[weasel]

Front Mission 4
"I think it's time you stopped pampering the new recruit, Father One!"

Platform: PS2
Genre: Strategy RPG
Developer: Squaresoft
ESRB: T (violence, mild language)

The Front Mission series seems to be the underdog in strategy RPG's. It's good solid fun with a relatively simple interface, but sadly overshadowed by other games like Tactics Ogre and the Nippon Ichi games.

Timeline-wise, I'd venture a guess that this takes place sometime close to Front Mission 1 on SNES. As the game begins, you take control of an ex-French Army soldier named Elsa, who is undergoing training for the Durandal (a group of specialists). After a brief training exercise, things get interesting when a German research base is attacked.

On the other side of the plot (the game switches back and forth between two sets of characters) you have a bunch of Venezuelan soldiers on patrol, that discover a crashed cargo transport that contains millions of dollars worth of gold owned by the country's corrupt governor. So they take it and defect.

Both plots have their share of conspiracies and twists. They're pretty decent - nothing Tom Clancy would have written, but interesting enough to motivate the player to advance.

Gameplay wise, this game is all about customization. You can buy and assemble your Wanzer (giant robot) either by buying a pre-assembled blueprint, or the individual parts that you can mix and match. You can mount weapons in the Wanzer's hands or shoulders, add backpacks, and select from different types of legs (bipeds, reverse-jointed legs, spider-legs, treads). Individual parts may also contain built-in weapons (like the Vapor machine gun - because it's built-in, it's very accurate, but you can't mount shoulder weapons like rockets on it).

Outside of building Wanzers, you can also customize the pilots. Each person has a certain specialty, but if you really want to, you can purchase new computer software for them so they can learn new skills for weapons they don't specialize in (for example, Zead specializes in rockets and melee combat, but with a computer upgrade you can turn him into a two-fisted machine gunner capable of attacking multiple enemies at once).

Yet another element of customization is the ability to Link your characters together. Allocating Link points between characters enables linked combat, which means that when one person attacks, the Link is initiated and any linked characters within range will attack as well. If more Link points are allocated, your link partner will be able to counter-attack when one character is attacked, and even use weapon skills. It's just incredible to see a Link battle with up to eight Wanzers at a time.

The game's flow is actually pretty linear - just fight the battles and watch the story. But the variety of tactics you can employ makes it worth playing through again.

Some things are sorely missed from Front Mission 3, however - like the Network mode, which allowed one to shop for parts from anywhere and even browse the "Internet." You can still shop for parts almost everywhere in the game, but the Network mode had many things that helped expand on the game's background.

The game's graphics are pretty well done. They lack some special effects, but the models are very well done, the textures are nice and crisp, and it runs at a constant 30 FPS with no slowdown (not even when eight Wanzers are duking it out).

The game's sounds are also quite satisfying. There is voice acting in cinemas, which fits pretty well on the whole (complete with realistic accents), the gunfire in game is powerful and has a good kick behind it, and the sounds of Wanzers stomping about is just cool. The music is pretty neat too, and I wish I could listen to it outside of the game.

Overall, if you're a strategy gamer and want something new and interesting, look up Front Mission 4. Because who doesn't like to see robots blowing the ever-lovin' crap out of each other?

8.5/10

[duvel]

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
System: Nintendo DS
Developer: Konami
ESRB Rating: T. There's blood effects similar to those from Symphony of the Night (red globs, ooh) and some risque monsters and statues (Alura Une and Lilith/Succubus come to mind) but it should be fine for anyone with the thought capacity of a 12 year old or older.

Dawn of Sorrow is the sequel to the highly popular GBA title Aria of Sorrow. It is very similar to the previous game, but better in just about every way.

Plot: Rather mediocre compared to the last games, actually, but one point near the middle-endish of the game (I won't spoil the surprise) certainly was entertaining. You follow Soma Cruz again, this time as he is infiltrating the headquarters of a cult dedicated to bringing about the dark lord's return. Much of the dialogue consists of miscelaneous people telling other miscelaneous people not to go somewhere or to leave somewhere. The other part involves a slightly interesting story about a clever dude and a hothead who somehow got a demon grafted to him. I suggest reading the dialogue, however, as it happens to be very interesting as well as informative at some points. 7/10 for providing some interesting, if not repetitive dialogue, as well as a story that picks up cleanly from where the last one left off.

Gameplay: Meat and pototoes of any game. With Dawn of Sorrow, this is no exception. Soma travels around the castle (that strangely enough reminds me of the Symphony of the Night castle; or maybe it's just the "Wizardy Lab" and "Condemned Tower" sections) fighting a varied assortment of monsters. The addictive soul system has returned, with a new soul level system to get you to go after souls more than once to power them up. The equipment system is also back, in a very similar fashion, except now you can switch between two equipment settings (and soul settings) at the touch of a button. This turns out to be one of the handiest new features to the game. Another new addition is the special attack you can use with many weapons, often increasing the attack power of an already powerful weapon for a single, mp-consuming attack. There are also the magic seals, which can seem annoying once you get to the 3rd or 4th one, but are easy to get the hang of after a while. You need magic seals to defeat bosses or they will keep regenerating, and never die..Getting powerful weapons is a lot easier than before, as well. Instead of searching for them in hidden places throughout the castle, you can take weak weapons and sacrifice an enemy soul to make it into a stronger weapon. This is the only way to get the best weapons in the game. New Game +, which allows you to start a new game using your old equipment and souls, is once again your reward for getting the best ending in the game. Julius Mode also makes a return, but instead of using just the Belmont descendant, you also get to control Yoko Belnades and the powerful Alucard. Other than these, and a few more minor changes (bosses giving ability souls instead of soul containers, you start with the backdash, etc.), if you've played Aria of Sorrow, or really any of the more recent Castlevanias, you will be at home. Sadly, this game is slightly shorter than Aria (or at least it seems like it), but I still give gameplay 10/10.

Graphics: And I thought Aria of Sorrow looked good. The sequel makes it's predecessor look like a cheap SNES game by comparison. There was serious work placed into the new character designs, new monster designs, backgrounds, weapon animations, death animations, 3d effects, hell, just anything graphical. It's a great example of the two-dimensional capabilities of the DS. The only qualm I have is that they could have made more good looking cinematics like the one you see if you sit at the title screen for a while. Ah, well, it's still very impressive. 10/10.

Sound: The soundtrack is a soothing mixture of new tunes and remixed golden oldies. The familiar Vampire Killer theme makes an appearance, as well as a couple of others from the original game. Sound effects are also as pleasing, with satisfying explosions and crashes for the most part, altough certain sounds, like pistol fire, could have been refined. 9/10.

Controls: For a DS game, it doesn't use the stylus very much at all. You can use it for menus, but for the most part you'll be using it solely for the magic seals. The more traditional controls are still smooth and responsive, although I'll occasionally accidently cast a bullet soul whenever I meant to use a regular attack thanks to the wobbly d-pad on the DS. That's a fairly rare occurance, however, so control gets 9/10.

Multiplayer Capabilities: Dawn of Sorrow introduced a much more fun multiplayer activity for people with 2 DS's and 2 copies of the game on hand. The Enemy Set mode lets you set up enemy encounters in 5 different rooms that your opponent will have to go through, killing all enemies before he can pass. I am not able to fiddle around with that too much, however, as I don't even know anyone who owns another DS, let alone another copy of the game. The Soul Trade activity also returns, but that was a given. I cannot rate this due to lack of experience.

Replayability: First, you have to complete it and get all three endings (the first one probably should be ignored, though, as it's super lame). Then, you have to go through with New Game + to get all the extra goodies on Hard mode, as well as pick up your Chaos Ring for getting 100% of the souls. After that, you need to play through Hard mode on a new game, getting all goodies and 100% souls. Then, you have to go through JULIUS mode. after all is said and done, you should have a good 40+ hours in this game. Still, after you've done everything (which I haven't yet ) I would imagine there is a sense of having nothing left to do, like there was with Aria of Sorrow. 9/10 for having lots of time before you run out of things to do.

Conclusion: If you're looking for a reason to pick up a DS that ISN'T Nintendogs, here it is. This should also please any diehard Castlevania fans looking for a new portable fix now that they've completed Harmony of Dissonance blindfolded (something tells me this has actually been done). This should remove any doubt from people's minds that there will not be good games for the DS. I dub this game a 9/10.

[weasel]

Because every game reviewer eventually has to put up with some crap once in a while, I figured it was about time to make a review of a pretty awful game. I had decent expectations of this one, but you'll see soon enough why I didn't like it.

007: Everything or Nothing
"Congratulations, 007 - you've saved the girl, and destroyed all of my equipment."

Developer: EA GAMES
Platform: PS2 (XBox?)
ESRB: T (Violence, suggestive themes?)

EA Games continues their fine tradition of bastardizing the Bond franchise with 2003's "Everything or Nothing" - their valiant (cough) attempt at capitalizing on the Splinter Cell third-person stealth craze. So naturally, you play James Bond.

The first thing you see (after sitting through the intro logos) is the game's intro movie that can't be skipped the first time. Once that's over...you're playing the game already. That's right - it thrusts you straight into the action without so much as a training mission, an opportunity to change game settings, or even the courtesy of telling you that you are, in fact, playing Everything or Nothing and not some other Bond game. All they give you is "Press R2 to get into cover. Press L1 to target enemy. Press R1 to fire." and they expect you to stumble through the first mission from then on.

After the (admittedly short) mission is complete, they give you a short cutscene of Bond boarding his transport chopper, followed by the game's theme song (a crappy techno-vocal thing, bearing movie-style credits amidst sillouhettes of naked girls holding guns and cheesy computer-animated Russian tanks). You still can't skip it (not the first time through anyway).

Then - perhaps the moment that made me throw the controller down in disgust - it gives you the option of going through the training mission.

I just escaped the first mission with barely any health because I wasn't allowed to play through this before going into action; yet they have the nerve to give it to me after that? Why the hell not before?! And also, why didn't I get to pick my difficulty level the first time through?

EA Games, this decision has already alienated much of your audience. Congratulations.

Once you get into the game though - and pass the second frustrating mission - it gets slightly more fun for every mission you go on after that. That's not to say that this is exactly how the game plays out, though. There are some other absurdly frustrating moments late in the game as well (like the mission "Death of an Agent" in which you have to dive off a cliff to save a girl - I must have died there about fifty times on the easiest difficulty because Bond can't take a single scratch from a tree branch without dying).

You have pretty much everything in the game that makes your typical James Bond flick. You have Bond, some random hot girls (though not quite as hot as real girls), some nasty evil villain, lots o' killing, and of course, gadgets.

EA certainly tried their best to make this as good a Bond film as possible (er, game, rather). They got only the original actors where required (Pierce Brosnan as Bond, Judi Dench as M, and John Cleese as Q), digitizing them into characters that actually look and behave like the people they're supposed to represent.

Though it's a real shame that this is the best part about the game.

Control-wise, the game's control scheme is actually a little illogical on occasion (despite the fact that there is a lock-on system in place, you still have to aim your gun manually to make the shot connect), and often times refuses to respond properly (especially when making quick motions from left to right on the stick). Getting Bond into cover is never an easy task, and even when you're in cover, enemies can still shoot you with impunity by walking around the corner; forcing Bond to struggle with his controller again to get out of cover again so he can shoot this one guard. And by that point, since he's out of cover, several other guards are shooting at him as well. To make matters worse, you can't take cover while crouching (nor can you crouch in cover at all).

The gadgets are a decent attempt, but they're nothing we haven't seen before in other games. You have a cloaking device, grenades disguised as coins (which doesn't make an ounce of difference), a grapple gun, and a remote controlled spider bot for hitting switches and generally blowing crap up.

Oh, before I forget, you do get to drive Bond's cars in this game as well. Though the execution of these scenes is like a poor mix of Spy Hunter and Grand Theft Auto 3 (particularly in the awkward GPS map system and the weaponry, which never feels as powerful as it should). You also get to ride a motorbike, be the gunner in a tank, and fly a chopper. The scenes are pretty neat the first time, but only if you don't screw up and forget to blow out the fence that you're about to drive into.

The game does have multiplayer options in the form of a deathmatch game and a co-op game, though I was unable to test these features since I don't have a second Dual Shock 2 controller (why it needs one is beyond me, as the only thing it really uses is the analog X button for driving; and even that can be substituted for the right analog stick in the game).

The game's graphical effects are of decent quality. The game often times lacks any serious beauty factor, with a minimum of fancy-schmancy effects (outside of explosions and electromagnet stuff). So it's beyond me why the game is constantly slowing down to almost Perfect Dark-esque lows. It's never slow enough to seriously affect gameplay, but it does get distracting.

Finally, there's the audio side of things. Music in this game is pretty forgettable. Even the James Bond theme was completely bastardized with that modern techno-ish remix. To the focus-groups of MGM Interactive and EA Games: I much preferred the old version, thank you, but if you're so intent on making Bond appeal to a new audience like this, you can count me out. I'd rather go back to my Splinter Cell and TimeSplitters games.

