Tag Archives: Video Game Review

Finding Nemo Review

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It’s rare for me to actually dislike a video game, but sometimes you just end up pulling out a bad egg. This was one of those times and it is safe to say that without exaggeration…Finding Nemo is one of the worst video games of all time. It is simply a sad experience and the puzzles will frustrate you to no end. Mix that in with the bad graphics and drawn out story mode, and you’ve got yourself a broken game. It’s too bad since I went to great lengths to finally get this game again after selling it many years ago. Of course…I can see why I sold it the first time around.

The plot of the game is just like the movie of course. Nemo gets kidnapped by some humans so his father and a fish that he meets along the way must travel to save Nemo. This leads to a lot of missions which will have you solve puzzles, navigate through dark tunnels, and play tag sometimes. In theory, this sounds pretty good…maybe that’s a stretch. It doesn’t sound bad anyway, which is a good thing. Unfortunately, I was about to be amazed as how sad it was.

For starters, the graphics are really bad. The whole game is so dark that you can’t really see where you are going a lot of the time. You just have to crawl forward and hope that an enemy is not there to greet you. The dark levels are almost unbearable at times and you have to alter the brightness settings on your TV to keep yourself from dying over and over again. It helped a little, but I feel bad for my TV. I definitely should not have to adjust my settings just for the sake of this video game.

Let’s jump to the worst part of the game right away though. There are puzzles in this game that are so long, so boring, and so artificially difficult that I can’t imagine how it ever lived in the final version. There is no way that the kids in this game’s target audience would be able to complete the puzzles. It was so boring that I would have to play the game while on the phone to keep myself from falling asleep. It’s essentially a Rubix Cube and you have to arrange the pictures without harming the others. That’s not terrible in theory, but with no way to reset the puzzle once you’ve started, you can constantly set yourself back quite a few plays and never even know about it. It’s madness. One level took me over an hour as a result..an hour on a single puzzle. That’s not cool.

The average level is more like 1-4 minutes so you can see the contrast. The puzzles don’t seem like they’re supposed to be so long, but it just ends up happening that way because of how they are constructed. It’s a shame since the rest of the game could have probably gotten a 5 or so, but the puzzles destroyed it. They’re hardly the only issue of course, but certainly the most important one.

Even the final boss is fairly annoying because Nemo dies due to a single hit. That’s present in the whole game of course, but you can at least gather little fish to protect you in certain levels. In the final boss, that is not the case. You have to tag Dory 10 times while dodging falling rocks that move very quickly and appear out of nowhere. It took me quite a while to finally beat the level and it’s not an experience that I would want to have again. The game is really just annoying and I feel like the developers did not know what they were doing. Just about any company could make a better game than this.

It’s also a little hard on the hands. You have to keep pressing the A button to swim faster and faster during the levels and it’s really hard to keep up the pace. There are booster rings that help with that, but it’s hard to hit them because of the graphics. It’s a bad mix of elements that combine to make each one all the worse. Let’s also talk about the long loading times, which are pretty sad.

I usually don’t even bother with the loading times in my reviews, but these are infamously bad. You have time to go and make a sandwich while the game is loading between levels. They just drag on for minutes at a time and it’s very uncanny. It’s not surprising once you actually play the game, but it’s like adding insult to injury. My salt levels would always rise when playing Finding Nemo so you should be sure to have a bottle of water at the ready during your playthrough of the game.

How about replay value? I’d say that it’s basically at a 0 since the game is no fun to play. There are some collectibles though. You can get 3 stars during each level by doing certain things. Of course, these things aren’t actually explained so you’re completely out of luck unless you’ve picked up a strategy guide or can find a good walkthrough. It would be a very loooooong case of trial and error otherwise to find out the requirements for each star. They’ve thought of everything haven’t they?

Overall, Finding Nemo is a game that I highly recommend avoiding at all costs. The graphics are terrible and make games from 20 years ago look good. The loading times make Super Smash Bros look instant and just having the fish float around while staring at the audience doesn’t look very impressive. The soundtrack is very bland and while the game only has 18 levels, the puzzles really stretch out the play time. If you’re curious about this game, watch some Youtube videos of it. It’s definitely not worth purchasing at any price and you will likely regret getting this game. There really aren’t any positives to say about Finding Nemo. The only promising parts of the game, like hopping across little lily pads, are wrecked by the fact that any contact with any enemy will send you back to the last checkpoint. Not having any health in a game where enemies pop out of nowhere is definitely not cool.

Overall 2/10

Naruto Powerful Shippuden Review

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It’s time to finally review one of the newest Naruto games. As you may recall from my Rock Lee review, I was not a fan of the manga series and I actually gave it a 0 for effort. The game’s story is pretty bad to be honest and shows me why the series didn’t know what it was doing, but the gameplay is good. This raises a pretty big issue that I’ve never really had to tackle in a video game before. What wins out, the horrendous plot or the gameplay? It’s a tough call so it’s time to explore this issue in the review.

There are two story modes in the game, but it may as well just be one since you have to keep on going back and forth between the two. The story modes belong to Naruto and Rock Lee. Each character will have 4+ missions at the ready when starting and you can keep on completing the missions until a gate appears. The gate can only be opened by a certain amount of keys. Let’s say you’re in Naruto mode and the door will only open if you have 2 Naruto keys and 2 Rock Lee keys. Can you guess what that means? It means you have to go to Rock Lee mode and beat some missions to get the necessary keys. It’s odd because this sort of defeats the purpose of having two different story modes right? It’s just not right!

