Important Review Information

  First of all, my review for "The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening" which was supposed to be online starting on August 28th 2011 has been cancelled. I can say that I will still be reviewing the game come sometime in October.

  And most importantly, in honor of the 25th Anniversary of the Legend of Zelda franchise and the forthcoming release of Skyward Sword, I have decided to re-play all of the three-dimensional Zelda games including Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Ocarina of Time 3D (Master Quest). So look forward to reviews for these games during the month of September!

 That's all for now but keep checking back as on September 1st the September schedule will be available for viewing. :)

“Lego Star Wars III” Review

For Nintendo Wii

Pros:	Cons:
Great classics Star Wars music themes	Fuzzy looking characters and dark visuals
Large amount of content and co-op mode	Annoying voice acting and comedy
Huge HUB World and tons of unlockables	Terrible ground assault levels

If you’re a Lego fan, Star Wars fan, a child, or all of the above, there’s a good chance you’ve already been thinking about purchasing the latest Lego-style adventure from TT Games. And to be terse, Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars is a great use of the Star Wars universe, and an absolute blast to play with a friend. There are some obvious deal-breakers included in the game however, so let’s weigh the many pros and cons and see if this game is really worth your time.

                When it comes down to the visuals, everything looks ok, good enough to get by, but nothing really fun to look at. The characters themselves are all fuzzy looking animations that closely resemble their toy Lego counterparts. During every level, you will commonly come across many cut-scenes which help to tell the story, but I found that these cut-scenes were always dull, boring, and not to mention dark and were occasionally hard on the eyes to watch. There is a lot to complain about in the graphics, but if there’s one thing to praise, it would be the amount of detail added to this game over the predecessors. And I’m not saying It’s good, far from that actually, I’m just saying that it’s the best efforts the developers put in yet.

                Like I every other Star Wars video game, the music is great. Not quite as much so here, as only a few themes are the masterful John Williams themes, but most of the music here is still well done and fits in well in the Lego Star Wars universe. Most of the sound effects in the game are also well done, whereas the voice acting in the game is annoying and pointless. All of the characters grunt to tell their story, and it can be quite annoying after a while. I can see how kids may enjoy it, but for an older gamer, this will probably be hard on your ears.

                The comedy itself isn’t very funny, and only occasionally becomes a bit laughable, most of the time either a character runs into another, or some other comic relief that doesn’t even occur in the TV show. And yes, for those of you who are wondering, the game is based on the animated TV show of the same name (of which I am a huge fan), but doesn’t necessarily follow it completely. The way in which the levels are organized is through villain, but those villains do not necessarily appear in the corresponding episodes. This is just a small complaint but to a huge fan like me, it really can be distracting.

                The original Lego Star Wars game didn’t look to be anything spectacular, but boy did it exceed expectations when it was released. I’m not going to say that Lego Star Wars III beats the original in that regard because it absolutely does not in fact; most of the new gameplay in this game are all bad additions rather than good. The first new addition to the game is now when using the force to move an object, the game no longer automatically does it for you, you now have to manually place objects on top of each other to build larger objects. This can be extremely frustrating and difficult to do. Also, probably the game’s largest addition; the ground battles, is easily the game’s worst aspect. I found all of them completely annoying and overly used. Besides being used as their own mode, many missions also got included into the story mode in the main game. Most of the time you find yourself running around a huge battlefield, looking for a ship to use, and nearly every level has the exact same boring goal to complete. It’s not fun. Besides these complaints however, the simple charming gameplay that has returned from the previous titles is as fun as ever. Activating switches with R2-D2, fighting with Jedi, or grappling up the side of a building is still a blast. And controlling all of this is actually pretty good as well. The only major control issue I had was in the ground battles, when in a vehicle you must aim with the Wii Remote at structures in order to shoot them, this was sometimes a bit glitch of an experience and always difficult to perform. Overall the gameplay is very, very far from perfection, however it does manage to get the job done, just avoid those ground assaults.

                By far the best aspect of Lego Star Wars III, is the absolutely enormous amount of content to find and explore. You will find as you play that there is unlockable after unlockable from characters to power-ups, and everything in between. There are tons of modes as well, the amazing co-op mode is present in each level, as well as split-screen, an arcade mode for two players, space combat, and dare I say it… ground assault. And completing all of these events rewards you with gold bricks, and the more you collect of these, the more locations you unlock in the HUB World. And speaking of the HUB, it is massive, there are tons of places to find and see as you explore this absolutely huge place. From the Republic battleship the Resolute, to the Separatist ship, and all the space in between, you’ll find yourself getting lost all the time. That said, it would’ve been nice to have a map or some type of navigational device to use. But what the developer did here is amazing, and by far the best in the series. If you love this game, then you’ll be happy that there is tons of it to play.

                Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars is far from perfect, it’s a good game that you’ll either love or hate. At first, I found myself frustrated by the differences between it and its predecessors, but after a week or so I’ve grown to enjoy my newest Lego adventure. I can’t say that everyone will feel this way, and so if you are not a Star Wars or Lego fan, I honestly can’t recommend this for you. However, for children across the board, I can guarantee that this adventure is one you’re going to love!

Graphics: Simplistic cut-scenes, fuzzy characters, dark boring visuals with some detail          6.0

Audio: Great classic Star Wars music and descent sound effects, annoying voice acting         7.0

Story: Doesn’t follow the Clone Wars TV Show to a tee, but gets the job done                        5.0

Gameplay: Descent controls for the most part, and good gameplay but with some flaws     7.0

Gameplay Amount: Surprisingly large amount of content and unlockables, huge HUB        9.0

Overall: A must have for all children, or for Star Wars fans like myself, otherwise, avoid at all costs  7.0

Major Game Release Dates Announced!

  Finally the moment Nintendo fans have been waiting for! Straight from Gamescom in Europe, Nintendo has announced that "The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword" will be launching for the Nintendo Wii on November 18th in Europe, and November 20th in North America. Also, a few days ago, an unofficial release date for Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 were announced as November 13th and December 4th respectively. These are deemed unofficial but are very likely to be the final release dates. Looks like we'll be getting all three of this year's top games within three weeks of each other. Color me excited!

“Super Mario World” Review

For Nintendo Wii Virtual Console

Pros:	Cons:
Great 16-bit graphics with visual variety	Music Themes are repeated too often
Tons of great themes and sounds	Mandatory secret exits a huge pain
Fun Mario gameplay with new items and enemies	Controls on virtual console re-release are absolutely terrible
Tons of levels to explore and secrets to find

            My experience with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System is extremely limited, and until now I had never even completed a single game on the console. I blame my minimal experience with the SNES on the fact that I came along at the end of the SNES era, when Nintendo 64’s were being introduced, and my dad (who showed me some of his favorite games) was a kid during the NES era, and never really knew the SNES. I’ve heard of some great SNES games such as Super Metroid, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, but not really have played any until now. Super Mario World is with a doubt my favorite SNES game, and for that matter… probably my least favorite.

                Gone are the days of Mario launch-titles; the original NES launched alongside Super Mario Bros, the SNES with Super Mario World, the Game Boy with Super Mario Land, the N64 with Super Mario 64, but since then…nothing. And I must say, for a launch title Super Mario World looks stunning. The game has an immense amount of visual variety that is easily apparent in every last course. The colors are all vibrant and fun for your eyes to soak in, and the character models and frame rates all look nice too. Mario himself looks a lot better than he did in Super Mario Bros. 3 as do all the other elements of the game. Super Mario World is a fantastic looking game, but does the music match up to the visuals?

                Mario’s premier SNES adventure features a truly astonishing soundtrack accompanied by some creative little sounds that activate when doing anything from jumping on enemies, eating a mushroom, hitting a block, or riding on Yoshi, the new dinosaur pal in this game. I will admit there are one or two dull tunes in the game, but or clearly overlooked when thinking of some of the better themes the game has to offer. If there’s one thing I can definitely complain about in the sound, it would have to be that most of the themes are repeated a bit too often, sure, it’s nice to hear familiar tunes to hum along to, but after a while some of the tunes really age and aren’t as fun as the first time you heard them. I just wish there were a few more tunes to listen to while playing.

                As always, the gameplay is masterful. Since when does a main series Mario platformer not have good gameplay? Super Mario World manages to once again continue the trend and deliver yet another outstanding and fun game experience. From the new items like the cape, to the enemies like wiggler and the boos, all the way to Yoshi himself, the game introduces new items and enemies while bringing back some old favorites. I would say that every single aspect of the gameplay is rock solid except for one; I absolutely hate the fact that some of the secret exits are mandatory. I don’t mind that there are secret exits for people to find, in fact I love that feature, but a few of them are mandatory in order to advance to a new world and can be extremely frustrating to find and reach. There is only two or three of these instances in the game, but when they are present they are extremely annoying an unnecessary. Another problem I had was due to the fact that I played the game in its re-made version on the Wii Virtual Console, and therefore encountered some control issues. I played the entirety of the game on the GameCube’s unique remote, and was forced to hold the remote in a weird and unnatural position. I’m not going to allow that to decrease the final score as I imagine the SNES version of the game didn’t have that problem, but if you are planning on playing the game on the Virtual Console, beware of the terrible control problems. I also had some trouble controlling Mario’s cape in some instances and I imagine that is a problem on the SNES version as well, so that can’t really be helped. Overall though the gameplay in Super Mario World is rock solid, flawless, and very close to perfection.

