Dead Space 2 Review

Welcome back to my Dead Space compilation review. If you missed the first review (of a game that came out 2 years and 4 months ago), then scroll down a post or two and check it out (assuming you are a new-comer to the series, as I was). If you're here for just a Dead Space 2 review, then look no further than this post.

It's been three years since Isaac Clarke went through the survival horror experience of the original Dead Space on the USG Ishimura. There's plenty of more thrills, action, and horror to be seen in Isaac's next adventure.

The story begins on the space station called Titan, in a city named Sprawl. Isaac wakes up to another Necromorph outbreak, lucky him. His memory has been shattered due to being locked away in an insane asylum, having nefarious tests being done on him for the government to learn more about the mysterious alien artifact called the Marker. On top of all this, Isaac's dead girlfriend, Nicole, is haunting him at what feels like his every waking moment due to his sickness called "dementia," which he contracted in the original game. All hope isn't lost though, as Isaac touches base with a mysterious someone who claims they have the cure for his dementia, and so the roller-coaster ride begins.

The game unravels itself in small bits and pieces, you follow objectives, talk to other characters, defeat Necromorphs, and so on and so forth. Thankfully, Isaac is usually in charge of his own objectives, so you don't feel like that little errand boy again like you most certainly did in the first game. Dead Space 2's story is somewhat vague on its details, and might leave you wondering a few things in the end, but it's not a big deal, and if you pay close attention you can probably connect the dots anyway for most things. A second play through cleared a lot of that up for me, personally. All in all, the story is pretty good and serves its purpose, to keep the game moving!

Gameplay in Dead Space 2 has been tweaked and fine-tuned since the original. The controls are much more responsive, faster, and tighter this time around. Remember when I complained about no hot-key button for Medipacks? Well, my prayers were answered here. The button layout is changed a bit, but for the best. Now your Statis recharge item and Medical items are mapped to specific buttons, so you don't have to frantically go into your inventory to heal yourself.

It's a good thing for that too, because Dead Space 2 is way more action packed and hectic now. You will find yourself constantly being swarmed by enemies, in much larger rooms than the tight hallways you're used to. Each encounter ends with that classic sigh of relief, once more feeling like you survived by the skin of your teeth, with lack of ammo reserves and medipacks to prove it. All in all, the gameplay is a huge step in the right direction for the series. I must also mention that Isaac's kinesis ability is much faster and precise, making Kinesis Impalement much more viable. I never used it in Dead Space 1, but I find myself constantly picking up limbs and tossing them into enemies to save myself the ammunition, and trust me, you'll want to save as much as you can for the brutal final chapters.

The game comes in a variety of different difficulties, from the noobish Casual, to the noobish Normal (yes, normal is still easy), the regular Survivalist (I would say this mode constitutes as the normal setting), and the hard Zealot, and the ridiculous unlockable Hardcore modes (limited to 3 saves, no checkpoints, less ammo, harder monsters, a true test gaming pride). Thankfully, there is a New Game+ feature once you finish on any mode, so going into the harder difficulties isn't as bad when you have the best suits and weaponry (assuming you found them all on your first run, of course). I think it's probably necessary for the harder settings of the game, actually. Unless you're a Hyper Knee Warrior.

Dead Space 2 is highly replayable due to the unlockable suits, harder difficulties, and that completist mentality of wanting to upgrade all your stuff. I know I keep going back for more as I try the harder levels, and continually grow stronger. The campaign will last you about 10-12 hours on your first run, and probably along the lines of 5-6 hours on your play throughs after that. If you were one of those people that played through Resident Evil 4 about seven-hundred times (I'm raising my hand here), then you're probably going to spend a lot of time with Dead Space 2 as well.

I'm not much a technical chump when it comes to graphics, so I always have a difficult time figuring out what to say about them. Do I know if they're super leet or if they are like zomg direct x version 25? No, not really, but I can safely say that I love the presentation. It's prettier than the first one, for sure, and shows off more variety too. No longer constrained to the USG Ishimura, Visceral Games went ahead and made more interesting areas to explore such as a dark, and enigmatic Church of Unitology, a day care center, which is hands down the scariest, creepiest part of this entire adventure, and plenty more.

Let's get into how the sounds of Dead Space 2. Once again, Visceral did a great job with voice work, and one thing you'll notice in particular is that Isaaac is no longer a mute. Before playing, I thought this would bother me, but from his first moment of dialog, I actually preferred him this way. He's funny, genuine, flawed, and just a downright cool dude. That had to be mentioned. Then of course there's the atmospheric music, the random noises of pipes dropping and random bursts of steams blowing around. DS2 managed to get a fear-jump out of me a great many times, even a few times on my second run. I shake my fist at you for scaring me, Visceral, but at the same time, I applaud you!

