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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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!

E.V.O Search for Eden

http://benjamin.autrand.free.fr/Soluces/Evo/images/Evo.jpg


Available on - SNES
Score between 7 and 10 - 7(Average)
You may like E.V.O if you like - Old school 2D action side scrollers like Joe and Mac, Congos Caper or Drill Dozer.

Game Concept - E.V.O is a 2D side scroller that puts you in the shoes of a creature as it evolves through out the ages. You start out in the fish era then evolve through the amphibian, dinosaur, ice age and finally early man eras. The game features RPG elements that let you as you gain experience(called EVO.Points)evolve your creature to play more effectively.



Pros
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Evolution Made Fun! - The game does a really good job of being loosely educational but still fun.

Music - The music changes several times throughout a level and was actually pretty pleasant, though Enix games generally did have solid music even back in the SNES days!

Death is punishing yet fair - If you die you are not forced way back in the game, instead you just lose half your E.V.O points. This is frustrating but at the same time feels fair.

Attention to detail - The game has backgrounds that actually look like they move with you as you are moving, there are also plenty of things like volcanoes or schools of fish with stray sharks swimming in them. Its not the biggest positive in the world obviously, but its a nice touch. Another nice little attention to detail piece is that the game actually switches between night and day and certain enemies actually fall asleep at night making them easy prey, again not the biggest deal in the world but a nice touch!

Evolving your character is a lot of fun - It's nice to play a game where as your character is supposedly getting stronger you see major physical changes. As you level up the different parts like horns, feet, fins, tails etc etc it changes the way your character looks not just their stats. I enjoyed spending my EVO points to grow double horns and a giant spiked tail which not only made my character look wicked but let him jump higher and defend himself better!

Multiple Paths to evolve - As the game goes on it gives you different ways to evolve your character, do you want multiple legs that keep you sturdy and moving fast or 2 that really let you jump?



Cons
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Missed Education Opportunity - While the game does a decent job at basic ideas of evolution I cant help but think how cool it would have been if this game went a little further! Ultimately at the end of the day the game is fun and that is all that matters, but still with a little more effort they could have made a game that was both fun and really taught you something.

Game could have made it more clear what evolving does - The game does not always effectively tell you what evolving a specific part will do exactly. There are hints at the beginning of each new stage, but it should have told you in the selection stage as well!

Controls not as tight as they need to be - At times, especially during the opening fish era I felt like the controls were really stiff.

Difficult bosses - The bosses have a good challenge to them since you can only evolve your character so far and they hit for close to a third of your life sometimes. This could be seen as good or bad though since while the game is tough at times it rarely feel unfair.

You move sooooo slow -Honestly it doesn't matter which era your playing in, it feels like your character is a damned snail. It's not game breaking, but it can be annoying that regardless of if I have upgraded my feet/fins that I still move so slow!
This game is expensive! - Even for a cart only there is a good chance your going to fork out near $80 on ebay for this baby! Emultate it or be prepared to take out a small loan from your bank to play it ;(

Closing Comments - If your itching for a 2D side scroller and you have played games like Joe and Mac to death then E.V.O is a great alternative. Leveling up my different forms, fighting the difficult bosses and watching my character evolve through the ages was as fun replaying for this review as it was as a kid. The progression can be a little slow thanks to your slow movement and the controls are not quite as tight as they need to be, but at the end of the day the game is still a blast to play. Give it a shot if you have $80 to burn or if you are not against against emulators!

Monster Madness: Grave Danger

http://www.vgblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/31/MonsterMadnessGraveDangerGoesGold.jpg

Available on - PS3 for Monster Madness: Grave Danger, however the 360 and PC have a version of the game which is mostly the same just missing a few stages/items etc.
Score between 7 and 10 - 7(Average) While I am giving it a 7 id say its on the verge of an 8(Good)
You may like Monster Madness if you like - Zombies Ate My Neighbors, brawlers or horror movie/games in general.


Game Concept - Monster Madness puts you in the shoes of 4 teenagers who suddenly find their city overrun with zombies, werewolf's, psycho clowns and many other horror movie staples. You will fight your way through the different stages with a mix of melee and ranged weapons as well with a number of different vehicles. The game is highly reminiscent to the SNES classic Zombies Ate My Neighbors, and even references it once!

