New Super Mario Brothers Wii

Available on - Nintendo Wii
Score between 7 and 10 - 9(Great)
You may like New Super Mario Brothers Wii if you like - Seriously? Do I even have to say it this point? If you love any of the Mario games you will love this title, fans of the DS NSMB will especially love this title. A must play for any platform fan in general!

Game Concept - Mario must save the princess from Bowswer Jr and the Koopa Kids for the 1,000th time. Run, wall jump and butt pound your way to victory with the Mustachioed Marvel in this pinnacle of platforming perfection! Thankfully while this is not new ground, it is still amazingly fun!

Pros
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Rescue Toad Missions and Bonus coins offer up extra value - While Mario games are pretty straight forward and the only replay value to speak of is usually based on if you enjoyed your first romp enough to replay the same game, NSMB Wii has some bonuses that can make it worth replaying or stretch the time you spend on your first play through. Each world has a toad mission or two where you must find a Toad hiding in a question brick and then carry him from the start to the end of the stage. This might now sound so bad, but it means you can not get hit as often, falling in holes resets the whole process, and finally that you can not use special power ups to assist you such as propeller hat to breeze through the stage. The other thing that may add some replay is the bonus coins which return from Mario on the DS. Basically every stage in the game(including Boss stages)will have 3 large bonus coins hidden throughout the level which you can find and trade with the toads for bonus videos. These coins always require jumps more difficult then you would normally face in the world you are in, or be hidden well and require a puzzle to find. Hunting them all down can be fun at times and definitely extends the time I have spent with the game.

Multilayer Mario! - I remember as a kid playing Super Mario World with my brother and having to pass the controller back and forth between worlds or when we died. It was a huge pain in the butt and while the game was still fun it diluted the experience quite a bit. No more though! Now Mario can be played with up to 4 players. The best thing though is that not only does this solve the problem of having to share your game with a pesky little brother, but that the multiplayer actually adds quite the different experience to the game! Playing through with others can make stages quite a bit easier...or quite a bit more difficult. Making things easier is the fact that whenever a player dies they do not stay dead, instead they appear back on the screen in a bubble and can be brought back into play if another player touches/pops the bubble. The extra players can also make things more difficult though since they can land on your head sending you plummeting into a pit, push you over a cliff, or when their bubble touches you if your in mid air you fall straight down! When I played through NSMB with my friends I found that it made the experience a lot easier, but when I played through with my wife and 11 year old brother it was much more difficult since they were constantly accidentally killing me ;) All in all though the multiplayer experience is a lot of fun even when you are playing with non gamers!

Not being able to hold a second item helps balance the game - In the DS NSMB you were able to hold a second item and then tap the touch screen to gain access to it. This meant you could essentially get hit several times and still survive, it also meant you could save a fire flower for a boss stage and just blow them away! Thankfully NSMB Wii changed it back to SMB3 style where you can use an item on the world map to power up, but never mid stage. This change when combined with a general increase in the difficulty goes a long way in balancing the game to a more reasonable level of difficulty when compared to the far too easy NSMB DS.

Small touches add charm - The turtles in the game now stop and dance to the beat of the music and collecting the third bonus coin in a stage or every coin after hitting a bonus block now results in clapping and cheers. These are amazingly small touches and not a game seller by any means...but they still give the game a charm and extra appeal!

Ah nostalgia, sweet sweet nostalgia -NSMB Wii brought back some stuff from past Mario games that can tickle us older games nostalgia bone. The biggest culprits come from Super Mario Brothers 3 with both the Koopa Kids and the airship levels(complete with cannonballs and wrench chucking moles)returning!

The last boss is truely epic - Far too many games have final battles that seem to just fizzle, they are disappointing and just leave you with a sour taste in your mouth. I can not stress enough that NSMB is not one of those games! I want to spoil the final boss battle so badly, but I just can not bring myself to do it. That I am listing it though as a pro should say something for how epic it truly was! Easily one of my favorite moments in gaming ever.


Cons
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Extra World requires you collect all the bonus coins - Your know those bonus coins I touted above as a good feature in the game...sadly they are a bad feature as well! While in the DS version the main purpose these served was to let you obtain extra items, in NSMB Wii there is an extra world you get access to after beating the game. Problem is that you can not play the stages in the bonus world unless you have found EVERY bonus coin in every stage of the various worlds. So to unlock stage 9-1 you must collect all the bonus coins in world one, then to play the second stage every bonus coin in world 2. This is just a pain in the butt and a huge disappointment since I, and I would imagine many other gamers do not want to bother with the bonus coins just to play the extra stages!

Bosses are far too easy - While for nostalgia sake I am happy to see the Koopa Kids back, they make for some disappointing bosses. Each Koopa kid follows a very set pattern and one you learn it you will breeze through the fight. By the end of the game I found myself learning their attack pattern in the first minute of the fight and then not only would I not get hit again, but I often would not even let them attack again...its that easy!

All 4 playable characters are the exact same - Remember playing Super Mario 2 back on the NES and being able to replay it over and over again thanks to the fact that each character controlled differently? Well in NSMB Wii......that aint happening! Sadly while you can play the game 4 player or with different characters both of the Toads and Luigi control the exact same as Mario. It really feels like a missed chance for the developer to extend the life of the game, imagine if all 4 would have played differently how much more fun it would have been?

Closing Comments - Another week another Mario game, and that I am still not only not burnt out, but still excited for Super Mario Galaxy 2 next week shows why this series deserves its legendary status. The multiplayer mode and bonus items add a reason to keep playing even after finishing the game, and I can not think of anything they could have added(outside a few more worlds)to make me enjoy my first play through more. Mario has always been seen as the face of gaming, and time and time again his games prove why that is.

New Super Mario Brothers - Quick Hit!

Available on - DS
Score between 7 and 10 - 9(Great)
You may like New Super Mario Brothers if you like - Any 2D platformer ever made. Seriously, if you like any Mario, Sonic, Klonoa or other 2D game you probably know and already love Mario.