Naruto mode plays it straight for the most part and actually adapts the manga. It covers the Shippuden series all the way through the Kage summit, which is pretty impressive. There are also a lot of filler missions that you have to play along the way to defeating the final boss since you need those keys. It’s slightly luck based as to when you will beat the game as well since there are a lot of paths that just lead to more filler missions and keys. It’s why I completed Naruto’s story at level 75 without beating Rock Lee’s, where I got to level 100 a long time ago. You just have to try and pick the right path or you may complete just about all of the filler missions along the way.

Rock Lee’s story is the one that decides to include as much low quality humor as possible. Those certainly get old fast and you’ll want to just focus on the gameplay so you can ignore the plot. Remember how I mentioned that I got to level 100 very quickly with Rock Lee? Well, wait until you make it to the Kisame boss battle and then use that one to grind with the expert criteria “Don’t get hit” Completing the mission while following that guideline will give you over 4000 exp points per battle and that’s enough for 3-5 level ups. You can easily just keep on beating that boss until you are at level 100 and it should take you about 30-40 seconds to beat the boss each time. It’s an incredible grinding level and I felt pretty proud of myself for figuring that out. I’m sure that there’s somewhere like that for Naruto, but it’s barely even needed. Just beating all of the filler will likely get him to level 90 or higher.

The levels follow a specific formula depending on the objective. There are survival missions, where you must survive for 30-90 seconds without fighting back. Those are certainly the toughest missions since a few hits can typically down you if you’re not prepared. It’s always good to have an ace up the sleeve for these missions. (Meaning a level up that you haven’t bought with your EXP yet) The best missions are the boss battles since they’re just a classic 1 on 1 fight where you can overwhelm your opponent with pure power. The only boss battle that wasn’t too enjoyable was the Deidara one and that’s because he just hides in the sky the whole time. Not very sporting of him is it?

Another fun mission type is the one where you just have to defeat 30 enemies. Simple and to the point. Another tricky type is one where you can’t let enemies pass you to the goal line. For the most part this was easy, but towards the end it got a little dicey. The minions are just so fast and it’s hard to stop them all. The most annoying missions are the ones that play out like a platformer. You have to find scrolls, minions, or just the goal line. You can actually get lost with how many rooms are available and the levels are just a little too long for my liking.

The gameplay is smooth though and it should remind you of the original Naruto Ninja Council games. It’s essentially the same concept so it’s cool to see them making a comeback into the modern day. Just keep on attacking and the bosses will certainly fall before you. As for the graphics, I’ve heard that they were great from one reviewer, although I’m not sure if he was serious or not. Regardless, they’re all right, but all of the characters are drawn really small with disproportionate bodies so it’s a little hard to say for sure. Everything is fairly bright and clear so I suppose that I’ll give the game kudos for that. Aside from the PSP, there still aren’t any extremely powerful portable consoles yet so you have to weigh in your expectations accordingly. I will say that the graphics are pretty good when you really think about it. They hold their own and then some.

As for the soundtrack, it’s typically just the same themes over and over again. There is not a whole lot of variety , but there is one or two really good themes that managed to sneak in there. When those scenes arrive, just be sure to savor them and to remember the good ole times of Naruto as you defeat whichever boss is before you.

As far as replay value goes, the game has a little. By the time you will have beaten the game, there shouldn’t be a whole lot of missions left, but enough to last you 2-3 hours. After that, you’ll probably be at level 100 with both characters so then the game will be over. Considering the size of the game though, I’d say that it’s not lacking in content. There’s enough here to certainly warrant your purchase.

Overall, Naruto Powerful Shippuden is very good from a video game perspective. The gameplay is solid, the graphics are good, and the soundtrack can also be pretty epic at times. Unfortunately, story mode really drags it down. The game has a constant stream of bad jokes that would only make the cast of Pixels smile and it really drags on. You’ll enjoy the game more if you just skip all of the cutscenes and jump right into the gameplay. I definitely have to deduct a pair of stars for the story. That means that this is probably the most positive Rock Lee product that I’ve reviewed since the show will probably get a 1-2 at best and the manga was a big 0. So, the gameplay is good enough to recommend this title, but I’ll recommend picking up Naruto Clash of Ninja 2 instead.

Overall 5/10

Mario Pinball Land Review

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I’ve played most of the Mario games at this point so it’s always neat to finally play one of the elusive ones. I love pinball and I’ve had fun playing many variations of the game. Unfortunately, I wasn’t a big fan of Pokemon pinball and the Metroid Pinball game that I bought never actually worked. It’s the risk of buying used games, but only 1 in every 100 doesn’t work so it’s been a fair trade off. I’m happy to say that Nintendo once again showed that the extra effort they put in can pay off big. Mario Pinball Land isn’t your average Pinball game and chooses to alter the core gameplay a bit to make this more of a complete game. It comes at the expense of the old style where you would try for high scores, but that’s fine since it ends up making Pinball Land feel like more of a full Mario game.

Peach is kidnapped by mean ole Bowser so Mario makes the hero call and turns himself into a pinball. He’s taking the fight to Bowser now, but since he’s a ball and his friends launched him to a circus instead of the castle, it’ll be a long journey. Mario must now gather the four star keys to open the doors to the areas where he can really deal some damage to big bad Bowser. Can he make it in time or is he toast?

The gameplay is essentially pinball. You have two flippers and you must try to bounce Mario around. Unlike an average game of Pinball, there are typically 2 or more exits in the levels, which you can use to get to other parts of the world. When you want to leave, you must go to one of the pipes in the level. That part can be a little annoying as you can’t just pause and escape to the next world. You must make it to the pipe or die trying. Meanwhile, the pipe only shows up once you beat the boss of that world, which can be tricky. Your only other recourse is to get a game over, which takes you to the first world, where you should have a pipe since you must have beaten the first boss…right?

