Katamari Damacy April 21, 2013

Overview

Katamari Damacy is the first for a long-going series of games from NAMCO!  The game is definitely known for its original concept and overall wtf-ness xD.

Story

The story goes is that The King of All Cosmos had gotten drunk and in his stupor ended up destroying the universe (talk about advertising how bad drinking can get when you’re an all powerful king xD).  So due to that, he decides to make his son (The Prince) to clean up the mess and rebuild the universe. There’s also a B-story as well with the Hoshino family dealing with all this randomness and seeing the Prince here and there and the daughter having some strange power of the Cosmos.  Very odd stories, but they were unique and gave some interesting moments in the game lol.

Gameplay

So how do you recreate something so large like the universe?  By rolling up the most random things into a big ball of wtf-ness xD.  Yeah the main goal of the game is to roll a Katamari up to a certain size (or in some cases certain amount of the same or similar object).  A katamari is just a ball with some kind of substance to make objects stick together and it has to be slightly relative to the size so anything tiny will be picked and gradually be able to pick up things like buildings and giant animals.

There’s technically three major places, the House, the Town, and the World (though that’s still kind of relegated to the area so it’s not like the later games).  Add in there are certain tasks.  Most of the time it’s to get the Katamari to the size presented (which is in Metric sizes, so us Americans might have a little trouble).  Once you get into the stages based on the astrological signs, there mostly based on said sign (like Cancer’s mission is just getting the most crabs and Gemini to find pairs of objects).  Even one is based off of just getting the biggest bear or cow in one grab!

Graphics / Sound

Graphics: The graphics in this game is really something.  I mean the art style is pretty bright and colorful and kind of have this pastel/cel-shading look to it without being either of them.  Mostly everything is angular (which shows tons on the people and animals) while other objects are more rounded out like fruits and other objects.  The scenes of the story are a bit jagged, but fitting for such a thing.

Sound: The series really shined bright with its soundtrack.  Mixing in a bit of technopop and J-pop and some really experimentive stuff, the music of the game was really different and unique.  I mean I’ve reviewed the soundtrack so you can tell I was a big fan of it.  Add in that a lot of the objects you can pick-up have sounds to em (mostly the people and animals with some other things).  There was even some voice active (mostly the King and the Hoshino family scenes, but it happened and it was good!)

Post-Game Activities

There’s quite a bit of stuff to do after you Make The Moon which I can talk about!

Get every item! – Yes to fill that completionist mind of yours, you can collect every item in the game that you can roll up with the Katamari and you can check them all out in the Collection area and read ALL of them (though it’s great to check what you’re missing and even get some funny commentary on most of the items as well!)

Get all the presents! – In every level there’s a present that you can put on your Prince to make him look a bit more snazzy.  One in particular, the camera lets you take photos in game, I thought that was pretty cool.

Get all the cousins! – Like the presents, there are one cousin per level, HOWEVER you won’t be able to use them because their only use in the game is for multiplayer…but still, getting them will fill your completion.

Multiplayer fun, sorta… - Yeah there’s multiplayer but not in the sense most of you think it is.  You basically go against each other to get the most of a certain item…yeah it does get old after a while, but I guess it’s good enough to do.

Beat your own score! - I mean the game has a score system based on how big the katamari is, so the best thing to do is to make it bigger and get a better score overall!

Listen to the soundtrack and watch the cutscenes!!! - There’s an area where you can do all these things as well when you just want to take a break from the game.

OVERALL: 6/10

As the first of the series, Katamari Damacy did a lot at the time with its innovative concept and just overall quirky look to it.  However, it didn’t come without its problems.  The camera is probably the worst offender and it still is to this day, but it’s not like you can really do much with it considering the point of the game being picking everything up in sight.  It’s also quite short of a game, being able to complete it in less than 12 hours and the game can get really repetitive considering there isn’t a lot of variety in the missions.

On the good side, this is probably the most difficult of the series even though it really doesn’t come off as tough (but compared to the other games of the series, this actually had some challenge).  The music is also a really awesome thing and becomes a standard here lol.  Still it was a great beginning for an awesome series!

Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy February 14, 2013

Overview

Celebrating the 25 years Final Fantasy as a series has been active, they thought to release something a little special and that is Theatrhythm which is a Music/Rhythm game (kind of like Elite Beat Agents/Ouendan).  It was also a pretty big nod to Nobuo Uematsu who created such memorable and beautiful compositions for the series (minus 13).

Story

Yeah, do you remember DISSIDIA?  Well take that story…water it down and try to make sense with it with music (the points you get are called “Rhythmia”).  Also when you get to 10000 of these points you get to fight Chaos and that’s pretty much it…nothing in between to really tide it over til you get there…bone-dry on the story.

Gameplay

The main gist of the game for being a Rhythm game is quite self-explanatory, meaning that keep the rhythm and do what the game tells you to do like tapping, sliding, and directional swipes.  Point of the game is to complete the stages!  Yeah, easy right…well let’s talk about what’s up.

There’s 5 songs to represent all 13 of the core games of the series!  So most of the time you’re going through Series mode at first completing this task at hand.  There’s four styles of gameplay which I will talk about

• DMS (Demo Music Stage) - Let’s just get this one out of the way, this is the MOST BORING of the stages.  Basically you’re supposed to tap the crystal in the middle of the screen matching with the notes that swirl around said crystal.  You can’t lose here and you can also skip these stages.  The bad thing is that we see this kind of stage twice in all 13 games which is even more pointless and shoots down the game by a good margin.
• BMS (Battle Music Stage) - As the most difficult of the four (personally), BMS are structured like the classic FF battle scenes with the enemy on the right and the characters on the left (of which you can have four characters out at once).  They all each get a line and with the music you have to keep up with it since it’s moving from the left to the right lol.  Of course when you have abilities on said characters you get extra things happening.  In this case Summons take over and get one line and yeah easy xD.  On the flipside of that coin if you don’t have abilities on you get a nice Stoic bonus (which I’ll get to later in the review).
• FMS (Field Music Stage) - The next one seen the most is the FMS which n the outside looks like all you’re doing is waling the landscapes of the various FF games (and there’s some unique ones for certain tracks not in the main core games).  Here there’s one singular line that moves a bit faster than BMS but the new trick here is that when you have holding line, you can move it up and down to follow the line which is the trick of these stages.  Just like the BMS, you have feature drives to kind of worm you’re way…though it’s only transforming your character into a Chocobo for a period of time.  Once again no abilities = Stoic bonus.
• EMS (Event Music Stage) - The last and least seen stages, the EMS is only seen once in each FF category so it’s bit of a bummer because this is the closest to Elite Beat Agents you will get.  Basically there’s a mark that follows a path and you have to input the right marks and such.  In the background though is various memorable scenes of the games (though some are odd which I’ll talk about as well).  Once again feature drives are present and completing those correctly will garner you an extended ending of the EMS and like the previous two, Stoic bonus is here.

Initially you start out with nothing basically except Series mode and you’ll eventually start to unlock things here and there.

Now there’s another aspect to the game and that’s the RPG-ish outlook to the game.  Now you choose 4 characters to start out with (from the 13 games there’s at least one from the get-go so your favorite mains are present!).  So if you want Cloud, Squall, Bartz, and Lightning together then DO IT!  Now they all (and the hidden characters) have different abilities and stats which is no surprise and you have to level them up to get the better ones (which to be honest is useful in Chaos Shrine, which I’ll explain later as well).  Sadly with all of the RPG elements at hand, they really didn’t seem to impact the game heavily (if not made it easier for the most part).  Though I can’t say much because people who probably suck at rhythm games would probably depend on it a ton more than someone (like me) who’s really damn good at them. Though there’s items too so you can get behind that too for the beginners! Plus it’s REALLY easy to level your party up (as of this writing 12/13 of the main characters are at Lvl. 99.