Pros
-----------------------------------
Tons and Tons of ranged weapons and special items - This game has more ranged items then just about any I have ever played and they are a blast to play around with. While you of course get staples like the mini turret, a rocket launcher and a shotgun, you also will see a ton of other unique and fun weapons. These unique weapons like the cd launcher, modified defibrillators(creates an EMP field around you)and glue gun which you can use to stick enemies to the ground are a big part of what makes the game so fun. On top of all the basic weapons there are a lot of secondary item based weapons such as bombs, Molotov's and even a wind up exploding monkey!

Lots of Upgrades -All of your weapons can be upgraded to do some pretty sweet stuff. For instance the cd launcher upgrades to shoot at least 3 bouncing CD's and the glue gun upgrades to shoot toxic glue that damages enemies! Its not just weapons that can be upgraded though, you can also buy tons of upgrades for your characters via the accessories they wear. These upgrades power your character up by letting them run faster, take less damage, leach life from enemies or hit harder/faster. Without the upgrades I think I might have played straight through on easy mode with one character and been done with the game, but with all the upgrades available I found myself replaying stages just to power up my weapons and character.

Tons of stages and monster types - The game features 18 different stages and 70 different monsters! It makes the game feel much more interesting and vibrant that one moment you could be fighting zombies and Sasquatches in the forest then next thing you know your underground fighting zombies, werewolves and vampires!

Great Co Op Game - I played through part of this game by myself, but I also played through part of it with my wife and part of it with my 11 year old brother. The game is so easy to just pick up and play in small spurts and so easy for a new comer to learn. It also makes it easier to jump in since people can play as characters that already have upgraded guns/accessories.

Genuinely funny and charming at times - The game has a very Scooby Doo kind of feel through a lot of the game and many of the jokes can be a bit corny(someone mistaking the goth girl for a zombie for instance). However it does have moments where it can be pretty damn amusing. For example I chuckled when the teeny bopper stereotype Jennifer I was playing as was turned into a Zombie and her giant FF boobs began drooping to her knees. References to horror movies or other things in the culture such as naming the pumpkin head enemies Jack were nice touches as well! As a result while early on I was tempted to skip cut scenes by the end of the game I was glad I had not.

Varied game play - While the early stages had me worried about repetition the combination of all the different enemies, items and weapons kept the game play feeling fresh....and then they started adding in vehicles like the tank and ATV as well as mini missions. The game did a surprisingly good job at keeping the game play from stagnating.

Mini Games - As you play through the base game a number of mini games such as home run derby, a pac man rip off and pizza delivery open up. All in all there are probably around two dozen mini games and challenges! The games themselves are decent but not amazing, but its still a lot of added value(especially if your a kid who cant afford to buy a few games a month like us adults).

4 difficulties to choose from - This adds to the whole jump in factor mentioned above making the game accessible for both hardcore and casual players.


Cons
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4 characters to chose from...but they feel identical - The characters do have some small differences like the way their melee attack functions and their special move that builds up over time....but at the end of the day they still feel very very similar.

Certain levels were just dull/tedious -While some levels introduced an interesting section such as not being able to use weapons or letting you use a giant tank, others were just pains in the ass! At one point you have to find "golden zombies" for a leprechaun and in another body parts for a dead janitor. Both have you running around trying to find what their looking for without really getting to fight or do anything. The janitor in particular was annoying to the point that we almost quit the game.

No split screen option - While a minor nit pick I really would have loved a split screen option. When playing with my wife I vastly prefer the full screen co op game play, however when playing with my 11 year old brother I would have killed to be able to have split screen. The split screen also would have been amazingly useful in the above mentioned missions where you had to hunt down items or bring zombies to the leprechaun!

The game needed more interactive items - As you run around the various levels you will find some items you can pick up and toss at your enemies. The problem is that these items in later levels are too few and far between and that really outside the lawn mower I do not recall ever finding an item you could do anything with other then chuck or swing it at the enemies in a generic fashion. Another minor nit pick, I know but still an annoyance! The game should have either cut interactive items from the game or made them more common with more uses.

The game can be glitchy - I experienced screen ripping and other graphical glitches semi frequently in the early game(not bad in the later half). The glitches could be a little annoying but nothing to bring the game down that badly(after all its just visual not game play effecting)....however in one level the game did completely freeze causing me to reboot my PS3. While it only happened once that's still one time too many!


