Super Mario Galaxy!

Finally, Mario for the Wii has finally been released. This The storyline starts off very quickly. As you approach Princess Peach’s castle, Bowser shows up and takes her, as well as her castle, off into space. Like every other Mario game, it’s up to you to save her.

The graphics in this game are stunning. Due to the lighting, everything seems shiny and rubbery. The graphics are also very smooth and of course cartoonish. I never played Super Mario Sunshine, but I think it’s safe to say that this is the best looking Mario game yet. The music is great. Not only are there new songs in the soundtrack, but a lot of old tunes have been rehashed and integrated into the game.

The gameplay is some of the most unique gameplay that has been seen in a while. You shoot from planet to planet, and the some of the planets are only a few seconds walking distance to get around. Since the gravity of these planets keeps you from falling off, you can get disoriented traveling around. You will sometimes be running sideways or even upside down trying to solve puzzles. The physics engine of the game is extremely well designed with planet gravity as well as the pulling and pushing of Mario through certain worlds. The controls are extremely simple and easy to pick up. They really use the Wiimote well. As for difficulty, the game hasn’t been too bad yet. There was one level that really started to grind on my nerves, but so far, the levels have been pretty moderate. Nintendo really is pushing more towards the casual gamer group.

The characters of this game are extremely cute. Aside from Mario, there are also the Toads and the Lumas (star creatures). For some reason, I just really enjoy the Lumas.

I’m kind of curious as to why Peach speaks perfectly good English, but when Bowser speaks, it is completely unintelligible.

Soul Calibur 3

After enjoying the second installment of the Soul Calibur series, I decided to try out the third. I have always considered Soul Calibur the perfect fighting game, and it seems that number three still delivers.

The storyline is relatively the same for all the games: heroes and villains alike are searching for the Soul Edge to either use it for power or destroy it for that reason. However, since it’s a fighting game, the story pretty much consists of fighting everyone to reach the final goal (and boss). Soul Calibur tries to diversify the storyline by adding in plot between fights. While this does keep the storyline interesting, I often find myself just skipping through the text to continue to the next fight.

The graphics, as always, are stunning. Character’s movements are fluid and incredibly realistic. They really used motion actors well for the fighting animations. The physics for the most part seem realistic. I really enjoy the uniqueness of each character’s fighting style. Also, the Japanese voice acting really adds to the intensity of the combat. In my opinion, the English voice acting is mediocre and feels extremely out of place; however, I have always had a bias against English voice actors.

The music is as great as the second game. The epic feeling of fighting for the world’s most powerful weapon is transferred to the player.

Unfortunately, I felt that one of the more obnoxious aspects of this game was the cutscenes. The cutscenes before the second to last boss as well as the last boss were mandatory, and it got pretty boring as you tried to unlock characters. Unlocking characters was also incredibly annoying since you had to travel a certain path without losing once to face the person. Upon getting there without continuing, the unlockable character was almost untouchable, thus, completely wasting all your efforts getting there. Despite this, the game is still incredibly solid and extremely fun to play.

Mario, but Flat

I’m pretty much hooked on this Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door right now. I played the first one on Nintendo 64 and enjoyed it, but the Gamecube version is so much better. The style of art is very unique. Since it’s called Paper Mario, Mario is two dimensional. When you turn around, it’s like flipping a sheet of paper. The game is an RPG with side-scroller worlds and with some three dimensional elements. The overall mood of the game is somewhat silly. The music definitely adds to this tone by staying rather simple. The dialogue is incredibly funny while the storyline is simple. Princess Peach seems to have gone missing while searching for a treasure. While finding this treasure, you also search for the princess, but to open the door to the treasure, you need to recover the seven star crystals. It is a pretty linear storyline that has you searching for these crystals one by one. However, each world that houses a crystal has a different story.

The graphics are very smooth. While the overall graphics are flat, the characters and worlds are very well designed. Entering buildings is also unique; the buildings unfold to reveal what’s inside after entering.

The characters of the games all have their unique abilities. You have to use these abilities to uncover hidden secrets and even to advance through the game. This game is really unique in that it melds together many different aspects of different game genres. It even tries to make the typical turn based RPG battle system more interesting by adding certain tasks to attack. If completed successfully, your attack hits harder.

This game is also incredibly long and has a lot of secrets to unlock. So far I have spent around twelve to thirteen hours and I am still not even halfway through. Nintendo seems to have found the perfect blend of simplicity and fun while also maintaining some depth in gameplay with Paper Mario.