Game review - Playing through New Super Mario Brothers Wii(review up shortly)made me want to go back and play through NSMB for the DS. Since I felt I did not have quite as much to say about this title as I have in past reviews I figured id do a quick hit review for it. New Super Mario brothers is the first Mario game since Super Mario World on the SNES to be a good old school 2D platformer, and that was a sad sad thing! 2D platformers have always been one of my favorite genres ever, so that the king/father of 2D platforming Mario had been missing all these years just seemed like a travesty!

NSMB is great and it does go a long way to make up for all the missing years, but sadly is over far too soon thanks to it being a fairly short game, and the fact that its pretty darn easy as far as platformers go! After so many years dying for a new 2D Mario game it was a let down to get something that I felt I could breeze through only dying two or three times. The game play may be as tight as ever and the new power ups are amazing, but outside the time you spend figuring out how to unlock the extra worlds or stages(which is annoying to have to do in the first place)the game is over in what feels like a blink.

Putting my complaints about the games length aside though, I must say that NSMB is an amazing game! As I mentioned above, the controls are tight, the power ups are a lot of fun and attempting to collect all of the games coins can add some replay and a small amount of length to the game. If you are a Mario fan you probably already own this game, hell even if your not a Mario fan you probably already own this game! But if there is some mythical person out there that who actually does not own this game and enjoys platformers I would have to give NSMB a whole hearted recommendation. Now if you do not mind I have a few more Goombas to squash before getting the full length review of NSMB Wii up!

Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes

Available on - DS and soon an updated visual version will hit XBLA and PSN
Score between 7 and 10 - 7(average)
You may like Might and Magic Clash of Heroes - Games that blend puzzle and RPG gameplay such as Puzzle Quest and Geomancer. You may also like it if your a fan of old school RPGs such as Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI but are open to a new style of game play.

About the game - Clash of Heroes basically takes a match three puzzle games style then mixes it with typical RPG elements. You will wander around various locales finding treasure chests, fighting enemies and advancing the story of Demons who are trying to confuse the good races of the worlds(Elves, Humans typical fantasy stuff)into going to war with each other while everyone seeks a mystical blade with the ability to control the demons. The big twist lies in the fact that when you fight enemies you do not get the typical turn based RPG but instead a mix of a puzzle and a strategy game. Your troops start out scattered and to get them to do anything you must match rows of three left to right or down to up. A row of three left to right will create a defensive wall that will help protect you from getting hit, and a row from top to bottom creates an offensive line who after so many turns will charge and attack your enemies. Its a system that offers a fair amount of strategy as you have to balance defending yourself with attacking the enemy! When you then add in the fact that you can link your forms together, combo similar units by matching multiples in one turn and that any time you attack or are attacked you will lose troops which you must spend a turn calling for reinforcements and you have a game that truly makes you think about your decisions!


Pros
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The battles are extremely creative and can be fun! - Many people are sick of playing RPGs where you just mash X either to make your character attack in typical turn based games, or swing his sword in typical action based games. Might and Magic shakes things up much as Puzzle Quest before it did with innovative and fun puzzle game play!

Graphics are bright and stylized - Clash of heroes may not push the DS's graphical abilities, but the game is still very enjoyable to look at thanks to the games stylized art and attention to detail.

Multiple characters to play as - Unlike a lot of RPGs that put you in the shoes of your hero or group of heroes from begging to end, Clash of Heroes puts you in charge of several unique factions. This both lets you see the story unfold through several sets of eyes, but also allows some varied game play since each main character has their own special attack. So, just as you get used to playing as an Elf with the special ability of a huge damage attack as her special ability you will be thrust into the reverse rule of a human with the ability to prevent all damage to himself for one turn!

Lots of unit types - I mentioned in my opening how Clash of Heroes has a lot of depth since you have to debate things like defense vs offense and when to call for reinforcements, but having so many unit types really puts it on another plain! Honestly every single race/faction in the game has 4 or 5 basic units with different strengths, defenses and turns they take to attack, but then they also have another 3 or 4 special troops that are as large as 2 normal troops and when attacking do something special like hop over the enemies walls or attack multiple times . Each race/faction also has an elite troop that is the size of 4 normal troops and does something horrifically powerful like a giant area attack that leaves a poison trail or leaches life from enemies killed. All these varied units offers the player the ability to customize their army to fit their play style and to try out many sets of tactics!

The game is challenging, but at least death is forgiving -The game has a good challenge at times and most gamers will probably die, however death is pretty fair in this game as you generally lose nothing and just get booted from battle to try again!

Several different types of battles -Throughout the game most of the battles may be of the same type, but every few battles you will be thrown a twist. Sometimes you may have someone on your side you have to defend against the enemies, sometimes there may be someone on the enemies side of battle you have to be careful NOT to hit, or someone that the only way to win IS to hit them! There are also special "puzzle" battles that are more akin to a typical puzzle games puzzle mode. In these battles someone will have given you very specific troops and put very specific enemies in front of you, using a limited amount of moves you must figure out how to arrange your units so that it kills all enemy units. These puzzle battles and the other special battles come just often enough to be a breathe of fresh air, but not so often as to frustrate the player.


Cons
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No explanation of enemy types - You get an explanation of your own enemies as they become available, but never of what the enemy has in their army. This means you must learn through trial and error what enemy units do. This can be horrid as you spend 7 minutes on a battle and think you have it won just to find out that one of the enemies special units has an area of effect attack, hits multiple times or jumps over your walls.

Battles can run far too long - Some of the battles, especially those involving more defensive characters like the second you play as can run pretty darn long.

Too easy to bump into higher level enemies! - You can take on quests as well as fight some non random story encounters that put you up against enemies several levels above you and near impossible to beat with absolutely no warning. Given that as I said even battles at your level can drag on for quite some time, this can be incredibly frustrating as you have no choice but to press start and retreat,(which costs you resources)or to push on with a battle you will probably not win....and even if you do will take forever to complete!