As for the stages, I did feel like tacking on the Opening/Ending DMSs was a lazy addition because you seriously had nothing to do except collect Rhythmia.  No idea why they did that to be honest (especially since a good portion of the opening DMSs were variances on the “Crystal Theme”.  I didn’t have many problems with BMS and FMS as they were actually pretty good choices.  EMS stages weren’t bad either, but with the early FFs…why is it Japanese text?  I mean for the American fans this is kind of absurd that they didn’t at least edit this area out and slightly breaks the nostalgic feel about said early games.

Graphics / Sound

Graphics: Even though this is no core FF game and we aren’t getting that sexy look that most of the recent ones have had, Theatrhythm goes into a more cutesy look.  I mean the characters are all drawn in this chibi-style art and almost kind of reminds me of LBP but a little less fluffy!  Everything is quite simplified and the enemies too have that chibi-look.  Menus are neat and easy to work with and even though the 3D is kind of pointless in this game it does work and watching some of the EMS of the later games looks surprisingly good!  I also loved the touches they did to fit the games through the various stages throughout…Not bad!

Sound: Well this is a music game…so the sound is the most important thing here.  The sound is really good though full taking the songs from their original forms and just sounds all kinds of good.  Of course the 13 games there are 5 tracks each in Series mode (though the DMS stages can NOT be played in Challenge mode).

Of course the selection of songs is amazing though with 65 initial tracks (and 12 that has to be unlocked with Rhythmia).  It’s a pretty big number and there was so much to choose from too!  There were a couple of odd things like some tracks (One-Winged Angel and Dancing Mad) where it’s not played in its entirety (but makes sense as they are LOOOONG songs).  Still it’s definitely an impressive amount of songs!

Post-game Activities

There’s a lot to go through so I’ll list it!

• Challenge Mode - So after you get through all of Series Mode you unlock this and this is where most of the game from here on out will probably be at.  You can practice or tackle the songs singularly and of course songs that aren’t in Series mode are found here.  DMS songs aren’t for obvious reasons.  Of course when you get a good grade, you unlock harder versions of the songs and of course when you get to Ultimate and make SSS grade (that’s when you know you’re AMAZING).  So far I haven’t been able to do that with all of them but will do in time xD.
• Defeat Chaos - Completing the story will need 10000 Rhythmia and he’s not difficult, but it does end the story here.  You do unlock “Dancing Mad” from defeating him but that’s it.
• Get through the Chaos Shrine – The Chaos Shrine is how can I explain it…kind of like a series of 99 challenges to tackle and it depends on the average of the 4 characters in your party.  If everyone is a Lvl 1, it’s super easy…Lvl 99 is a total bitch because they throw in something unexpected which is spinning directional slides which if you don’t know where it is at the left of the screen, you’re screwed XD.  I haven’t defeated this yet, but damn 99 stages that consists of one BMS and FMS.  It does get repetitive because it just uses a couple of the songs and not a totally random fest.
• Unlock Characters/Songs etc. – So there are unlockables in this game and some of them have odd ways to be unlocked.  Characters are unlocked by collecting 8 shards of a specific kind.  Sadly most of them can be found easily be farming in the Chaos Shrine, sometimes Rhythmia gives you one for passing a milestone (which late in the game happens every 500).  Songs are unlocked through passing milestones and there’s 12 of them!  The other unlockables include cards (which give information but otherwise meh, items to use in battle, characters for your StreetPass cards and the ability to listen to the songs without playing the game (only for the in-game songs).

DLC

I was shocked, but there are 52 other songs available as DLC…however they are only available through Challenge mode, extending the game so much more.  Though they are only EMS and BMS tracks, that’s OK since they were the more difficult kind of stages.  Great addition.  Though I’m slightly bitter at the fact that the iOS version has so many exclusive tracks that I wished Nintendo had put those on here too…>.<

 

 

OVERALL: 8/10

I have to say that this game is a must-have for music-buffs (who are or not into Final Fantasy) it’s just a collage of such great songs throughout Final Fantasy’s history that it’s hard not to admire such an anniversary present.  Even Uematsu was overtaken of this project…it was just such a nice thank you present not to only the fans but to the musicians.  The presentation was really nice and easy to go through and the gameplay is simple and fun to go through (though it could wear the screen out if you’re that person that shoves his stylus against the screen like that.  The content was definitely amazing and the giant DLC bonus makes it even better but it brings up the biggest complaint from me…..

…..

…..

Where are the other games?  I shouldn’t complain but considering the series has 25 years on it, you would think they would broaden things out.  Ok, the DLC has XIII-2, Versus XIII, and Type-0, but couldn’t we have a bit more of an addition to some of the lesser known ones.  You know like Tactics, Chocobo’s Dungeon, Dirge of Cerberus/Crisis Core/Advent Children….for fuck sake’s why is there no Final Fantasy X-2 here?!?  I know the iOS version of the game has fixed those issues but we’re talking the 3DS version…it just felt like there could’ve been more songs from the obscure FF games and XIII-2 could’ve had more representation as it was the newest released.

Beyond that complaint, I was definitely happy with this game and will for sure find myself playing this over and over until I have SSS all over the place!

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance (SPOILERIFIC!) August 22, 2012

Overview

Kingdom Hearts can be summed up to be called the love child between Disney and Square and that all started 10 years ago, Dream Drop Distance is celebrating that anniversary in flying colors.  It’s pretty much an Action/Adventure/RPG game. 

Story

So Dream Drop Distance starts where we left off from Re:coded where Yen Sid basically announced that Riku and Sora need to go through the Mark of Mastery exam (which is the test to see if they could become Keyblade Masters).  Right from the start you’re kind of whisked away to this exam, but with a fight with Ursula after leaving Destiny Islands. 

After that, you start off as Sora waking up in Traverse Town (again??) and you meet a familiar face in Neku (from The World Ends with You) and you make you way through Traverse Town learning the new things about the game and then right when things get good you pass out and end up as Riku who also woke up in Traverse Town.  Of course you meet more TWEWY characters and one rather important one named Joshua who explains that Riku and Sora are in the same world but parallel basically…and through some flashbacks and other explanations, they both have to find sleeping keyholes which can awaken the worlds and put them back right. 

After Traverse Town, you go different places like La Cité des Cloches from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Grid from Tron: Legacy, Prankster’s Paradise / Monstro from Pinocchio, Country of the Musketeers, and Symphony of Sorcery which are from The Three Musketeers and Fantasia respectively, going through their collective storylines from the movies (though some are kind of from the previous Kingdom Hearts’ as well. 

During the exam, the storyline gets filled out as well with Riku questioning himself if he’s even worthy of the Keyblade while Sora is kind of figuring out what is going on because both are met up with Ansem, Seeker of Darkness and Xemnas and a younger hooded member.  As things continue, we also see a reappearance of Ienzo, Lea, and Aeleus (well Dilan and Even also return but they’re AFK in the game for the most part). 