There are around 35 stars to obtain in the worlds, but you only need 15 to go and fight the final boss so that’s pretty lenient. You should get that amount as you wander through the levels, but don’t underestimate the doors. You’ll find yourself getting rolled to the next room whether you want to go or not, which can definitely get sad at times. I was actually surprised at the merciless difficulty within this game. It may be a Mario game, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that it’s an easy ride. This will require patience as the final boss took me around an hour or so. At one point, it took me 2 hours to get 4 stars because of how many times I would shoot past the enemies and have to redo the battle.

Each star is won by achieving certain feats. Typically, this involves defeating each of the enemies in a room or something like that. You’ll know if a room has a star because a star will glimmer for a split second as you enter. The enemies aren’t tough and the risks of falling through the level and losing a life are slim so it’s really just a matter of time. Eventually you will be able to secure the win and the whole game is auto save ready so that’s a nice plus.

The graphics are surprisingly good and Nintendo did a good job of giving each character 3D models. It’s sort of like playing Mario 64 portable with a different control scheme. Everything seems to be based off of that game and why not right? Mario 64 is still the ultimate Mario experience. So, the graphics aren’t just good, but very good. Meanwhile, the soundtrack is decent, but certainly less remarkable. I probably couldn’t tell you any of the themes from the game because they definitely were not all that memorable. It’s Pinball so that’s to be expected and the constant sound effects would distract you from that anyway.

Since the game is so tough, the duration isn’t as short as you would expect. Getting the 15 stars will take you some time unless you’re some kind of Pinball whiz. It’s a complete game and there’s a good amount of replay value as you can go back and try to get the rest of the stars. One important aspect of the game that will help you during the tough fights are the power ups that Toad gives…for a price. You pay him in coins and he can give power ups like Mushrooms, Lightning, or 1 Ups. Lightning is the best power up in my opinion as it destroys all enemies on the field. A perfect way to instantly get a star. The Star power up is also good since it makes you invincible and sometimes you can injure bosses that way instead of going through the actual fight.

Speaking of which, I actually believe that Mario Pinball has the toughest Mario final boss from any Mario title. That fight was seriously hard and I could not beat it at will. It may take less grinding than the final boss of a game like Mario and Luigi or Paper Mario, but once you get the level ups, then you’re set. In this fight, even though I know what to do, it would still probably take me a few more shots if I tried to complete it once more. Luckily, the second phase of the boss is pretty easy, which helps to balance that insane first part.

Aside from the replay value, I also feel like mentioning that Mario Pinball Land has difficulty that is fair. Some games (Finding Nemo) are tough, but for all the wrong reasons. Poorly explained puzzles, bad graphics, etc. Mario Pinball Land is tough, but the mechanics are all solid. Your reaction times just have to be on point and eventually you will be able to hit the ball where you want it to go. It’s all about player skill and none of that luck or puzzle nonsense. This is a game that leaves you feeling satisfied.

Overall, Mario Pinball Land is a great pinball game and probably the best one that I’ve played. It easily beats the Pokemon version and the Metroid one has not worked yet so I can’t say for sure, but I’m pretty sure that it beats that one. I finally got it to work earlier today so I may play it a bit for a review later on. I definitely recommend Mario Pinball Land. It’ll give you a nice challenge and it’s still close enough to the real Pinball game so that Pinball fans can enjoy it. It’s a very unique Mario game and one where you can feel proud of yourself upon completing it.

Overall 7/10

Pac Man Fever Review

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Nothing gets you hyped quite like a new Pac Man game right? That’s what I thought when I first bought this game, but after playing it once, I put it in the backlog with a lot of other games and I figured that I probably wouldn’t see it again for a very long time. Years later, I ended up taking it out once more to play it with my brother and my cousin as a party game always has the potential to be a blast. It’s much better with multiple people, I can tell you that for sure. That being said, this is still a game that needs a lot of work and should have been much better, but terrible decisions on the developer’s part limited the title.

There’s no actual story mode, but that’s all right. I wasn’t expecting one. You can go into the main Party Mode or have fun in Minigame Mode. That’s the only thing to do here so the game is going for quality over quantity. Party Mode has 4 worlds I believe and each world has its own set of minigames inside of it. The actual stage has long loading times though and each turn takes forever. This is one of my big complaints and it’s a little sudden, but let’s dive into this issue right now.

The main drawback that keeps this game from being very good is the fact that playing a single board will take a very long time. After each turn, each character will do a little dance, strike a pose, and then slowly walk up to the final area of where to go. Rinse and Repeat for all 4 characters, play the minigame at the end of the level…and then do it all over again. This is why I was bored out of my mind when I played the game on my own the first time. If you aren’t playing with anyone else, it’s a very boring experience.

I’m not saying that the actual minigames are bad though. I actually enjoyed them and the ideas were quite good. There were kart minigames and even some classic “Press A as fast as you can” ones in there. Minigames about timing and memorization…just a lot of options. There are a very good amount of minigames in the title even if you will inevitably playing them more than once. It’s why I don’t think it was a good idea to limit the minigames to each world. Combining them all into one world would give you more variety. Still, I did enjoy them and the minigames help save this game from being downright bad.

It does bring up another issue though, which is that the minigames aren’t available for free roam mode. In Mario Party, once you play the minigame once, you unlock it. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works in this one. You have to use lottery points that you earn during the stage and that will typically come at the expense of actually winning the level, which is always disappointing. As a result, you’ll have enough coupons to maybe…maybe buy one minigame at the end of the level. So, you need to spend about an hour or 2 per minigame and there are quite a lot to unlock. It’s just not an efficient system and it takes forever to make any actual progress in the game. That’s not even counting the fact that each player’s coupon section is separate instead of merging the coupons from all players. It’s just terrible honestly and as a result, you’ll never want to play Minigame Mode since there are no good minigames to play. Better stick to Party Mode then.