Sound effects in the game are decent, though - car motors, explosions, gunfire. It's all very beefy and powerful. The voice acting is quality stuff too, especially John Cleese's role as Q (he even chimes in on occasion in the earlier difficulty levels to give you hints - and thank goodness, he's not as annoying as some other voices-in-your-ear from games like Halo and Serious Sam 2).

But overall, 007:EoN is a failed attempt from EA Games to claim the trophy for Best James Bond Game Ever (a title that is still held by Rare's Goldeneye, almost ten years after its release in 1996). I suppose they're going to keep trying though - and that's what worries me. It's obvious that they have failed time and time again (Agent Under Fire, anybody? How about 007 Racing? Or Rogue Agent?), so it puzzles me as to why they continue to throw their money away when they could easily be pumping their manpower (read: legions of slaves) into the next Sims game.

I'd recommend avoiding this unless you are an absolute die-hard Bond fan.

5.5/10

[CJA]

Double Review. OH DEAR.
------------
Pikmin
"Why does everyone hate this game? ... oh."

Genre: Action/Strategy
Publisher: Nintendo of course!

Introduction

Your name is Olimar. You're cruising through space in your ship, the Dolphin...and all of a sudden, a hurtling asteroid collides with your ship, knocking it off course into a strange planet! As the ship plummets through the planet's atmosphere, it catches fire and begins breaking up. Awakening from a stupor, you gaze at your ship...it's totaled! Analyzing the air of this planet returns that this planet's environment contains a poisonous gas: oxygen. You realize your life support system only runs for 30 days. This is when Olimar's control is returned to you.

For some reason, I had trouble finding the "object" at this point... the camera is so darn close to Olimar, it isn't funny.

You encounter a strange, red object. It suddenly brightens, jumps out of the ground, and stands from three legs, like a tripod. It's shaped like an onion embellished with a flower...so you name it an Onion. Then, this Onion spins its flower which ejects a seed. The seed quickly sprouts into a plant, which strangely sways back and forth... After plucking it you discover it's a living creature, and you name it a Pikmin after your favorite brand of carrots.

Now the controls are introduced quickly... a bit too quickly. Since there's no time limit right now, you've got a lot of time to experiment. After you've adjusted and moved the camera to a breathable zoom level, you can get the Pikmin to carry small pellets back to the Onion. These pellets contain nutrients which are used to create more Pikmin. You have to raise enough Pikmin to push a box(however, I had to look around a while to find enough pellets). Pushing the box opens a new area.

You're filled with great hope...it's the engine for your ship! But, how will you get it back to the Dolphin...

Now you can grow more Pikmin, then have them carry the engine back. This ends the day, and you can now access the Forest of Hope. Your goal is to collect the other 29 missing parts.


Controls

Prior to playing, I thought the controls would be rather complex. But they turned out to be real simple.

Control Stick - Moves the cursor/walk. If you move the cursor out of a certain radius, you'll walk in that direction. It sounds complex but it's really not.
A - Throws the Pikmin at the cursor. They disband from your group.
B - Calls disbanded Pikmin back.
X - Disbands and sorts all Pikmin by color.
Y - Information screen
C - Make your Pikmin move in that direction. They'll form a "line." They don't go very far from your group.
L/R/Z - Adjust camera.


Gameplay

Pikmin come in three colors: red, blue and yellow, and have obvious elemental resistances.

You can only have 100 Pikmin (including sprouts) at an area at once. Sprouts slowly mature from leaf to bud to flower. Flower Pikmin are much faster than the others. Another way of getting Flower Pikmin is to give some Pikmin some nectar found in certain grasses. But enemies can eat or blow away the flowers!

There's a time limit each day. At night, the nocturnal creatures come out so the Pikmin and you fly into the atmosphere at night, where Pikmin are calculated and a journal entry is displayed.

When you get enough parts, another area becomes accessible. If you don't get enough parts in 30 days, you may not be able to fly. A few parts aren't required.

Sometimes there are annoying rock barriers that you must blow up by getting the yellow Pikmin to carry bomb-rocks. It's total disaster if your Pikmin get in a bomb-rock accident.


Overall, it's a very fun game, but if your Pikmin become low in numbers it's easy to just give up. There could have been a better ending, too.
9/10.

-------------
Pikmin 2
"You dirty grub-dog."

Genre: Strategy, a bit of action.
Publisher: Nintendo

As Olimar returns to his home, Planet Hocotate, he has discovered that his employer has run into financial difficulties. Olimar must return to the planed to salvage its "treasures," and repay the debt: 10,000 Pokos.

There's a few kicks added to Pikmin 2. First of all there are over 200 treasures in Pikmin 2. Also, there are two new types of Pikmin. One is immune to Poison (a new element), and one can lift heavy loads, but is slow. You now have a partner, Louie, which you can switch with by pressing Y. Gameplay is similiar, though.

There's also more environmental objects... Mold that suffocates plants, and plants with berries that can be transformed into special sprays(Ultra Spicy Spray, which speeds up and strengthens the Pikmin; and Ultra Bitter Spray, which freezes enemies).

However, Pikmin 2 simply copies and modifies the levels from Pikmin 1...Forest of Hope is now Awakening Wood, and Distant Spring is now Perplexing Pool. They play a lot different now, however.

The thing I loved about this game is the way the ship names treasures. Like, lipstick becomes "Lip Service," and a fried egg becomes "Hideous Victual."

Just when you think the game has ended, your boss, Mr. Hocotate, decides to become rich and go salvage more treasures! But you forgot to bring your partner Louie back. So, Hocotate joins you on your return to the planet, and a new area is opened.


As I've rented it, I've only got to the "first ending." I think I'll look into owning this game...it's great.
10/10!

[Goshi]

Hey look me and Wildweasel are no longer whoring up this thread... for now.

Anyway onto the review of a game I've completed a million times.

Astro Boy: Omega Factor

Platform: GBA
Genere: Beat em' up
Devloper: Treasure and Hitmaker
ERSB: E

Treasure and Hitmaker decided to crew up together to make a game based on Tezuka's creations. Did work? Or is it as bad as most games based off movies or cartoons?

Plot:
The plot is pretty simular to the show itself. Although the main villian who does the typical villian styled plot is different from the show although the main plot is bland, the side plot however is an exception. The side plot goes through in a simular way the show's side plot went (Although with the new anime the side plot in this game becomes the main plot) anyway the plot is good although the main plot is rather cliche compared to the side plot.
8/10

Gameplay:
Astro runs around punching the crap out of robots or fires lasers at them. He can also dash to avoid attacks and go behind enemies. For those who liked River City Ransom (Like me) you mike this game actually. You beat the crap out of robots, how fun is that!? The boss fights are a lot of fun too. Although some bosses have the most lamest attack patterns ever. (A boss who is simply only a lstronger version of a normal enemy, gee how creative) some of the other bosses are mcuh more interesting and a lot of fun to fight. The controls are pretty good although performing the EX Dash is an ass to do (A + B) which is bad for me when it is required OHH DEAR. Otherwise they're simple and helps the task of beating the crap out of robots easier. Next you have a shoot em' up styled areas, for those who don't know what I mean, go play games like R-Type or Gradius and you'll understand. Anyway these parts are pretty difficult but not that bad, there is nothing special about them really, but it does give an extra variation on the gameplay. The gameplay is done pretty well overall, although there is some slowdown but I'll cover that in graphics
9/10

Graphics:
The graphics are done pretty well, although the secenry sometimes look \s repetitive its done well that it doesn't seem like it. Astro's animations are nice and smooth as are the enemies and bosses. However Hitmaker decided it'd be cool of rthey make enemies larger and smaller to add variation. Its a stupid idea of course because it makes the enemies look ugly and pixalated. And is obviously a lame way to add variation to the enemies. Next up te game suffer A LOT of slowdown. This is bad really, because it just makes seem easy objectives so much like a chore. It doesn't happen in the 1st stage but once you reach 2-2, you'll see what I mean. Maybe its because I'm playing the PAL version but chances are the other versions will suffer the same problem too. The graphics are good but the pixalated enemies and the slowdown seriously ruin it.
7/10

Music and Sound:
The music is done really well. Fans of Gunster Heroes and Gunster Super Heroes might recognise some of the tunes. The other songs are done well, although there is a destinct lack of variety within the songs they aren't boring to listen at anyway, and fit the situation in the game quite well. The sound is good too, whilst you may get sick of the robot noises that come from the enemies you'll eventually get used to it, the sound effects are done pretty well. All in all, the music and sound is good, despite the lack of variety within the music.
9/10

Multiplayer
Once again, none of a sort.
-/-

Difficulty: Medium
Easy is seriously easy. You get like 99 EX Attacks. Medium is the same as easy except you only get 10 EX Attacks which is a huge step up from Easy. Then comes hard where you only get 5 EX Attacks, and you take more damage. Enemy and levelwise though they're mostly the same although some of the enemies get new attack patterns in the higher difficulties. Hence why medium is relavent because the game isn't that much of a pushover, even in easy mode.

Overall:
9/10

Goshi says: "If you like River City Ransom or other games in which you mostly beat up stuff, then this game is for you."

[weasel]

Deus Ex 2: Invisible War
"Sorry mate, just talkin' chuff, no offense."
For those of you who haven't played the first game: be warned of spoilers.

Genre: First Person Shooter/pseudo-RPG
Developer: Ion Storm
Publisher: EIDOS
Platform: PC, XBox (PC version reviewed)
ESRB: M (Blood, Violence)

2003's sequel to the original Deus Ex had a lot of fans hyped up - but they were subsequently disappointed. A lot of what made the original Deus Ex so fun has been axed, but what remains is still an enjoyable play despite its shortcomings.

Those of you that played the original Deus Ex may be wondering which of the three endings are being followed in the sequel. The answer: all of them. Bob Page is dead. The world shifted into a Collapse, and JC Denton (supposedly) merged with the Helios AI construct. That is, if you believe all the books and post-incidental newspaper articles scattered about.

After selecting an appearance for your character (two genders and three skintones for each), a difficulty level, and a color for your HUD graphics (hue only; can't change saturation or lightness), you're shown the intro movie which details a terrorist attack on Chicago. Once that's over, you find yourself in Seattle, at the Tarsus Academy.

Things aren't what you think they are. Rather, they're what they want you to think they are. Pay no mind to the fact that the entire building is shaking, and explosions and gunfire can be heard from a distance. Ignore the man dying in the corridor; the situation is under control. It's just another day at the Academy. Who cares about explosions and dead people and earthquakes?

Of course, it's entirely obvious that your "instructor" is hiding things from you (once the alarm starts going off and a bunch of soldiers start shooting crap). And then your friend cuts the power, the ceiling disappears, and...whoa, I probably shouldn't go any further than that.

The plot is immediately pulling you in from the start, unlike the slower start of Deus Ex 1. It adds the intensity factor.

But how does one make their way through the story? The game's interface is kinda clunky and difficult to manipulate, and just reeks of consolized simplicity. Your inventory is limited to 12 spaces - six in your pack, and six on your toolbelt. Most objects that can be stacked will stack up to 20 before a new stack is created. The size of the weapon doesn't matter in terms of how it fits in your inventory - so you could fill up your inventory with 12 Mag Rails if you could find that many.

Weapon modifications were also changed - you can only install two mods on a weapon, and with a few exceptions, any mod can be applied to any weapon. Glass destablizers (which make glass melt instead of shatter, avoiding setting off alarms), silencers, fire rate, etc. It's very customizable, giving you quite a bit of choice as to how you go about things.

The one simplification that really gets me though - all your weapons use the same ammo. There is no reloading, there are no alternative ammo types, and weapons can fire indefinitely until the ammo runs out. It removes quite a lot of the strategy and generally is a severe throwback to Wolfenstein. The major problem with this system is that when you run out of ammo for one weapon, you either have to engage in melee combat (which is kinda risky unless you get an energy blade from somewhere), use grenades (there's like 7 types of grenades you can throw), or run and hide.

The way the game makes up for it is awesome though. See, DX2 allows you to do things however the heck you want. They only give you the basic objectives - how you do them is up to you. You can sneak through, taking to the vents and hiding in the shadows; you can bust in and blow crap up, using your grenades to blast out laser grids and proceeding to shotgun everybody; you can hack your way in with a Neural Interface and kill things with the gun turrets, then proceed to take out the keypads; or you can make a clever mixture of them.

Since DX2 actually ditched the statistics and skill points systems from its predecessor, there's another point against replayability - because you can feel free to do absolutely anything without restriction. Want to hack a keypad? Just break out the multitool and you're set. Want to snipe that guy across the yard? No problem, just zoom and shoot. No need to worry about your hands trembling or your gun not doing enough damage - you're already the Master at everything you do. It's actually kinda frustrating.