                Super Mario World hosted a surprising amount of content in my play-through, some of which I was extremely surprised to see. There are tons of levels to explore each with hidden Yoshi Coins and other hidden goodies, and a good majority of the levels contain secret exits to find (which can be a bad thing if they are mandatory to beat the game), which provide a nice challenge for veteran players in order to 100% the game. The only question I have about the amount of content is “what happened to World 8?” Nearly every 2-D Mario platformer has 8 worlds, so I was very surprised to finish the game in world 7 instead of world 8. Overall I didn’t find the game to have quite as much content as some other Mario titles, but it still had quite a bit of enjoyable and engaging content.

                It’s rare to find a game that has amazing graphics, a fun soundtrack, varied gameplay, and tons of enjoyable content, but if there is one game that has them all, it would be Super Mario World. In fact, nearly every Mario game ever fits this description and nearly every one proves to be an outstanding adventure. I’m not ready to say that Super Mario World is better than one of my favorite games of all time, Super Mario Bros. 3, but it is easily one of the best Mario games currently available. Based on what I’ve played so far in the SNES library, I honestly cannot wait to see more!

Graphics: Amazing 16-bit graphics with tons of visual variety, characters look great              9.5

Audio: Tons of great themes and sounds, however some themes are repeated too often       8.5

Gameplay: Fun Mario gameplay with new items and enemies, secret exits a huge pain        9.0

Gameplay Amount: Tons of levels to explore and secret exits to find                                   9.5

Overall: Easily one of the best SNES games ever, and a fantastic Mario platformer                9.4

“Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story” Review

For Nintendo DS

Pros:	Cons:
Colorful worlds with detailed character models	Overused voice acting and too much text
Great themes and sound effects	Poor overworld controls and touch controls
Silly and original story with unique characters	Tedious battles stretch forever
Fun original gameplay and combat system	Un-engaging sidequests
Fairy long quest with lots to do and find

Note: Sorry for the somewhat poor review, I had to write this in a rush and didn't have any time for proof-reading. Don't take this as a review you cannot trust however.

            For years the only Mario role-playing game I knew was the Paper Mario trilogy, for years I played this outstanding series of games and enjoyed every second of it, for years I would re-play and re-play these three marvelous games, for years, I wished there was more… Finally in fall of 2009 with the release of Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, my wish came true. You see, I never really got into the Mario RPG games besides the Paper Mario’s, and still haven’t played the first two Mario and Luigi RPG’s even to this day, but I sure am happy I’ve played the third installment in what looks to be a great franchise. And before I begin this review, I do have one confession; I hated the game at first, for nearly two years after the release I never played it. But then one day I slipped it back in my trusty DSi, and boy am I happy that I did.

                The main element that sets Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story apart from other Mario RPG’s is that Mario and Luigi are playable on the bottom screen, while Bowser is playable on the top screen (more on that later). But what’s important is how good the visuals are on both screens at all times. The lush colorful overworlds of the mushroom kingdom are beautiful and the detailed two-dimensional graphics are mostly un-matched on the Nintendo DS handheld. The game looks simply outstanding and easily one of the best looking DS titles to date. And not only are the backgrounds beautiful, but the character models look really amazing as well. Walking Bowser in a diagonal direction will make it appear as if he is a three-dimensional character, something that looks great when combined with the rest of the game’s brilliant visuals. If there’s one area where Bowser’s Inside Story really excels, it would be the visuals.

                Thankfully the great visuals are accompanied by just as good of a soundtrack that perfectly complements every area of the game with its fun and energetic music. Nearly every track in the game is a masterpiece whereas just a few are a bit less of an achievement. Some of my favorites include the Bowser’s castle lobby, as well as the final battle theme, and Fawful’s (the main villain in the game) Theme itself. Plus the sound effects are all pure Nintendo and are all fitting to their use (especially Fawful’s creepy laughing). The voice acting used for Mario and Luigi is also a real hoot but only at first, the humorous voice acting is overused throughout the entire adventure and Nintendo even re-used a lot of the same recordings over and over. I loved it at first, but eventually the repetition got extremely annoying.