The actual Party Mode is very much like Candyland or Trouble. You move along the course and the goal is to get to the end. You play a minigame and your rank in that battle determines how far you move. 5, 3, 2, or 1 step forward. Once you are near the end, you will need to come in 3rd, 2nd, and then 1st to finally win, which is actually a very good mechanic to even things up. This prevents a player from simply walking up to the goal line thanks to a few lucky rolls of the dice. It is sad to win a bunch of minigames only to find out that it still isn’t enough because you’re landing on bad spaces. It’s just not right!! I highly recommend playing the short version of each board to give yourself a nice estimate of how long the full version would take. Trust me, it does take a considerable amount of time so keep that in perspective.

I like the graphics to an extent, but I have to admit that they seem to be a little bad on a technical level. Everyone is very small, compact, and practically chibi. It’s very intriguing to see and it can be amusing, but the Gamecube can do better. The graphics are very dark and don’t seem to be very inspired. It’s possible that my Gamecube’s lighting is just starting to fade, but games like Sonic Adventure 2 Battle and Mario Sunshine still look great so it may have to do more with the fact that nobody can stop Nintendo’s powerful graphics. These were good times!

As for the soundtrack, that part of the game was pretty decent. There’s a nice Pac Man remix and a few other tunes scattered throughout the game. Unfortunately, the main theme that plays during your walk through the board is very boring and doesn’t make you excited for the games. It’s essentially just elevator music and I expect more from my Namco games. It had such possibilities, but couldn’t live up to the potential.

Unfortunately, there just isn’t a lot of replay value here. The actual games take way too long and you can’t even have fun just playing the minigames on your own because they are just too expensive. Buying them is simply not worth putting the time into the games so the only form of replay value here is to grab a few buddies and have a quick game. As a group, it’s decently fun and that’s the only reason that it barely manages to pass a 5, but if you’re on your own, the game turns into a 4. It’s a shame that the game missed these opportunities since there’s no reason it should have even gotten under a 7. This was no cash in party game in terms of how the minigames went on. They all had heart and it felt like the developers put some effort into them. This was just nullified by the bad system of unlocking minigames.

Overall, Pac Man Fever is no Pac Man. I gained some respect for the game after playing it as a group, but that’s still not a good sign for any video game. You can buy it for a terrific price so that at least helps you to get your money’s worth, but there are better party games to get. Buy one of the older Mario Party titles and experience a true party game. Mario Party was and likely will always be the greatest party game on the block. (Smash Bros doesn’t count!) Everything that Pac Man Fever can do, Mario Party can do better. So despite the positive score, I don’t recommend picking up Pac Man Fever as long as better options exist on the market.

Overall 6/10

Battleship Review

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Have you ever had someone yell at you, “I sunk your Battleship!” before? Well if not, I’m afraid that this isn’t said in the actual game. I remember enjoying the film to a decent extent so I was pleased to start Battleship to see if the game would still be really solid. Alex Hopper would not be returning this time, but that’s fine since the plot is fairly minimal in this title anyway. The gameplay needs to be the selling point here. Battleship’s a first person shooter and while I like the gameplay style nowadays, it’s definitely not one that I tend to excel in. Normal mode provides me with a considerable level of difficulty so beating it on hard mode would be verrrry tough.

Aliens have invaded the planet so the marines are Earth’s best chance to stop them. It’ll be tricky and it’ll be dicey, but the main character has to pull this off. I forgot the name of the hero and I forgot the location (Hawaii islands I think) almost immediately but that’s all right. As I mentioned earlier, the plot simply isn’t that important. The whole game is filled with your boss talking about the communicator about the current situation and what you have to do, but it’s all fairly generic. You know that you have to take down the aliens and save the world. Don’t need to know much more than that to have a good time right?

The important part of the game is the gameplay of course and I’d say that Battleship succeeds in this area. It’s hard to really describe a first person shooter since it’s very self-explanatory. Point and shoot at the aliens, you don’t really need to know much more than that. FPS fans claim that the game is ultra easy and you can beat it on Hard Mode right off the bat. Don’t listen to them unless you are good at this genre. I’m not so normal mode made for a very good challenge and some levels took me well over an hour to finally complete. It was very satisfying to finally clear the level though. So, the game succeeded quite well with the core gameplay.

I do think that a cursor should always be on though since it makes shooting so much easier. It’s pretty sad to be firing at an alien with point blank range..only to keep on missing the shots. That just doesn’t seem right and you could tell that this wouldn’t happen in Call of Duty. Your jumping skills in the game are terrible and I forgot that I could jump for most of the game, but it’s not really a negative since jumping is never really necessary. Crouching was really handy and I highly recommend performing that action when engaged in a battle. Hiding behind rocks a lot of the time is also a good thing to do and it’ll make you feel like you’re in a classic Star Trek episode. If you’re feeling particularly bold, it’s fun to run into a group of enemies with your machine guns, but sometimes you’ll just end up dying right away.

The part of the gameplay that wasn’t so good was the actual Battleship mode. While fighting the enemies on the ground, you have battleships, which are fighting the enemy cruisers. They can’t do much without you so you have to enter the Battleship view and direct the Battleships on where to go and who to fight. It can get a little tedious with the loading times and sometimes you can control a Battleship with an item to really land some damage. It’s easy to beat the enemies, but…too easy. The final boss just involves you jumping into the Battleship and firing some of your lasers until it goes down. You don’t need to move, just spam L2, R2, and L1. It’s how you attack and moving is not necessary. It’s just not as fun as it should have been and that part of the game could have easily been cut out. Actually controlling the ship in a mode with more free roam could have been awesome.