Closing Comments - Whenever Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes came out I saw/heard numerous people I respect rant about the game. I wanted it so bad, I LOVED Puzzle Quest and hearing the comparisons as well as the changes made to MM:CoH had me salivating at the mouth to get my hands on it. However I found it left me feeling disappointed. I honestly do not think either that it was high expectations altering my view of the game, I just found the battles running too long, grinding taking too long and some characters(Godrick!)frustrating to play as. This however was just my experience! Given how much others enjoyed the game and that I can clearly see it is still a high quality release(that I did have some fun with) I can not stress enough that this game is totally worth a look! I would just recommend going into it with tempered expectations and the realization that the battles can run long at times and that some characters are more fun to play then others!

Seiken Densetsu 3

Available on - SNES
Score between 7 and 10 - 8(Good)by todays standards and 9(great)for when it was released
You may like Seiken Densetsu 3 if you like - Secret of Mana or any of the other Mana titles. You may also like it if you like old school RPGs or Action based RPGs such as Dark Cloud 2 or Secret of Evermore.

About the game - Seiken 3 lets you chose a party of three out of six possible characters at the beginning of the game and then puts you on a quest where fate leads the three to both complete their own personal quests, but also to defend the world as a whole from a great evil. Outside getting to pick your party, it really is a pretty common and typical quest for an old school RPG. Each character has their own reason such as a lost loved one, a humiliation at the hands of the enemy or a exile from their kingdom to journey from home and by chance save the world. Seiken 3 was one of the rare RPGs back in the SNES days that had the gusto to go action vs turn based. The combat lets you freely move around, swing your sword and cast spells in real time(minus a brief pause when a spell goes off). The Seiken games were not only among the first action RPGs, but also one of the first to allow you to power up your attacks over time for larger more deadly special attacks. In Seiken 2 this was by holding down your attack button to charge up, but in Seiken 3 they instead took the route of every time you successfully strike an enemy your bar builds up till you can unleash bigger attacks. Early in the game its a basic flip or flourish with your weapon that does a bit more damage, but as the game goes on you will unlock two more attacks with larger charges that do crazy things like pause time as your character spazzes out and does damage to one enemy...and then eventually to every enemy on the whole screen!


Pros
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Great Music -While not as stunning as Squares top efforts on the SNES such as the first Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy VI or Chrono Trigger, Square still shows with Seiken 3 they know how to rock some old school tunes.

Multiple characters to play as - As I mentioned in my opening there are six total characters to play as and each game is made up of three characters. This means to experience all six characters you will have to play through at least twice. Playing through twice should not be a problem though thanks to the fact that each character has unique abilities that help to keep things interesting! Angela is your typical mage focusing on attack magic, while Carlie focuses largely on healing magic and buffs. Duran, Kevin and Hawk are your melee characters and play somewhat similar to each other, but each has a unique twist. Duran is your most basic and vanilla character, but later gets the ability to either cast elemental blades and has devastating attacks or he gains the ability to cast healing spells and equip shields. Kevin is a beast man who attacks twice in one go and at night changes into larger wolf man that does more damage with each attack. Hawk meanwhile is more like a typical thief where his attack and defense might not be the best, but his agility and luck are higher and he can learn elemental jutsus and debuffs. Finally, Lise fights pretty close to the boys, but gets summons and either buffs or status attacks.

Multiple paths of growth - You might have noticed above I was making a lot of this or that statements, the reason for this is because twice in the game your character is going to change their class which drastically effects their ability depending on if they go light or dark path. Since you have two choices this means not counting the characters starting class each character has a total of six different classes they can be! This allows a lot of customization in your party, you could play through the game with the exact same party two games in a row but end up playing different games! Using Angela as an example on path gives her tons of elemental spells with uber power, another they are not as powerful but you can double cast them, another she is not as powerful but is extremely mana efficient and a final option makes it so she can target all enemies at once!

Great replay value - I am sure I do not need to go into great depth here and anyone reading the review can understand where six characters with six different classes offers up a ton of replay value.

Solid story - While the story may not compare to games like Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy VI it is still impressive given the fact that your party is not the same every play through! Little differences in each play through make the story a lot more enjoyable too.

Epic Bosses - Many of the bosses are either huge taking up a lot of the screen, or they are just designed very well and give a feel of actually being up against a great foe.

Class changing gives a minor change to your look - While the way the character is designed ultimately stays largely the same your characters color palettes do shift as you change. For example Kevin's hair turns blood red and his outfit turns darker down the evil path and Angela's hair turns blonde down the good path.

Humorous Translation - The US fan translation is not only a solid translation but it leaves in a lot of funny stuff that would normally have been taken out of a SNES game. Angela has moves that flash her ass as she blows kisses at the enemy, there is a joke with Durant about hiding his porn collection and at one point in the story when she is trapped in jail she gets out by tricking the guard into thinking he is getting lucky as she shows him her bare ass.

Cons
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Slow menu system - The games menu system is slow as hell, which makes no sense since this is a SNES game! Honestly there is a pause every time you try and shift between stats, equipment or other options.

Characters move far too slow when in battle - In most games where you can see enemies if you chose not to fight them you can simply run past them....but not Seiken 3! Nope, in Seiken 3 they keep their weapons held up and slowly shuffle their feet anytime there is an enemy on screen. This essentially means its often faster and safer just to fight enemies then try and move past them! It might not be so bothersome, but Seiken has a lot of back tracking(which is another con!).

Chest drops are slow to spawn after you defeat enemies - In the mana series instead of enemies simply dropping items automatically as you kill them, they drop them in treasure chests. The problem is the treasure chests do not spawn instantly or even a slight second after defeating an enemy, instead the delay is long enough that I frequently found myself already moving onto the next screen by the time the enemy dropped their chest! The one nice thing about this though is that 98% of what enemies drop is junk, so it at least does not feel like a large loss.