I dedicated a couple of hours to DS2's multiplayer component as well. While it's not as in-depth as games like Halo, and Call of Duty, it still manages to hold its own, and is an enjoyable time-killer none-the-less. All of the game-modes are very similar to one another, you will play as either the Humans or Necromorphs in the first round. As the humans, you will be tasked with different objectives that you must complete in order to win the round. As the Necromorphs you will have to, you guessed it, kill the humans and stop them from achieving their objective. Playing as the Necromorphs can be a bit boring, as they mostly play somewhat similar, whether it's a ranged or melee type. When I was in my mp matches, I was usually hoping the necromorph match would end already, so I could get to the human portion of it, which is, as I'm sure you could imagine, a lot more fun. There is some enjoyment to be had in multiplayer, but don't get this game if that's your sole purpose of playing it. Dead Space 2 is a single player experience before multiplayer, and we'd like to keep it that way. I'm assuming it was thrown in there as a nice diversion from the solo campaign.

To wrap up this review in a nice, neat package, Dead Space 2 is a fine example of what a sequel should be: you take everything good about the first game, put it into this one, and then fine tune everything to make an overall tighter, and more enjoyable experience. If you loved the original Dead Space, then there's no question that you're going to want to pick up Dead Space 2. If you didn't like the original Dead Space, then you still might want to give this a rental, as it is a bit more action oriented and fluid than the first game. Plus Isaac looks BAD ASS! That's enough of a reason to warrant giving DS2 a chance. Once again a Game of the Year contender slips in right at the first month of the year.

9/10

Dead Space & Dead Space 2 Reviews

The hype machine on Dead Space 2 was intense, and then with the floods of positive reviews coming from metacritic (there's still yet to be a single review that falls into the "yellow" or "red" catagory, and there are 45 of them, wow), and of course being a huge fan of survival horror, I decided it was about damn time I tried Dead Space. I'll be making a second post for Dead Space 2 when I fully complete everything the game has to offer (I've yet to try multiplayer, that's about all).

Dead Space Review

I picked up the first game off Steam for $6.80. What a bargain! Oh yeah, these reviews are for the PC versions of the game (though I was playing with an Xbox 360 controller, so when I talk about controls I won't be mentioning mouse and keyboard at all).

The game has a strong start, and takes little time to throw you into the middle of an intense, monster-filled, seemingly abandoned star ship. As I played through the game, I couldn't help but look in every single nook and cranny for ammo, as I constantly felt like each encounter with the hideous necromorphs was a battle simply won by the skin of my teeth, and that my medical and ammunition reserves were getting low.

To put it quite simply, this game scared the crap out of me. For about 80% of the game I didn't even use the run button. I would slowly skulk through the corridors with my Plasma Cutter ready to fire at the first thing I saw. Eventually I grew a pair and started running around and treating the necromorphs like my red headed step child. Though it did manage to continue to get a few more cheap scares in on my regardless.

How does one just face his fears like that? Well, simple really. Upgrades, lots of them. As you progress through the game you find items called "Power Nodes" that you can socket into your equipment and weapons to get more Health, ammo, damage, reload speed, and so on and so forth. You start off as a wimp, but slowly work your way to being a bad ass who is no longer scared, which is very satisfying. It almost feels like you grow with the silent protagonist of the story, Isaac Clarke.

Anyhow, as the Engineer Isaac you run around the USG Ishimura (a large starship that travels through the galaxy searching for planets to "planet crack" to take resources and use them for the betterment of the human race) searching for clues and trying to figure out what happened and how you can fix it, and last but not least, he's looking for his girlfriend, who was working on the ship for some time. Usually you're taking orders from one of the other teammates, Hammond or Kendra. Eventually you learn more about the alien lifeforms and why they are there, amongst other things. The story is a bit vague on details, but quite enjoyable regardless of that fact.

The atmosphere, graphics, music, and sound in this game is all top notch. The mood is set perfectly. You walk through a room, and hear an echo of a pipe falling, or see a shadow in the corner of your eye disappearing into a ventilation shaft, or those heart pounding moments where everything is all quiet, and then a damn necromorph jumps right at you from the ceiling. Shadow work is amazing, the surroundings are fantastic too. The developers did their homework on how to inspire fear into someone. Bravo. Capcom, take out a notebook or something, and get to work.

There's also a great variety of weapons to be used in this game. Most people tend to stick with the first weapon, the Plasma Cutter, for all their needs. Me personally, I found this method to be flawed only after getting so far into the game that I only upgraded that one gun (thankfully the others still had their uses, even though they weren't upgraded). I found the Plasma Cutter to be fantastic for one on one encounters, but a bit too hectic to deal with when dealing with large crowds. I found myself favoring weapons like the Pulse Rifle, Force Gun, and the Ripper by the time I reached the end. If you're playing this for the first time, I'd suggest showing love to all your artillery, as each of them have their own specific uses.

I can go on and on about how great this game is, but I think I'd also like to take a moment to discuss the few things I did not like... on the PC I could not figure out a way to change the analog sensitivity, which was rather annoying because I moved and aimed a bit too slow for my taste. I also hated how there was no button hot-linked to medical canisters. If I'm in the middle of a heated firefight, and need to heal myself, the last thing I want to do is run to a corner, open my inventory, and then select the medical item, then use it. For the most part, I had to just deal with the fact that if my health got too low and I was cornered or something, I was dead meat.

You won't be able to fully upgrade all your weapons and suits and whatnot with one playthrough, so remember that Dead Space is the kind of game that encourages replay value in the sense that it wants you to go back and finish upgrades, harder difficulties, and so on and so forth. It's nice like that.