I can’t say that the graphics are groundbreaking and they just aren’t very good. They’re not that bad and the game is fairly new so we’re not talking FFVII here, but it’s telling that the aliens actually look like humans throughout the whole game. It’s very easy to be striking one of your allies instead of an alien when the going gets tough. This isn’t a huge issue since your allies are typically knocked off as soon as possible, but the aliens should have had a better design and the graphics should have been able to make them stand out more. The enemies also sorta bleed when you blow them up, which is intriguing since the game officially has no blood. Contradictions like that have shown up in other games though and I’m guessing it wasn’t listed since it’s fairly mild and it’s basically monster blood. Still, it’s an area that the ESRB doesn’t have a lot of consistency with.

Battleship’s soundtrack is mostly nonexistent for large chunks of time, but it can be quite enjoyable. I remember that the beginning of the game was pretty epic although the soundtrack only played a small part in that. It’s not bad, but the themes also aren’t memorable so you will forget all about them in a very short period of time. I can’t say that I expected an all star selection of musical themes though so I was not disappointed.

Between the soundtrack and the graphics, Battleship did manage to be pretty epic though. The first level is actually very thrilling and tense as the game throws you into the action and the aliens begin their conquest of Earth. You would not suspect that the game was a movie cash in at first and you can easily get invested into the mission of stopping the aliens. The graphics and gameplay will eventually tip you off to the fact that this game isn’t exactly AAA, but it did put up a good front. The game loses its intrigue and mystery after the first level, but it was a great way to start off the game.

Each level should take you 30-60 minutes and some can last for even longer periods of time if you keep on dying. Luckily, some enemies tend to stay dead even after you die, which can help quite a bit. Just remember to take it slow sometimes and to pick off the opposing forces one at a time. There are around 8 levels, so the game length is decent. That being said, there’s not a whole lot of replay value to be found here unless you are planning to get the Platinum trophy. That will buy you some time, not a whole lot, but it will double the game’s length at the very least.

Overall, Battleship is a fun game and it’s definitely an FPS that I would recommend. It’s naturally not as polished as some of the other FPS titles, but it holds its own and who doesn’t want to go up against the big bad aliens? Beating the game on hard mode would certainly be a little impressive and I definitely wouldn’t mind a sequel for this game. It’d be a blast and hopefully the price would also go down pretty quickly as this one definitely goes for a bargain price nowadays. You can always find something good in the bargain bin!

Overall 7/10

Madden 2015 Review

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I’ve always been a big fan of Madden and it’s one of the only game series that can hold a candle to Super Smash Bros. No worries, Super Smash still is the greatest series of all time and it shall never be surpassed, but Madden would probably be my second favorite series. Madden 13 was phenomenal and while Madden 2004 is still my favorite, 13 was a close second. Unfortunately, Madden 2015 is not quite as good, but it’s still an excellent game and one that I can recommend to anyone without hesitation. There are more things to learn as the Madden games get more and more technical, but you’ll be glad that you entered this new world of fun.

One thing to notice is the fact that I got Madden 2015 for the PS4. It’s much cheaper to do so, but since I don’t have PS+, it also means that I can’t spend my evenings pounding away at the opposing team against real players. That’s probably for the best though since it can be quite time consuming. Recently, Sony gave everyone free PS+ for the weekend so I took advantage of that to play a few online games. I did quite well and went 4-1 if I recall correctly. The exact number should be on my stats and records page if I made an error here. I guess my Madden 13 skills have helped me get used to this one rather quickly.

Madden still has the issue that I mention for all of the newer titles and that’s the fact that it’s really hard to go for the deep ball. It’ll only work if your player has a massive lead over the defender because the usual gap isn’t enough. If the receiver got 2 steps on the cornerback, you can still be sure that the cornerback will spin around and pull off an incredible jump to snag the ball away. The problem is that the receivers never fight for the ball so it will get picked off every time. Slant routes are typically a little safer, but again, your receiver better have a nice lead. Otherwise, the defender will make a leaping interception. I’m not sure what the game can do about this, but I’m sure that the code can be tweaked for future installments to make the receiver good once again. Just play Madden 2004 for a moment and you’ll see what I mean.

The good thing is that this does force you to consider the running game once again. In fact, I run in Madden 15 far more than I did for any of the other titles. It’s finally a very viable option here and maybe even a little overpowered. I played as the Cowboys for all of my matches and I could afford to run the same straight run over and over again. No matter how quickly the defenders would hit me, I’d have already grabbed 2-3 yards and typically that number was more like 7-8. Defenses simply could not stop Murray. It didn’t matter if I was playing CPUs or human opponents, my running attack was unstoppable!

This also set up the play action pass and I uncorked it once for a nice, deep slant route. It was a blast to see this actually work since play action plays typically fail miserably in Madden because your offensive line cannot hold out that long. Another play that I love to run is a random Hail Mary towards the start of the game. A lot of times the defense will be completely unprepared to deal with that so you can get an easy completion. Make sure to have your running back run a swing route to the left to cover your options though. If even he is covered, then you’ll have enough room to easily scramble for a nice gain. It’s really the perfect passing play if you ask me.

It should come as no surprise to you that the game’s graphics are top notch. EA spends a lot of cash to ensure that you are getting top of the line visuals during the game. It is definitely impressive to see how life like the field and the players are at this point. It’s not quite ready to pass Super Smash Bros for Wii U in terms of how awesome the game looks, but Madden is easily one of the leaders in the graphics field all the same. I can’t say much about the soundtrack because I’m just too into the game to notice such things at that point. The themes are typically fast, but you’ll barely notice as you start racking up the wins.