Kevin's werewolf form should not require a transformation every new battle - You would think that when it turned night Kevin the beastman would turn into his werewolf form and stay it right? Well annoyingly that is not how it works! Instead whenever night time comes Kevin does not transform till he is near enemies, then he transforms...then has to re transform and detransforms with every new group of enemies. This would not be a huge issue if not for the fact that the transformation takes long enough that I can land two or three hits with my other charcters in the time it takes him to finish transforming...which kind of defeats the point of being a more powerful beastman!

Dumb A.I/You must order the characters you are not controlling to cast spells - In most games where you have no control over your partners such as in the Tales series you can set their A.I to perform in numerous ways. Seiken 3 though limits you to chosing to attack the closest enemy to you, furthest or attacking with/separate then the other characters! The worst part about this though is that your partners will not even cast magic spells less you essentially force them to through the menu system. This makes characters like Angela and Carlie that are casters either useless or time consuming when fighting non boss monsters, since you are faced with either having to just rely on their craptastic melee damage, or constantly going into the menu and telling them to cast spells! The addition of an A.I system letting you program them to cast or not cast at given moments would have increased my enjoyment of this game dramatically.

Some bosses tend to stay unreachable to melee characters through much of the fight - A lot of bosses fly, hover or hide in ways that make it so that casters may be able to keep blasting away at them, but your physical fighters are essentially useless.

It is not always clear where to go or what to do - Seiken 3 can be downright frustrating at times thanks to the fact that the story does not always make it clear where to go, or it does but the environment does not! A good example would be early in the game where you know you need to find the wind crystal, but the crystal is blocked...so you just have to wander around lost till you find a random field of flowers where an event happens telling you where to go next. Another good example is shortly after that there is a point where the story makes it clear you are supposed to find this cave....but not that to find the cave you must search this one tiny little rock and chose to cast a spell on it to open the hidden cave! There are just far too many moments where I found myself frustrated over unclear progression points like this, and making matters worse is that as I said its not easy to run past enemies so you must continue fighting constantly while trying to figure out where to go!

Closing Comments - Secret of Mana was one of my favorite games as a kid, so when I found out that fans had translated Seiken 3 I was thrilled! Since then I have played Seiken Densetsu 3 at least a good dozen or more times, which speaks volumes both for how well it holds up and to how great of a game it must have been back in the day. The class system offers up a ton of options and it is just a blast to explore each and every possible class, character and story change with each replay! That said though, the more I play Seiken 3 the more I feel it just does not live up to Secret of Mana(again Seiken 2). While Seiken 3 is still an awesome game, it just seems to fall short of Seiken 2 in every area. The class system does not offer the game play depth of the weapon system from 2, the ring system from 2 beats the menu system of 3 for accessibility, the story of 2 felt like it was more thought out, 3 has more bugs and issues...and in general is just not as much fun! At the end of the day though if you can not tell from my score for Seiken 3 and general comments through out the review I still think its an amazing game, just an amazing game that falls short of reaching its little brothers Godly status ;)

inFamous

Available on - Playstation 3
Score between 7 and 10 - 9(Great)
You may like inFamous if you like - Open world super hero games such as Spiderman, The Hulk, Crackdown or Prototype. You also may enjoy it if you enjoy fast paced shooting/action games such as Uncharted.


Game Concept - inFamous tells the story of a man who is suddenly given lighting/energy based super powers after a package he is carrying explodes. The game plays out similar to other open world games such as Prototype and Crackdown, but Cole's limited initial abilities mixed with the fact that your base attack is a lighting bolt fired via targeting with the left bumper then firing with the right trigger makes the game feel similar to third person shooters such as Uncharted or Tomb Raider. inFamous will have you running around the city completing missions with an enjoyable mix of the two game play styles. One moment you might be flying from roof top to roof top and killing enemies by jumping off it with a huge lighting explosion, but the next you may be hiding behind a cement barrier taking pop shots and lobbing lighting grenades. All in all expect a lot of action from this title.


Pros
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Lots of upgrades - Bombs, energy waves, shields, streams of lighting, concentrated slow motion blasts! Cole has a pretty decent arsenal that opens up through out the game, and the nice thing is that each has 3 upgrades you can purchase with experience you get from defeating enemies and completing missions.

Playing as a good or bad guy alters your moves and appearance! - Ok, so inFamous may not have in depth grey area decisions like a lot of new RPGs, but I still enjoyed the depth that the Karma system offered to the game play. Making good decisions means you learn attacks that are more concentrated and can assist you by doing things like restraining enemies caught in your grenade blasts. Meanwhile making evil decisions such as killing restrained villains that are no longer a threat gives you more powerful but wreckless attacks. Cole's appearence in the game and the way the people of the city react to you also changes based on how you play which is a nice touch on Sucker Punches part!

Unique Missions - Many super hero games seem to get stuck with the same two or three types of mission that you repeat over and over and over. Delivery missions, roof top races, kill all the enemies and destroy the base are missions we see in every game similar to inFamous...and of course in inFamous itself. Nice thing is though that while inFamous features these missions it also has a few more unique missions that are enjoyable. Two good examples are the prison escort missions where you must help the cops escort captured villains to prison and surveillance missions where enemies have planted surveillance equipment on civilian buildings and you must hunt them down and destroy them.

The Story is interesting - No, it is not interesting in the way an epic game such as Mass Effect 2 or Planescape Torment's stories are interesting, but inFamous does tell a tell that from start to finish is entertaining. So while the story is not AAA material, it is defintly appreciated after playing other super hero games!

inFamous has long legs! - I was surprised to find at the point I thought the game was wrapping up it was only 1/3rd or so of the way over. Given that you can easily find this game for around $20(or $30 new) now I think the amount your spending for the time you get out of the game is amazing. The biggest reason for this to be listed as a pro though is that these hours are almost all interesting! Far too many games can boast that they take a long time to complete, inFamous can claim it was not 90% filler.

