My reviews

Welcome to Nintendo Forums. We hope you enjoy your visit.

You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.

Join our community!

If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

My reviews
Tweet Topic Started: Feb 14 2009, 05:09 PM (122 Views)
scabies	Feb 14 2009, 05:09 PM Post #1
Goomba Posts: 18 Group: Goomba Member #11,708 Joined: February 14, 2009	I write game reviews for my school newspaper so I have a bunch of old reviews I could post. Super Smash Bros Brawl When you go into a local store and see a sign that reads “Fun for all ages”, that usually translates as “Avoid this: Intended for young children only”. Super Smash Bros Brawl seems to be the exception. With the series selling more than 11 million copies to this date, Smash has something for everyone. Brawl, the third game in the series, has almost everything its predecessors had and expands upon it. This is the reason many people will buy Wii consoles. Brawl is a fighting game unlike any other. Most fighting games feature one on one battle in sort of a ring. The Super Smash Bros series has players scrambling around a whole map in a 2D/3D environment. The rule is simple: your damage meter starts at zero and goes up each time you are attacked. As it goes up, you fly further when you are hit. Your goal is to knock your enemies off the screen. The simplistic concept and controls make it easy for anyone to join. You are able to use a standard Wii Remote, a Wii Classic Controller, or a Gamecube controller to play the game. This is good because the controls on the Wii Remote feel very unnatural. It seems that they allowed three different types of controls specifically for this reason. The game includes many modes, primarily and single player adventure and classic modes and the multiplayer offline and online modes. Adventure mode is different this time around, having a story and being the length of a full game. It is very repetitive and isn’t a very good story, but completing it will get you a good chunk of the game’s unlockables. Classic mode involves just fighting every character in the game to complete it. Offline multiplayer mode is what made this series famous. Being able to play the game with friends with fully customizable rules is what had many people playing the previous game in the series, Melee, for five years until Brawl came out. Of course, as expectations and technology change, an online mode was inevitable. This part of the game is a disappointment. Instead of a huge list of rules to choose from, you’re stuck with a 2-minute K.O. match. There are also long wait times between matches. Sometimes you’ll be waiting 5-10 minutes to play a 2-minute match. Also, since online is played worldwide and there are many Japanese players, there is a lot of lag. If that isn’t enough, you can’t see any of the other player’s names or communicate with them in any way. I know Nintendo is a family-friendly company and doesn’t want kids to talk to anyone that they’re not supposed to, but that’s what a parental control feature is for and communication is essential for any online game. All-in-all, though, this game is a huge hit and will be in my Wii system until Nintendo releases a sequel. Pros : •Truly fun for all ages •Extremely fun gameplay and controls. •Very easy to learn Cons: •Wii Remote control feels unnatural •Mediocre online mode Dead Space The survival horror genre has come a long way. From Resident Evil, to Doom, to the upcoming Left 4 Dead, it’s getting more and more difficult for a game to emerge that distinguishes itself enough to hold its own. Luckily, Dead Space is one of those games. The game takes place in the future in a mining ship somewhere in space. You are sent on a rescue team after answering a distress call, only to find out that no one on the ship has survived, and a terrible evil has been unleashed. This is where the game begins. This game is made to scare people and it doesn’t disappoint. It’s incredibly cinematic, giving you a feeling that you never know what will pop out next in the dark, narrow halls of the mining ship. The game almost never takes you away from the action, with the story being revealed through video, audio, and text logs left by the deceased crew of the ship, all being done in real-time. Even the menus don’t take you away from the game, with each menu being seen via hologram from the projector built into your space suit. The gameplay is challenging and intense, leaving you with almost no ammo to fend off a never-ending horde of enemies. Dead Space is objective based, and on the way to your next mission the game will stop frequently to throw a room full of enemies at you. The game is, at its core, a shooter, though it throws some elements from other genres in, mainly by way of upgrading. You can make your guns and your character however you like, by collecting “nodes” and money to decide your strengths and weaknesses at shops. There are also some fun puzzle-solving sections in zero gravity chambers that take away from all the action. There aren’t really many negative things I can say about Dead Space. You backtrack a lot to earlier places in the game, but they are cleverly integrated into the story. The only real bad thing I can say about Dead Space is that it ends. This game will scare the mud out of you and then make you want more. It is a breath of fresh air in the survival horror genre and a sequel couldn’t come