Moving on, Sora is the first to end up in a very familiar world…The Organization XIII’s stronghold, The World That Never Was and Sora starts to wonder why he’s even in the place.  Well, after exploring the area, we end up meeting with Xigbar (wait…Xigbar?!?) and he’s put to sleep again and is put through these moments in time where things happen and try to get Sora to feel as if he’s being left behind, but he’s also shown the truth finally that he holds more than what he knows (Ventus, Xion, Roxas)…and of course the other prominent good guys that are missing.  He snaps out and fights Xemnas and does win but the hooded guy is shown to be Young Xehanort and pulls him into darkness where he almost gets enveloped in it but Ventus’ armor protects him.

While that goes on, Riku also ends up at the stronghold and searches until he finds Sora in a bubble being contained but gets pulled into battle with Ansem a couple of times and beats him, but not without being told that Riku was actually Sora’s Dream Eater….Something Xigbar/Y. Xehanort explained was that they kind of sabotaged the exam throwing Sora into sleep but Riku ended up going inside Sora’s dream to protect him from the enemies.

Moving onto the throne room, the explanation of Ansem/Xemnas/and Young Xehanort comes full circle.  Young Xehanort can time travel and he’s collecting 13 Darknesses hoping for 7 lights so they can clash and have Kingdom Hearts appear.  He tried that with the original Organization XIII but either they were traitorous (Marluxia, Axel, Larxene), or too weak (Xaldin, Vexen, Demyx, Luxord, Zexion, and Lexaeus) and Roxas was too late once he figured himself out.  Saix and Xigbar have a little part of Xehanort in them which explains why they are there lol. 

Things get worse when Master Xehanort (the old fogey) finally makes his reappearance and is about to control Sora when Lea out of nowhere shields him from the take over.  At this point he sends a hooded member at Lea but it turns out Saix returned and is on that side.  The tension in the air was there but Donald and Goofy appear and take out Ansem’s Darkness monster and the evil group back down and escaped saying that there will return when the time is right.

While Sora is still in a coma, Riku decides to bring him back out of the Darkness and dives in to save him, but he gets ambushed by the armor and defeats it.  Before Sora gets swallowed up, Riku open the keyhole in his heart and awakens him.  Then Riku ends up by Ansem the Wise and they strike up a conversation of things that happened and such before going back out and and celebrating being reunited

Then the big news, since the exams were basically screwed up from the start, regardless Yen Sid said both really did deserve to be masters but Riku went above and beyond and saved Sora and that was what made him the Keyblade Master.  Sora isn’t phased by it and congratulates his friend and getting it.  Lea speaks up and says he wants to wield a keyblade and randomly he summons one up and shocks everyone.  Sora then leaves to go back to Traverse Town and be with his Dream Eater friends….

As for the secret movie, it really is just saying that it’s preparing Lea and Kairi to train for the upcoming battle that lies ahead of them.

———————————————-

So there’s that but there’s a couple of things that I wondered…

Time traveling? really? - Yeah the biggest WTF was bringing this into the series because now the story is also wild and just more confusing and mmore than likely will be explained better in KH3.

So the Organization is back…sooooo >.> – The thing that got me WTF-ing is that Lea, Ienzo, Aeleus, Even, and Dilan are back and on the flipside Xigbar and Saix are back…notice that those two groupings are different.  I’m not sure how Ienzo, Aeleus, Even, and Dilan are even back (and I’m sure the other members are as well) but I think Xigbar and Saix are back because they have a little of Xehanort inside and were brought back due to the Time traveling shtick.

Is the story hard to follow? – I hate to say it but as a big fan of the series, it was actually a little confusing at the end.  Everything you thought you knew you were doing was kind pulled under your feet when you find out that Sora has been dreaming the entire time and Riku was just a Dream Eater.  It blows your mind and the story accelerates into high gear for the end, possibly leaving you lost and sometimes confused. 

Mementos / Chronicles - So to explain a little more of what was going on in the game we had Mementos which were essentially flashbacks.  Chronicles is text-written explanations of the previous games which are nicely done and it does explain the series without getting to redundant and confusing so the newbies can have an idea of what’s going on in the series because if you’re not a KH fan, this game will be hard to follow!

The power of dreams?: Yeah, it’s really how it felt like the story for this one was more of what dreams can and can’t do.  A good point is date (like the Tron world), they can’t dream because it’s data and it’s told what to do and think and is controlled by an outer source.  I mean The Grid itself was the original form before Space Paranoids so I thought that was cool to do.  Still the focal point was stopping Nightmares from winning so that’s pretty big….so KH1 = Light & Darkness, CoM = Memories, KH2 = Friendship, 358/2 = Lies and Honesty, Re:coded = Realizations, BBS = Belonging, and DDD = Dreams. 

7 Lights and 13 Darknesses? – I think that’s the main point to cover for the next game because while there are close to having it, it makes you wonder who’ll represent the darknesses and lights because we the players do not know this information. 

OVERALL: I felt the story part of the game was good but not the best.  I felt like it shoved you into the action a little too fast and things just felt rushed.  Then the storyline didn’t get really interesting until both character got to The World That Never Was…It was just like shoving all the information into the last section.

Gameplay

So the gameplay went through a LOT of changes, some good, some poor.  It still was essentially a hack n’ slash which is always good and I wanna keep hitting the Nightmares forever.  So lets get into the features!!!

Dream Eaters, PKMN (or at least Square’s take) - The first of two main points in the game, Dream Eaters take the place of Donald and Goofy in the game where two of these cuddly dream creatures will aid you in battle and well just support your ass XD.  They play a much bigger role though because they are they way Sora/Riku gets their powers!  You do that by going into the DE area and training them by mini-games of either popping balloons or a water thing that I can’t really explain xD.  You can also feed them to make them stronger.  When they get enough points you can go to their boards (all of them have a different board) and opens new spaces and get the benefits and new things for your command deck. 

Add the in-battle where you can link with them and they’ll do some wicked things (like limit breaks)…they can also die too which means you’ll lose them forever!

Now I thought it was a cute addition and they helped out nicely for me and to get the more stronger and rare ones, you’d have to do a lot of searching.  Plus the AR cards you got also got you a unique one to help out. 

The Drop System, pissing you off, but too lazy to actually try to stop it…logic blown – The other big thing this game utilizes the most is the drop system.  What it does is that you have a select amound of time with a character before they pass out (or drop) and you switch to the other character.  Now, the frustration comes from the fact that this still happens during bosses which doesn’t matter (or shouldn’t) BUT once you come back, the fight is back at the beginning so if you were fighting and were close to defeat and the drop happens, you’re going to be pissed off.  Now there are items that lengthens the time but I felt like it shouldn’t have been happening during bosses…why seriously?  Otherwise, the drop system didn’t bother me elsewhere.

Flowmotion, or how to cheapen the game – I’m not sure how to explain why and how it works besides being in dreams, but Flowmotion makes you faster and makes you travel all over the place at a high rate of speed.  I liked being able to fly around the worlds, bouncing off the walls and such…but this was like the Triangle button of KH2.  However, you can spam it as much as you want making fights a bit too easy.  It was still fun and you can customize it to not be there, but I do remember relying on this a lot.

Reality Shifts, odd stuff but cool effects - In each world there was a special move called the Reality Shift which is different in each world.  There’s one that uses barrels to blast enemies, the other made traveling so much easier and my least favorite which had to deal with breaking chain links (it was hard to do).  They made the gameplay a little more fun but it just felt gimmicky all around…but a few were cool.