Lastly, we have the Biomods. No longer do you need to find a medical bot to install them - you can just install them on the spot. Pick which mod you want to install, then go for it. You can use any biomod-can to install any mod, even go so far as to remove a biomod in favor of a different one (melee strength versus microfibral muscle? feel free to switch anytime). The sole exception: In each category, there is one Biomod that requires a black market biomod-can to install. The black market cans can't install conventional mods, and conventional cans can't do black market mods.

Graphically, this game could have been a little nicer-looking - while it has some nice lighting effects and pixel shaders applied, the character models sometimes look unnatural. And you'll need a very powerful system to run it - roughly Doom 3 level. My system (3.0 Ghz with Geforce FX 5200 and 512 MB RAM) had serious performance problems on occasion, at absolute lowest detail and screen res, no bloom effects. I wish the engine were more scalable - can't I eschew the fancy per-pixel lighting in favor of a more traditional lightmap system, and save my system the headache?

The audio in this game is pretty nice as well, though you have to turn the speakers up to experience it. The game is intentionally quiet. I suppose it's to make the gunfire louder in comparison to speech, but in the interests of playability (not to mention my freaking ears) this is a questionable decision on Ion Storm's part. Imagine trying to listen to a conversation from a distance, and suddenly a Templar soldier behind you lets loose with a shotgun. OW MY EARS.

Overall though - this is a good game to purchase if you just want some freeform action, though don't go in expecting a real successor to DX1. And besides - it's like $20 now (that's how much I bought it for).

7.5/10

[weasel]

Fable: The Lost Chapters

Genre: Action RPG
Platform: PC
Developer: Lionhead
Publisher: Microsoft
ESRB: M

A PC port of a console game. If you've been involved in PC gaming for at least the last seven years, you can be sure that this phrase can only describe the absolute cream of the crap. Such bug-filled, unstable, and just plain awful ports of games like Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid 2, Wetrix, and Die Hard Trilogy.

Fable, having been ported to the PC with an added subtitle and some new content, does manage to outdo these lesser offerings - but not by much.

The game casts you as the nameless, silent protagonist. You start off as a kid (only about 12 years old), performing Good Deeds around town and earning gold with which to buy your older sister a birthday present. Then some bandits torch your town, and presumably kill your whole family.

Some guy named Maze saves you and takes you to the Guild of Heroes, where you learn the trades of combat - melee, archery, and Will - and learn about the game in general.

Once you've graduated from the Guild, the freedom kicks in. You can take quests, look around the world for secret stuff, buy houses and junk, or attempt to woo the various women around the world (even if they're married, nobody really cares how in love they are with you).

Taking quests isn't quite like usual. In addition to taking a quest, you can also take several Boasts to go with it, in which you wager a certain amount of your gold to complete a quest while meeting certain conditions (complete the quest naked, without weapons or attack spells, kill everybody, spare everybody, don't let a single ally die, don't get hurt, etc). Meet these conditions, and you'll earn even more gold, and a bonus to your Renown (which enables you to learn more skills and expressions to use).

An RPG ain't an RPG unless there's some actual gameplay to it, and this one offers up a combat system with some decent fun to be had. Your melee combat is handled Zelda style (in which you lock on to an enemy and hammer the attack button until the enemy is dead, block attacks on occasion, and use special attacks whenever you can to break through enemy blocks). You can also use a bow (with infinite ammo) to attack from a distance, or even lop the heads off your foes with a well-placed shot. Finally, there's the Will specials, which are just a fancy name for magic attacks. Fireballs, lightning, homing arrows, battle charges, slowing time...you have just about everything here.

As you fight enemies, depending on how you kill them (with your melee weapon, your bow, or your Will) you gain experience in those traits - Strength, Skill, and Will. Enemies also drop green Experience Orbs which give you general experience. Returning to the Heroes' Guild allows you to spend these experience points on the different traits. Strength will give you increased attack, defense, and hitpoints. Skill allows you to be faster, more accurate, and more stealthy (which comes in handy to steal stuff from the shopkeepers and sell it back to them at inflated prices). Finally, the Will experience will let you learn new spells and gain more maximum energy to cast them with.

While your character remains nameless throughout the game, there is a Title Vendor that you can talk to, who (for a small fee) will change what characters refer to you as. Once you graduate from the guild, people refer to you as Chicken Chaser. Other titles you can pick up range from the demeaning (Arseface) to neutral types (Sabre) to those of high status and profile (Maleficus and Avatar). You can do other things to customize your character as well, ranging from different clothes, to new haircuts and facial hair (including such oddly-named styles as the Power Moustache), to tattoos (which can be customized with your favorite paint program).

The game's story doesn't seem like anything terribly interesting, unfortunately. I suppose it only feels that way because they spent more time making all that freedom than giving you a good plot to go through. Overall it seems hackneyed and cliche'd, and doesn't really set itself apart from other games.

Graphically, this game looks marvelous. Supporting screen resolutions from 640x480 up to as far as your video hardware can handle, the game's environments are absolutely stunning, and the graphical effects are also quite nice (providing that you have the hardware to handle turning them up). However, this all comes at a cost, and weaker systems need not apply (my 3.0 GHz, 512 MB RAM, Geforce FX 5200 has to run at 640x480 with all details turned down - and even then, it doesn't break 25 FPS). Amazingly though, it does still look good with the details down.

The game's soundtrack is also quite good. Orchestrated music, superb voice acting (done entirely by British people, it seems) and some nice sword-chopping noises. The lines spoken by the average townspeople do tend to get repetitive though (especially when you have an insulting title like Arseface). Hot tip: Don't try and talk to anybody that's glowing blue - they never have anything good to say. Instead, attempt to entertain them with your Russian Squat Dance (or else rob them blind by breaking into their house and looting their bookshelves).

Finally, there's the issues that came from porting the game to Windows. I constantly had issues with the video, where subtitles and text would occasionally disappear (on several different revisions of my video drivers). There were also some nasty crashes, resulting mainly from the game attempting to play videos. I triple-checked my system configuration, and the crashes and glitches still came about. My advice to whoever buys this game: SAVE OFTEN. VERY OFTEN.

Fable isn't going to be the next Morrowind, or Zelda. It makes a valiant attempt, but doesn't quite measure up, thanks to its bugs, lack of depth in the combat system, and lackluster plot. But it's good fun for a while.

7/10

[weasel]

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
"As long as we have opposable thumbs, we will fight you!"

Genre: Action/Adventure/Racing/RPG/Flight Simulator/Dating Simulator/Strategy
Developer/Publisher: Rockstar Games
ESRB: M (last time I checked...)
WSRS (Weasel's Software Rating System): It stays an M, personally. Even taking into account all the blood, gore, F-words, and sexual themes, the game is actually no worse than Sin City or Reservoir Dogs (which are both R-rated - which is 17 or older, just like M). Just be warned - the game much deserves this M rating!
Platform: PS2, XBox, PC (PC version reviewed)

Grand Theft Auto. I've played every single one of 'em, and they get better every time - to a point. While it's nice that there's a lot of freedom in the game, it's not perfect in everything it tries to do.

The first thing I noted when I played the game - it is incredibly vulgar. The game swears like a drunken sailor. This alone almost made me quit playing it because I didn't want to put up with so much swearing.

After shuffling through my desk drawer trying to find a pair of headphones, I continued.

It takes a while for the Freedom to kick in - because rather than overwhelm you with all the options at first, the game insists on feeding it to you slowly. You don't get to leave town for a while (because the cops will shoot on sight), and you can't go on dates until after about twenty missions.

You're certainly free to do everything else though. Grab a taxi and pick up some fares. Grab a fire truck and put out some fires. Grab a cop car and try and do a better job than the cops do.

You can still buy properties in this game, but it's not for a very long time (about halfway through San Fierro) that they become profitable. It's like you're buying a new save point/closet to change clothes in.

The freedom to customize is here as well. You can change plenty of things about your character. Hair, clothing, build, skills, etc.

Really though, this game thrives on freedom. While you're free to take on missions (this goes towards unlocking more areas and features), it's always possible for you to go do other crap. Like scaling buildings. Target-practicing on gas tanks. Or doing some freestyle stuntage.

There's just too darn much that you can do in this game to be able to cover it in a simple review - I'm bound to forget something if I tried.

The game's graphics are sufficiently detailed, but it takes a pretty hefty system to really get the most of them (with real-time shadows, weather effects, environment mapping, etc). Thankfully though, the game also scales down well to a point - you can turn down the details, the draw distance, screen resolution, and a couple other things. But after doing that, it doesn't look much better than Vice City did. And I wish I could turn off the screen shader effects (like the "high speed" motion blur) because they're kinda distracting.

Aurally, the game would sound good - except for a couple of major flaws. First is the gunshots - they sound like fun-snaps. A little echo might be nice! Maybe a down-pitch! Something that makes this shotgun I'm holding have a little boom to it!

The second flaw - the fact that they're putting their sound engine to waste on a game full of such intense swearing that it puts Reservoir Dogs to shame. F-words, F-words everywhere. If I wanted something with this much swearing in it, I'd go to a bar and watch the sailors get drunk.

You can supply your own music to play on the in-game car radios, thank goodness. Most of their music selections are rather lackluster. Though they do have channels for most tastes (including a rather humorous talk radio station, though it pales in comparison to Chatterbox from GTA3 or VCPR in Vice City) it's not a particularly good selection on any of them. I prefer to add my own tracks - because no GTA game is ever going to play some good Pink Floyd.

The game's controls is where it falls on its face. It's obvious that this used to be a console game. It took me a good hour to find a key configuration that really worked for me. And even then, I was putting up with console-style mechanics like "hold a button to enable aiming mode" or buttons that did so many different things that it was difficult to switch "gears" (for example, getting out of a car and proceeding into melee combat with a gangster). In an average play session, I was moving my right hand back and forth between the mouse and keyboard just to adapt to the different vehicles (because the mouse just doesn't cut it for motorcycles and planes). While it's also possible to switch the game to the original gamepad control scheme (providing that you actually have a gamepad) it does still take a while to find a control scheme that works. The game's key binding interface isn't much help either. And if you want to play with the gamepad, be warned that precision aiming is a bit more difficult.

It's a good game, don't get me wrong - but it takes plenty of training, and patience, and a good computer, and a high tolerance for poor controls.

8/10

[duvel]

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
System: Gamecube (and Game Boy Advance if you want to use those features but I don't recommend them)
ESRB Rating: E (Violence)

Oh joy. The first gamecube Zelda game that came out. It was quite a shocker at the time, too.

Story: I must point out that while the entire fucking world is completely different they ripped the story pretty much from most of the other games. Yadda yadda yadda SAVE SOMEONE yadda yadda yadda MASTER SWORD yadda yadda yadda OH NOZ SAGES AND TRIFORCE yadda yadda yadda YAY GANON BATTLE AND WE WINZ!!!!!!! I would have thought that after changing the entirety of Hyrule into a giant sea they would have come up with a bit more creativity in the basic storyline.

The story goes like this: you are a young boy (who I named Link) living on an island in a giant sea in a world where continents are nonexistant and to get around anywhere you have to sail a boat or fly. Your younger sister gets kidnapped by a bird on your birthday, when you're supposed to just run around in some green tunic the entire time and eat amazing soup; so instead of relaxing you rush out to save her, despite the fact that it's a fucking huge bird and you're a twelve year old boy with an old shield and a tiny sword. Hitching a ride from pirates you head to the bird's nesting grounds, an evil fortress type area, only to discover that YOU CAN'T KILL THE BIRD YET. Quite helplessly you are flung from the fortress and discovered by a talking boat, and brought to the only town in the entire game to buy a sail.

And thus begins one of the most irritating sequel plots I've ever seen. Can't they pull a Link's Awakening and NOT make the final boss Gannondorf? Hell, they had to dance around a bunch of stuff to just make it fit somewhere in the Zelda universe. 5/10 Nintendo. Stop trying to fool us with plot rehashes when you SAY there's new stuff to it.

Gameplay: Well, back to the good stuff. If you've played either of the 64 Zeldas, and liked them, then you won't be disappointed. There's still dungeon crawling (although sadly there are only 5-6 (depends on how you look at it) proper dungeons, and a bunch of little mini puzzles scattered around the islands of the game), and plenty of side quest action, and heart piece gathering, and rupee hoarding, and the like. You also have a very large game world, similar to the 64 Zeldas, which can take a while to travel (in fact a lot longer, as your mode of travel does not ever truly gain more speed).

The sailing portion of the game is something you MUST get used to, as you will do it a lot. And I do mean a lot. Even AFTER you get a way to travel instantly across distances, you can only travel to certain points this way, and must STILL go long distances using a tiny red boat that happens to have a beard and tell you what you should be doing at the moment. At least you don't ever have to worry about what direction the wind is blowing, since that can be changed at will.