ONWARD TO HYRULE!

I finally got my hands on the much awaited Zelda game for the Wii. Sadly, the only Zelda game I have ever beaten is Link’s Awakening, and even then I used save states. I had gotten decently far into Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, and A Link to the Past, but I always lost the motivation after getting that far. So even though I hadn’t beaten the past games, the Twilight Princess called to me. Since the only game I had on the Wii was Brawl, I finally went out and bought Twilight Princess and Mario Galaxy.

The graphics were very nice. I was somewhat worried that the realistic graphics would detract from the more cartoonish type feel of Zelda, but it really helped set the mood for the story. The tone of this game seems much darker than the previous games. All of Hyrule has been taken over by the King of Twilight and Princess Zelda has been taken hostage. As Link, you eventually discover your destiny to combat the forces of the Twilight and rid Hyrule from evil. The music also fits to the tone very well. The ever famous Zelda themes are remixed to a more rustic feel.

The Wii controls are hard to get used to, and I feel like they react slow too. Oftentimes I am hit by a monster because I’m still trying to pull out my sword. I also end up wasting a lot of ammunition because I accidentally shoot off my ranged weapons, so there is somewhat of a learning curve for the controls. As for the puzzles, they seem to be a lot easier than in the past games, but I have only done the first two dungeons. Though, embarrassingly, I must admit, I did get stuck within the first five minutes. My fishing skills are terrible.

Everything I’ve played so far has been solid, and the difficulty level seems just right for more casual players. I hope that I can keep up with this game and finally finish a Zelda game legit.

The Witcher

I got The Witcher with my video card. I had no idea what it was about and didn’t really feel like trying it; however, I couldn’t let a free game go to waste. I looked it up, and apparently, it was supposed to have top of the line graphics. What better way was there to test out my new graphics card? The storyline sounded interesting, but I didn’t get far enough to really get into it. The opening sequence really hooked me. The graphics were especially impressive, and the character started being established. However, it ends up being a side story that occurs outside of the main game’s storyline. The music during this sequence really set the atmosphere for the whole cutscene.

Upon getting into the game I was very impressed by the graphics. The detail on the character models was impeccable. The characters skin was rough and armor and weapons gleamed like real metal. The voices of the characters really fit the setting of the game, and the actors did a good job.

One aspect of the game that really interested me was the combat system. The combo system was pretty unique, requiring the player to time their clicks for a three hit combo ending in a stun. The stun then allowed the player to finish off the enemy.

One disappointing part about this game is that it seems there are still bugs, especially with Windows Vista. My friend played about an hour into the game. Upon reaching a loading screen we waited for a long time before realizing the game had frozen. The game did have long loading sequences due to the graphics, so we had no idea that the game had crashed until after waiting a long time. I hope to get a chance to play this game. I need to look online to find the patches required to keep the game from freezing.

BRAWLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!

Wow, I’ve been waiting for this game for so long. I’m a big fan of Smash Melee, so I was psyched about Brawl. The graphics of this game are good. They aren’t the best of the generation, but they really show what the Wii is capable of. They are a solid improvement on its predecessor. Stages are extremely well detailed to the point where it distracts many players from the actual fighting. The styles of the menus are also crisp and bright, really adding to the light hearted tone of the game.

The music selection is not only great, but enormous. There is way over 250 songs in the soundtrack. Levels have anywhere between five to ten tracks that can be played. I was skeptical about some of the song selections (mostly slower songs that really don’t add intensity); however the tracks really do work well with the game. The main theme, composed by my favorite game music composer Nobuo Uematsu, is really deep for the lighter Smash atmosphere conveyed in the last two games.

The storyline of the Subspace Emissary is kind of simple, but it’s told in unique way. None of the characters actually speak. Their emotions are revealed through their actions and the storyline is progressed through cutscenes. This also made certain parts of the storyline confusing, since nothing was really explained to the player. There were a couple parts of the game that I thought were cheesy. They tried to make many parts of the story serious, but it was really hard to take these parts seriously with pink Kirby and yellow Pikachu in the ranks of heroes.

As for voice acting, I’m glad they kept Marth in Japanese, but most of the other voice actors make me want to bust a gut because of how poor they are done. Pit and Ike make me cringe when the taunt and pose in victory, but I guess there really much I can do about that.

Despite what people say, I believe this game is excellent with a lot of depth in its gameplay. I prefer to consider Melee and Brawl as two different games due to so many differences between the two games.

Snake!!! SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!