All in all, there are too many good things to say about this game, and too little bad things. It would be too easy to say that Dead Space is officially my new 'go-to' survival horror title, but I'm going to say it anyway, with a bit of a twist. Dead Space is my go-to survival horror series, period. Find out in my next review as to why!

8.5/10

Halo: Reach Review

Well I played Halo Reach, beat Halo Reach, did some multiplayer online and was told I sucked dick in Halo Reach. However, the question remains... is it good? Well, here's my review for it:

Let me start off by saying Halo Reach is a Halo game. I know that sounds stupid, but I don't think there's a better way to describe it. It's the first thing that came to my head, what can I say? Sure, they add some new things, new weapons, a bit more team oriented than the past, but other than that it's a lot of the same... and I'll be damned if that isn't a good thing. Halo Reach takes a few small steps to change things around and keep it fresh, but still keep intact that fantastic gameplay that has been with the series since it made its mark on the industry back when the original XBox was released.

Let me talk real quick about some of the new things... I have to mention that the new controller scheme is a lot better. I always hated when I would have to move and melee at the same time and play jungle gym. I would always take my pointer finger off the shoulder button and use it to press B. It was quite a sight, and it was certainly strange to hold the controller like that, but I got used to it. However, I'm glad the melee button is one of the shoulder buttons now, it just makes more sense. Aside from that, there are now different power options for your Spartan. You usually begin with Sprint, a basic ability that allows you to... you guessed it, sprint (and for those of you who don't know what that is and just think it's a cell phone company, it means to run fast). Although, later on you find other nifty abilities like an armor lock (which basically makes you invulnerable to damage for a short time or until you release the button), the jet-pack (very awesome, btw), and the bubble shield from Halo 3. Lots of cool stuff, and adds an extra layer of depth to the game too. The enemy AI has vastly improved as well. Elite's are even more brutal than usual, and every now and then even a well placed grunt can cause you some problems if you're unprepared.

The single player campaign is a lot of fun, and I thought it was surprisingly long (for a Halo game, at least). I think I clocked in about 8 hours, but then again I played on Heroic and was dying a lot and taking my time. I'm sure if I was on normal and just breezing through, I could have beaten it in 5 or 6. As I was saying though, the narrative is decent enough to move the game forward, and that's all that matters to me. It wasn't the best story in the world, and I didn't really care about any of my Spartan buddies (not even Kat), but still... you want a good story, read a book. It was good enough and I enjoyed it for what it was, and at least it wasn't complicated. I hate complicated stories in shooting games. Just point my gun to the next life that needs to be ended, and Reach was doing that for me quite well. Although they did add some little nods to previous games in the endings which made me happy, of course I won't spoil anything, but it's good stuff.

This game is really nice to look at. One may think it looks like just another Halo game, but it's not the major details that got an overhaul, but the minor ones. The assault rifle numbers look much sleeker, the details on the guns are simply insane, the fact that just about every gun with a scope can be used to see the level in front of you is just damn impressive. I think the only gun that has an empty scope is the DMR. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm a sucker for minor detailed graphics... it just impresses me when a developer goes through the trouble to make even the most minute things look good... it says something about them and their products, and that even something so small is important.

I love the music in this game... it was always getting me pumped to go RAMBO style on those covenant bastards. There's a lot of rocking tracks and all. The kind of stuff you'd expect from Halo, but I'm going to go as far as saying this has one of the best, if not the best, soundtrack of the series. The voice work is top notch, as to be expected from the constant high caliber voice work in the past entry's, as is the same with the sound effects. I think it's also interesting to note that the covenant don't speak english in this one, but have their own alien language that they speak. Perhaps this was in ODST, I don't know, I never played it, but it's new to me... so shoot me.

Now the part that everyone's been waiting for, the multiplayer. I've always been a huge fan of Halo's MP component, and Reach is no different. With tons of different game modes, including the Firefight mode of ODST (yes I know that much at least), and you have yourself non-stop options and different ways to entice yourself when playing online. I never had lag problems in game, and finding matches went extremely fast for me. Granted, I was playing the very popular stuff like Team Slayer, Team SWAT, and the not so often Team Objective. Either way, multiplayer is very enjoyable, and I'm sure if I had the cash to shell out for Xbox live, I wouldn't even have to pick up another game for at least a couple of months. Reach would keep me entertained for a bloody long time, without a doubt.

I should also mention that you can customize your spartan's look. I know, it's a silly thing to have in an FPS, where you will never see your character anyway, but it's nice to work towards something while you rack up points in SP and MP modes. Plus the additions look really cool. I can't lie, I always get excited when I buy a new armor piece with my credits and toss it on, then stare at my spartan while I wait around in the lobby, or whatever. All game developers are starting to pick up on the "quick awards equal quick addiction" pattern, and Halo is no different with this new feature. Gaming gods, bless the skinner box.

All in all, I really like Halo Reach... a lot. I hate that I have to pay Microsoft money to play online, especially since I don't have the money to spare. I'd like to play more online, but playing campaign again just doesn't seem like something I want to do. If you're into a strong MP experience, I highly suggest Reach. If you're the loner type and just want to play alone, might I suggest you wait until this game goes on sale, because there's not much there unless you're on XBox live. The SP campaign is a nice ride, a bit short, and leaves little reason to go back (unless it's with a friend on Xbox live).