The title of the game comes from the magical Wind Waker baton you conduct songs for invisible choirs with. Using it is pretty much like using the ocarinas in the 64 Zeldas, such as songs not doing anything until you learn them from somewhere in-game, and that it's pretty much a requirement to use them. The first song you learn is probably the only one you'll be consistantly using, as it can change wind direction, as well as function as the multipurpose song of the game similar to the way the Song of Time did in Ocarina of Time. The other songs you most likely will only use a couple of times, sometimes only for a single dungeon.

Speaking of dungeons, the dungeon crafters seem to have gone a little slack. It may be just accomadating the art style of the game, but I never could find anywhere where I was truly stuck at. Options were always readily apparant, and puzzles were usually never more complex than knowing what items to use where.

Combat has certainly gotten a makeover, however. It's quite a bit more fun with lots of multiple enemy encounters, and the new counterattack system making for a much more animated battle. You get to fight hoardes and hoardes of monsters, more than I've ever seen thrown at you in the other two games. It's clear where the focus of gameplay is.

Boss combat is still the same beat the dungeon, kill the boss by figuring out where to hit him, and so on. The odd part I see is that many of the bosses are very similar to ones from Ocarina of Time (the Tower of the Gods boss is an almost carbon copy of Bongo Bongo from the Shadow Temple in Ocarina, and the Forbidden Forest boss is very similar to the tentacle fiend you fought in Jabu's Stomach in the same game). This concerns me, as it means Nintendo is starting to run dry in the ideas department. Maybe they should start a new series to help keep it fresh?

Side quests are available in the bundles. Heart pieces and treasure charts are hidden in every little nook of all 49 islands, and special optional items are even around. The Nintendo gallery should appeal to complete freaks, for sure.

Overall, it's a very similar game to Ocarina as far as playing it goes. It still retains a general polished feel, but sometimes I wonder if the designers tried to snake in some unoriginality in an effort to lighten the workload. 7/10

Graphics: Oh my oh my oh my! The wonderful cartoony art style is probably the single best aspect of this game. It was unique at the time, and still is for keeping the character faces very well animated and interesting to look at. You can actually tell how a person feels at the moment by LOOKING AT THEIR FACE. Why other games can't accomplish this I don't know, but for those that do it we praise you. The pallette is very bright and vibrant, sure to keep you in a cheery mood even in those dark dank corridors of the dungeons. The lighting is a superb compliment to the cell shading of the rest of the game. Menus and such are beautiful, models are detailed, and the design of characters and locations is very unique, and it even gives a sort of light hearted feel to the architecture. 10/10, nice job.

Sound: Here's the second greatest piece of the game. You have your standard link yells, your sword bonks and slashes, and your explosions, which all sound like they should: exaggerated and cartoony. The soundtrack is actually a contrast to the rest of the game's style, incorporating lots of Irish fiddle and flute stuff in their originals and remixes, making for a very beautiful set of music that almost seems out of place with the art style (although the actual setting of the game links well with it). 9/10.

Replayability: You have heart pieces (30 something) side quests (lots of them) treasure charts (49) and a fuckload of pictures of characters to take, not to mention an entire second version of the game that you may or may not want to play which features your main character in his blue crawfish shirt instead of the green Kokiri tunic that has the accompanying dialogue changed. Should keep you busy for a while, and the main game itself is nice and long. 8/10 for not providing enough new content in the second quest.

Overall I feel there were better Zeldas, especially in the storyline department when the whole "OMG MASTERSWORD" thing was actually kind of NEW, but this one wins my heart anyway for having such a great soundtrack and graphical style. 8/10

This post has been edited by ler: 20 January 2006 - 05:58 AM

[Val]

Metroid Prime
System: GC
Rating: T
Genre: Platformer/FPS

I'd never really played any metroid games much before this game. Needless to say it got me hooked on Metroid.

Graphics: Superb. Beautiful, detailed worlds and nice, shiny objects. The graphics never make the game, and while this game doesn't rely on its graphics they really help. The chozo ruins wouldn't be the same without the cracks in the walls, the shrubs here and there, and the sand blowing in the wind. There really isn't much else to say.

Story: Well, basically, Samus hunts down a space pirate frigate in orbit above Tallon IV. Inside she finds destruction- things torn apart, dead pirates, green blood everywhere. And a big, dead, ugly parasite. I won't reveal much more plot, but it turns out the Pirates are using a potent mutigen known as Phazon to alter normal creatures and making them into weapons, basically. Not the greatest plot ever, but it doesn't really affect the game much.

Gameplay: Oh wow. Never before has anyone ever been able to take a sidescroller and turn it into an FPS so perfectly. It still feels like Metroid. There are the usual hundred or so powerups. The missiles are back, including the super missile. There's the morph ball, morph ball bombs, power bombs, spider ball, boost ball. The power beam, wave beam, ice beam, and plasma beam. The missiles can be combined with beams to create special combo weapons, the super missile for instance, by combining the missile and the power beam. The boss fights were awesome; they're your usual freaky parasitic alien type things, and better than ever now in 3D. So fun. I didn't find a single flaw in the gameplay. This time around, there's also a special scan visor, which scans an object or creature and supplies information on it, and records it to your log book. There are other visors as well, like the thermal visor and the x-ray visor.

Sound: The usual catchy Metroid tunes are back, and fit in perfectly with the situation. I particularly liked the space pirate theme. When the pirates are hiding or out of sight, these drums beat and really get your adrenaline pumping. When you start fighting a pirate, the pirate theme kicks in and you just start shooting like crazy and everything. It's perfect. I also liked the second theme to the Chozo ruins, the one that starts playing about halfway through the game. I can't stop humming it.

Replayability: Once you beat the game you get a score, and a hard mode. You can play the game again and try to get a perfect score, and going through the hard mode is pretty fun. If you scan enough things, a special image gallery is unlocked. A true fan will find himself playing this game over and over again.

Overall: This game is what got me hooked on Metroid. Check it out, it's certainly one of the best games for the GC.

10/10

This post has been edited by Guy: 24 January 2006 - 02:44 AM

[weasel]

Half-Life 2
"Yeah, great job Gordon, throwing that switch and all? I can see that MIT education really pays for itself."

Developer/Publisher: Valve
Platform: PC/XBOX (PC version reviewed)
ESRB: M
WSRS: Be advised of lots of blood, plenty of charred/mutilated corpses, disturbing monster designs, and some cuss language. Keep the kiddies outta the room when you reach Ravenholm.

So many reviews of HL2 have already been written. So what makes mine different? Well, nothing really.

You start this game with a little message from our favorite mysterious-guy-wearing-a-suit from the first game. Then you're whisked away to the magical realm of City 17, where all the happy little villagers get beaten with sticks on a regular basis by the Combine Metro Police.

Yeah, this isn't much of a magical realm, is it?

So you, as Gordon Freeman, wander around the city aimlessly. Until some cops start chasing you through a building, and the citizens inside urge you toward the roof. And it's there that you meet the (cough) love of your life, Alyx Vance. Then you get to meet a couple more people and then you're sent on your merry way again.

...yeah, the way I'm describing it, it sounds like a pretty crappy plot, doesn't it?

I suppose this game doesn't need too much plot - in fact, it almost does better from the lack of restrictive scripted scenes (there are quite a few of them, but you're still free to do whatever while they're going on, much of the time). Even in Black Mesa East, while Alyx and Dr. Mossman are arguing, you're free to pick up soda cans and heave them at people. They don't seem to care, since it doesn't do anything to them. (Shortly after this scene, when you get the gravity gun, you're also free to smash crates against Alyx for no good reason.)

Ahem, the gameplay...

You recieve a decent array of firearms with which to wage war on the Combine. While you start the game empty-handed, Barney hands you a crowbar after a while (the very same one from HL1). Then you can beat up a cop and steal his USP handgun. Other guns include a Colt Python, an MP7 (which for some inexplicable reason has a 20mm grenade launcher on it), a "pulse rifle" (which has this awesome bouncing energy bolt as an alternate fire), a shotgun, a crossbow (which for some reason launches red hot rebar instead of bolts), hand grenades (which can be picked up and thrown back), and a rocket launcher.

But the one thing that'll probably make you forget all about those is a little thing I like to call the "Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator" - better known as the gravity gun.

This thing adds a whole new dimension of ammo scrounging. Out of ammo? Bored of your shotgun already? Pick up a toilet or a radiator and launch it at high velocity towards your target. Need to pull a switch, or unplug something? Just pull it with the gun. This thing actually becomes your chief weapon by the end of the game (I won't say how - but it's an incredible sequence). Explosive barrels, gas cans, sawblades, meathooks, crates, and such...all can be turned into deadly weapons with this tool.

But even the gravity gun doesn't round out the impressive array of tools.

Even before you get the gun, you can drive a neat little airboat. While it's not armed at first, it eventually gets fitted with a machine gun from a Combine gunship (which can then be used to destroy other Combine gunships, and clear paths through treacherous waters full of mines). You also get to drive a buggy through the highway, which is fitted with the Gauss gun from HL1. You even get to screw around with a crane, and drop shipping containers on top of groups of bad guys (or don't and just swing the gigantic crate around, knocking everything around). Despite the game's inherent linearity, there are many ways you can go about things, which is quite fun.

The game's plot development is limited to other characters conversing amongst themselves and occasionally ordering you around (since you never speak or see yourself in the game). Yet it still manages to be compelling later on. Voice acting is superb, with such names as Robert Culp (from TV's "I Spy"), Michelle Forbes, and Michael Shapiro (who not only played Barney in the first game, but also Ishmael from Blood 2). Superb acting, well-written dialogue, and the events that tie things together are pretty enjoyable as well.

The game looks pretty nice, but only if you have the system to beef up the graphics quality. The minimum requirements are listed on the SteamPowered.com official website as a 1.2 GHz processor, 256 MB of RAM, and a DirectX 7 capable graphics card. I myself run the game on a P4 3.0 GHz with hyperthreading, 512 MB of RAM, and a GeForce FX 5200, and can still manage to get 45 FPS at 800x600 with details set to medium. The only issue is that level loading times tend to get very high with the higher texture details - so if you want to play the game at anything above low quality graphics, either shell out for a gig of ram or be prepared to wait a long while between maps. To be honest, though, the game does still look okay at low quality, but nowhere near as nice as it would be with cleaner textures and smoother models (and reflective water too). There's also support for DirectX 9 shaders, which looks fantastic, but unfortunately it degrades performance by quite a lot.

The sound effects in this game pack quite a punch, since they're all recorded at 44 KHz, 16-bit, in stereo for most sounds. This sounds incredible with a good surround-sound setup - if you hear an explosion in front of you, you can hear the echo of it right behind you. Gunfire - from both you and the enemies - has a sharp, powerful sound behind it, making it an utter joy just to shoot the shotgun into the air and hear the sound it makes. The vehicles have great motor sounds behind them (especially the buggy, when you kick it into Turbo). The voice acting is phenomenal, with lines rarely being heard more than once in the same play session. The music is pretty good too, and I have many of the tracks extracted from the Steam cache file and in my Winamp playlist.

Unfortunately, the game's distribution method is a little lacking. No matter whether you buy it online, or from a store, you'll ultimately have to use Steam to register your game. Even if you only intend on playing single-player, you must verify your CD-key with Steam's servers before you're allowed to play. But this registration does come in handy, eventually - say you've lost your CD's and want to play the game again. Fear not. As long as you're connected to the Internet, you can always download the game again directly from Valve. It takes a while to retrieve all that data (three hours just for the single-player portion, another couple for Counter-Strike Source and HL2 Deathmatch). Even when Steam says the game is ready to play, it's still not finished - it'll continue downloading and updating the game files as Steam runs in the background. This, thankfully, can be disabled temporarily in case you want to conserve bandwidth for...other things...while you're blasting through headcrabs and suchwise.

I did have a few crashes once the game was playing though - it turned out this was because Steam's download was corrupt at some point, and the game continued to encounter corrupt data and crashed. I merely left Steam to its devices for a while and the game was just fine afterwards.

There are also a few minor nitpick issues that I had with the game. For example, there are a few controls that don't seem to have any use. While there is a Walk key that you can bind to move slower, this doesn't seem to have any effect at all in the game. I also never did get a handle on how the Squad Command key worked (even near the end of the game, I didn't seem to need it). It's also difficult to steer in the buggy at times, which makes things a bit frustrating when you've dived off the edge of the highway for the fifth time in a row.

These issues aside, HL2 is still a game more than worth your time and money. And if you insist on the PC version (I recommend it over the XBox version, since it has multiplayer and support for mods), it'll be a lot of time. A heck of a lot of time.

9/10

[weasel]

LEGO Star Wars

Platform: PC, PS2, XBox(?), GameCube
Developer: Traveller's Tales
Publisher: LucasArts
Genre: Action Adventure
ESRB: E (Violence)
WSRS: Violence is mostly comical. There's nothing offensive about lego people getting hacked up, to my knowledge - so even the goriest moments from the Star Wars films are kid-safe within this game.