The command deck returns, and it’s a lot of familiar – Yup what started on BBS is back once again with new abilities and techniques but lack the leveling up that the original had.  It’s pretty good but, my problem was that the regulated the moving to the directional pad which is under the analog stick which made for some awkward issues.  When you need a Cure it’s hard to find it when you’re trying not to die.

Overall these new ideas made the gameplay with the existing platforming and such…It was varied and I liked most of it, but not all of it.  The camera is still a problem which hasn’t really been fixed ever and the game does lag a little when the screen is a little too crazy with enemies and magic attacks and the like all appearing at once.

Graphics / Sound

Graphics: Well it’s good to know that the graphics were pretty damn good and made the DS games look jarring.  I loved the textures and the cutscenes were done nicely.  Add the FMV scenes and you get a really good-looking game.  The 3D effect was also pretty awesome and made the game pop out a lot which is good for a game like this. 

Sound: You can’t go around without looking at KH’s music which has always been great to the series thanks to Yoko Shimomura and others.  I am starting to get a little tired of hearing Simple and Clean and Sanctuary being used as themes but whatever.  I was loving that they used 3 vocal themes from TWEWY which were sung by KM-reviewed artists OLIVIA and Stephanie.  The rest is pretty good but some of the Disney songs were a bit eh but most of it was good. 

Post-Game Activities

There aren’t as many things to do after the game but most of it is good to come by.  First off, you have the ability to create more Dream Eaters (look for the stronger ones) and them you could take the three you have and pit them in cups at Flick Rush tournaments at Traverse Town.  Flick Rush is essentially Pokemon but mixed with the Card battling system from Chain of Memories.

Then you have the secret boss of the game, Julius (who is pretty hard but not impossible, but he’s relentless and will take you out easily). 

The Theater Mode opens up and you can rewatch every scene of the game which excites me,

Or if you are really wanting to test youself out, replay the game in Critical Mode.

There are some StreetPass inclusions but I don’t think there’s really important to talk about hahha.

 

 

OVERALL: 8/10

I think DDD is the best handheld KH there has been though BBS might take over after the fangasming.  It’s a pretty good game and represents the 3DS really nicely but there were some things that were not-so-good.  I will say that it does a nice job pulling the new players in the game because they explain things (not in HUGE detail but enough for people to get the gist) with Chronicles.  The story starts off a little bit too fast and sudden and then it slows for majority before bum-rushing you at the end with tons of story movement which was a problem for me.  Another problem was the drop system, while the idea of it was good and all, the mechanic of it was clunky and having it present during bosses and letting the fight start all over again was just stupid.  The rest of the new mechanics are cool enough and I hope some of them stay but some should leave entirely or change it so it works better.  I did love the more heart-wrenching parts and Sora/Riku’s paths and the Disney stories were still faithful which is good too.  Great game overall, just some gameplay flaws and story flow issues.

Tekken 3 April 25, 2012

Overview

The Tekken series is one of Namco’s dearly beloved series and one of two HUGE fighting game series done by the company.  The Tekken series have spanned a long time with 6 true sequels, 2 Tag Tournaments and a lot of ports and handheld versions.  Tekken 3 is the most critically acclaimed games and sold a butt-ton during the haydays of the PS1.  It’s also a port itself from it’s Arcade release (which turns out that the PS1 title looked better and played better on the console (well there’s some arcade purists that think otherwise though XD).  Also, this version of Tekken 3 came with tons of different modes that the arcade didn’t feature making it a more filled out release as well!

Story

The story of this game is a monster is reborn and goes on a rampage killing (supposedly) everyone in sight and our new protagonist Jin Kazama seeks revenge on it for killing his mother Jun Kazama (sounds familiar).  Also this is set 15 years after the events of Tekken 2 (OH HEY DIDN’T SOULCALIBUR V JUST DO THE SAME THING?).  Of course there’s other stories that go on with each of the characters…about characters….

Characters

Like I said, Tekken 3 is set 15 years after Tekken 2 so clearly there’s going to be a lot of changes…well there was and there wasn’t in a way.  While there were a bunch of new faces to be seen a lot of them were just updates/replacements for characters previous…it’s weird but interesting.  The only characters that did return were Yoshimitsu, Nina Williams, Paul Phoenix, King (though a new man under the mask), Lei Wulong, Kuma (who is a secret character), Anna Williams (who is a secret character), and Heihachi Mishima (who’s the sub-boss and secret character).

As for new characters I’ll talk about them a little bit ^_^

• Jin Kazama - The new protagonist of the game who is the son of Kazuya Mishima and Jun Kazama (must’ve been some fierce ass sex…or possibly some kind of forced shindig…because who can see this happening?  It shows though since Jin’s fighting style is a mix of Kazuya’s and Jun’s.
• Forrest Law - Marshall Law’s son…same fighting style and everything…doesn’t really become popular as a stand-alone so he only appeared here and Tekken Tag Tournament.
• Xiaoyu Ling - The new youthful Chinese (but talking in Japanese) gal who’s motives are a bit childish but it works!  Very fast and has a lot of different positions for moves.
• Eddy Gordo - The infamous Capoeira user!  Or Tekken players dub as button mashing friendly because of his very fluid moveset.  My favorite of the bunch!  He also has an alternate outfit but a character himself in Tiger Jackson.
• Hwoarang - Jin’s rival makes his first appearance here and is a student of Baek Doo San’s…so it he shares a bit of Tae Kwon Do (but once again a little more youthful and dynamic).
• Bryan Fury (secret character) - Of the new characters, he seemed to be made out of nowhere with little to no connections in Tekken 3 but somehow got a bit of Bruce Irvin’s moveset.
• Panda (secret character) - Xiaoyu’s pet panda…but really was just a aesthetic change to Kuma (they both shared the same movesets and still do for the most part today >.>)
• Julia Chang (secret character) – It turns out Julia is Michelle Chang’s adopted daughter so essentially she was the replacement for her. (funny that both her and Michelle were in TTT but no Marshall or Forrest) XDDDDD
• Gun Jack (secret character) - Just an updated Jack-2 really though I’m not sure if he incorporated some moves from Prototype Jack. 
• Mokujin (secret character) - Finally the series gets their random character selection IN a character.  Yup, Mokujin changes fighting styles each round and he’ll be anyone cept a couple few for obvious reasons.
• Dr. Bosconovitch (secret character) - The Playstation version had two bonus characters added in for a little more completion and yays for the fans.  The first is actually someone rather important to the storyline because he’s been involved in a lot of characters’ stories like Yoshimitsu, Bryan, Nina, Anna, and Alisa that it’s hard not to say he’s important to the lore.  His fighting style is very bizarre because he does have a rather unfortunate minus.  He always falls like he’s dying and his moves are hard to pull off with this arrangement going on. 
• Gon (secret character) - The other character only on the PS1 version is more of a guest character because he’s originally a character from a manga.  I mean animal characters aren’t new to the series so it’s not odd…but his obvious height issue and the fact every characters has a hard time because he has fireballs, gas attacks, and other nonsensical moves make him a cheap character too (and easy to get Dr. B with).
• Ogre (secret character) - Ogre is the first form of the final boss of Tekken 3.  His moveset contains a lot of the missing characters in the game here so you’ll see moves from Kazuya, Lee, Wang, Kunimitsu, Bruce, and some others.  His true form, True Ogre is a lot more bulkier and has some moves of his own like breathing fire and such.