Closing Comments - Most of what I review for this site will be stuff that even if it not well known is well respected. The other games are games that largely received between an 8 and a 10 by anyone that actually played the game. Monster Madness is a little different, its the first game that iv reviewed that I can say was not just overlooked...but also underrated. A number of gamers that have played it are giving it the review it deserves, but I think far too many reviewers are probably judging this game based on an hour or two of play! Would I put Monster Madness next to games like Secret of Mana or Gears of War? No definitely not! However, regardless of if I was gluing a Frankenstein monster to the ground, watching my brother take 3 vampires at once with a rubber band grenade launcher or grinding my character into a god I had a lot of fun with Monster Madness! And at the end of the day is this not why we play games? To have fun? So, if you enjoyed Zombies Ate my Neighbors or are looking for a good co op game to play with friends or family on the PS3(or I guess Xbox/PC)then Monster Madness is a great game to pick up and blast some enemies in!

Soul Blazer

http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/1/15386/431098-soul1_large.gif

Available on - SNES
Score between 7 and 10 - 7(Average) While I am giving Soul Blazer a 7 its with the asterik that its by todays standards, playing it in the time it was made it was easily an 8(good)so if you are a fan of old school titles think of this as an 8!
You may like Monster Madness if you like - Zelda series, Secret of Mana, Illusion of Gaia or any other 2D Action adventure or Action RPG


Game Concept - Soul Blazer puts you in the shoes of the generic old school hero that you name yourself! The citizens and structures of the world have largely been sealed off by monsters. It is your job as the hero to wage into the wilderness and defeat the demons and destroy their layers, thus releasing the sealed civilians.


Pros
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Music - I really like the tunes the game has to offer. I find even replaying it for the firs time in several years I can hum many of them as if I played it yesterday.

Lots of Weapons and spells - Unlike Zelda where you will get just two or three swords and spells through out any adventure Soul Blazer is going to offer you 8 weapons, 8 spells and 8 pieces of armor many of which have unique qualities.

Freeing the civilians is fun and addicting - The one thing that really makes this game stand out from any other iv ever played, and the one thing that makes me play it frequently is how rewarding it is to release all of the people that monsters have sealed away. As you defeat monsters and destroy their layers you will get a small 2 or 3 second cut scene that shows the town your currently working to restore and what you have effected. Sometimes upon defeating a monster you might release a civilian, sometimes a plant that lets you climb to a new area or sometimes you might release someone and see the building they live in instantly rebuilt. Its incredibly satisfying watching a blank slate become an active town and it breaks up the monotony of fighting monsters extremely well!

A few hidden secrets to find - Soul Blazer may not be chalk full of secrets, but there are a few such as monsters that can only be defeated in early levels after finding specific swords or magic later in the game.

Nice World Map and warp system - So you just found a new sword and you think it might let you kill those enemies back in the first area of the game huh? Well unlike a lot of games like Zelda or Secret of Mana you are not forced to lug your character back to the beginning. Instead you can go to a central base every stage has and warp your character back and forth between the different areas. Not only is this fast and effective, but each base also has 2 extra warp tiles you can find in any area that way you can not only get around the world fast, but individual areas!


Cons
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Monster A.I sucks - This is def a first generation SNES title. Many of the monsters will not try and chase you down and even those that do follow repetitive patterns pretty frequently. Soul Blazer def has some old school A.I design!

Music is repetitive - While the music that is there is quality and catch....it repeats....a lot.

You can not move and attack at the same time - Soul Blazer suffers from Resident Evil syndrome. You will not be allowed at any point to run and swing your sword at the same time, instead you must stand in place and swing it out. You CAN walk with your sword stuck out directly in front of you, but besides this looking extremely fruity(your character even walks like a ballerina!)this does less damage.

Jack of all trades master of none! - The game does not have the deep combat of Secret of Mana or Terranigma, nor does it have the deep puzzles of a Zelda. Soul Blazer is solid all around, but never truly masters anything.