In the most absurd commercial cross-over since The Flintstones Meet The Jetsons, we have the first three episodes of Star Wars re-enacted with Lego people. The Lego elements are realized pretty well, and it does the Star Wars universe justice.

As the game starts, you find your first two heroes standing in Dexter's Diner (which serves as the main hub for the entire game). Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn are free to roam about the diner, exit into the parking lot, and generally screw around with stuff. There is a series of doors inside the diner which lead to the different episodes of Star Wars, and they also allow you to select individual chapters therein (providing you've completed all the chapters before it).

In the game, you can explore the area, fight enemies, destroy things with your lightsaber (or blaster), and - my favorite part - use The Force on different things in the environment. Nearly everything that's made of Lego can be interacted with somehow, ranging from making chairs dance (complete with that ubiquitous cantina theme from Episode 4) to building platforms out of loose bricks, to taking doors apart and making other stuff with them.

There is a gigantic variety of characters that you can play. At some points during the game there are up to six characters that you can switch between at will, and once you unlock the Free Play mode for a given level, you have up to 12 to cycle through, from a grand total of almost 100 unique playable characters. Each one of them has different special abilities (the various Jedi can interact with bricks, young Anakin can crawl through hatches, Jango can fly, and Jar Jar can jump really high), though there are a fair share of worthless characters like young Boba Fett. But the fact that you can control some of the villains more than makes up for it (like General Grievous and his four lightsabers).

The main currency in Lego Star Wars is the stud. You can pick up studs in the various levels by finding them on the floor, floating in the air, or hidden inside various objects (which you can either blow up, or manipulate with The Force to make them eject a whole bunch of them). Using Studs, you can purchase new playable characters for Free Play mode, various Extras (such as an option that puts moustaches on everybody - clone troopers look hilarious with them), and hints (which are incredibly cheap and not worth much outside of completion).

Within the levels, you'll find various Mini Kits - collect all ten from a given level and they will assemble a new starship. These aren't really useful, because all you can do is look at them in the parking lot outside Dexter's, but it's fun to collect everything. There is also a Super Kit, which you can obtain parts for by collecting a certain number of studs in a level.

The plot, such as it is, follows the movies as closely as needed. The cutscenes have been redirected, and contain no dialogue whatsoever. These are pretty amusing, but they don't connect the levels together at all - you need to have seen the movies to be able to understand what's going on. But the major events are portrayed well enough (like the various deaths - wherein the lego people get limbs hacked off, or just keel over, complete with X's for eyes).

The game's graphic style is appropriately plastic. While the general architecture would certainly be at home in the movies, only the important elements of the levels are actually made of Legos. This does aid in detecting objects that you can interact with, and there are helpful indicators that will tell you what you can do (like the glowing halo that indicates an item that you can use The Force on). The animations are very well done, if you can forgive the fact that characters don't rely on the actual Lego joints (the plastic instead warps and morphs to make the animations appear more human). But then, if they stuck with the Lego joints, lightsaber combat would be a lot less fun.

The sound is very good, but this is expected from Star Wars, seeing as Skywalker Sound is in charge of the sound score. The music is all the John Williams stuff you've heard hundreds of times before, sometimes fitting, sometimes completely absent - but if you get sick of it, you can turn it off.

The game's controls are very simple and effective. Jump, attack, special ability, and switch characters. The default control layout for the PC version works pretty well, requiring practically no setup if you have a gamepad (and it's very easy to change things if you don't quite like them).

Overall, this is a nice little diversion. A good amount of fun, especially if you have a friend to play with (since the game supports co-op play!). I only wish it were longer though, or had the original trilogy in it (though the sequel is in the works with its focus on the original trilogy).

9/10

[Val]

SUPER SMASH BROS. DOUBLE-REVIEW
My LORD, people! You haven't reviewed these two chunks of history yet? Shame on you! I'll do them both.

Super Smash Bros.
Publisher: Nintendo
Rating: T
System: N64

Yay.

Graphics
Ick. The graphics are ick. The objects are sprites so they look okay, but not great. The charecter models are hideous- for crying out loud, Mario's hands are just 3 triangles put together! But this game's not all about the graphics.

Sound
Whee! All of your favorite tunes from the classic Nintendo games are back, each with their own stage.

Gameplay
YSE. This game is unbelievably fun to play, especially with friends. That's a big problem, though- it's sort of boring without friends to play it with; after all, it's a fighting game. However, this game does have a great AI system.

Replayability
This game will have you playing it again and again and never gets old.

Overall
7/10

Super Smash Bros. Melee
Publisher: Nintendo
Rating: T
System: GC

I still have no idea what the "melee" in the title means.

Graphics
yayayayayayay. Beautiful graphics. The items are fully 3D now, and Mario's hand looks like a hand!

Sound
Uuurh. The sound has me confused. Since WHEN was that Hyrule Castle theme a Zelda song? That Mario theme remix is eek. Other than that, it's good.

Gameplay
:D! Around fifty charecters, around fifty stages, several modes of gameplay and 51 minigames ensure you'll NEVER get bored of this.

Replayability
NEVER

Overall
9/10

[Goshi]

Guy's reviews need a heavy make-over so because I'm nice I'll do a good review for the N64 one.

Smash Bros
Publisher: HAL, Nintendo
ERSB: E (Well where I'm from its E)
System: N64

Plot:
There is no plot to speak of, yes thats right. None whatsoever.
0/10

Graphics:
HIDEOUS. The character models are hideous, the game suffers an overuse of sprites, however the scenery is moderately decent. Quite possibly on of the ugliest games availble for N64.
3/10

Gameplay:
Here's where the gmae truely shines. You have sveral chracters to choose from, all with their own unique moves and all from various Nintendo games. Each chracter has 3 special moves performed with the B button and several basic attacking moves all performed with the A button. The controls are VERY simple for a fighting game which is a HUGE plus. The arenas are cool with the various obstacles pitted in as well. Also unlike most fighting games the objective is to knock the player off the stage rather than drain all his/her health. I personally think this is better this way though. Lastly, comparing it to its superior GC version, the game moves rather slow and some of the chracters are overpowered or underpowered, but these factors aside the gameplay is great. Oh yes, they're also two mini-games (Break Targets, Board Platforms) but these are nothing interesting and once you complete them you'll most likely never do them again.
9.8/10

Music and Sound:
The sound effects are suitable and nothing too annoying to hear really. The music is mostly remixes of classical songs, there is a wide variety of the songs and its nothing you'll be too bored of, however the original songs are nothing to wirte home about.
9/10

Multiplayer:
Hahaha, do I really need to say more?
10/10

Replay Value:
They're's numerous unlockables, and multiplayer is always a lot of fun.
9/10

Difficulty: Varies
It really depends on your learning curve really. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to be able to understand the game's system. The game's very easy if you can understand how it goes well.

Overall:
9/10

"Excellent game but the GC one is IMO, 100 times better. Get if you want or if you have something against the GC"

[weasel]

Blast Corps
"You runnin' away or somethin'?"

Genre: Action
Developer: Rare
Publisher: Nintendo
ESRB: E
Platform: Nintendo 64

A nuclear arms carrier is barrelling through various cities - and if it hits anything, it spells radiation doom for the whole world. Enter the Blast Corps, an elite team of demolitions specialists, to clear a path for the carrier to get through without detonating.

You are the most recent arrival to the Corps - as a newbie, you get behind the wheel of a gigantic bulldozer, and plow through Simian Acres as a training mission. Eventually you find other tools of destruction - Ballista, a motorcycle with twin missile launchers; Backlash, a dump truck with an armored rear; J-Bomb, a flying mecha that divebombs into stuff; and many others. There is no single vehicle to select in a given area - you can hop out of your vehicle at will and climb into another one, but while you're outside of your vehicle, you run rather slowly and can't do anything to the buildings. You can also use cranes to lift and move vehicles (and TNT crates), ferries, and trains.

Destroying buildings is only part of the fun. The first run of any mission involves clearing a path for the nuke truck. If you return to a level, you can also earn medals by destroying all the buildings in the level, illuminating all the RDU markers, and "rescuing" all the survivors (by flattening the buildings that they're trapped inside).

You also get to play in various timed challenges - from race tracks, to destroy-all-buildings levels, an oversized pool table, and even a homage to Pac-Man. They're good distractions from the normal missions.

Being a first-generation N64 game, this actually appears to be the defining standard for all that go after it. The texture resolution isn't too high, but the models are pretty detailed (for 1996 anyway), the explosions are very cool, and the cities all look quite convincing. There are also some special effects that were quite impressive for their time - from J-Bomb's environment-mapped jetpack, to the bump-mapping on Backlash, and the water.

The musical score, composed by Graeme Norgate (also responsible for the Goldeneye and TimeSplitters series soundtracks, among others), ranges from hard rock, to electronica, to some sort of mix between country and techno. The tunes are very catchy, and even shift into more tense and pulse-pounding variants whenever the carrier is about to hit something. The sound effects are appropriately powerful as well.

The game's controls are a bit on the touchy side. To use Backlash, you have to handbrake-spin so that its rear end plows through the buildings. Doing this is no easy task. Also, the camera is zoomed in quite a bit, which occasionally makes navigation a pain - though there is a handy radar and an arrow which will tell you where the carrier is, and where the next building is in the carrier's path.

There's a lot of secrets to find in this game. Cleverly hidden shortcuts in the race tracks (it's a lot easier to clear a couple of them with the bulldozer than it is with a sports car, simply because you can plow a shortcut through the buildings), new vehicles to race in (including the Ford Gran Torino from Starsky and Hutch, the A-Team van, and a more politically correct version of the General Lee), and even a whole new set of levels once you've obtained gold medals on everything. It adds a lot of replayability.

The only thing Blast Corps is severely lacking: multiplayer. In the time when Nintendo revolutionized multiplayer by having 4 controller ports right out of the box, Blast Corps would be a game that simply wouldn't hold up in a party. At the very least, a two-player cooperative mode would have been welcome for the tougher missions (like Outland Farm).

Overall, this is one of the many reasons that the Nintendo 64 doesn't suck.

8.5/10

[scorch3000]

Warbears: A shockwave puzzle game
http://www.newground...tal/view/296606

Warbears is a strange but fun puzzle game. Taking command of a SWAT style squad, your mission is to save Bedtime City bank from the evil groundhogs, saving the hostages also. In your team is the leader Lucas, who is armed with various Grenades, Kla, who is unarmed, but a hacker, Ryoh, the swordmaster and Stevie the sniper.

Gameplay: Easy to learn, just scroll over a warbear to view his actions, move, open, throw grenade, shoot, ect. Some actions such as access computer can only be performed by Kla, while Stevie is the only one able to shoot.

Dificulty: When Stevie arrives, he can't get inside. Have somone on the inside order pizza. The puzzles are great, and some are difficult.

Bugs: Never saw any.

Overall: 8/10

[CJA]

Red Dead Revolver

Action/Shooter
Made by Rockstar Games
For PS2
Rated M

"Better load up them guns of yours. Nobody plays hero- THEM GUNS OF YOURS."

The main character here is Red Harlow, son of "Falling Star" of the Red Wolf Tribe and settler/cowboy/whatever Nate Harlow. It takes place in whatever decades everyone began heading west. (So I don't study history. Sue me.) The first level, when his father is killed, takes place when Red is a boy. The others take place when he is an adult. The best part of this game is that you can play multiple characters-- as both friends and enemies of Red.

Gameplay - If you like a good shoot-em-up, this is the perfect game. You can notice your own improvement in aiming and technique as you progress. You also notice enemies take more hits. This game has a nice difficulty curve... it's usually on your level. Except when you fight that dynamite guy and the circus dude (spoilers averted). I found those hard, but they occured early on in the game. You can also cover behind things. There are also unlockable harder modes. And at one point in the game there's an awesome bar brawl. You can buy new items as well as journal pages and Showdown characters and stages.

Duel Mode is cool. Slow motion starts. You move the right stick around the enemy and lock on up to six targets. The darker the cursor, the more deadly the attack. Deadeye Mode is similiar except it is used in the heat of battle, and you "paint" targets on the enemy. Overall, this gameplay is full of features. 8/10


Graphics - The graphics were very nice... not anything special, but I found nothing at all wrong with them. 9/10


Sound/Music - BOOOMB! TOTAL FAILAGE. Maybe because the disc was scratched (I rented it from Blockbuster). Anyway, sounds would often "leak over" and distort or be inaudible, or a combination of them. For example, in the train,

"If you want this train to make it to Brimstone, you better load up them guns of yours." Someone else: "Better load up them guns of yours. Nobody plays hero-- THEM GUNS OF YOURS."