Stages

The stages are colorful and varied but they still haven’t totally gotten very realistic with them.  What I mean is that walls have still not been applied to the series (since I think it would’ve made the game even harder to deal with.  They are scroll stages (meaning, the stage does not end and it feels like you’re always going on in a circle.  Xiaoyu and Eddy’s stages are colorful and pleasant while Hwoarang’s is more traditional.  Ogre and Heihachi’s are tomb-like while playing as/or against True Ogre makes the stage go black…It’s a pretty impressive set of stages and beats Tekken 2′s outright.

Gameplay

The gameplay in Tekken 3 though was the winner though for sure.  Unlike Tekken 2, the series got a big change and with that the series became a WHOLE lot better for that.  The first introduction and probably MOST important is side-stepping.  I mean you can dodge attacks and do moves to punish them for it and the fact that the stage doesn’t really glitch out during this is impressive!  Also in Tekken 2, your jumping height was as ridiculous as Virtua Fighter….no one can jump that high and that was fixed in Tekken 3 for a more realistic approach and more moves being implemented into that.  All the characters have filled out movesets to also work with ^^.  I’m surprised they’ve stuck to the side-stepping for as long as they have (especially since the Soul series have been utilizing the more open 4-way run.  It’s just a pretty damn good game with deep gameplay that has only been getting better since this game.

Graphics/Sound

• Graphics: For the time this was released, this was pretty damn good and I still somehow like them today for its nostalgic value.  A lot of interesting hit effects and the powering up was awesome (each character had their own).  The backgrounds looked nice and spun around when places are changed and the camers focusing in on some attacks was a cool thing.  Even the replays were awesomes xD.  It was a little blocky, but it’s a PS1 game what can you do? 
• Sound: The attacks sound great and the music while some were forgettable was a nuce buch of awesomes.  The voicing on some things were a little funky but still cool. 

Other Things, Modes, etc.

Like most other fighting games, it features a bunch of other modes to make it a better game.  Of course an Arcade mode (best place to unlock most of the characters), Versus, Time Attack, Survival, and Practice.  There were some interesting other things

• Team Battle - Even though there wasn’t 2 on 2 (that’s the next game, Tekken Tag Tournament) but the best is have battles with any number amount (well up to 8) and then just battle it out.  You can even make it random so you don’t know who’s butt ur kicking with a character you don’t know until then…I love it and I wish they keep this!
• Tekken Force - If you like stuff like TMNT, Final Fight, or even Double Dragon…this might intrigue you but this pits you in four stages in bouts with the Tekken Force (your opponents) and you can choose your favorite fighter to make it through them all (though you have to play it four times to get Dr. Bosconovitch).  IMO I didn’t like it and it was hard especially not being able to freely move since everytime you wanted a different direction you end up jumping or sidestepping…meh.  *whispers* use Gon, he’s great for this!
• Tekken Ball - Weirdest mode of the game was this little side game of volleyball…but not really.  The point of it is to still defeat your opponent but it’s hitting the volleyball with powerful attacks…the stronger the more damage.  There’s some other odd nuances about it like the UBER powerful moves and performing a throw on the ball…which makes things weirder xD.  I love it and surprised it has never returned!
• Theater: Kind of a staple to the series, the Theater mode lets you watch all the character endings (well you have to beat the game with every characterin Arcade mode to have all the endings.  Also you can watch the intro and listen to music from the game.  HOWEVER, if you have saves from both Tekken and Tekken 2, the movies and music from that game also show up too. 

 

 

OVERALL: 9/10

Tekken 3 is definitely my second favorite Tekken (the other one I’ll review eventually).  It just felt so good playing this on the Playstation and having feel and sound and overall as a package be better than its Arcade version is amazing.  Now people seem to bitch about SCV taking that time hop, but Tekken 3 also did it but this became huge so I wonder why else the game failed (well…ok the story sucked but still).  It’s weird because all we really figure out is that Jin turns into Devil Jin for the first time and Ogre/True Ogre gets owned…so this game’s storyline also kind of felt less important than say Tekken 4 to 6.  Still a great game!

Super Mario Kart January 26, 2012

Overview

Ahhh, the game that started a new series of an already-existing one.  I mean side-games btw.  Super Mario Kart was released and it became one of the better SNES games for its interesting take on a racer (but I think we all know it was popular because Mario was involved).  It was also using the Mode 7 tech which gave the game a lot more to work with. 

Characters

It’s not bad that the first game of the series only had 8 characters: Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Toad, Yoshi, Donkey Kong Jr., Peach (though going by Princess Toadstool) and the oddest one IMO was Koopa Troopa.  They were all split off into 4 sub-groups, Mario & Luigi being the beginner, average characters, Yoshi & Peach were more of the ones with better acceleration that the Mario Bros.  Toad and Koopa were super light and DK and Boweser were the heavyweights. 

Also the CPU in this game couldn’t use items themselves which is odd >.> and gave a couple unique items instead.  Mario/Luigi had invincibility for a short time like the Star power.  Peach and Toad had mushrooms that turned your (or any kart that ran into it) into miniature versions and can be squashed XD.  Koopa laid green shells or shot them depending on placement and DK with bananas.  Bowser and Yoshi though had unique items though…Bowser had fireballs which he laid or shot forward and they go in a small circle round the area it was placed.  Yoshi’s egg was stationary but both items spun you out…which by the way…

Items

Let’s talk about the items.  Like any kart racer out, they share a lot of the same type of items.  I mean Mushroom for extra speed, banana peels and green shells act as traps (the latter moving).  Red shells homed in on the opponent in front of you (if you have any) and the Star made you temporarily invincible.  There were three other interesting items though.  The Boo makes you go invisible and possibly steal your opponents item (SWEET).  The lightning bolt shrinks everyone BUT the user and the forgotten feather just makes your kart hop super high (AKA making shortcuts happen). 

Of course coins also come into play as well since the more you have the better you are.  If you have none at the moment any kart that comes in contact will spin you out so be careful with that!

Tracks

I find it interesting as SMK is the only game from the series to have 4 cups with 5 tracks in each of them…kind of odd nowadays when compared to multiple releases after this.  As far as locales go this also has the weakest assortment IMO since there’s some recycled areas (ok every locale has at least two tracks representing it except for Rainbow Road).  Also, sharing with MK: Super Circuit, all of the tracks are FLAT but this was just because it was limited to be honest, so the creativity in the tracks isn’t as great as later releases show (and most of the tracks were given new facelifts in the later games too).  I will say, the Special Cup tracks were the best of the bunch.

Gameplay

Simple, it’s a racer and you have to win.  Though I will say every Mario Kart has a different feel to it and this one is honestly the easiest one to get into because there’s no true importance to it.  I mean you still drift but not in the way it was implemented in 64 and up.  The game does have a little problem with its A.I. called rubberbanding.  Kind of means that the harder the cc is, the more obvious it is.  What that is is if you’re too far ahead the CPU will ungodly chase your ass down and prevent you from winning (unless you’re good at this game and used to it). 

Graphics / Sound

• Graphics: So as I said earlier, it’s under Mode 7 which is a rather unique mode of graphics which induced a 3d-like scene…but in 2D….A couple other games used this (like the other Nintendo racer F-Zero).  I have to say, it worked well for sure and it worked.  There was a way that if you won a time trial without hitting walls or falling off…you could swing the camera around the kart….it was awesome at the time!  Otherwise, there wasn’t too much to gawk at besides the bright colors.  Characters looked stiff and didn’t do much in their kart…hmmph weird. 
• Sound: Sound though was a plus here IMO.  I mean I can remember the exact way the Mario Circuit theme went and most of the characters winning themes (the only one the had character-specific win themes actually).  The tracks songs are great and all of them are actually memorable in its own way. 