Aside from playing games or entering into the Connected Career where you can play dozens of games in multiple seasons, there is also a drills mode. It’s basically a tutorial that walks you through many techniques. It’s actually a lot trickier than the average tutorial mode and I can guarantee that you will learn something. It’s worth playing through each section here to make you a better overall player. Another mode lets you relive great moments in NFL history as you try to make a great comeback or stop other teams from scoring. This mode’s nice and challenging as well.

If you do have PS+, then that opens the door for you to play some online battles against the best of the best. Once you play against real life opponents online, it’s hard to go back. It’s just so fun and exhilarating! There’s also a MUT mode, which is where you can form a team of solid players from the present and the past to become the greatest of all time. You can enter leagues and it’s a blast, but keep in mind that you’ll probably be doomed at first as your quarterback may be Weeden while the opponent has Joe Montana or Troy Aikman. Eventually, you’ll be able to unlock those guys or you can just buy them, but I don’t recommend buying the DLC unless you’re seriously going to be playing the game for a long while.

The actual gameplay has been made to be very realistic and it works well for the game. My one problem is that it can be hard to change directions. I suppose that you can’t go 0-60 when turning in real life, but it’s always sad to watch your player to a little stutter step as they try to turn and then you get nailed. It cost me a safety in the game that I lost, which was most unfortunate. Still, it’s a fairly small complaint and you’ll just have a blast playing the games over and over again because the gameplay is simply that fun.

Madden continues to add more and more commentary as well as the occasional ad slogan to also make the game super realistic. There’s even a ticker showing the NFL game scores in real life that are completely updated. That’s very impressive. I usually skip the intro to the games because I don’t have time, but it is neat that the game will actually focus on the players and start to have a serious discussion as a pre game simulation. I feel like EA puts a lot of effort into these games even with a lot of complaints which would disagree with my statement.

Overall, Madden 2015 is a terrific game and it continues to hold the Madden legacy up in a positive light. It may be similar to older titles, but that will not change and I wouldn’t want it too. I’m very comfortable with Madden and I wouldn’t want there to be any drastic gameplay overhauls or anything of the sort. It just wouldn’t feel right if you ask me. If you haven’t played a Madden game before, don’t worry. It’s tough, but it won’t take an extremely long amount of time to get good. A lot of the game is just about outsmarting your opponent so you always want to think outside the box. I aim to get Madden 16 in about a year or so when it inevitably drops to around 10 dollars, then it’ll be time to snag it!

Overall 9/10

Luxor 3 Review

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I got Luxor 3 from Gamestop for about 2-3 dollars. It was a bargain considering that this game prided itself on the fact that it has over 100 levels to complete. It looked like my kind of game and I spent hours going to many different Gamestops as I tried to buy as many Wii games as possible. This was one of my winners as the game was pretty fun and had the kind of gameplay style that I could easily get behind. If the gameplay was no good then 100+ levels would have been very dicey.

There are a few modes to play here, but Adventure Mode covers them all so let’s start there. There is a brief plot and it involves the Egyptian gods being taken down be Set(h?) so the hero must save them all. Set is firing energy balls at each of the gods so we have to shoot them down before they can invade the pyramids. Rinse and repeat for the 100+ levels. The plot isn’t a major factor here to be honest. It’s like playing a game of Pac Man or Galaga and getting a little bonus plot. It’s not necessary, but it’s still fun to have.

There are 11 worlds and each one has 8-10+ levels. The bulk of the levels are comprised of the mission that I already mentioned. There are balls that roll towards the goal and you have to match 3 or more of the same color. Whenever you do this, the balls will explode. Rinse and repeat until they are all gone and you must not let them get past you. You can grab various special attacks after getting enough matches like a lightning bolt or a bomb. They are extremely handy so grab them whenever possible.

In each level there will be a statue until you’ve collected the 4 needed in each world. You don’t need to get them and I’m not sure what they really do yet, but at the very least they open up bonus levels where you can grab some extra coins, which are good for buying new power ups or changing the look of the balls. At the end of the game it’ll be nice to see all of my statues lined up. I made a great effort to grab as many statues as I could throughout the game since it’s pretty easy to do so. Why not right?

Some levels will be called Onslaught Mode. Typically there will be one per world. It’s the same as the standard level except for the fact that statues will rise up to block your shots so you have to be very strategic about how you tackle the level. It’s not bad, although I definitely prefer the standard stages. You’ll find that the standard levels are almost always the best ones in the game.

There will also be one or two puzzles in each world. These are the least enjoyable to be honest and the more that I see puzzles in my video games…the ore that I realize how out of place they are. Puzzles just aren’t fun if you ask me. Luckily, you don’t have to actually beat them in order to clear the world so you can just skip them. That’s good since the puzzle levels could have gotten old very quickly. There were actually one or two that most people thought were literally unbeatable due to a glitch until someone proved them wrong.

Finally, there’s the boss level at the end of each world. Basically, you have to survive for 3-4 minutes as an infinite number of balls are shot at you. Survive until the end to win! These levels are cool and they can definitely hold their own against the standard versions. There’s only one per world, but at least they do give you a sense that the level has more weight than the others. That’s what a good boss level should always do. Surprisingly the final world has no end boss so the game just ends rather abruptly…it was odd, but not a negative I suppose.

The soundtrack is amazingly good. There is a steady flow of intense opera music that will attack you from all sides as soon as you start the game. It is dramatic and it is epic. This helps you to realize just how high the stakes are for this particular adventure and I was not expecting anything like it in this puzzle game…or any puzzle game for that matter. Even fighting games like Super Smash Brothers would have a tough time trying to match the grand scale of these themes. (Although Smash Bros can pull it off)

I also enjoyed the graphics in this game. They’re fairly clear and that’s good since everything happens so quickly once the level begins. You can change the color styles of the balls that you are shooting by spending your hard earned $$$ in the game so that’s always an option if it’ll help you focus. Of course, if you can deal with the default color, then I’d recommend it so that you can spend your money on better endeavors like powering up your super attacks. Trust me, those will end up helping you out quite a bit more than a color change.