Yes, the voices overlap. This is true for the music too- "[5 bars of music] DIING! *chuffachuffachuffa*" and repeat. The voiceacting that DID show up was fine and sounded well-acted. It was probably the disk, so I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt. 5/10


Plot - Well, the plot can get confusing at times. I still haven't grasped exactly WHY he went to the [end level]. Maybe if I could have heard the voices. Basically the plot is 'avenge your father.' 6/10


Multiplayer - I guess the Showdown Mode is multiplayer, but haven't actually tried multiple players. The Showdown Mode is neat-- kill enemies to get cards. You can play a variety of characters and on different stages, but you have to unlock them first.


Overall - Well, we returned the game to Blockbuster and I could get another one for free because the sound was messed up. And, I even got a whole week out of it. Oh, the game, uh, it's well put together, but it features only the action scenes of the story. So basically shoot people, possibly watch a small cinema, shoot more people. Not a bad thing though... the "shoot people" part has a lot of variety.

And a little comment... it's funny how they named him Red, like "Red County" in GTA:SA. Gotta say that's a clever name.

8/10. *GAVEL*

[weasel]

Ultima VII: The Black Gate
"NO! You cannot do that! You must NOT!"

Genre: RPG
Year: 1992
Platform: PC (an SNES version was released but it's almost completely different)
Developer: Origin Systems
Publisher: Electronic Arts
ESRB: T (on the "Complete" package)
WSRS: You barely walk ten feet from your starting point before seeing a man completely dismembered on the ground, with his limbs strewn about. There is a fair amount of gore elsewhere as well, and in addition there are some situations that could be considered sexual (like the baths). I'd kick it up to an M, but it's a borderline M.

The original computer RPG series' seventh part is considered by many to be the high point of the Ultima games. While it may appear archaic, and the interface may seem a bit confusing by today's standards (unless you read the manual), the gameplay is every bit as open-ended and enjoyable as more recent entries in the RPG market - like Morrowind, Neverwinter Nights, or even the Baldur's Gate series.

As you start the game, you're greeted by a very pretty title screen - an open meadow with some trees, blue skies, and a rainbow-colored Ultima VII logo - complete with a butterfly perching on it.

But suddenly, the image disappears amid static and white noise, and you find yourself staring into a shimmering blue void. Various red shapes surface momentarily only to sink again, until they all arrive at once and reveal the visage of The Guardian.

"Avatar!" his voice booms forth. "Know that Britannia has entered into a new age of enlightenment!" He continues taunting you, until he finally disappears again. You instinctively reach for your Orb of the Moons, so that you can travel to Britannia yourself and investigate - but there is already a red moongate open in your back yard.

You arrive in the town of Trinsic, to a noticeably darker atmosphere than when you saw it last. Your old companion, Iolo, is conversing with a peasant about a foul murder. Once you begin investigating, you find that it's no ordinary hit and run. The victim has had all his limbs severed and marked with candles. The victim's assistant, a gargoyle named Inamo, is nailed to a wall in the next room.

Thus begins your quest. Along your path, you'll meet a hell of a lot of unique people (several of which will gladly join your party), encounter several different varieties of monsters, discover some pretty interesting situations (like the travelling performers that are trying to put on a play about you), and hold intelligent conversations ("Name. Job. Bye.") with influential leaders.

The game world is downright huge. We're talking Morrowind caliber. It's big enough that the game comes with a cloth map with coordinates marking the various cities and landmarks of Britannia, so that you can find them more easily (using the sextant to pinpoint your location). There's a lot of stuff to do, and lots of attention to detail. Want to gamble your funds away at Buccaneer's Den? Or bake a pie? Maybe do some experimentation with drugs? Yep - they're all here. And considering that the game only takes up about twenty megabytes, that's a real testament to how much work the folks at Origin put in to squeeze the most from the hardware.

However, the interface tends to be a bit annoying to deal with.

There is no way to move the Avatar with the keyboard. Instead, your mouse pointer is an arrow that points in whatever direction the Avatar will move. Holding the right mouse button will make the Avatar walk. The longer the arrow is, the faster he'll run. Navigating like this is quite a bit of hassle, especially if you're using the original game through DOSbox or something (it's a little easier using the fan-made Exult game engine, but not by much).

To interact with objects, you have to double click on them - the problem is, many NPCs will be in constant motion. The game moves slowly enough that this is not an issue most of the time, but smaller characters (like Sherry the mouse, in Lord British's castle) are a little hard to click on.

The inventory system is also a little annoying. To pick things up, you have to click and drag them on to the party member you wish to carry them. If you want to look at their inventory, you have to double-click on yourself first, then on the party member (if you don't open your inventory first, the avatar will instead talk to that party member). If you have a lot of items in your inventory, shuffling them around to find what you're looking for (like a small key or other important item) also gets a little frustrating - but on the plus side, the game is paused whenever you open any inventory window.

The graphics look rather strange at first. The isometric perspective is not three-quarter view - it's a traditional overhead view, but everything is skewed oddly. You'd have to look at screenshots to see what I mean. It looks confusing at first but things eventually get a little more intuitive (and it's also easier to judge height in this perspective than it is in three-quarter view, like in Ultima VIII or Crusader). The palette is bold and bright - adjusting dynamically for night time. And most everything looks like you'd expect it to - and if it isn't, you can always click once on it to see what it is.

The soundtrack is pretty awesome. Royal fanfares to announce your arrival in Lord British's throne room, ominous chords for the dungeons, tense stuff for the battles. And if you have a Roland MT-32, all the better - as the game seems to have been designed with that in mind. There are some digitized speech samples as well (like the Guardian's occasional taunt), and these are pretty nicely done.

If you're looking for Ultima VII these days, your best bet would be to either look for the Ultima Collection box set (which contains Ultimas I through VIII), the Complete Ultima VII package (which contains Ultima VII, the Forge of Virtue add-on, Part Two: The Serpent Isle, and its expansion, The Silver Seed), or Ultima IX: Dragon Edition (which contains the Collection box set). Just make sure that all manuals and maps are accounted for - you won't be able to progress past Trinsic if you don't have your map (as the Mayor will quiz you on it before he'll allow you to leave).

I give Ultima VII a 7.8/10 - it looks and plays good, but the interface could be much better. Though most of my complaints are ratified with the fan-made Exult engine, which allows you to play both parts of the game in Windows, Linux, Mac, or Amiga, among others, it's still a bit more difficult than it should be.

[weasel]

Medal of Honor: European Assault

Platform: XBox, PS2, GameCube (XBox version reviewed)
Developer: EA Games
Publisher: EA Games
Genre: FPS
ESRB: T (violence, blood, mild language)
WSRS: I mostly agree with this. The game is very intense, but it's not as graphic as Saving Private Ryan - or even Brothers In Arms.

In what is probably one of the few World War 2 shooter games that doesn't rip off of Saving Private Ryan, you control OSS agent Lt. Holt and a squad of British dudes in your efforts to push the Nazi invasion back to Berlin.

The game begins with your boat landing at a German dock. The game takes this moment to try and teach you your controls, and encourages you to grab one of the machine guns and mow down some Nazi scumbags.

Once you've reached the first real mission, you start noticing what MOH:EA is all about. It's not a hyper-realism game like Call of Duty. It's not absolute arcade madness like Wolfenstein 3D. It's somewhere in between, with a few liberties taken to make it more console-like.

While you are in control of a full squad of buddies (which you order around by clicking the right stick, and can recall by pushing down on the D-pad), they can usually fend for themselves and will follow you around if you haven't given them orders. Even if they run directly in front of you (like AI buddies usually do), your bullets will merely pass right through them. You can even walk straight through your buddies. It's like they're not there in the first place - like the British army insisted upon sending holograms to help you out. But their cover fire does help a lot in many situations.

Moving and shooting is a breeze. The controls are mostly Halo-like, with the two sticks moving and looking. You can aim down the sight with the left trigger, fire with the right, and bash some skulls with the left stick. You can carry two weapons at once, Halo-style, and you can switch to your grenades as well.

Despite this, the game heads for more of an arcade-style approach - nearly all of the pickups have little icons hovering over them, and there is a meter in the bottom right of the screen called the Adrenaline meter. As you perform certain maneuvers in game (melee kills, head shots, grenade kills), the meter fills up, to the point where you can become invincible for a limited time. As an added bonus, your weapons will have infinite ammo while in Adrenaline mode. It seems kinda cheesy to have a feature like this, though. To make matters even more arcade-like, you are given a limited number of Medkits and Revives (and you can find more along the way). Medkits can be used any time to heal you or your squadmates, while Revives are essentially extra lives. If you die during a mission, a Revive is automatically used to restore you to 50% health (at the cost of your entire adrenaline meter).

The final piece of arcade-ism is the bosses. In nearly every mission, there will be an SS officer that has taken command of the area. Killing him will never be easy - it's usually a good idea to find a rocket launcher or a machine gun and fill up your adrenaline meter, or else send your squaddies ahead and make them weaken him for you.

The weapons with which you can kill those Nazi scumbags are varied enough for a WW2 game - pistols, SMG's, rifles, rocket launchers, even a shotgun. Most of them are fairly accurate to their real-world counterparts to some extent. My only real complaint is the notable absence of the Sten sub-machine gun - considering that it was very commonly used by British soldiers, I have no idea why they instead opted to put in the American Thompson M1.

MOH's visuals pretty much stand up to par with the rest of the games available. There's really nothing that makes this stand apart from the rest, though I did notice a few of the weapon animations were a bit robotic (particularly the melee attacks).

The sounds are also par for the course, with some fairly powerful weapon sounds ensuring Hollywood accuracy. It's THX-certified too, so that's gotta say something. Though the music in the game is unremarkable for the most part, since it wasn't composed by Michael Giaccino(sp?) like in Allied Assault.

For the most part, MOH:EA is a decent World War 2 shooter, but the arcade stylings just seem to be taking it a bit too far. At least they didn't go the Commandos 3 route and put in synthesizer music.

7/10

[weasel]

Polarium

Developer: Mitchell
Publisher: Nintendo
Platforms: GBA, DS (both versions reviewed)
ESRB: E
Genre: Puzzle

Developer Mitchell Corp. is no stranger to making original and addictive puzzle games, considering that their past library of games includes games like Puzz Loop (better known among the shareware community as "Zuma"). With Polarium, it seems they wanted to make something a little slower-paced and less arcadey. They almost succeeded.

In Polarium, the objective is to clear rows of blocks. There are only two colors of block on the board, and to clear the rows, you have to flip the blocks until the whole row is the same color. You can flip blocks by drawing a "path" through them - this path can be as long as you need it to be, but you cannot cross over it.

As poor a job as I did explaining the game, it's amazing I even learned how to play - unless you factor in the comprehensive interactive tutorials included in both versions of the game.

The core gameplay lies in Puzzle mode. Here, the objective is to eliminate all of the blocks using only one path. It's quite a bit harder than it sounds, considering the patterns that are thrown at you. In fact, out of 100 puzzles in the DS version, I've only managed to complete 35. In the GBA version, this is just about the only game mode there is - outside of linked multiplayer.

The DS version also contains Challenge Mode, which is basically the same concept as Puzzle, except there is no limit on the number of paths you have to make, and new patterns are continually being dropped from above. If they fill both screens, you're screwed.

For all intents and purposes, the game doesn't really control very well in either version. The GBA version's scheme is more intuitive - you can press a button to start your path and then use the D-pad to guide it around. However, various functions (like the ability to call up a picture of what your last path looked like, if you failed the puzzle before) are hidden in obscure places - rather than using the buttons that aren't used, they insist on making you hold the Start button.

The DS version is actually the inferior one in terms of control - rather than allowing you to use the pad and buttons, they force you to use the touch screen. It wouldn't be quite as bad if the blocks weren't so small that you might accidentally draw your path in the wrong direction. The buttons do absolutely nothing, save for the power button. I suppose Mitchell was just desperate to find ways to take advantage of the touch screen.

The game is a pretty good concept, I must say. But the controls really kill it for me, as does the fact that outside of the puzzle mode (and the DS's frustrating Challenge mode), there really isn't much to do. Sure, you could challenge your friends to multiplayer, but that's about it.

There is a puzzle editor though. But barely anybody has actually written decent puzzles for it - or if they have, they haven't bothered to post them online. The only puzzles I found were on GameFAQs and they were just too easy.

Between the two versions, I would prefer the GBA version over the DS version.

6.5/10

[weasel]

WarioWare: Touched!

Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Your guess is as good as mine
ESRB: E (Cartoon Violence, Crude Humor)
Platform: Nintendo DS

The ultimate justification for owning a DS.

While a good number of DS games simply use the second screen to show HUD elements and ignore the touch-screen and microphone entirely, WarioWare is the first game that I can think of that takes advantage of absolutely everything (save for wireless multiplayer).

Some background...in the last game, Wario noticed that a new game, Pyoro, had been released and was earning monstrous amounts of money. So he gathered together a band of developers to create a crapload of games so that he, too, could earn said monstrous sums.

He's still doing this, as far as the player is concerned. Which is no big problem, because it means a lot more stuff to do.