8/10

Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals Review

It's been a long time for a Lufia game, and an even longer time since there was a good Lufia game. Since Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals on the SNES to be exact, and that was released in August of 1996. Now here we are, 14 years later with a re-imagining of that exact game. Does this live up to the reputation of the original? And more importantly, is it good?! Read on to find out...

Title: Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals
Platform: Nintendo DS
Developer: Neverland
Publisher: Natsume

The story begins with a god-like entity, calling himself Gades, Sinistral of Destruction, calling down to the people of the world, saying that the apocalypse is coming and all life will soon be extinguished. As this is going on, Maxim, a Monster Hunter with the gift of amazing combat prowess from the earliest of ages, and his Doctor Emmet Brown look-a-like buddy, Professor Lexis, are en route to Gades' location in hopes of defeating him. This quickly kicks the game's story into high gear, and cuts a lot of the unnecessary fat of the original. It automatically gives the story a sense of urgency, and easily draws the player in. The storyline is definitely dated, however, it understands that, and in turn never takes itself too seriously. It constantly has great bits of humor and a lovable cast of character's that make the plain and simple narrative soar to better heights.

Speaking of characters, let me jump into the graphics and design. For the DS, the game looks pretty good. The best way to describe it would probably be, "a JRPG from the Playstation 1 era, but a bit better." Lufia also boasts some huge bosses that take up both screens of the DS, and that's epic. Unlike previous Lufia games, this one takes a bold step in a new direction as far as the setting, gone is the plain-old fantasy setting, and in its place is a steam-punk, fantasy hybrid. I was a bit turned off by this in the original preview's, but eventually it grew on me and I learned to love it (and if Neverland intends to make more of these in the future, they better stick with it).

On top of a setting redesign, there has also been a redesign on all the original cast. Everyone is back, and looking better than ever. To top it all off, the game shows off some nice hand drawn character artwork during dialogue sccenes, complete with different facial expressions. It all just adds to what is already an awesome package, and really helps sell some of the dialogue in the game, for example, the game's oblivious air-head hero with a heart of gold, also known as Dekar, says something completely stupid... the dialogue art add to what is already completely funny, and makes it so much better in the process, and that's saying something.

Now lets jump into the gameplay; gone are the days of slow paced, turn based combat. Lufia: CotS has an all new action-RPG style combat system, complete with special moves, character swapping mid-combo, and different spells. It's a bit simple in the beginning, appearing to be nothing more than an average hack-and-slash affair, but as you add more character's to your party, it becomes so much more. With a simple touch of a character portrait on the touch screen, you instantly swap the party member you're using, which can help create some mesmerizing, and long combo strings. There's a total of 6 playable characters, so the possibilities are seemingly endless.

I also must mention that even when the game can be hard, it never becomes overbearing and you'll never have to grind mobs to level up your characters if you don't want to. When you die, you have the option to give your character a 5 level boost and try again. The boost is permanent, so if you don't want to kill the difficulty, then you probably won't want to use it, but if you're getting fed up with fighting a boss for the 19th time, the option is always available. This is the first RPG I've ever seen do this, and I must say, it's a great idea and really helps for those who don't want to grind (and I certainly don't).

And a Lufia game just wouldn't be a Lufia game without dungeons filled with puzzles, now would it? Never fear, Lufia: CotS has puzzles in spades. Also, never fear of tearing your hair out either, because while the puzzles are thought-provoking, and encourage the use of all your party member's abilities, it never gets overbearing and makes you want to kick your foot through a window. With just a little thought, you can figure out these puzzles and feel rewarded, as opposed to having to read the solution online and then feel like putting on your nearest dunce cap. The puzzles and mini-games are a great way to break up the action, and Lufia never uses the same gimmick twice, so it never gets stale or repetitive.

On top of the standard leveling up and gear upgrade, Neverland also implements an all new "Mystic Stone" system to further encourage character customization diversity. As you progress through the story, you will often find a stone that looks like a piece straight out of Tetris. You can place these stone's into a grid, and on the grid is a small section for each character. Within each section of the grid, there are small icons, that when you put a stone on top of said icons, it will give your character boosts in different areas. Some give you more knock down resistance, others increase your HP, and some allow you to knock enemies into the air more often. Not only that, but each Mystic Stone increases one, or a few, of your stats, depending on the nature of the stone. For example, a Power Glass will increase your STR, while a Mind Glass will raise your INT. This system really allows you to tailor how you want your character to play. Naturally, I went the power gamer route and optimized Maxim's strength so I could clean house with little trouble, but that doesn't mean you have to go that route. Perhaps you want to give him a lot of INT and spam Fire spells, that choice is entirely up to the player.

You would think I'd be done with character customization, but I'm not. Adding even another layer to character diversity are the 'Titles.' These are basically titles given to each character which grant them special powers. Ranging from your character getting full experience points even while outside of combat, to getting substantial power boosts when all the members in your party are dead except for one. It just continues to add a special layer of depth into what at first appears to be the traditional JRPG, lack of option level up system. I like a developer that goes against the grain, good job!