Metal Gear Solid 2 was the first game of the series I played, and, while interesting, I got bored pretty quickly. There was a ton of dialogue and there were only two areas. The storyline did get interesting around the end with the US government conspiracy theory. I decided to give the third game a try to continue the story. To my dismay, the third game is actually a prequel to the other games. Upon finally starting actual gameplay, I immediately did not like it, mostly because it was a lot more difficult than the last game. Enemies are a lot harder to see because you are in the dense forest. This aspect though shows how good the game artwork really is. You really feel immersed in the woods. When I landed, I was already completely lost. However, graphics of this level can only be expected of a Metal Gear Solid title. Also, survival was taken to another level in this game. You also have to hunt for food, which really helps you to realize how dire your situation is. The programmers have also learned from their past mistakes and have improved the camera angles.

The storyline sounds really interesting. It involves a conspiracy theory surrounding the Cold War including the Cuban Missile Crisis. I didn’t get too far into the game. I kept getting gunned down around a bridge. The music definitely adds to the Metal Gear Solid atmosphere (at least the music I was able to experience. The same Snake voice actor returns, and the other voice acting doesn’t make me want to bang my head against a wall.

I hope to finally be able to muster up the time to beat this game. The storylines are very involved and extremely interesting. One thing I may want to do before playing this game is play the first game.

I WANT TO BE THE GUY!!!!

So… I want to be the guy… I found a video of this game on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEK7vP0Nwn0&feature=PlayList&p=81C5092E1BFB5DE6&index=0

It seems like one of the most ridiculous games I’ve ever seen. The graphics are horrendous (they taken from old NES sprites), but the music is a mix of old NES songs that really starts playing on the nostalgia strings. The levels are taken straight from old NES games with lots of spikes and other frustrating hazards added in.

A lot of the boss fights are actually copied from Super Metroid. The best way to describe this game is as a compilation of old NES games made to drive the player insane with fury. I tried downloading the demo and gave up after about 2 minutes of playing.

While the normal man may never get to play through the whole game, there exists a plethora of videos of complete runs. Games that I recognized were Megaman, Mario, Super Ghosts and Goblins, Zelda, Tetris, and Street Fighter. It is really enjoyable watching how frustrated people get playing the game. Admittedly, for my own safety, I should stay away from this game because my frustration could get to the point of breaking things.

The storyline of the game is a typical game storyline. You are a character trying to be (The Guy), so you travel through the NES worlds defeating bosses. Once all the bosses are defeated, you gain right to enter The Guy’s fortress. This game could be thought of as a parody of NES games. Directly taking some levels and just making them unbearably difficult. Also, the dialogue is so bad that it’s funny. The creators most likely did this on purpose.

While I would never recommend this game to anyone but my enemies, it is an enjoyable, albeit, long watch that consists of around ten different parts on Youtube. If you are ever bored enough, give it a try. It’s difficulty almost rivals the Kaizo Mario stages.

Final Fantasy Tactics!

So I’ve heard that Final Fantasy Tactics is a must play game. Unfortunately, now that Playstation 1 games have been discontinued, it is extremely expensive to obtain. Luckily, after playing Crisis Core on the PSP, my friend also had the revamped Tactics: Final Fantasy Tactics War of the Lions.

The artwork in the cut scenes is amazing. It really looks like someone took a brush to a piece of parchment. The in game graphics are still pretty slick, and probably improve on the graphics of the Playstation 1 game. The game pretty much starts you in a battle, and it doesn’t have a tutorial. I love that they did this because I really despise having to go through slow tutorials every time you start a new game. Instead, the tutorial is at the start screen. I didn’t get far enough into the game to see any flashy spells, but overall, the battle graphics were those of a standard tactical RPG. Camera angles could be somewhat annoying though, even with the rotating battleground with the bumper buttons. The music that I was able to experience definitely helped with the medieval atmosphere, and the script was translated into the tongue of the times.

From what I’ve heard, the storyline is an amazing blend of political strife, deception, murder, and all the elements of a solid epic. Despite that, I became too impatient with the game. I felt the battle system took too long. I’m too used to the current generation of hack and slash, instant gratification battle systems. Also, the PSP really started to grind on me. I couldn’t really find a good position to sit while playing, and the system itself did not fit too well in my hands. Eventually some part of my body would get sore as well as my left hand. For those able to stand these conditions, this game is definitely a must play from everything I’ve heard. I will probably just try and get my hands on a PS1 version eventually, and go from there.

Wii (would like to) Play!