In this chapter, however, Wario learns of the existence of the Nintendo DS - two screens equals twice the game, and twice the money for him. So he (and his rag-tag band of buddies) gets straight to work, amassing nearly 180 different games that utilize the touch screen (and microphone).

The way WarioWare works is that, in a given stage, you're presented with several "microgames" - five-second-long minigames where you are given a simple one-word goal and must accomplish said goal before the timer runs out. The more games you complete, the faster things get. Screw up on too many games, and it's all over. But that's not all! Every 15-20 games, you're presented with a longer "Boss Stage" which is a more difficult type of game that requires a bit more skill and concentration than the others.

So during a playthrough, you'll be hacking vegetables (and planets) in mid-air, throwing hammers, filling up jars of candy, waking people up by bashing on loud things, cleaning windows, and picking your nose - all with the stylus. (I'm not kidding about the nose-picking either.)

In addition, there are some games that must be played by blowing into the DS's built-in microphone. Blowing boxers out of the ring, keeping hang-gliders afloat, shooting peas and tin cans, and playing aerial jump-rope by hovering a miniature senior citizen with your lips. It's all here.

As you progress through the game, you'll not only unlock more characters (and more microgames), but also a bunch of Toys. These Toys range from the useless (Pet Brine Buddies), to the useful (Calculator, Metronome, and Turntable), to the ten-second-amusement variety (the Yo-Yo, the pet chameleon, and the custard jiggling simulator), to the what-where-they-on variety (the Grandma Simulator) and the unlockable minigames (Pong Ping, Pyoro T, Juggle Boy, Air Dude, and Snore Rope, among others).

The graphic style shifts wildly through the different games. While it may look normal at one point, it might shift into a minimalist black-and-white, or a colorful 3D render, or even a child's drawing. There's nothing that'd make you say, "This game looks like crap" - because it's obviously meant to be that way. That being said, bravo to Nintendo.

The sounds are also good. The music is pretty high-quality (considering that it's only played in short 5-10 second bursts, outside of the cinemas and menus), and the sound effects fit as well. I should make some notes on the music - despite the shortness of all the tracks, they all flow together with perfect rhythm - and in one stage, the music actually contains lyrics (which as far as I know, is a first for a hand-held system). And what's more, unlike the original WarioWare, the "old-school" game music is 100% accurate to its original NES counterparts, as opposed to just sounding kinda like it. And there's even a big-band remix of a song from Mario Paint. Awesome.

It's fun, addictive, and full of secret stuff. Do yourself a favor and go buy this thing.

10/10

[CHEZZY]

Name: Oddworld: Strangers Wrath
Maker: Oddworld inhabitants
Genre: Action/Adventure
Platform: Xbox
Year: 2003 - 2005 or sumthin

Very cool game, involving you as a bounty hunter. No one knows your name, you are referred to as 'Stranger'. You have some kind of grudge against guns, instead you have a double barreled crossbow strapped to one arm. You catch live ammo like StingBees, ThudSlugs or even the old favourites, Fuzzles. Set traps, catch bandits and collect your bounty. Plus half way through the game there is a twist...

It gets an 8 / 10. I loved this game!

[Syrup Lad]

Final Fantasy XI: Online


This has been one of my favorite MMOs. It has things many players will love, it's not all fighting seeing as you can do a viriety of crafts and other non-violent things.

Graphics and Sound:

The graphics are good, like most FF games but, there are no great looknig cutscenes like FFX and there are no real voice actors except in the opening movie. It has a more realistic style to the graphics the WoW and the score is good but it never exactly stands out.
7/10

Gamplay:

Being an MMORPG you need to have player contact. SquareEnix had done a wonderfull job of trying to let players act in many ways like, marrige, partying (as in fighting togather), and the ability to let your friends join you for a free thirty days. In terms of battle the game is good but its nothing overly special, it has a large list of abilitys and classes to youse along with many types of weapons and armor. There is a bit of a story but as an MMO most people don't use it much. (Including myslef.)
8/10

Community:

This game by far, has one of the nicest communitys I've ever seen. They are always wiling to help and have left a good impression on me and all of my friends. THough there is a 12$ a month fee, most people could easily afford it.
10/10


Overall:

This is a wonderfull game and I strongly encrouge everyone to go to, www.playonline.com to find out more about Final Fantasy XI.
8/10

(okay SquareEnix You can pay me now!)

PS: I am Feon on Fairy Server.

[weasel]

Black

Genre: FPS
Platform: PS2, XBox (XBox version reviewed)
Year: 2005
Developer: Criterion
Publisher: EA Games
ESRB: M
WSRS: Be on the lookout for not just intense violence, but also some major cuss language (I heard AI buddies shouting the F-word at some point). Plenty of wanton destruction to be had.

Given Criterion's previous successes in kick-starting the racing genre with their Burnout series, you wouldn't think their next move would be a shooter. But looking back, they did also have a hand in creating Kill.Switch for Namco. So when they said they'd revolutionize shooters, I almost took them seriously.

Black is all about action. Well, not all...there's still a fair bit of tactical movement necessary, lest you get your head sniped off. But it's more action-oriented than the average realism shooter.

You play this guy that works for the anti-terrorist organization BLACK. You're being interrogated by this guy so that he can clarify a few things about your record and prevent you from being court-martialed. So the core gameplay revolves around your character going through different flashbacks to tours of duty that he took part in - the middle east, Europe, and a few others.

The way you go through missions isn't quite the planned approach that you might expect from a "tactical" shooter. The levels aren't terribly linear, but you won't really be focusing on that too much. You're probably going to be too busy blowing things up to care, anyway.

Let's put this in perspective. There is no use button in this game. Instead of opening doors like any other normal person, you've got to blast them down. Throw grenades and blow them off their hinges, plowing them through any poor soul unfortunate enough to stand behind them. Or get up close and personal, wait for the right moment, and launch the door several feet with a shotgun shell. Or you could just go the stingy "I don't want to waste my hard-earned ammo" route and bash the door with your gun (but that's just not as satisfying).

Your enemies are at least smart enough to take cover and advance on your position, but you've got quite a number of ways to deal with that. Chuck grenades at them. Launch rockets. Or just hold the trigger on that AK-47 and turn their cover into a tiny little pile of wood splinters. Just about everything that the enemy can hide behind is destructable - it's not GeoMod (Red Faction), but it's close. Turn sandbags into dust with a well-placed shotgun shell. Vaporize the supporting columns of a museum with sustained Uzi fire. Destroy fuel trucks (and the buildings surrounding them) with just a few rounds from your Glock. You can even detonate parked cars with enough bullets (and totally waste whoever decided to take cover behind them).

The reason you're doing all this rarely has anything to do with the mission at hand. In each mission, you're required to complete your primary objectives, and a certain number of your secondary objectives (the number of which depends on your difficulty - easy mode disables them altogether, while normal, hard, and black-ops modes require you to complete more of them before your mission will succeed). While the primary objectives are fairly boring, the secondaries range from eliminating specific targets, to destroying objects and blackmail evidence, to collecting troop manifests and intelligence, or even hidden weapons (like an M203 grenade launcher).

As fun as this game sounds on paper, it's just too short. The main game probably takes about 8 hours to complete (enough time to beat it in a rental period, if you know what you're doing). There is no multiplayer, either - and the unlockables (unlimited ammo and a harder skill level) are barely worth it. It's a game that only thrives on the experience - and the experience is too short.

However, the game's aesthetics are quite good. The graphics are very well done, especially on the gun models. The game's lead designer once referred to Black as "gun pr0n" - and he's right. When reloading your weapon, the game has a blurring/depth of field effect that shows your gun clearly, but blurs everything else. It sounds annoying, but it's not too noticeable. The reload sequences are smooth and detailed, with good sound effects to go with them. Gunfire is well pronounced and powerful, and the action is accompanied by an original orchestral soundtrack performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.

The controls are where Black starts to suffer. While the buttons are all easily reconfigured (and they barely need to be touched at all), the turning sensitivity is just way too low. I understand that you're supposed to be able to aim accurately, but when there's a soldier right behind you shooting at you, this can get a little frustrating. Another complaint that I had is that the trigger buttons are too sensitive in the XBox version - the slightest tap on the L trigger will chuck a grenade, so you have to keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to throw one (which is not the most comfortable thing to do with an XBox controller).

Overall, though, Black is a good ride - but it's just not worth $40. Wait for the price to go down, or better yet, rent it. Bottom line: it ain't the next Half-Life 2, but it's better than Medal of Honor: European Assault.

7.5/10

[weasel]

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Genre: Adventure
Developer/Publisher: CAPCOM
System: Nintendo DS
ESRB: T
WSRS: Enough blood to make the deaths convincing, though this being an anime-styled game, I guess that doesn't warrant an M rating. There's little to no swearing, and even less sexual situations (though fans of Mai Shiranui would probably get a kick out of April May's breasts).

Way back in 2001, Capcom Japan released a little courtroom drama called Gyakuten Saiban for the Game Boy Advance. This game combined traditional adventure game elements with thrilling courtroom battles that draw the player in and motivate them to solve each case to the very end.

Gyakuten Saiban ("Turnabout Courtroom") was popular enough to warrant two sequels (with a brand new entry in the series on its way). The first game was also remade as "Gyakuten Saiban: Yomigaeru Gyakuten" - the game that we in the US know as Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.

The story centers around an up and coming defense lawyer named Phoenix Wright. Under his mentor, veteran attorney Mia Fey, Phoenix takes on his first case.

When the game begins, you're placed straight into the courtroom. It may seem daunting, but Mia will provide valuable assistance if you need it (though I seriously doubt anybody would, considering that the first case is pretty much a tutorial).

The characters you'll be dealing with are all unique. They have their own defining personalities, styles of clothing, and motives to be involved in each case. Not to mention the absurd names given to many characters - Sal Manella. April May. Redd White of the Blue Corporation. Manfred von Karma.

Just about everybody you talk to in this game is somehow involved in the cases you're investigating - which means on-site questioning, close scrutiny of what they're saying, and presenting any evidence that might get them to cough up more information that could help you in court.

And when the courtroom battle begins, you're tasked with cross-examining each witness and presenting any evidence that exposes contradictions in their testimonies. The more you do that, the better chance you have of utterly puh-owning the prosecution (and seeing the hilarious expressions on the witnesses' faces).

The game has little interaction, but the puzzles presented before you can turn out to be real head-scratchers (including several "traps" set up by the prosecution in later cases). Other times, however, you'll already be thinking of the solutions before the puzzle is even presented to you. You see, the difficulty tends to fluctuate in the first three cases - but the last two are consistently hard. Especially when you're dealing with Manfred von Karma. The man objects to absolutely everything you say, and even manages to intimidate the judge with his ruthlessness. ("Judge! Present your verdict. NOW!")

The graphics aren't particularly high-tech, but they most certainly get the job done. The animation is limited, but it's there, and every character is very well-drawn. Artwork is pretty good, and even the small details are there (they have to be, considering small details is a large part of what you're supposed to look at).

Sound-wise, the game's musical score does a good job of setting the mood. Most characters have their own unique theme, and (perhaps my favorite part) the dialogue in courtroom battles is accompanied by slashing and hammering sounds, as if the lawyers were having not a battle of wits, but a battle of weapons. The attorneys are depicted as warriors - their evidence serving as both their sword and their shield.

The game's controls are as intuitive as possible. You can play using the touch screen exclusively, or the buttons. There's also an option where you can use the microphone to shout "OBJECTION!" when presenting evidence, but I could never get it to work (even shouting the Japanese equivalent, "IGI ARI!", didn't seem to work). No big loss, though - I look like enough of a fool shouting "BLUE! RED! BLACK! YELLOW!" when playing Brain Age in the living room.

Overall - if you want a good adventure game with thrilling battles of wits and an excellent plot (five excellent plots, anyway), grab a copy of this game. Just don't get it on eBay - $80 is too much. Instead, buy the Japanese or European versions. They're far cheaper, and the Japanese version has the English version in it (just touch the dark red button on the title screen to switch back and forth). Play-Asia.com has the Japanese version for just below $30 USD, so it's as good a deal as any.

9/10

[Pancake]

Title: Quake III: Arena
Developer: Id Software
Distributer: Activision
Language: English
ESRB Rating: Mature (Animated Blood & Gore, Animated Violence (Game Experience May Change During Online Play))
Licence: They still own it and update it, so...

Gameplay: 85%

In the field of gameplay, Quake III has its pros and cons. The pros are that it has the same style (good style) throughout the whole game. You can chat with the enemies while they respond and you could even play with your friends online. The experience, overall, is very entertaining. The game features great replay value that will allow you to come back at any time. However, there are cons. Nothing too major, but there are still some. Firstly, the level design get a little repeititive, even thought the terrains and obstacles don't. Secondly, the bots get repetitive as well. They seem to have the same responses to things and also seem to go in a circle around the course. Other than that, the gameplay is great. It deserves 85%.