Sly Cooper - The developer of this game made the Sly Cooper series. Thats right, I am listing developing Sly Cooper as a pro for inFamous! I debated making it a con since making inFamous meant we did not get Sly Cooper 4...but I decided in the end that the Sly Cooper series is so amazing it still has to be listed as a pro, Sly Cooper is just that bad ass ;)


Cons
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Scaling buildings takes too damn long! - One of the two major/non nit pick complaints I have with inFamous is that it takes too damn long to scale buildings. Cole scales buildings in the way Nathan Drake would and thats a damn shame! Sorry, but after so many great super hero games have come out that let me jump 60 feet into the air, fly, web sling or just demolish a building in my way its just lame to have to climb from window to window spending 15 seconds to get up the side of a small building! At the very least by the halfway mark they could have given me some kind of ability to jump higher, or your static thrust could have let you fly vs just float downward(more like plummet).

Travel Times can be annoying - The combination of how long it takes to climb buildings and the fact that Cole never learns a way to travel the city faster means you spend far too much time just getting from place to place. The worst is when you have to travel back to parts of the city you have already cleared so you spend 5 minutes or more just running from one location to the next. I honesty do not know why the developers could not have either created a warp system, gave Cole an ability that lets him move faster or done ANYTHING to make getting back and forth faster!

Early in the game I felt kind of weak - Cole is supposed to be a super hero so the last thing the player should ever feel is weak! However early in the game that is most definitely how I felt. As the game progressed and I got more and more powers it worked out to where I felt like a super hero, but early in the game the slow movement, slow climbing of buildings and the fact that your basic attack felt so much like shooting a gun meant I felt less like a super hero and more like Nathan Drake with a lighting gun.

Characters including Cole get stuck on the environment or even other people - Through out the game I saw NPCs get stuck on things in the environment such as trash cans or poles numerous times. At first it was not something id list as a con since it really is not that big of a deal, however as the game went on I myself got stuck on things including dead civilians and enemies. These minor bugs are far from a game ending glitch, and 99% of the game played flawlessly, but there were a few times where getting stuck on a dead enemy was less of an annoyance and more a major problem since I was already low on health with enemies firing at me. As I said this did not occur often enough to lower the games score, but it is still def worth mention!

One of the final segments of the game was impossible to see in - There is a part of the game where you return to ground zero of the accident and everything is covered in dust. This is understandable and they did a good job making it realistic...problem is that it was so realistic I found it hard to see what I was doing at times. Making matters worse is that they made all the enemies in the area grey, and most of the civilians are wearing darker colored clothes as well! This meant that there was a section where spotting people was difficult...and telling if it was an enemy or pedestrian was even harder. This segment of the game only lasted an hour or so, so I say its a minor complaint, but it was still annoying while it lasted!

Closing Comments - When inFamous was announced I was disappointed that we were getting it instead of a new Sly Cooper game. When I started playing inFamous while I was enjoying it I was disappointed I did not feel more like a super hero. When I finished inFamous I was disappointed that the game was over and the sequel was so far away! Sucker Punch has proved time and time again that they make amazing games and inFamous was no exception to that rule. I enjoyed my romp with the game and I do not understand how I could have ever doubted it would be a great game. I found that as time went on I felt like the game just got better and better and I can only hope that when the sequel comes that they continue that trend fixing on the small complaints I had with the game. As a final statement of the games quality I will say that even though I just beat the game, and even though its a fairly long game, I am already debating replaying through as a villain! If your a fan of super hero games or just in the mood for something action packed then stop looking and just drop your $20-$30 on this gem!

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

Available on - Nintendo DS
Score between 7 and 10 - 8(Good)
You may like Castlevania: OoE if you like - Any of the past Castlevania titles, Metroid series or Shadow Complex.

Game Concept - Another long running series that should need no explanation...but will get one! Castlevania games almost always put you in the rule of a hero out to slay Dracula(yes THAT Dracula). Pretty much all of them have you exploring a large Castle fighting numerous bosses till you get to Dracula himself. Most will also feature light platforming but be very heavy on action, action which can at times be punch the wall difficult. Newer Castlevanias tend to let you level up, change your equipment and power up your character in other ways. OoE follows all of the typical guide lines for the most part, but eschews a few traditions such as the giant castle to instead focus on smaller more varied areas.



Pros
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The two weapon Glyph system offers a lot of great combos and depth - In OoE instead of finding and equipping weapons as usual, you will use "glyphs" absorbed from defeated monsters or found throughout the castle. Unlike past Castlevania games which mostly limited you to one weapon OoE lets you assign one to the X button and one to the Y button. In addition early in the game you will get an item that allows you to switch your glyphs between three set ups you assign in the menu. This allows a great amount of variety in how you play, since you can have two weapons on each set up and switch to one of your other two set ups in a blink for a total of 6 unique weapons on hand at once. In addition, certain glyph combos will work together to create special attacks! So, maybe using an ax with a bow does nothing special, but combining your ax and your ice glyph creates a huge ice hammer that freezes all foes. There are numerous combos like this and discovering them all is a blast.

Great Music - Castlevania games tend to have great music so this will not be a surprise to any fan. Great rock guitar blaring, creepy music, all the typical stuff is here and as good as ever!

The backgrounds/settings are very detailed - The OoE team certainly did not ignore the DS's power with this game. Not only are the graphics pretty darn good, but the backgrounds are extremely detailed featuring moving objects and numerous items scattered about. Where many games would chose to just paint some clouds in the background or a tree here or there you will see villages, statues, moving waves and many other things in the backdrop which makes the game feel all the more vibrant and alive.