Other Things To Do

Well…let’s be honest there’s not a lot to do in this game…just 4 things….

• Cup Races: Like I said split into 4 cups each having 5 tracks isn’t going to last long but you can race them in 50cc, 100cc, 150cc.  Meaning the higher the cc the harder it gets (it’s a well known sentiment in the series),
• Time Trials: Get your best time here!  There’s even times where you can race a ghost of yourself which is pretty cool and makes you want to defeat yourself in the race.
• VS. Races: Actually this could’ve been put above time trials…but essentially 2P races.  Though I think you could also do singularly too…?
• Battle Mode: Though if you have a second person with you, you’re more than likely to find yourself here where you can battle your friend.  It’s essentially pop ur friend’s three balloons before he/she does and vice versa.  Having only four choices though of battle courses kind of suck…but the Ice one and Beach one is the best! 

 

OVERALL: 7/10

As it is the first of a happy series (especially for Nintendo’s sales) SMK was such a smart move for them to be honest and really blew the kart racer genre out.  I mean it brought out another GREAT one but that’s a different review for later.  The original Mario Kart might not be as held on a high pedestal as before but it’s still a pretty fun game.  I will say that the flat tracks is probably one of the reasons (same problems goes with Super Circuit but that one is the least popular).  Nostalgic game for sure ^_^

Super Smash Bros. January 5, 2012

Overview

The Smash Bros. series is a toss-up between a 2D Fighter and a Party game which is seems to fit both priorities well.  Introduced on the N64, the original Smash Bros. was kind of a first in its kind taking the best faces in the Nintendo world at the time and pitting them together in an all-out punch-out! 

Story

Wait, SSB has a story?!?  Not really actually I mean if anything the intro to the game is the closest to anything story-wise.  Which is a magical hand (Master Hand) awakens these toy figurines and makes a makeshift stage out of it.  Of course that’s really not that exciting right? 

Characters

The primary cast in SSB is actually 8 well-known characters actually!  Of course seeing it’s Nintendo and HAL working together, both Mario and Kirby would be found here.  There’s also Fox, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Samus Aran, Pikachu, and Link as well which is a pretty good cast at first.  As you go through the game you gain 4 more in Jigglypuff, Ness, Captain Falcon, and Luigi.  I will say that I must give the directors and workers kudos on making original movesets for Fox and C. Falcon since they’re froms games where you only really see their faces most of the time.  12 characters is alright for the first game but it is rather tiny.

Stages

The original Smash is the only one in the series where there’s more characters than stages which isn’t surprising to be honest when there’s only 9 stages to choose from 8 of them are available right from the start and correlates to each character’s series.  Example Sector Z = Fox’s stage.  The secret characters don’t get their stage unfortunately and have to share with others.  The 9th stage (which is unlockable) is a take on the original Super Mario Bros. with pipes and POW blocks.  Wish there was a little more variety here as well but it’s alright for the most part.

Gameplay

The gameplay is actually quite unusual for a fighter that most people know about.  Smash Bros. is unique because you have to rack up damage instead of wittle down a health bar like most fighters do which is a new take.  So then how do you defeat your opponent?  The higher the damage, the farther they fly and the point is to knock them off the stage (mostly all four sides of the screen counts as wats to knock them off).  All characters are different from one another (minus Mario and Luigi) and they have the advantages and disadvantages.  The point is to use them to beat your opponent.  It’s an interesting idea and it worked since it’s one of Nintendo’s biggest tourney-based series.

Graphics/Sound

• Graphics: For an N64 game, the graphics for SSB aren’t all that bad but at the same time as a gamer of today it really does look rather blocky on some aspects.  I mean Mario’s hands look like Cloud’s in FFVII which is a little bit of a bummer.  The stages are probably the best thing graphically about the game since they all have the spark and aspects of the games they come from quite nicely.  The worst IMO is how the Pokemon from the Pokeballs work…they look ridiculously terrible in the game, not gonna lie. 
• Sound: The sound is alright as well.  Most of the music is pretty much new versions of classic tunes from each of the series.  There’s some original tunes as well but hearing Mario’s theme or Yoshi’s Athletic from Yoshi’s Story is more interesting.  Sound effects do their job as well and they sound like the punches and kicks hurt.

Other Things To Do

There’s not a whole lot of things to do in the game otherwise which is alright since the main reason the game is so popular is the multiplayer aspect which means you can have up to 4 players going at each other.  There are a couple things though worth noting

• Single Player: Kind of like a normal arcade mode to a fighter, you fight different characters and the final fight is with a big boss or in this case against Master Hand.
• Break the Targets / Board the Platforms: These are kind of like the minigames for the characters and each one has a different setup which is great and provides a bit of a challenge to beat the stage at a fast time.
• The Vs: Like I said, this is where most people will love the game because of the fact there’s so many possibilities with part from teams, to choosing which items are allowed in the game…it’s pretty sweet and even though Melee and Brawl built upon this the root of it was a nice start!

The rest of the things that might be of interest is some of the options like reading the various stats on your gaming experience from how many KOs you had or who’s your most used character down to reading a little history about your character.  Of course there’s always the option to erase EVERYTHING in the game but unlike most games doing this can be fun since you can unlock everything once again lol.

 

 

OVERALL: 6/10

This is probably my least favorite of the three Smash games out there but it is the oldest and the first of the series so it had to start from someplace.  I mean the small amount of things to do is quite surprising for a “party game” and some fighting game afficionados will also say the same, it’s still quite a fun party game.  Plus it brought a powerful series that rivals many of Nintendo’s current series which is a little tough to do these days and back then it was either SM64, Ocarina of Time, MK64, or this.  Not bad but compared to the later games…there’s a CLEAR gap between this and Melee for sure.

Dead or Alive: Dimensions December 7, 2011

Overview

The Dead or Alive series is a fighting game series created by Tecmo (more specifically Team Ninja who was fronted by Tomonobu Itagaki).  Unlike fighters at the time, DoA and Virtua Fighter was 3D-based fighters and showed a lot of potential, which led into the fighting scene we have today.  The series have 4 main games and 2 games under a different thing (AKA something straight guys go googoo for).  Yeah this game also brought titty physics to the foreground XD…wow…Dead or Alive: Dimensions however is compiled as like a complete best-of the series and is the first of the series without Itagaki at the reins since he left the company prior to this.

Story

Like I said above, the game is kind of a best-of and it goes the main plot points through all four DoAs.  It starts out understandable as Kasami is plagued with a decision of either stopping Raidou and betraying her clan of fellow ninjas (which is really only Hayate & Ayane) or not.  She of course does the former which entails a lot of randomness.  I mean Raidou makes Hayate go into a coma and in return gets amnesia and Ayane continues being herself.  Of course this is all cleaned up during the DoA3 part of the game where DOATEC gets pushed into the story and seems there’s a lot of assassination attempts (and actual assassinations).  Include more randomness with Kasumi clones up the ass and bigger bosses and just wow.  It’s an interesting story not gonna lie about that, but it really focuses on Kasumi, Ayane, Hayate, Ryu Hayabusa (NINJA GAIDEN FTW), and Helena Douglas (DOATEC’S new leader after Fame is murdered).  The other characters just seem to be fodder for the story which is strange considering some of them do play in the story a lot.