soon enough. Devil May Cry 4 For a long time, there was a fine line between movies and games. Each form of media had its own qualities, but they didn’t go well together. In 2001, a game called Devil May Cry hit the gaming world by storm. With its intriguing storyline and matrix-like gameplay, you felt like you were part of a blockbuster film. Seven years later, the series has had many ups and downs. The second sequel, (the chronological order is 3, 1, 4, then 2) this game is far from a let-down. What can you expect when you think of Devil May Cry? A perfect mix of stylish sword and gun combos, a well-developed story, and dark humor all mixed with a hardcore rock and roll soundtrack. Slaying demons has never been so fun. This series was the basis for hit games like Ninja Gaiden, God of War, and Heavenly Sword. The main selling point of the fourth entry of the series is a new weapon called the “Devil Bringer”. Not only can you slash and shoot to your heart’s content, but you can now use your devil arm to pull enemies from long distances towards you. This allows for nearly endless combos. While it’s a nice touch, I wouldn’t be raving about the game just because of this. The new combos and the continuation of the story are what sold me. While the story and gameplay are great, there are some downsides to the game. In some areas it feels rushed and some things seem to be tacked on. While the graphics are beautiful, the shadows look like they are from a last-gen game. It’s hard to enjoy beautiful landscape when you start walking and you see your ugly shadow hurting the view. There are also many plot holes and unanswered questions yet to be addressed in this game. It looks like I’ll have to wait until Devil May Cry 5 for that. And last but not least, with the first three games being Playstation 2 exclusives, the Xbox 360 controller feels really uncomfortable. It feels a lot more natural using the Playstation 3 controller as opposed to Microsoft’s. It just doesn’t feel like this sort of a game was built for the 360. The 360 controller is meant more for shooters. Nonetheless, this is a fantastic game and the replay value is high with the various achievements and unlockables you can get your hands on. Pros: •Fantastic gameplay and storyline •Stylish and cinematic qualities •New combos and innovative ideas •Dark humor and rock and roll soundtrack Cons: •Seems rushed in some areas •Unanswered questions regarding the story •Horrible shadow effects •Since the first three games were for the Playstation 2, it seems much more natural on the Playstation 3. The 360 controller is uncomfortable with this sort of game. Chrono Trigger It was the year 1995 when the game Chrono Trigger was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was praised, and has since become known as one of the best RPGs of all time. Thirteen years later, it is now being released for the Nintendo DS. The developers are confident that a new generation of fans will fall in love with it. Having never played it before, I had my doubts that a game so old would still hold the test of time. Now that I have played it, I can say that the game has aged nicely and I have little gripes with it. The game follows Crono, a boy who lives in a fictional world in the year 1000 A.D. He crosses paths with a princess and learns how to travel through time. After a completing couple levels, you learn that the world ends a few years after Crono’s time and you set out to prevent it from happening. The story is a really neat idea, especially since the game was made in a time where most games had little to no story. It takes skill to create an entire history and future for a fictional world. You meet characters throughout each time period you visit, and each of them has an interesting back-story. You stay engrossed in the story throughout, a feat hard to accomplish even with the newest games. The gameplay is standard turn-based RPG with a twist. You have three characters in your party that take turns attacking, but you can also mix each character’s special attacks to create a powerful move. This lets you combat the increasingly difficult enemies as the game progresses. The rest is pretty standard. You have regular attacks, magic attacks, and items. Most battles don’t last too long so it doesn’t get incredibly frustrating, and the game has a steady pace. One problem I have with this game is the placement of save points. They seem too spread out. You usually only see one in the middle of a dungeon and then right before a boss fight. This means if you are at a resting point in the game between dungeons you need to keep playing. This can be frustrating, especially if you lack the time to sit down and you want to play a quick game between obligations. The new monster training side feature for the DS is a waste of time and shouldn’t be the game’s main selling point. I lacked interest quickly and went back on to play the main game. Aside from these few minor errors though, this game is a treat thirteen years later and is still better than half of the current RPGs that are made. It has stood the test of time and is a prime reason that people play video games. I'l post more later if people can stand them EDIT: It won't indent for some reason. Oh well >.> Edited by scabies, Feb 14 2009, 05:11 PM.



1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)


« Previous Topic · User Video Game Reviews · Next Topic »