You can really tell that a lot of effort was put into this game and I can admire that. Each world took me anywhere from 30-60 minutes so that’s a 10+ hour game right there. The replay factor is also alive and well in the sense that you can keep on using your money to buy equipment. It’s not a game that I see myself going back too and it’s not quite as addicting as other classics like Pokemon Shuffle or Pac Man, but Luxor gets the job done.

Overall, I definitely recommend this game to all gamers. It’s the kind of game that you can easily play for hours and hours. The 100+ levels is a great bargain considering that the game sells for 1-2 dollars. It’s true that this is the kind of game that you could picture playing online for free, but 1-2 dollars isn’t going to hurt you and now you can play it on the big screen. The Wii remote controls are actually pretty smooth and they don’t tend to go chaotically out of control on you either since your movements are fairly stable the entire time. It’s definitely still one of my least favorite control schemes and I’ll never get into motion based controls until we’re in the virtual world, but it works well enough and isn’t too detrimental to the game. I’d be hyped for a Luxor 4 if they ever went ahead with it.

Overall 7/10

Spongebob Squarepants Lights Camera Pants Review

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I’m always up for a retro Gamecube game and I got this one as a souvenir from my very first SSB4 tournament. It’s a Spongebob party game so I thought that it would make for a decent playthrough and who knows…maybe it would be a lot of fun! Unfortunately, it was actually less fun than I had expected and that’s mainly due to the lack of options within the game. It’s very short and compact to the point where I feel bad for anyone who may have bought this on day 1 at full price. I shudder at the thought!

The plot of the game revolves around an episode that is being created about Mermaid Man. The director is looking for actors willing to grab the roles that are left, but they’ll have to earn them by playing a lot of games. Spongebob and friends are up for the job! There’s not much of a story though because every cutscene is basically just the director talking to the organizer of the event. Rinse and repeat a few times until the commercial is done. The game is incredibly short as a result. Each area has 3 mini games to complete and then you move on to the next area. I forgot how many areas there are, but one playthrough should be enough to easily get through the game. It’ll take you around 2-3 hours I believe and if you skip cutscenes, then that total significantly decreases.

One of the problems about the cutscene at the end is that it isn’t handled well. Every time you beat an area, you get to see one scene from the episode. Once you beat the game…you get to see the full episode. The problem is that you’ve already watched 90% of it so instead of enjoying the final product, it’s just really boring. The episode has such low replay value that even just watching it a second time isn’t very long. It’s also about as long as a real episode so that final cutscene just drags on and on. I would actually recommend just skipping it since it’s unlikely to get you hyped or impressed.

Granted, the episode had some good lines in it. I forgot how old Mermaid Man was nowadays and he just doesn’t understand anything that’s happening. It’s like Knuckles from Sonic Boom, but not nearly as funny. I can see the humor of Mermaid Man though and he’s decently funny, but I’m not sure if the other characters can keep up. It’s purposefully campy like the classic Superfriends so a show about Mermaid Man would have some potential, but again…I wouldn’t want to see any episode twice. At least not twice in the same day!

As for the gameplay, some of the minigames do have potential, but nothing is handled right. Every minigame has a mandatory timer so that none of them can end before 3 minutes. (Typically) This means that even the most enjoyable of games will start to drag on. I’ve always preferred stocks/lives/health points to a timer system since it encourages you to get good and really take on your opponents. With a timer system, you can build a big lead, but you’ll still have to wait for the timer to finish. It’s just not fun and drags the minigames down.

The best minigame is easily the one that ripped off Mario Party. I’ve noticed that just about every party game rips this minigame off, but that’s a good thing since it’s always fun. You have to balance on a ball of sorts and knock your opponents off. It’s fun, but the area is so small that it can be very hard to do anything without falling. You could say that this takes skills or you could say that the game tried too hard to make it an even playing field for newcomers and pros alike so a lot of the enjoyment was squeezed out. Nonetheless, this is the best minigame in the whole collection. (Again, not much of a collection though) There’s a nice car minigame and climbing the mountain is decent as long as your partner doesn’t sabotage you. There’s even a nifty Soccer game. Again, the problem is that you have to play these games until the timer ends and some of the minigames actually end up copying each other, which isn’t cool. In such a short game, this is pretty unacceptable.

Even the enjoyable games could have been better if the company had put more of an effort into the project. This game is definitely a cash in and may have been phoned in by the devs. I can only imagine what the reviews would be like nowadays for a game like this one. Spongebob was apparently a good show back in the day (It never caught my eye) so it deserves a lot better than this.

I’d say that the graphics are decently good. They won’t be something to write home about like Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, but they’re not that bad either. They’re essentially a nonfactor while playing the minigames. You can still tell what and where everything is and that’s the important thing. The game will be over before you know it after all. There’s not really a soundtrack to speak of. Any tunes that were in the game were instantly and completely forgotten. That’s the problem with having such a forgettable soundtrack.

There is also no real replay value here. Why are most of the minigames 2 vs 2 contests? That doesn’t really make sense for a party game. If you’re a group of 3, then one person is going to have to be with the computer and I can assure you that you won’t have a great experience. There are a few free for all contests, but it’s a very small number of them. I don’t understand the thought process that went behind this and maybe the developers forgot that they were making a game midway through. Once you have beaten the game, there’s really nothing to do. The only thing that you have for replay value is really just playing the minigames again a few times. Yeah…I don’t think I want to do that anytime soon. You can go for the high scores, but that’s not much of an incentive either. This game is definitely lacking in bonus content.