Characters/Stages

• Characters – Dead or Alive’s characters come back in Dimensions as the biggest playable cast yet.  Every main character is playable here which is great (however from the primary cast, only Nicole (the Halo Spartan) is seemingly missing from the game).  What makes this the biggest cast yet is the fact that the five bosses from the four games are playable: Kasumi Alpha (crappy Kasumi clone), Alpha-152 (another Kasumi clone but more cheaper), Raidou, Bankotsubo (or Tengu, he’s called both in the game), and Omega (or Genra as he’s mainly recognized as).  Besides Kasumi-A the rest kind of don’t fit in the game as they cheapen the game with their moves and have ridiculous stuff going on.  I guess to relieve us from Nicole’s absence, they featured a new character in Shiden (who’s basically a much better Hayate LOL). 
• The rest of the cast are kind of mostly stereotypes and some oddities…Most of them follow their ideas like the 4 ninjas in Kasumi, Ayane, Hayate, and Hayabusa.  Bass is the grappler and power one (of course he looks like Hulk Hogan), but Tina and La Mariposa (Lisa) are also wrestlers as well.  Which by the way…there’s more girls than guys which is a surprise in the fighting game world (unless you play Arcana Heart of course).  There’s a playstyle for everyone so that’s good…
• Stages - Now the stages are mostly from the past games which is awesome and some look quite beautiful (the one with the Sakura tress) and or memorable (like the stage where you begin on a bridge).  Of course the biggest one is this certain stage that has Metroid written all over it.  I don’t know why DoAD had to have one and it seems rather stupid.  Ridley’s in the background and shooting fireballs (and if you blow in the 3DS’ mic, Samus comes in and does some cinematic movement but nothing else).  Why tease us Team Ninja, should’ve put Samus in the roster.

Gameplay

It’s a fighting game the point of the game is to kick your opponent’s ass!!!  It’s not that hard but everyone can tell a fighting game off from the way it’s handled to its engine.  DoA’s is hard to really explain but it follows a certain rock, paper, scissors element between kick, punches, and throws which is pretty cool.  Though to me though the throwing doesn’t exist because parrying exists which feels a lot easier to do than in other 3D fighters.  Like I said above all the characters play differently from one another enough to warrant different strategies.  I personally use the quicker fighters like Christie, Shiden, and Alpha-152 rather than the slower ones like Bass, Bayman, and Leon.  It’s a simple learning curve and can be quite useful in fast paced battles.  I still find myself parrying so much more in this fighter series than in any others XD

Graphics/Sound

• Graphics – For being one of three fighting games out right now (as of this review) the other two being Street Fighter and Blazblue, I have to say they got the graphics down pat.  DoA has some pretty graphics and it’s great to see that carried into the 3DS.  Character mopels are solid and move fluidly in the game here so that’s always a plus in a fighting game.  Of course the CGI movies are really pretty and uses the 3D effect to its fullest however it doesn’t really translate well when the game goes.  If the 3D is off, the game plays really smoothly and feels like DoA4 (but simpler).  When the 3D is one the framerate drop is seriously noticeable and it makes you not want to play the game with the effect on.  Still otherwise it’s a really pretty game and is one of the better ones in the 3DS’ early life.
• Sound - As for sound it’s solid work.  Of course there’s voice acting in the game and while it’s cheesy at points, I thought it was done pretty well.  All the kicks, punches, bone-breaking and wall-hitting are also believable as well.  The music though is what really caught my attention remixing everyone’s theme around from various games gives some great fighting action.  Personally, Ayane’s remixed theme is seriously some damn good electronica right there!

Other Things, Modes, etc.

There’s a couple of things to mention which I’ll talk about here like the modes in the game!

• Chronicle – The story mode, which is split into 5 chapters the first four being from the numbered games and the fifth is to show Helena’s side of the story after her mother was assassinated (by Christie) XD.  It also works as a tutorial showing you the whole process of it’s fighting engine…nice to know actually.  Still it would’ve been nice if the other characters had something better to do than being randomly selected as your next opponent sometimes.  Even the storytelling was a little jarring going from sometimes being FMVs…or just typical game/anime fashioned talks (you know cardboard conversations).  It was ok but could’ve been handled better
• Arcade – Not the most exciting thing but it’s battles between pre-selected opponents.  Also there’s 5 levels (easiest to hardest)
• Survival - Like in any other fighting game, survive through waves of opponents…it goes through intervals of 10 all the way to 100
• Tag Challenge - Besides Arcade, this is where you’ll be trying to unlock the bosses through.  20 different battles and they start from easiest and giving you “lives” to the hardest which is no extra lives at the hardest setting.  (Lemme tell you, I still haven’t defeated the final mission, Raidou/Shiden).  It’s good at first until the end where you’ll start to see where it starts to be frustrating.  Your tag partner is CPU and once you lose like a third of life it automatically takes over (so you can rest and refill ur life bar).  However pressing one button will send you back in and that can be pretty annoying and if the CPU looses a lot of life it switches you in automatically.  It’s a pain in the ass and sometimes can make or break you battles (the latter is more occuring during the harder fights).  It just was a mess for me…
• Free Play - It just lets you go against a CPU with your own rules, nothing that says spectacular but great just for casual playing.
• Training - Every fighting game today has a practice mode and it’s great and all but DoA usually has a mode where the game tells you a command and you do that command…it’s not present in Dimensions and I’m missing that for some reason
• Local Play/Internet Play - Yup it’s online and it might not impress people much.  Like any other fighting game that’s online capable…it’s in the same boat.  There’s quite a bit of lag and for a fast-paced game like DoA, it’s pretty much a sad story indeed.  At least there’s the whole win/lose and a grade showing how good (or bad) you are. 
• Throwdown - I’m still trying to learn Streetpass but it seems that if you walk by someone who also has a copy of this game and a 3DS it’ll mention that you have a battle waiting and go against that opponent.  Of course I’ve encounted this also through the wi-fi DLC fights so that works as well.
• Showcase/3D Photo Album - Kind of the collectables of the game, we get trophies of characters and there’s TONS of them in this game so prepare for a long playtime with that.  Of course because of this, this game is banned in Sweden because some of the characters are portrayed as too young.  To me, it’s just a game get over it.  Yeah, you can take pictures of the trophies and view them in the photo album….kind of useless but whatever lol.
• Fight Record - Just like it hints, it shows all your fighting records from wins and losses to how many times you parried.  Even your online matches of wins/losses are shown.  Pretty cool if you’re into that lol.
• Options - Yeah you know the deal, sound, networking, Streetpass options, erasing data (which I recommend not doing). 
• DLC Content - It really isn’t too much, but it seems everyday I get either a new Throwdown fight or a new costume for my fighter (whoever that may be).  It’s nice and small and fills the gap from usually how many costumes we get from DoA as it is. 

 

 

OVERALL: 7/10

I have to say for being one of the first couple games released for the 3DS, DoA:Dimensions kind of got it right from the first shot.  The story is essentially a quick run through the series’ past but it’s an understandable story and sets it up nicely for DoA5.  The rest of the game is kind of hit or miss…Arcade could’ve been done so much better and felt weak (of course no one had endings so that’s a good reason why Arcade wouldn’t have worked in a traditional way).  Tag Challenge is probably the worst of the modes since it had a lot of hiccups and the CPU helper kind of sucked!  The online modes were alright but like all the other fighting games it had a lot of lag (for me, it could be different otherwise).  The 3D effect is best used in Chronicle mode but only for the CGI moments…in-game it slows down the gameplay a bit too much.  Still, this is a very good fighter on a system that isn’t a year old.  Good job Team Ninja

Pokémon White (SPOILERS) November 10, 2011

Overview

Pokémon Black/White is the overall beginnings of the 5th generation of the best-selling games that have popped originally on the Game Boy (or Game Boy Color is you were that late to the game).  Black and White are the second generation released on the same system (which is roughly a second also for the series in handhelds).  Of course since it’s only been 4 years since Diamond/Pearl/Platinum it doesn’t seem things have changed TOO much, but once you start playing it…you will definitely see the changes!