Closing Comments - Soul Blazer stands out from its peers of the 2D area with its innovative world creation system. It is rare to find games of any era, let alone the 2D era where you find a blank/dead world and you get to rebuild it yourself. While the game may not stand out in the game play or puzzle departments as much as its peers, the innovation, creativity and pure fun of releasing the citizens of the world more then make up for average game play. Soul blazer makes you feel a part of its world, it makes you feel like a hero, and thats something rare and something very addicting to find in a game!

Izuna 2

http://jogaste.com.br/web/caixa/izuna-2-the-unemployed-ninja-returns-ds.jpg

Available on - DS
Score between 7 and 10 - 7(average)
You may like Monster Madness if you like - Shiren the Wanderer, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon or any other dungeon crawler/rogue like.


Game Concept - Izuna 2 puts you in the shoes of a band of unemployed Ninjas just trying to get by. When the group goes to attend a wedding you get a clue about one of the party members long lost sisters, and the hunt for her begins! Problem is that the sister seems to be surrounded by powerful people and is often in dangerous places. Thus you begin your trod into multiple dungeons trying to fight your way to the bottom for the next scene. Izuna 2 is a pretty typical Rogue in this sense, you will enter the dungeon and for every step you take, item you pick up/throw or any other action you take every enemy on the floor will take one with you. If you have played any other game of this type you will feel right at home with Izuna 2.


Pros
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The game does a fair job of making Izuna 2's story entertaining without playing the first - While many games either leave you lost on the occurrences of prior games or force you to watch a long boring cut scene explaining everything that happened in the last game, Izuna 2 actually does neither but at the same time does a decent job keeping new players up to date. The characters in your party and those you interact with make references to the past game and things that happen, but its all phrased in a way that means that 90% of the time I was able to understand what had happened in Izuna 1.

Difficulty is forgiving - No way around it, many rogue likes are just brutal! Izuna 2 stands out in the genre by allowing you to keep all your levels when you die, and with the large number of scrolls you get that allow you to either warp out of the dungeon, away from enemies or to keep items upon death.

Multiple characters to play with in battle and combo attacks between your selected 2 - Most Rogue likes that I have played have stuck the character with 1 game through out the entire game, Izuna 2 offers up about 15 characters you can play with. Many of them may equip the same stuff and play somewhat similar to each other, but there are still differences to be found and even if they were just visual avatars its a nice touch. The other nice thing about having more then 1 character is that they added combo attacks that can be performed to do heavy damage to all enemies in your general area when your combo bar is full(recharges over time).

The story breaks up the game play and can be funny at times- While I never found myself rolling around on the floor with laughter or even laughing out loud I did chuckle at a few of the jokes. It may not seem like a huge deal at first, but when your dealing with Rogue likes which can feel very repetitive at times the story and the humor do a great job at changing the pace for a moment and keeping you interested in the game.

Cons
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Not enough item, spell and trap descriptions - I found myself far too often wondering what the hell an item, spell or trap did. For instance if you step on a trap and it says "You have stepped on a shoulder ache trap, your shoulder begins to ache" the player should have no clue that this means you can no longer use items. There are large numbers of traps and spells like this that I was lost on what they did even late in the game! Meanwhile on the item end the game has a cool system where you can burn scrolls on to your weapons to increase their attributes, problem is that the game does not describe what you initial stats do in the first place(what the hell does increasing luv do for instance?)and once burned on to your weapon you cant tell what they are since their represented by Japanese Kanji(think its Kanji). Its annoying to not know what some of your stats mean thanks to a lack of in game tutorial and its just as annoying to not be sure if you are putting a second atk up scroll on your weapon or if its the first....because everything is in Kanji....which as an American I cant read!

No way to skip combo attacks - While its awesome to have combo attacks....its not so awesome to have to suffer through the animation every time you use one. I have not found any way to turn the animation off, so every time you want to use one you must sit through the animation! They may not be big 3 min summons like the FF series....but when you see them over and over and over you will get to the point where you wish you could turn them off!

Scroll names are in Japanese - The above mentioned scroll names are all in Japanese, so instead of picking up a fire scroll or a weapon repair scroll you will have to learn and remember the Japanese names.

Closing Comments - I find I often quit Rogue likes within a few hours due to monotony and difficulty, but thanks to the story and forgiving difficulty I stuck with Izuna 2 to the end. I think this is the perfect game for anyone that has never played a Rogue like or for a fan of the genre that want's something a little less brutal.