I pretty much bought this game for the free Wii controller. I haven’t been able to play the games with other people, but I did go through and unlock everything. I didn’t like the idea of having to play through each game to get the next game. I would have preferred to be able to play any game at start up, but the unlocking process doesn’t take too long. This game is made to teach you how to use the Wii controller, so it introduces new concepts in every game.

The game graphics are cute and are actually very good. Cows look like they're made from linen, and you can even use your own Mii for your minigames. and The gameplay is rather simple. However, this game can show you how obnoxious Wii controls can be. I especially had trouble with the pool game. Right when I am about to hit the cue ball, the Wii controller would go out of communication reach, and I would have to line up my shot again. There is also no real depth in the games. The ping pong game consists of waving the controller left to right, and there is no real control of spin and power. Since it’s a compilation of mini-games, there is no storyline.

The music is entertaining enough while you’re playing the games, but all in all, the game will probably become boring pretty quickly for the more hard core gamers. Like me, it’s probably better to get this game for the free Wii controller.

KO! MVC2!

I decided to try out Marvel vs Capcom 2 after watching a video showing the top 10 best fighting games of all time. This game was one of the top. I had always liked 2D fighters, but I never really took the time to get good at them. Also, the lack of human competition really made the game boring after a while.

This one is definitely flashy, and the 3 character tag team is fun. It was entertaining to just button mash with my friends, but when it came down to it, there was a depth that all good 2D fighters share. Graphics-wise, I can’t really say it’s impressive, since it was 2D sprites that we’ve seen for years, but it certainly was flashy. The music was good too, though some of the selections were kind of strange.

There isn’t much to say about the game, since I played it for only an hour or so. Since it’s a 2D fighter, there isn’t really a storyline. The one annoying thing was unlocking characters. You had to earn points either by beating story mode or playing lots of versus mode; however, there were single player points as well as online points. Of course, since the online community doesn’t exist for the Playstation 2, there was no way for me to earn the online points. Therefore, to unlock a character, I had to keep entering and re-entering the shop screen until it was only worth single player points, which got extremely annoying after a while. Also, some of the characters were horrendously expensive. Story mode also got repetitive after a while. While I wouldn’t mind getting better at this game, I feel like unlocking characters was too much of a hassle to bother with. Also, there’s really no way for me to prove my skill if all I did was play computer players.

Overall, fun game if you have friends willing to play, but it does get boring using only the starting cast.

I just can't seem to get out of Midgar

I wanted to play Final Fantasy 7 Crisis Core for so long, but then again, who wouldn’t want to revisit the world of Final Fantasy 7. Advent Children was disappointing to many, Dirge of Cerberus was complete trash, and of course Before Crisis was never going to be released in the US. So hopefully, Crisis Core would be the game that we were all looking for. I was lucky enough to be able to borrow a friend’s PSP to play this game. I had already listened to the soundtrack and was extremely impressed. Many songs contained were Final Fantasy 7 songs remixed to rock, and they sounded amazing. Upon turning on the PSP and loading the game, I was blown away. The graphics in game and in video looked incredible on the PSP screen. The in game graphics were on par with those of the PS2. The battle system was relatively simple yet fun. Voice acting was superb. I also think they synced the mouth movement with the voices because I saw no deviation. Everything about the game screamed awesome.

However, as I got into the game, it started getting repetitive. Unfortunately, the story was written by the same writer of Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus, Tetsuya Nomura. While he is an amazing character designer, I feel like the stories for the past games and movies either make no sense or are complete trash. Crisis Core felt the same way. Don’t take this as a bad review for the game, because the game is still somewhat fun. However, the story is fairly short, and the optional missions become repetitive and boring. Also, the battle system isn’t really challenging at all.

Final summary, this game is amazing for being reintroduced into the world of Final Fantasy 7. Being re-submersed into the familiar locations of Midgar, Nibelheim, and more was such a rewarding experience. Also seeing Cloud, Zack, and Aeris (Aerith?) in 3D and voiced was great. Square shows that they’re able to push a system to its limits with the beautiful graphics within this game. However, the story seems somewhat lacking, and there really isn’t too much to the actual gameplay. I have to say though, I really enjoyed seeing the good guy side of Sephiroth in this game.

Ragnarok Returns! Offline...