I saved one of the games best points for last. The music! Oh man, do I love the music in this game! All arranged tracks straight out of the original, with a few guest tracks from other Lufia games! Heck, I'm listening to the soundtrack as I write this review even. All the remarkable, well known Lufia songs are here, in all their updated glory. From the iconic Sinistral battle theme, to the heart warming title screen, and the majestic, heroic theme of Dekar, the strongest man in the world. Lufia: CotS takes no chances with its music selection, and I thank them for that, as Lufia 2 had one of the best soundtracks, and obviously that still showcases itself in this day and age.

I'd like to say that unfortunately, Lufia: CotS isn't as long as the original, taking only about 14 hours give or take for your first run. I wish the game was longer, simply because of how awesome it is. However, there is a NG+ option with some new dialogue and even a new ending to those who complete the game twice, encouraging at the very least, a second run through the game. However, on your second run you also have full access to the Ancient Cave, which is a special dungeon that drops your level to 1 and removes all your equipment (you get it all back when you leave). There's a lot to be explored in this place, so that does add a good amount of replay value, but other than that, aside from the game being awesome, I see no reason for the average gamer to come back for a third spin.

For 30 dollars though, you're certainly getting your money's worth, and a longer journey than what many console games offer. If you know what's good for you, you'll pick up Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals, whether you're a nostalgic fan longing for Lufia, or new to the series, it offers a top-notch experience that shouldn't be passed up.

9/10

Vanquish XBox 360 Review

I'm not going to lie, I'm not a fan of the TPS genre, nor am I a fan of the FPS genre for that matter. However, something always seems to draw me in when it has a Sci-Fi twist. For example, I don't like Call of Duty, but I really enjoy Halo. I'm not a fan Gears of War, but I went through the trouble to purchase and play Vanquish. Perhaps it's the cool looking high tech space suit over a poorly designed meathead with a bandanna, or maybe it's because Shinji Mikami is one of my favorite's in the gaming universe, or perhaps even the fact that Gears of Wars story takes itself too seriously, where as Vanquish is about fun and being ridiculous, which reminds me of 80's action movies (my favorite movie genre). Maybe a mixture of all that put together.

Enter Vanquish, a game that takes the TPS genre and flips it on its head with craziness. You are Sam Gideon, a special DARPA agent in control of the Augmented Reaction Suit (known as ARS in game). San Francisco is destroyed by turning one of America's space colony's into a weapon of mass destruction. Russian Terrorists calling themselves the Russian Star are to blame for this despicable act. Sam is sent with a crew of Marine's to find the one responsible and take him down. Since I'm on the subject, I really enjoyed the storyline to this game. Maybe it's my love for cheese-tastic stories and cliche characters, but again, it's a personal preference, it's not for everyone. This is coming from the guy who loves the story to Ninja Gaiden II for Xbox 360. There's some obvious plot twists and what have you through out the story, but it's all good stuff, I enjoyed it immensely.

Now onto the meat of the package, the gameplay. Sam's AR Suit is equipped with some neat abilities. One of the best of them being his ability to boost around the battlefield with thrusters that are attached to certain spots of his suit. This keeps the frantic and fast gameplay intact as you run from enemy's to safer cover, or run in for a melee kill when the opportunity presents itself. Speaking of melee, that's another interesting feature in the game. Instead of swatting at the robot forces with your gun, Sam decides it's more effective to just give them a mean right hook and call it a day. I respect a man who punches a robot in the face, it shows character. This does have its drawbacks however, after you rock the jaw piece of an enemy, your suit will overheat, forcing you to take some cover and wait for the power to come back to the suit. I tended to use my melee attack in 1 on 1 situations, or if an enemy got to close to me. If you try to fly in, kill a foe, and then fly out, well you have another thing coming to you.

Aside from that, there are a variety of different weapons you can pick up as you go about your mission. Though I normally kept my assault rifle handy, I always experimented with other weapons when possible, and it proves quite useful. Sure, you can get through the entire game just using an assault rifle, but it's much more rewarding when you knock back a giant mech into a pit with your LFE gun, or dismember a giant mech with the Disk Cutter then give him a nice swift speed boosted kick across the map. The game rewards you for trying out different weapons, but in the end, you can get through the entire game with the assault rifle, though I wouldn't recommend it as it would really kill the fun of the experience and the versatile weaponry.

On top of all this, there's also the AR mode, which is basically a super slow motion effect that helps you aim. Sure, this has been done all before, but I can't help mentioning it considering it's one of the suit's most useful abilities. It really helps you line up those head shots, or go for weak points (which it also points out when you are in the AR mode).

The gameplay is frantic, rewarding, and just down right fun. It can be repetitive if you want it to be, but for those looking to go into Vanquish and take all it has to offer, you'll be often changing your weapons and tactics and finding out different ways to take out your foes.

Not only is the gameplay great, but so are the graphics. Gone are the boring greys and browns that plague just about every single shooting game on the market, if not all of them. This game is full to the brim with whites, silvers, greens, and the occasional blue and red. Heck, there's even a forest level. That's right, with trees! If only the trunks of said trees weren't brown, then there wouldn't have been any brown in this game at all. On top of the amazing visuals, there is also the fluid animation and excellent designs of enemy's and characters. Well, except for Lt. Col. Burns, he looks kind of stupid... but in a funny way that someone who can appreciate cheesy designs (like me) can enjoy. Also considering how quick the gameplay is, I never saw any slowdown.