Plenty of hidden secrets - Castelvania just is not Castlevania without tons of hidden items, weapons and other secrets! Thankfully OoE does not fail in this department. Without a guide I would imagine most players will spend a lot of extra hours attacking walls trying to find hidden passages, items and glyphs!

Side Quests are a nice distraction/way to get items - OoE offers up a good two dozen or so side quests provided by various NPCs. While they are mostly fetch quests and monster grinds with no new game play modes or areas, they do give you a reason to go back to old dungeons and kill enemies and they do provide some nice items!

The new map system means there is less backtracking - As mentioned above OoE does away with the giant Castle to instead have you visit different unique areas that are completely separate from each other. This means you can hop on a central map and select to go back to any place you have visited before, vs having to backtrack across a bunch of the dungeon to reach a past location.



Cons
--------------------------------
Some of the bosses are balls ass difficult- If your a gamer that thought Castlevania has been too easy recently....well you are probably still going to think this game is too easy. However, I personally found that while the normal monsters inhabiting dungeons were pretty standard that the boss difficulty had been kicked up a notch from the past games.

Stupid names for the glyphs - Instead of calling items by their English names they use what I believe is Latin(and if not is some other non English language which is all that matters)! So for example instead of calling an ax an ax or a lance a lance they are reffed to as ascia and hasta. While not the biggest con in the world it is still annoying and unneeded!

Over too soon! - While the game like most other recent Castlevanias offers reasons to replay and extra dungeons...it still just felt too short!


Closing Comments - Looking over the list of pros and cons you would think I really liked Castlevania OoE, and you would be partially right. The truth is that I did enjoy this game as I have every Castlevania game. The game play was tight, the glyph system changed things just enough, the graphics were top notch and the music was banging as always! However, while I may have enjoyed the game and definitely recommend it, I just did not enjoy this as much as other recent Castlevania games. The game felt over too fast, the story while solid just did not stand out and the characters never felt like they clicked. Most importantly though is the fact that the dungeon just felt small and disjointed. Castlevania games usually make you feel like you are exploring this giant Castle which is almost like a boss in and of itself, but OoE just never gave me that feeling with its small dungeons and lack of general theme. OoE definitely gets a recommendation from me....just not the strong recommendation or must play rating I would give most of the other Castlvania games. If you are a fan of the series or a fan of 2D action games you should definitely give OoE a shot, just make sure you have played the other games first ;)

Plants vs Zombies

Available on - PC(steam and PopCap's site)as well as Iphone and Ipad.
Score between 7 and 10 - 9(Great)
You may like Plants vs Zombies if you like - Desktop Tower Defense, Defense Grid, Ninja Town or other tower defense games. Even if you do not like Tower Defense games, if you have dug past PopCap efforts such as Chuzzle, Peggle and Rocketmania then Plants Vs Zombies is worth a look.


Game Concept - There's a zombie on your lawn! OMG what do you do? Do you go for your handgun that has tons of backup ammo? Maybe your grand daddies old shotgun which provides more spread but less range is the best option? Or maybe you should use your hunting rifle to pick them off at the safest distance possible? While your busy debating the important survival tactics of surviving a zombie apocalypse your mom is kicking back drinking tea because she knows the true secret of survival lies in her garden! As any good zombie enthusiast knows Plants are the natural enemies of zombies and go out of their way to kill every last one. In Plants vs Zombies you will face a steady stream of zombies marching their way across your lawn towards intent on eating your brain, the only way to defend yourself is to play garden general and plant various vegetation that will defend you. Each plant will cost energy points, which in most stages is slowly dropped by the sun, but can also be provided from sunflowers you plant. So the basic concept is defend yourself by planting a good mix of offensive, defensive and energy providing plants. Sound simple? Well for the most part it is, but as time goes on you will face different types of zombies and stages that will keep the game challenging.


Pros
------------------
Amazing bang for your buck - The game costs $20 at PopCap which is a fair price to ask, but if you pick it up through steam you can grab the game for $10! Given the fact that I have played through this game twice putting in 30-50 hours on both play, and knowing I will play this game again many times in the future I think your getting an incredible value. But hey that's PopCap!

Very cute and pretty funny - The game just oozes charm, each zombie, plant and the story itself are all designed to be entertaining and amusing.

A large cast of plants and zombies offer great variety - The game features 40 different unique plants, 10 power ups for those plants, 40 zombies and 1 zombie boss! That is a rather large amount of enemies and units for a $10 game!

Plants vs Zombies features a surprising amount of strategy for such a simple game. - At the start of the game you will only have a few plants which greatly limits your strategy, but by the end with all the plants and power ups available to you each person can have their own play style. Where one person may cover their lawn in starfruit that cost only 125 and do low damage but attack in 5 directions providing strength in numbers, another person may chose to have half their lawn empty but its made up for by the fact that they are using ice melons which are run you 500 points but do damage to a group of enemies and freeze them in the process. Half of the fun of this game is coming up with and altering your strategies over time. My first play through I relied heavily on basic pea shooters hid behind walnuts until watermelons opened up, but my second play through I found myself using a corn tosser/starfruit combo.

Just when you think the game is over along come the bonus missions! -I have played games before that toss in a few bonus missions at the end to extend playtime, but rarely are they as fun nor are there as many as PvZ offers! As you play a few bonus missions like zombie bowling open up, but after you beat the game you are flooded with a total of 22 mini games and challenges! There are a few junk games in the mix, but most like Izombie where you take control of the zombies and have to strategically use limited resources to get your zombies to finish off the plants add amazing replay and length to the game!

Best End Credit Song ever - Ok this may not be the biggest pro in the world, but seriously the song is just so cute and amusing! I have yet to show it to someone and not have them smile.....not to mention often catch them humming the song later! My wife has never even played the game yet she can sing the credits line for line!