Last week, the week of game pitches, I walked in late and, to my surprise, saw a game very similar to Ragnarok Online being played. I must say, the video looked awesome. After that class, I went back and immediately downloaded it, though it did take a while. After fiddling with everything (installing English patches and stuff), I tried it out. It played like a normal fighting game except with sidescrolling. I loved the facial expressions and such. When I first started playing, it was enjoyable, but one huge problem was that I wasn't really sure what I was doing. I didn't know how to use any special moves. There was no explanation in the game whatsoever. This may be due to the fact it had to be fan translated. The first level was not too bad and was pretty simple. The second level became much more difficult, but after determining the boss strategies, I was able to pass it. The difficulties began to increase by a lot, and it became somewhat frustrating having to do the whole level over again. Even leveling up did not seem to do too much. Overall this was a fun game, but it got really repetitive on the harder levels. I haven’t tried out every class yet, but I may get around to it.

Later on, I invited some friends over and we played 3 player. It was a lot of fun to have a coop game, and I believe that more companies should make these types of games. There aren’t too many coop games out there anymore. The same problems as single player occurred again, with an even bigger frustration. Everyone shared lives. In single player, you could die three times, but in multiplayer, your team could only die three times in total. This made the later levels even more difficult, especially if one of the teammates was not as good as the others.

While this game can be somewhat casual, the later levels really require you to learn your class and the monster fighting mechanics. For those who just want a fun game, they may want to stay away from this game. However, it is nice to revisit the world of Ragnarok Online in a different perspective.

PIKMIN

This week I tried out Pikmin, a game I remember ridiculing. I decided to pick it up after seeing Captain Olimar confirmed as a Super Smash Brother’s Brawl character. His move set and playstyle are very unique. After showing my good friend at Yale, he told me that Pikmin was actually a good game.

The storyline of the game seemed pretty humorous but also simple. Captain Olimar crashed into a meteor and needs to rebuild his ship with the 30 parts that have gone missing. The point of the game is to find these 30 parts by using different types of Pikmin to solve puzzles. I haven’t completed the game yet, but I’m close. What I found most interesting was the bosses. You couldn’t simply throw your Pikmin on top of the bosses; that would lead to the slaughtering of your army. Instead, there were certain weak points and strategies to beating them.

I felt there were a couple problems with this game. First off, the Pikmin AI was not very good. They would follow you, no matter where you go. If all of them don’t fit on a narrow bridge, they go into the water and drown. They also enjoy picking fights when all you want to do is run through, so it’s a pain to call them all back. I disliked the controls, and the view port could have been better. Also, the graphics were somewhat grainy, but this can’t be helped since it was an earlier Gamecube release. Despite these problems I still really enjoyed the game. I haven’t tried the second game yet. I hope that they improved on points where I thought the first game was weak.

I’m not really sure if this game has any replay value; however, I’m sure my sister will enjoy it. It’s not a difficult game, but it’s not particularly easy either. I would say that the game is just right. The puzzles are enjoyable, and the character design is what really makes the game fun.

Week 1: I Crave for Speed

So I decided to pick up Need for Speed: Most Wanted for the PS2 the past week. I had heard from friends that it was the best one at this point, and I have been craving a good "realistic" racing game for a while. So I start playing, and I can’t believe how incredibly silly it is. The whole idea of the game is that you’re a street racer working your way up in the street scene, but some of the acting I felt was so over exaggerated that I couldn’t help be laugh. Other than the funny acting it was a lot of fun to play. Sadly my car was stolen, and I had to settle for a Lexus (which I still have for sentimental values, despite my roommates’ complaints). The character designs were very creative; actual actors were used, but they did some interesting shading (I’m not really an art guy so I don’t know how to describe it). It took me a while before I figured out they were real people. The whole plot consists of working your way up the blacklist racer ladder and challenging the guy who steals your car at the beginning.

The gameplay is intense, especially when you start getting better cars. Weaving through the packed city at 130 miles per hour is absolutely insane. My roommate thoroughly enjoyed watching me play as I slowly got better at the game. He quotes “I’m thoroughly impressed by how much he’s improved. Instead of using the brake, he would run into walls and other cars.” The game really helps you improve as the difficulty increases. Money won from races allowed me to upgrade the stats on my car: top speed, acceleration, and handling. The controls are very natural (the same as almost every racing game) except that they add in a new bullet time control called speed breaker. It takes some getting used to, but once mastered, makes you almost unbeatable.

Some of the most insane parts of the game include the milestones where you have to purposely be chased by the police. These milestones are needed to earn the right to compete against blacklist racers. The game is really creative and extremely fun to play. It is unlike other racing games that consist only of racing. The milestones and cop chases really add some adrenaline pumping action to the already awesome races.