               

                Most RPG’s are known for a complex and intricate story, well if that’s what you’re looking for, Mario’s latest RPG probably isn’t for you. In this game, the wacky story begins with Bowser inhaling Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and a couple Toads into his body. Mario and Luigi then run around in his body fixing things and giving him boosts in order to let him accomplish his objectives. Bowser travels the Mushroom Kingdom and fights the evil villain Fawful’s massive army while the Bros. take care of business inside Bowser, but I’ll leave the rest to your imagination, unless you play it of course. All of the characters are unique and silly as well and localization did a great job of keeping all of the text in the game absolutely hilarious, and yes I did say text. The game actually has a bit too much text, and if you think my reviews are too long, then you definitely should NOT play this game. But if you’re fine with reading go ahead, the dialogue is quite funny and should keep you hooked throughout the adventure. Sure, the story and its characters are all completely crazy, but it’s the way that all this makes an impact on the gameplay that’s so amazing and fun!

                The central gameplay mechanism will have you switching back and forth between the Mario brothers and Bowser. For the most part, this is quite fun and is used in a large variety of ways. The gameplay in the two overworlds is great and varied as well. Inside Bowser’s body, Mario and Luigi come across many 2-D side scrolling platformer sections while Bowser must do more in the field of role-playing. The controls for handling all of this however, aren’t exactly perfect. “A” controls Mario, “B” controls Luigi, “X and Y” control Bowser, and when jumping inside Bowser’s body, “A and B” must be pressed in conjunction in order to make Mario and Luigi jump simultaneously. In some areas this can be extremely difficult like when bouncing across a bouncy floor, or jumping across moving platforms. Besides this, the game requires you to change your controls constantly to move forward. You may at times have to press “R” to change from jump to hammer, or from hammer to cyclone, or from cyclone to jump and this can become annoying and a pain. Some of the touch controls on the minigames and special moves don’t always pick up your tapping or sliding and can be extremely frustrating. The combat system in the game works extremely well and has you fighting plenty of varied enemies. All of the action commands are fun to do, and rewarding to pull off. The only problem I had with the combat in the game was the fact that there are hardly any optional enemies in the game, and most of the enemies in the overworld are hard to bypass without fighting. But my biggest complaint is how long some battles can take, especially the numerous bosses. The final boss in the game took me at least an hour of non-stop fighting for me to have success over and was extremely tedious. Besides these two complaints the battle system works well for the game.

                The quest itself is fairly long, a good twenty hours or so, and has tons of secret goodies to find. There are also tons of little sidequests to complete in the game which should keep you busy, but I found most of them to be boring and un-engaging. Finding all of the beans in an area is very tedious and un-rewarding, as is many of the other sidequests. One sidequest I did enjoy however, was one in which you had to find all of the Blitty’s in the game in order to unlock Bowser’s best special move which uses Broggy the yellow cube dog to bash your enemies for you. I only wish there were better sidequests to perform.

                Overall I have no problem recommending this title for you, just make sure it’s the kind of game you’re into. The visuals are fantastic, as is the music and silly story and there should be enough content to last you a while. I have mixed feelings about the gameplay, I find that for the most part it is an extremely creative concept and is used in good ways, but I have trouble accepting the many annoying aspects of the combat system and control scheme. In the end this game may not be as good as the Paper Mario games, but it is a great RPG, and one of the best Nintendo DS games you can buy.

Graphics: Colorful worlds and detailed character models, both environments look nice        9.5

Audio: Tons of great themes and sound effects. Humorous voice acting a bit overused          9.0

Story: Unique story and characters but with too much text, albeit funny                                   9.0

Gameplay: Original gameplay and combat system with poor controls and tedious battles    8.5

Gameplay Amount: Fairly long quest with lots to do and find but not always engaging       9.0

Overall: Great graphics, unique gameplay, and a silly story add up to one of the best Mario RPG’s currently available, easily one of the best Nintendo DS games ever!                                 8.8

Grading Rubric Change

 Starting with my review of "Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story" which will be online on August 7th, all review scores will be in 100 point format. (Ex. 8.9, 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3) Instead of 20 point format (Ex. 8.5, 9.0, 9.5) I am doing this because I find it much to difficult to narrow down a review score to either 9.5 or 10.0 when I think it deserves somewhere in between. I fear how the rubric is designed currently, that  no scores will be receiving a 10.0 because of this problem, this is why I have changed it. All previous review scores will maintain their original scores for now. Thanks for your patience while we work out some issues in the site and reviews, and look forward to my next review this Sunday!

ALL REVIEW SCORES NOW IN 100 POINT FORMAT INSTEAD OF 20 POINT!!!

August 2011 Review Schedule

August 7th-Mario and Luigi Bowser's Inside Story (DS)
August 14th-Super Mario World (Wii VC)
August 21st-Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (Wii)
August 28th-The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (3DS VC)

Dates are subject to change. September schedule coming on September 1st 2011.