Story

The handheld games never really strayed away from the main core of the storyline, which is you are a trainer doing what you do to get the 8 badges and go against the Elite Four.  That has never changed in the main games and for the most part never will.  HOWEVER, I think this time they brought something a little more to the game with the storyline of N and Team Galactic which really surprised me this time around because the argument this time around actually does pose the question of “Do Pokémon feel held back and the Pokéballs restrain them too much?” also “Does taking Pokémon out of their habitats affect them more than we let on?”.  I mean those are good questions and I apploud the people behind the story on working that in the story though there are things I did question.

• N – I know he was essentially at the end, Ghetsis’ puppet.  but I’m really curious to his story after learning the betrayal, it’s kind of like after the battle with Ghetsis…he just kind of goes “PEACE OUT BITCHES!!!” and he’s barely heard of again during the rest of the game.
• Reshiram/Zekrom/Kyurem - I guess it wasn’t surprising they’d be pretty vague with these three in the game.  Depending on what version you either got Reshiram and Zekrom which is normal to the series itself.  Though both games have Kyurem we’re left with a rather daunting idea that the Kyurem we got in this game is incomplete and there’s a far more better one in the third game for the generation (whenever that is announced that is XD).
• No 16 badges still? - I know that the core of the storyline did take a little more of a backseat this time which is pretty good but I was hoping for something a bit more…I don’t know more fulfilling than just 8 mere badges.  I know that I’m nitpicking it, but when the aftergame introduced more places, I think you could’ve squeezed in another 8 gyms!
• New York??? = Castelia City…and Unova is based on the area too? - Actually it makes sense because on a legit map of where the places are, it seems Unova is far from Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh.  I say it’s pretty cool for sure!

Gameplay

As with all main Pokémon games for the handhelds, they are a Strategy/RPG game and the core of the game is essentially a glorified rock-paper-scissors kind of deal (I know many other people have explained this with previous games so I’ll assume everyone knows about it).  However some old moves have been shot down and some powered up and added on with the new abilities of the game, things have changed once again for the now 649 Pokémon.  However there’s many things that have changed in the gameplay!

• Wait, only 5th Generation with this game?!? – At first, I was shocked that the development team decided to cut the old generations out, but it makes sense now because they really wanted to show off then new batch of Pokémon.  Don’t fret though, after you beat the core of the story and the new areas are available…the old favorites start to appear.
• 3 vs. 3……is this legal? - Yep two different battle situations join in the fray (maybe three if I remember correctly).  First is the Rotation Battle.  I was skeptical about it actually since it wasn’t the normal kind of setting.  It’s still 1 vs. 1 based but you can rotate your PKMN around to get the attack you want at your opponent.  I find it a little weird at first and still do today…but I think I can survive it.  There was also the shooter style which I still don’t very much understand but I know there’s a bigger use of items in those kind of battles.  Last but not least, the TRIPLE BATTLES.  I know many people have said that it makes it feel cluttered for the screen (which does have truth, not gonna lie) but the strategy levels fluorish and I loved having this.  Also there was more Triple Battles in White (whereas in Black it’s mostly Rotation). 

Pokémon

Of course, I’ve reviewed the Pokémon already but I haven’t said what I’ve thought of them as a whole.  After the odd mess of the Hoenn Generation and the lack of new ideas in the Sinnoh Generation, I’m pretty happy with what we got overall and remember there’s three more PKMN to be released after this review (Meloetta, Keldeo, and Genesect).  I say they got what they wanted and even though a lot of them are just parallel creations from the 1st Generation. 

Graphics/Sound

• Graphics – For the most part, the graphics are quite strong in this game, maybe one solid step over HeartGold/SoulSilver.  Though the new thing is this whole 3D-ish kind of look it got in the form of certain spots in the game (BEST EXAMPLE: Castelia City).  While I wonder why the game wasn’t also released for the 3DS beats me, but it’s a good look to the game and it gives the game a sense of change since we’re so used to the top-down PoV.  I just wished they used this more.  The in-game battles are essentially the same, but the camera also moves around which is weird sometimes but a nice addition.  The character models to me are more of the same really but the gym leaders and Elite Four stand out the most (plus N and Ghetsis). 
• Sound - Of course, sounds in PKMN are also important.  The PKMN calls are more or less the same from D/P/Pt…but a little brighter which is cool.  Attacks sound no different from before to me.  The thing that caught my attention was the music from the game.  I will NEVER get tired of hearing the Team Plasma theme since it seriously is one of the best tracks from the OST.  I say this is one of the series’ best collection of music actually.  I can only imagine once we get into natural instruments one day.

Post-game Activities

 

There’s always things to do after the core of the Pokémon game is completed (which is everything after the Elite Four).  However, there’s two endings (lulz).  I mean the main one is done after you defeat Ghetsis…The other is after the true final member of the Elite Four (fifth…The reigning Champion), Adeku faces you.  There’s a LOT to do so let’s get to it!

• Gotta Catch em’ All! - This is seriously the primary reason for the hardcore fans to even get the games.  Like I said, there’s 649 of them now and a couple of them are only on one version of the games (and others not even found on either).  It’s a challenge for sure and prolly for the masochists out there but it’s such a great reason that gamers flock to this series with every Generation!
• Dance Contests…You mean kind of like “So you think your Pokémon can dance? - Since the 3rd Gen. we’ve had alternate ways to get your Pokémon looking ridiculous and this time it’s through dancing.  I mean you could do this, but I found it useless in the long run
• Online, more than just what we thought it was before! - The pinnacle of the game was the fact that you could battle each other ever since the original (even though you had to use a Link Cable then).  Nowadays since the last generation the series has gone worldwide and now you can play anyone from anywhere that has the game.  Besides the new arrangements of battling added on, not much has changed in the core of the online side of things BUT…there are new things to consider!
• Dream World…WTF - The most important feature from using Wi-Fi is the Dream World.  It’s difficult to explain it through words, but you need a way to get to the internet to use it fully.  You put a PKMN to sleep through your game and then hit to the computer (or whatever you use to get online) and get to the official PKMN Dream World site.  You do mini-games here and there and you can grow berries and such.  However, the main point is that one of the mini-games earns you a new PKMN (usually something from an older generation) and it has a rare ability.  Kind of cool, but way gimmicky. 
• More Trainers Battles = More Fun! - Of course, there’s always trainers you can finish up and even then, there’s always the Unity Tower which is people you have personally added on Wi-Fi and battled…and the Battle Subway which pits you against trainers (of course there’s certain limits like no Legendaries)

 

OVERALL: 9/10

I think by many people this was the best generation of games yet, but I honestly still deem Gold/Silver to be the better two because of all the new things those games brought in compared to Black/White.  I won’t deny that it’s the best graphically and in sound.  The question is now, how much further can they go with what they have (besides making the series hit the WiiU (and I mean an actual Pokémon game…not like Colisseum and Gale of Darkness.