Overall, This is a game that’s best left on the forgotten shelves. I planned to get a few other Spongebob games, but that might have to wait for a while after this. The next time that I want a Gamecube game, I’ll just get Kirby Air Ride or Gotcha Force. Granted, Gotcha Force is going for 100 dollars and up right now so it’ll also have to wait for a little while. There’s really no reason to get this game and the only reason that it’s not lower is that some of the minigames are decent. It’s not borderline unplayable or anything like that, but there is no reason to play it. This would be a bad game if it didn’t even have that or if it forced you to keep on playing them over and over again in a very stretched out story mode. Either way, I do not recommend this title and you’re better off getting just about anything else. I was really torn between giving this game a 4 or a 5 and in the end, I had to go with my gut.

Overall 4/10

Transformers Devastation Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 8/10

Pokemon Shuffle Review

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Pokemon Shuffle is a game that I didn’t anticipate playing…ever. I typically don’t play freemium games all that often. They are certainly interesting and I can appreciate why companies would develop these games, but they didn’t seem to be for me. I prefer physical games for my collection, but naturally something like this is digital. Well, if I can’t get the game physically, then I’m definitely fine with a digital version I suppose. There are definitely some classic titles to get electronically someday, but as long as there are dozens of physical options to choose from, I don’t see myself being tempted by them anytime soon. Pokemon Shuffle may not be the next Pac Man or Super Mario Bros, but it’s actually very fun.

For the gameplay, I assume that you are familiar with Tetris? In this game, you must match identical blocks together by dragging them across the screen to take the place of another block. You score points for matching three or more in a line, (No diagonal lines in this one) an L shape, or a cross. Each Pokemon square has a different ability so you will want to know what it is and make the most of it. The Pokemon that you fight in each level are the ones that you will be adding to your team if you beat them quickly enough to secure the capture. The more turns you have left over, the greater the chance that you will catch the Pokemon. After the tutorial, you’ll likely be all set with a few good Pokemon all set and raring to go. Each Pokemon has a level to play and there are currently 240 levels I believe, with more being added all the time. As of this writing, I’ve beaten about 60 of them. The levels get harder as you go along of course.

I haven’t had to grind yet, but that area is quickly approaching, which means that I’ll probably start slowing down in this game. I do have a lot of fun with it, but there are currently a lot of games on the backburner so when I do get a chance to play a game, it should probably be something else. Still, if you have time, you’ll definitely enjoy the gameplay. Again, it’s similar to Pac Man in the sense that you are doing something over and over again, but it still manages to be fun. Playing Pokemon Shuffle requires you to really think about what you are doing and to brace yourself. One wrong move and you may have doomed yourself.

There is certainly a cost to losing as you lose a heart every time you attempt a level. You start out with 5 hearts and once you lose them all, you have to wait 30 minutes to get another one. This is where the pay to win aspect of the game comes at you. You can buy hearts to save yourself the trouble of waiting and the money will certainly add up very quickly. In the game, you earn jewels (Which is what you’re actually buying with your real money) and then you trade them for hearts and coins. You’ll typically get a jewel every 10-15 levels so they are pretty sparse.

Naturally, I’ll never pay money for something like this. The only game where I currently buy DLC is Super Smash Bros and I don’t really see that changing anytime soon. Most DLC just isn’t worth it and I prefer to just turn off Pokemon Shuffle for a few hours before going back to it. This heart system actually encourages you to take a lot of breaks while playing, which is certainly fun.

Aside from the story missions, there are challenge ones and even some online bonuses. Each week you will get some limited stage choices like playing an extra EXP level or a coin one. They’re pretty interesting. At the moment, the online ones are definitely too tough for my team to beat, but maybe once I’m further in the game. Your Pokemon level up through the levels, which increases the damage your squares deal to the opponent when matched. So far, this really doesn’t make a difference at all, but it’ll probably be more evident later on. Right now, the only thing that really matters is ensuring that you have the type advantage. Trust me, that’ll carry you a very long way.

The graphics aren’t bad. There’s only been one real cutscene in the game so far, which would be the tutorial as a reporter helps you learn the ropes. The only dialogue since then has been a few black silhouettes for the trainers that you conquer. This is a game that would have a tough time trying to look great, but it won’t look bad either. The animations are clear and that’s really what counts. There’s not much of a soundtrack to be found here as it’s very pleasant and soft, which is likely supposed to encourage your playing through it. I would have liked some big boss themes to be honest, but I suppose that this’ll do.

There’s a lot of replay value in this game as you can replay levels to truly try to catch all of the Pokemon. That being said, the heart system does really hurt this part of the game and actually damages the title as a whole. It’s safe to say that this could have been an 8 star game, but the fact that you can only play 3-5 levels at a time before giving the game a break is definitely not cool. It stops you from replaying levels because you simply don’t want to waste the hearts and be forced to give the game another long break. That’s really the only negative in this game. The rest of Pokemon Shuffle is just a blast through and through, but this is a big downer. It’s why Freemium games typically have their limits as the pay to win system will always get you in the end.

Overall, Considering that the game is free, this is truly a steal. Pokemon Shuffle is a great way to pass some time by and you can play it for hours without getting bored, assuming that you have enough hearts for that. I will definitely encourage you not to succumb to the game and buy hearts, but to just power through it the long, but free way. I also downloaded Pokemon Rumble Blast so I’ll be giving that a whirl at some point, but I can safely say that it’ll have a tough time beating this title. Pokemon Shuffle easily exceeded my expectations before I started the game and it has set the bar very high for freemium games.

Overall 7/10