Cons
------------------------
The game is way too easy outside a few bonus missions - I found Plants vs Zombies to be WAY too easy, even the second play through which is supposed to be harder lacks difficulty IMO. I thought it might just be that I was really good at this game, but then my 10 year old brother beat the game without problems...and suddenly I felt less talented ;( A few of the bonus missions can be rather difficult, and yes there is survival mode, but those do not come until after you have beaten the main game and survival mode does not get challenging until you are several stages in. It would have been really nice if PopCap would have provided a hard made where more zombies came out you and moved faster.

Closing Comments - Nothing sums up Plants vs Zombies better then the fact that I only could think of a single negative thing to say, and even that negative is not a huge one! The game may have a few other minor flaws that bug certain people, but honestly PvZ is easily among the best downloadable titles ever. It thrills me that the game turned out this well because the industry needs more good games that bridge the gap between casual and hardcore gamers like this. People talk about the Wii being a gateway system for casual gamers to become hardcore, but I think PopCap on the PC with efforts like this are really the people turning today's casual into tomorrows hardcore. Now if you will excuse me while I may have beaten the game I have one last achievement that must be mine!

Super Mario Galaxy

http://www.thoughtbubble.cx/ryan/bloggerpics/smgba.jpg

Available on - Nintendo Wii
Score between 7 and 10 - 10(Must Play!)
You may like Super Mario Galaxy if you like - Any of the other Mario games, Rocket Knight Adventure, Sonic, Jak and Daxter or any other platformer.


Game Concept - Do I really need to explain Mario to you? Ok, if I do! Well you play as a fat plumber named Mario out to stop the evil Dinosaur looking thing Bowser from destroying the world/princess peach for about the 30th time. This time Bowser has managed to steal a lot of stars a long with Princess Peach. In order to reach her you must take back said stars and smash Bowser and Bowser Jr several times a long the way. The game will largly be concentrated around precise running, jumping, swimming and other basic video game mechanics.


Pros
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The Music is amazing - Honestly I would not have expected a Mario game to have music of this caliber. Mario games have always had catchy music, but this game has tunes that are not only catchy but also epic enough to fit its space theme and touching at the same time. Even my wife commented before playing the game how great the music was when she heard me playing.

Multiple Costumes and power ups to play around with - Past Mario games may have had fire flowers or the rare addition like the Tanooki suit, but this Mario REALLY ramped it up. Mario can find costumes that turn him into a bee that can fly for a few moments, a spring(yes as in a mechanic spring)with the ability to coil and jump extremely high, ice Mario with the ability to freeze water and several others. Each is used less to make Mario extremely powerful like in the 2D games and instead more to let you play in new ways and challenge your abilities. For example with Bee Mario you can fly, but only for a very limited few seconds at which point you will plummet. This means when you have the bee suit instead of being challenged to do direct jumps you will be challenged much more on your timing. Meanwhile spring Mario may be able to jump high, but he can not jump very far nor does he have the same tight controls...so it becomes more about precision jumps. All in all these suits do a good jump at breaking up the standard run and jump game play and are a lot of fun to play with!

The stages are diverse and creative! - The fact that Mario travels from galaxy to galaxy and planet to planet allowed the developers to create many different types of stages. You may visit some typical stages such as the water or lava based worlds, but you will also visit some out there ones such as the Toy and cake galaxies where you will find yourself platforming up the side of a giant robot using your spin attack to unscrew his bolts.

The Bosses are really fun to fight - Each boss has its own unique challenge and strategy. One boss may require you to trick them into jumping into lava while the next hides from you and you have to butt stomp at the right time to even show their weakness.

Platforming at its best - The controls, even the wii waggle that gives you an extra boost to your jump is extremely precise! The only game that even compares to SMG in just how precise the controls are that I can think of is the Sly Cooper series.

120 Stars to collect - Super Mario Galaxy definitely has some long legs thanks to the fact that there are 120 stars total to collect. You will get a lot of hours out of this game, and the replay value is definitely high!

Cons
------------------------
Motion controls - If the waggle used to make Mario jump would not have been as precise as possible this game would have been instantly broken, so thankfully that works! Sad thing is the rest of the waggle in the game I really did not enjoy as much. The jerking motions to make Mario swim fast and worse the mini games that required you to hold the control in some goofy way to balance or steer....I just can not freaking stand motion controls like this! While I found myself blowing through the rest of the game there was one or two waggle missions that took me several tries and I could not help but feel like if I had standard controls I would have beat it right off the bat!

Running back and forth between levels can get annoying - Much like Super Mario 64 and the paintings you will have to do a little backtracking! There are about 8 central hubs you have to visit to get to the galaxies, in the galaxy then there are several smaller worlds and several stars in each. Once you reach a terrace you can stay there for awhile and clear out all the stars, so this complaint is pretty minor....but it was still annoying each time I booted up the game that I would have to spend a minute and a half running back to the terrace I had been working on.

Some worlds have gravity effects that can leave you ill/confused - Many of the stages have parts where the gravity of the planet shifts and you find yourself upside down, side ways or having to platform at some other odd angle. I rarely found myself effected by this, but my wife and little brother can not play this game thanks to it. My wife feels nauseous even watching me play these segments, and my little brother just can not wrap his mind around the controls when the angle switches to these positions. I would imagine most hardcore gamers like myself will get past this if it effects them, but I still felt it should be mentioned.

Water stages are not that fun - Water stages are rarely a games strong point, especially a 3D games strong point. With Mario Galaxy while I found myself still having fun with the water stages, they were not on par with non water stages. Add in the fact that many of the water worlds were those that had the most missions requiring waggle and you have a recipe for meh.

Closing Comments - After how average/meh Super Mario Sunshine was it makes me happy to say Super Mario Galaxy is amazing. Even the low moments are more entertaining then your average game. SMG is easily not just one of my fav games of this generation but one of my fav games ever. I do not think its possible to give it much higher praise then that. To sum up, it's Mario, it's great, if you have a Wii get it!