And now that we got all the good things out of the way, let's talk about a couple of bad things. The music, for example. It works for the game, but nothing really stands out to me (except the music in the credits, that was cool). It's all a bunch of uninspired techno crap. Now, techno does fit the feel and look of the game, but it definitely could have been better. Techno can be pretty cool when done right. It wasn't done right here! The music didn't really get me into it, and for the most part I usually phased it out of my head, especially when I started hearing the same tracks over and over again. As always, I have to say that it's a shame that a lot of games just seem to overlook the musical aspect of it, since it's one of the most important parts of the package (to me, at least). That's about it for the bad.

The voice acting is actually decent. Thankfully, there isn't any repeated dialogue that begins to drive you nuts like a few games I've reviewed in recent memory. All the voices work, and they don't talk much in the game, and thankfully the enemies are robots, so aside from a few beeps and boops, there's rarely any shouting and screaming during combat, and if there is, it's hardly audible (like the marine's that constantly refer to the robots as a being that partakes in a heinous act with someone's mother, but that always makes me laugh anyway).

Last, but not least, the replay factor. The game's single player campaign, on my first run, not specifically rushing through the game, on hard mode, took me about 6 and a half hours. Perhaps that sounds like a bad thing, but in my opinion it's not. It welcomes you to play the game again, beat your high score, and go for a better time. It's very old school in that sense, and I think it was deliberately built to be this way. I love quick games like this, because I can sit down and play them over and over again without having to worry about committing myself to it. Like a Mega Man game, I can sit down and beat it in an hour. I'm sure I'll get this game down to 2 or 3 hours eventually, allowing it to happily be played again because of the fact that it's short, and it's competitive nature with scores, speed running, and leader boards will always have me returning to it. On top of that, there is Challenge Mode, which is basically a survival mode where you have to kill all the enemies in a small arena, and then you get a time after you complete it. If you're into this sort of thing, you'll certainly be going back to beat your time's (or someone else's for that matter). This game is just oozing with replay value, for a person who is into this sort of thing. If you're not into playing your games again, well, it's still one hell of a ride regardless.

Vanquish is a fast, versatile, and stylistic third person shooter that not only accelerates in the war department as its slogan states, but also accelerates its own genre in quality and sheer enjoyment. What I'm trying to say is, it 'vanquishes' the competition. See what I did there?

8.5/10

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 Review

Sonic 4 is, according to the description, the game we've been waiting 16 years for. However, does it really live up to that reputation? Or is it just another disaster of a game that can only continue to hurt the blue hedgehog's poor standing in current gen gaming? Don't worry, your friendly neighborhood Mega Buster is here to fulfill all your curiosities.

For those of you who don't know, Sonic 4 is the latest installment in the original Sonic series back from the Sega Genesis era. It's a 2D super-fast action adventure game, to say the least of it. You collect rings, bop enemies on the head, and collect power ups and all that fun stuff. I really shouldn't have to explain an old school Sonic game to you, go play one.

Walking into Sonic 4, I won't lie, my expectations weren't sky-high. They weren't low either, but they were there... in the middle, I guess you could say. What happened as I played the game was nothing short of delightful, as the game exceeded my middle ground expectations and really brought an excellent Sonic game to the table, after a great long many years.

The gameplay is what you'd expect from a Sonic game, and that's a good thing. There's running, jumping, swinging, ring collecting, and so on and so forth. However, Sonic does feel a bit slower than his 16 bit counter parts (oddly enough considering how much chubbier he was back then), but for whatever reason it works for the way the game is laid out, and when you have to go fast, you are going fast, so that has to count for something, right?

The level design is an absolute dream to us Sonic fans. Sonic Team essentially took old level ideas from the original Sonic games, and turned them into something new. There's Splash Hill Zone, your typical green forest-like level that gives you a nice introduction to the platforming elements of the game, with little to no difficulty in beating. Then there's the Casino Street Zone is similar to other Casino stages of the original Sonic franchise, but oddly enough I didn't hate it as much as I did back then. Usually I despised the Casino stages for their completely maze-like and chaotic level design, and the annoying pinball things all over the place knocking you around. In a sense, I think this might be one of the best Casino stages of the entire series, since it never strays you off the path and you don't get lost, and you're not always getting knocked around. I thought I'd enjoy this stage the least out of all of them, but I somehow managed to enjoy it a lot. That was quite a surprise on my end. The Lost Labyrinth zone is based off one of the most hated stages of Sonic 1, but somehow, the developers managed to make the stage enjoyable. Actually, I think this is my favorite act in the entire game. It has an exploration feel to it, there's a lot of interesting platforming elements added to the stages as well. The mine cart, rolling this giant rock under your feet, traversing through the water (not that this is new, but different compared to the other stages). A lot of fans complained about the mine cart part when they saw the trailer, and the devs ended up taking some of it out, which is unfortunate because quite frankly... it was a lot of fun. Thanks, fans! Then you have the Mad Gear zone, your typical Dr. Eggman hideout stage with gears and pipes that shoot you around, and so on and so forth. The game hardly strays the path of a Sonic game, taking almost little to no chances to be quite honest. In a way, it's somewhat of a letdown in a weird sense, but I suppose that's why this is Episode 1. They laid the groundwork down, perhaps now they can take a chance and experiment a bit for future installments. In a nutshell, the level design is great, if not a bit too familiar.