Inovation-ness: 80%

Really, this is a "shoot everythig that moves or die" game. However, Id Software was nice enough to include a chat system that works online and offline. The online chat is similar to IRC, with commands starting with "/" are cheats. But, you don't really want cheats while playing online to give one person an advantage. ;/ But offline, you can chat with the enemies and they will actually talk back. They do have a simple list of responses, but they do respond to alot of things. There are even some easter eggs. Wink But the most inovated thing of all is the ability to mod it and realease those mods. You just have to extract the pk files, open those files in a C++ thingy, and start modding! I've never made a complete mod, but I changed a few things such as wepon strength and chat responses. because of the ability to mod Quake III: Arena, it boosts the inovation-ness to 80%.

Graphics: 85%

The graphics vary. The terrain and landscape is excelent. It's very realistic and is basicly eye-candy (On a high resolution). This is a first person shooter, so you'll be looking at it most the time. However, the character models aren't to be proud of. They look like old, Nintendo 64-like. They could be alot better. In the way of colors, again, it depends on your system and monitor. On mine, (highest-color) they look fantastic.

Music and sound effects: 90%

In the way of music, there is some nice rock. It blends in and goes well with the arena and courses. And, without music, there would be no point to this game. It's really good and adds alot to the overall game. The sound effects give the same experience, and again, without them, the game would suck--well, it wouldn't suck, it would just not be...as good. I was even able to do with only sound effects when I forgot to change the game settings to fit my computer when I first installed it.

Overall: 85% -- B

EDIT: The character models compared to how good the terrains look . That's what I mean by being better.

This post has been edited by Commander Pancake: 26 July 2006 - 05:47 PM

[weasel]

Commander Pancake, on Jul 26 2006, 10:17 AM, said:

They look like old, Nintendo 64-like. They could be alot better.

This game was made in 1999, dude. Of course it's going to look old.

[weasel]

Prey
"Such anger....such potential!"

Developer: Human Head Studios/3D Realms
Genre: FPS
Year: 2006
Platform: PC/XBox 360

If Prey doesn't have a storied development, then I don't know what does. Originally started in 1995 by Tom Hall as direct competition against id Software's Quake, the game went through several incarnations (each with radically different storylines and only one of which featured a Native American protagonist) and was eventually sent into development limbo. Eventually, Human Head Studios (Rune, Dead Man's Hand) started the project from scratch in 2004 and the result is what you see here.

You are Domassi ("Tommy"), a garage mechanic who's stuck on an Indian reservation somewhere in Texas. After getting into a bar fight (which serves as the game's combat tutorial), you notice strange things happening outside. A pickup truck suddenly disappears from view, then the power goes out. The truck eventually crashes through the ceiling and blocks the front door, various noises come in from outside, and when the power comes back on at last, the ceiling is completely missing - and in its place are a bunch of glowing green lights. Aliens. And in a bit of ironic humor, the bar's jukebox starts playing "Don't Fear the Reaper."

Once the game actually starts, you're exploring an gigantic alien ship that seems to have a mind of its own. Large portions of the architecture are made of what appears to be a skin of some kind. Portals open everywhere, allowing enemies to get to you more easily, or to allow you to jump all over the ship in search of the only person you (Tommy) care about - your girlfriend Jen.

At some point, Tommy learns how to "spirit-walk" - seperating his soul from his body in order to pass through force-fields and interact with computer panels remotely. The puzzles involving spirit-walking are fairly innovative, though most of them start feeling a little samey after a good portion of the game ("Oh, another forcefield? Better spirit-walk through it and find the button."). Thankfully, that's not the only kind of puzzle in the game.

Some of my favorite moments in the game involve playing with the gravity-rotation switches. Shoot any of the glowing floor panels, and the entire ship rotates beneath your feet and causes anything loose to fly around for a bit. There's also plenty of areas where you can walk up walls and ceilings (just be careful if the enemy decides to turn off the magnetic floor).

Of course, being a shooter, it's not going to be much fun unless there's some fighting to go around.

And on that note, fighting is really just filler material in this game (for the most part anyway). Enemy AI is particularly harebrained, sometimes tending to stand in one place while shooting at you. Other enemies seem almost unfairly smart, but thank goodness you can't actually die in this game.

When you die, you enter the Spirit World to do battle with the dishonored dead. Kill enough of the weird flying creatures, and your health is restored to the point where you can return to the land of the living right in the spot where you died (or a close approximation therein).

The selection of weapons given to you is...interesting to say the least. Most of your equipment is basically just standard shooter-fare under the guise of some disgusting-looking creature or pulsating blobby thing with gun-barrels on it. You've got an assault rifle with a zoom function, an autocannon with a grenade launcher (actually the severed arm of a boss monster), an acid spitter (which is basically the game's shotgun, but it can also launch the entire capsule of acid as a projectile), and these little crawling bugs that can be used as hand grenades (by pulling their legs off). My personal favorite, though, is the Leech Gun - it acts similar to the vacuum cleaner from Luigi's Mansion, in that its function is different depending on what element you've sucked into it. This weapon alone serves about four different functions - plasma gun, freezer, railgun (probably the best railgun I've seen in a shooter to date), and a beam of light that acts vaguely like Quake 1's lightning gun.

While the single-player game may be a little too short or easy for most (given the fact that you can't die), Prey also includes a multi-player game. However, it's mostly the same as your average online deathmatch mode. Players can still spirit-walk (much more limited than before though), and every weapon is included pretty much intact. The level design involves plenty of portals, but surprisingly very little of the gravity switching panels. It at least looks really neat, though, and players can select pretty much everybody in the game as a player model (though for some reason, I didn't see Tommy's grandfather in there - he would have been really fun to play as).

Prey - great moment in FPS gaming? Or another Daikatana? I think it leans more towards the "Great Moment" category, even though it's really only good for one playthrough and a little bit of goof-off time in the online modes.

9/10

[weasel]

Guitar Hero

Genre: Rhythm Action
Developer: RedOctain
Publisher: Harmonix
Platform: PS2
ESRB: T (Mild Lyrics)

I confess: I didn't like music games. At least, not that much. I always avoided them because I feared it would just make me look like a fool trying to play them. The few that I tried before picking up Guitar Hero...well, let's just say that those sessions really didn't end well.

But it all changed when I picked up a copy for my brother's birthday. Complete with the Gibson SG guitar controller.

Guitar Hero is all about shreddin' hot lixx. Hammering the frets. Power chords, wicked solos, everything.

The game's main focus is the controller. This is essentially a miniature Gibson SG electric guitar, sporting five colored "fret buttons" along the neck, a two-way lever for strumming, and a whammy bar. The controller also has a tilt sensor in it, but I'll explain what that's for later.

Like most music games, the objective is to complete an entire song with as few errors as possible. In Guitar Hero, you play notes by holding the correct fret button and pressing the Strum lever at the right moment. Doing this well will produce the lead guitar for your favorite rock and roll tunes. Doing this not so well will produce some rather silly feedback noises and cause the crowd to boo at you.

As you play notes successfully, you gain points, multipliers, and Star Power. Missing notes will destroy whatever multiplier you had, as well as reduce the Rock Meter - if it gets too low, the crowd boos you off stage and you'll have failed the song. You can increase the rock meter by playing harder notes, making clever use of the whammy bar on held notes, and engaging Star Power.

Star Power is fun. To start using your Power, you tilt the guitar upwards (that old classic concert move). This makes notes worth double, enhances the sound of your guitar with a nifty echo effect, and causes your on-screen avatar to do some truly insane moves (like twirling the guitar around their back, or tossing it into the air and catching it again to play more of that face-melting solo). Star Power can be a real life-saver if you use it at the right time.

But what's a music game without the music? Harmonix has selected lots of songs for your strumming pleasure, organized into six different tiers - Opening Licks (simple stuff like Smoke on the Water, I Love Rock n Roll, and Thunder Kiss 65), Axe-Grinders (Iron Man and Sharp Dressed Man), Thrash And Burn (Killer Queen and Symphony of Destruction), Return of the Shred (Ziggy Stardust and Fat Lip), Fret-Burners (Ace of Spades and Crossroads), and Face-Melters (Frankenstein and Bark at the Moon). There's also a host of unlockable "bonus songs" from independant musicians, including my personal favorite, Caveman Rejoice by The Bags.

So the music is pretty damn good. The gameplay is tight and easy to get into (with a great tutorial to use for the noobs, too). This game is really nice. The controller is very comfortable to handle, as well - the only problem with Guitar Hero as of now is the relatively high price to pay to get the complete package (I paid $70 for the game plus controller). Hopefully the price will go down by the time Guitar Hero 2 comes out!

10/10

[weasel]

Tetris DS

Developer/Publisher: Nintendo
System: Duh
ESRB: E (game experience may change if you like to swear)
Genre: Um, it's Tetris, what do you think the genre's going to be? RPG?

One of the most anticipated versions of Tetris since the N64's "The New Tetris", Tetris DS looked like it had everything in the world going for it. There was no way this one could have failed. It had your unique gameplay modes, online wi-fi play, and most of all, it was frickin' Tetris. How could it go wrong?

Well, there are plenty of ways that Tetris DS goes wrong. Not to say it's a bad game by any stretch. It's just more flawed than one would expect.

Tetris DS contains six unique gameplay modes with a few minor variations therein. Classic, Mission, Puzzle, Catch, Push, and Touch round out the single-player modes; while Classic and Push mode are playable in multiplayer and over Wi-Fi.

Classic mode is about the same as the Tetris you're used to. Except this time there's an option to swap out the current piece for the one you have stored, which comes in handy sometimes but sorta feels like cheating (and there's no way to turn it off). There's also an instant-drop function which can be activated by pressing Up on the control pad, and the Next display shows you six pieces at once instead of the industry-standard 1 piece.

Mission mode is a more different way of playing the familiar Tetris game. You are given a goal on the top screen and must complete this goal before the timer runs out. Goals range from scoring a certain number of lines at once, to clearing one specific row on screen, to making lines with only one or two types of pieces. When the timer runs out, you're hit with garbage from below - but completing missions lowers the playfield.

Puzzle mode seems kinda stupid to me. You're given up to 5 different pieces and a playfield on the top screen, and all you have to do is choose what order the pieces are dropped in, and what rotation the piece uses. The game places the piece for you. So even if you can't complete a given puzzle, it's no trouble to just trial-and-error your way through.

Catch mode is the most radical departure from the standard Tetris formula. You have a clump of blocks that can be shuffled around the screen. To clear these blocks, you have to catch the falling blocks with your clump so that they form complete 4x4 squares. If your clump gets too large, or you catch too many Metroids with it, the game ends.

Push mode is the strangest multiplayer Tetris variant I've seen yet. Both players use the same well, but they drop their blocks from opposite ends. As a player makes large lines, the blocks in the well are sent in the opposing player's direction. The game ends when the blocks are pushed all the way into the other player.

Finally, Touch mode is the only mode that takes advantage of the touch screen. You are presented with a rather tall tower of blocks. Use the stylus to drag the blocks so they make lines. Your goal is to disassemble the tower until a cage filled with balloons reaches the bottom of the screen. On harder difficulties, you lose the ability to rotate blocks.

The various gametypes have their hits and misses. But in all the "traditional" types, there's a major glitch - the so-called "infinite spin" glitch. It goes as such: you can keep a piece suspended above the field indefinitely by pressing the rotate button repeatedly. So long as the button is hammered, the piece will never "land" on the ground, and can sometimes be maneuvered over small bumps. The fact that this glitch can be manipulated in multiplayer and wi-fi games means that the average match ends up being a battle of whose thumb is the strongest (providing of course that both players are aware of said glitch, which most of my opponents were).

Tetris DS's graphics are all NES-inspired, with music from old NES games for good measure. Super Mario, Link, Samus, and the Balloon Fighter all appear in the game with their respective theme songs. Unfortunately, this focus on theming makes the game unbearable to listen to after a while. Classic Mode does change the music every few levels (as well as the background and "mascot" character on the side), but every other mode has a unique theme that never changes. This is especially bad in the Touch mode, because every time you get a chain reaction, the Balloon Fight fanfare plays loudly. The number of times I had to hear that before finally turning the volume down...ugh.

The big draw of the game, 10-player wi-fi matches, is probably the only reason Tetris DS is worth getting (at least if you haven't already got a Tetris game for another platform). It's a snap to get into the game that you want (just specify the number of players and your gametype, and it'll find you a game that matches those and connects you to it). The only issue I encountered was random disconnects - though this was likely the fault of my Wi-Fi USB Connector than the game itself. But my fault or not, Tetris DS has the nerve to count your disconnect as a loss - which means that if you have a particularly bad day with your Internet connection, your wi-fi score is going to plummet.

Tetris DS is a decent implementation of the Tetris game. If you only want the online play, though, you might want to wait for the price to drop.

6.5/10