Nation Red

http://forum.i3d.net/attachments/full-games-demos/943181432d1249250994-demo-nation-red-zombies-game-wall1-1280x1024.jpg

Available on - Steam and the developers own website.
Score between 7 and 10 - 8(Good)
You may like Nation Red if you like - Smash TV, Geometry Wars, Robo Tron or Robo Tron X.


Game Concept - Nation Red is a great little arena styled twin stick shooter where you kill zombies for points. Think Geometry wars then add Zombies and power ups.


Pros
------------------
Fast Paced - Nation Red is extremely fast paced and will keep you on your toes.

Several Modes of Play - Despite this being a very arcady feeling game there are several modes of play. You have Mission mode, barricade mode(typical protect the fort type match), survival mode and free play mode. Coming soon will be hardcore mode.

Lots of patches/the developer actually cares - The game is patched about once a month with a lot of new free content. The developer actually takes the time to talk to fans on the steam forums and most of the new content added was done so at the request/suggestion of the fans.

Level ups/bonuses are a blast - As you kill zombies you gain experience which leads to a level up. At the level up you get to select a perk to make you more effective. Many are basic things such as increased damaged or an increase to your run speed, but some are over the top stuff like the ability to periodically toss 12 poison darts in an arc around you or to make it rain fire from the sky. These perks are not only extremely fun and rewarding but also add a layer of depth to how you play the game.

Tons of Weapons - AA-12, several shotguns, several pistols, flame throwers, grenade launchers and many more. This game goes above and beyond what is expected and their still adding more!

Available on steam at a low price - The nature of an underappreciated/overlooked game tends to be that it drops in price fast just to sky rocket later. It means many people get stuck paying $100 for a game like Brigandine or Suikoden 2. Nice thing about Nation Red is its available on steam! You will pay $10 for the game standard and who knows maybe you can find a sale(I got mine for $5 at Christmas).


Cons
------------------------
Lots of patches - While this is a much bigger pro I do also view it as a con. Most of the patches introduce new weapons and perks and all sorts of great and fun things to play around with. The problem is that they can also mess with the balance of free play mode(the main competitive score mode). When I first started playing the game I could finish a round of free play in a handful of minutes....now if im going to break top 20 im looking at an hour long investment which is a lot for this type of gmae.

Keyboard controls are meh - This type of game just does not fit a keyboard as well as a joystick in my opinion. Thankfully though there is support for the 360 game pad! With the keyboard the game is playable, but with a joystick the controls become tight!

Layout/tutorial - The game is not as descriptive or clean as it needs to be currently. While the game may have great features such as the ability to adjust difficulty, who would know that you can unless you accidentally hit the tab button? Same goes for adjusting the camera angle. I spent 3 months playing the game without realizing either was available to me! Thankfully the developers are working on an update that will make the layout sharper and options more clear.


Closing Comments - Nation Red is easily one of my favorite games of the last year or so and when you combine that fact with just how hard the developer is trying to keep their fan base happy it makes me really sad that this game is so unknown. If your a fan of twin stick shooters or enjoy competing for high scores then at least give the demo available on steam a shot!

Age of Booty

http://www.certainaffinity.com/ageofbooty/wp-content/themes/ca-default/images/header.jpg


Available on - Steam, XBLA and PSN
Score between 7 and 10 - 8(Good)
You may like Age of Booty if you like - Tower Defense games such as Ninja Town, Plants vs Zombies or Pixel Junk Monsters. Really though it reminds me of a board game about conquering territory brought into real time.

Game Concept - Age of booty is hard to instantly put into words, there isnt anything else I can think of that's exactly like it! Basically you play a pirate on a map with various towns, tribal huts and other pirate ships. You must go around the map taking over the villages before the rival pirates do so. The first to get a certain number of the towns wins the game. As time goes on though you face more and more opponents and are given more and more ships which assist in your goal. As you capture towns you gain resources periodically from them and when you reach a certain amount, you can upgrade your ships speed, armor or cannons. This makes the game a delicate dance of taking over enemy towns, protecting your own and grabbing resources and power ups!

Pros
---------------------------------
Lots of interactivity for this type of game - Games that are similar to AoB usually have you stationary or as a hand of God type, however much like Pixel Junk Monsters you play an active participant in the battle who must constantly be on the move! This means instead of the stratagy being on your management of resources and what you build its placed more on having to make split second decisions like going to defend a city under attack or pressing the offense on an opponents weak city while still actively moving and being involved in whats going on.

Multilayer - Gotta love games that offer up multi player maps, adds tons of replay value.

Map Editor - Again increasing the replay value is that the game comes with a map editor to design your own game maps.

Lot's of DLC - The game has several dozen extra maps available for free!


Cons
--------------------------------
Surround Sound Bass - Don't know if its the game or my surround sound but the bass was turned up too loud over the other music causing horrid sound quality on the PS3 version! Iv not had this problem with other games, but still could just be my speakers I guess.

No control over your team mates/meh A.I - A lot of the single player matches are still 2 on 3 or 3 on 3 and this leaves you reliant on your A.I. For the most part the A.I was pretty good, but there were still far too many times they would make a boneheaded mistake such as trying to take over another city when our final city was falling or sailing right past resource boxes for no good reason! The abilty to pause the game and input commands for your A.I ship mates would have been a huge plus!

DLC is multiplayer only - None of the DLC was more single player conent, it was all sadly multiplayer only :(


Closing Comments - I think the best recommendation that I can give Age of Booty is to say that iv bought the game twice and will buy it a third time if I see the steam version on sale. I paid the full $10 for the 360 version and $5 on PSN(though I am in a PSN game share group)and I do not regret a dime of it. The game was fun when I bought it on the 360 and played it straight through, and I am enjoying it just as much replaying it on the PS3 in 30 minute spurts. If your a fan of tower defense games or fast paced strategy games I think Age of Booty is worth a quick look, if nothing else all three platforms have demos available!