I'd like to take a moment to talk about the graphics. They're awesome. I absolutely love the way Sonic looks in this game. He looks like such a bad ass. I can't believe the fans wanted that fat, short legged Sonic from the 16 bit days instead of this edgy, cool looking hedgehog with some of the sweetest head spikes I've ever seen. Everything else looks great too, the monsters are all familiar foes for the most part (again, a bit too familiar), but to see them all redone in this HD setting is pleasing. The stages are absolutely beautiful, the backgrounds especially (if you actually take the time out of running through the stage to look, like I do). Casino Street and Splash Hill were the two stages whose backgrounds really stood out to me, it was just really nice to look at. This game in general is very nice to look at, with its vibrant colors, excellent character design, and awesome backgrounds. You can tell that a lot of time went into the pretty graphics, and it was well worth it.

Then there's the music, which, in my opinion, falls devastatingly short compared to the Sonic games of the past. Don't misunderstand me, I didn't hate the music or anything like that, it fit, it worked (especially that snare drum, it was so Sonic), but there was something about it that just threw me off, perhaps a bit too synth for my taste. I couldn't help but think of epic Sonic tracks like "Ice Cap Zone" from Sonic 3 or "Mystic Cave Zone" from Sonic 2 and then see how little these new tracks could possibly add up. The music fits, it works, but in my opinion, the composers really should have took more time to study the music of the past games and what made it good. The snare drum is nice and all, but you need to have the full package to make it work.

Also, this game is very short. Perhaps a bit too short. I know Sonic games in general aren't all that long, and I don't expect them to be, but this game only took me two hours to beat in my first sitting. I don't recall a Sonic game ever taking me that little bit of time on my first run. Then there's the fact that it's way too easy. By the end of the game I wracked up over 30 extra lives. The bosses were a joke, and the regular enemy's didn't stand much of a chance either. The homing attack helped a lot with that. I love the homing attack though, and I'm glad it was put in there, but they seriously could've amped the difficulty up a bit... a lot, actually. That's not to say that the game wasn't a complete blast to play through, but I suppose I was just a bit let down at how quickly the roller coaster ended. Maybe an extra act would've helped out a bit, or a hard mode, or something. Though on the bright side, the Chaos Emeralds still aren't all that easy to obtain, so there's plenty of reasons to go back and try again. Aside from the Emeralds, there's time attacks and leader boards and all that fun competition stuff. Also, since it's so short it makes it easy to come back to for another round, so it's a double edged sword in that sense.

In conclusion, Sonic 4 has its shortcomings (excuse the pun), but it's an overall fun, if a bit too familiar of an experience, but it lays down the groundwork to what can quite possibly be Sonic's return to being taken seriously by gamers in the future.

7.5/10

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia Review

After playing CV: LoS, I've been in a very Castlevania mood, and even decided to finally try out Order of Ecclesia for the DS, even though I said I wouldn't.

This was a surprise for me indeed.

First let me start by saying that this game is the closest thing to a classic 2D Castlevania game since Rondo of Blood. This title mixes the best of the old school, and the Metroidvania style. The game has many varied stages that you progress through using a world map. From swamps, forests, mountains, and much more... this game has a lot of variety in its level design. As I was playing through the game, I couldn't continually help thinking to myself that this is the 2D Castlevania game I've always wanted to play.

That's not to say that this doesn't have its faults. Some of the level designs are just plain bad. The main culprits of this would be those awful stages where you literally just walk from left to right dispatching baddies. It feels like they just threw these in there to simply say "Look, different scenery. It's not all in a castle for a change." Now, while that is nice, and I appreciate the gesture, you really didn't have to do that, developers. Another thing that really annoyed me was that save points are lacking big time in this. I know they were going for that challenging effect here, but it was really annoying when I would die and get sent back to like ten minutes into the past, forced to explore the same part of the castle over and over again. Eventually it almost felt like Diablo, because I would be constantly using the "Magical Ticket" item which instantly teleports you back to a safe town with a save point. Thankfully there are warps within the levels that can you take you to specific parts of the map, but sometimes you still have to do a lot of extra walking. Seriously guys, there could have been one or two extra save points per map.

Speaking of old school, this game is damn hard. The bosses are brutal, and just like the older games of the series, they can take you down quickly if you don't learn their patterns. A lot of the boss attacks do over 100 points of damage, and simply touching them can easily do over 50. It's pretty ridiculous, however it's always a great feeling to learn the bosses and then dispatch them. While I was playing this game, I was completely taken by surpise by the game's difficulty. Normally I expect every Castlevania game to be a walk in the park where I can just cruise around and get hit as I please, but not here. Regular enemies can just as easily kill you as any boss can, especially in large numbers. If you come in here expecting another easy as hell Caslteroid game, think again.

