games) and this game has withstood the test of time. Online play would be great for this game, but when a local party game is This good, it can stand on its own without such things. Hopefully the next Wii games that I play are as good, but it’s unlikely.

Overall 7/10

Dragon Ball Z Extreme Butoden Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 8/10

Kirby’s Dream Collection Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 8/10