Lets talk about the combat system. The main character, Shanoa, can equip "Glyphs" to 3 different Glyph slots (mapped to Y, X, and R buttons). The Y & X glyph's are essentially your weapon slots. You can equip a few different types of weapons, from rapiers, lances, throwing axes, and so on and so forth. The R glyphs are more for utility then attacking, with abilities that increase your stats, or allow you to fly. Shortly into the game, you are given a relic that allows you to set 3 different glyph set-ups, which creates interesting ways to make powerful and effective combos. It takes a while to get used to it, and by the end you're pretty much using every single finger to hit all different buttons, and it gets pretty crazy awesome. It's a welcomed surprise to see such depth in combat for a 2D game. On top of that, the game rarely allows you to use one glyph for everything. For example, Skeletons are weak against smashing weapon types, like hammers, and they are strong against sword slashes. So don't expect to walk around hacking everything to pieces with your sword, because it's not going to work. You need to constantly remember enemy strengths and weaknesses, and adjust accordingly. Again, depth people, good stuff entirely.

The music in this game is extremely good, but that goes without saying. It's 2D Castlevania after all. One of my new favorite Castlevania tracks has to be "An Empty Tome." It's extremely catchy, and really gives you that... go kill some zombies mindset. The sound effects are good too, and the voice work is there... it's decent, but I don't care for it much. I just go to the config and turn it off, voices in games like this was never really my cup of tea, but that's just a personal preference.

Storyline in Ecclesia is what one would come to expect out of a Castlevania game. Betrayal, plot twist, another betrayal that makes you realize the original betrayal wasn't really one after all, Dracula, Castle, dead Dracula, Castle crumbles, the end. That's not to say that the characters are fleshed out a lot better than in previous entries, making for some of the best characters in the series (well I think I should say "best developed", best might be a bit much, I'll leave that spot open for a Belmont), too bad this rehashed story didn't do them much justice. Either way, if you're playing a game like this, you're probably not so interested in the story to begin with. I know I wasn't, and predicted the entire thing from the first scene, and I was right 100% by the way.

Then there are the graphics, and first off let me start this off by saying... NEW ENEMIES! OH MY GOD NEW ENEMIES! Now, fans of this series know exactly what I'm talking about. Of course, there are those recycled sprites in there still from Rondo of Blood (I'm looking at you, skeletons), but still... I was seeing so much new stuff, and I couldn't help but feel that... for once, in a long time, I was playing a new Castlevania game. This also has to be one of the visually greatest 2D games I've ever played, the surprising attention to detail in some areas is just incredible. It's a very pretty game, and all the areas look good... even if the map is just a simple straight line sometimes.

All in all, this game is wonderful... it really is. It's a shame that this game didn't come out years ago, since it would have helped fix the split somewhat between classic Castlevania fans and Metrodvania fans. If there are going to be anymore 2D entries in the Castlevania series (and after playing this, I certainly hope so), then they really need to continue focusing in this direction. It takes all the good things of Castlevania from its original release in the 80s, to the stuff of the present, and blends it all in a fantastic fashion.

8.5/10

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Review

If you've been following this site for a little while, you'll probably know that I was pretty psyched/obsessed with the release of the all new 3D reboot in the Castlevania series. To me, it's a series that has gone cold a very long time ago. After Circle of the Moon for Game Boy Advance, none of the 2D entry's really interested me anymore. The story's just became more and more ridiculous, and I just realized myself liking the series less and less (which was quite a shame because if I recall correctly, Castlevania II was the first videogame I ever played, so it's a series I hold dear in my gaming history).

However, the latest entry in the Castlevania series has finally had the power to pull me back in and make me feel as happy as I did playing Simon's Quest all those years ago.

The first thing I'd like to start out with is the gameplay; it's incredibly good. The good folks at Mercurysteam really went above and beyond here. The combat is smooth and intense, with very neat additions that make the system more complex and not just a simple button masher (matter of fact, if you just mash buttons I assure you... you'll die... fast). Whenever you kill an enemy you are award experience points which you use to buy more combos. This is a pretty standard thing for action games, so I figured I'd get this out of the way and save the good stuff for the next few sentences. Early in the game you are given a Light Medallion, which gives you access to Light magic. When you activate the ability every time you hit an enemy with your combat cross, you regenerate health. Aside from this, the only way to recover health is by using Health Fonts (which are scarcely scattered through the stages), so it encourages intelligent combat tactics if you want to keep your health in good shape. Eventually you also gain the Shadow magic, which greatly enhances the strength of your combat cross attacks. Finding a good mix of light & shadow magic is pleasing, and a lot of fun once you get the hang of it. On top of all this, eventually you gain the Focus Bar. What this does is now when you're in combat, each time you use combo's or dodge, the meter increases, and when the meter is full, every time you hit an enemy they drop neutral orbs (which are necessary to restore your Light/Shadow magic reserves). Normally an enemy only drops orbs when they are killed, but if you learn to properly engage enemies and avoid their attacks, you can easily keep your Light and Shadow magic on the majority of the time. In a nutshell, the game really rewards you for smart playing, and not just mashing buttons. It's a very harmonious combat system, and probably one of the best (if not the best) I've ever seen in an action game.

On top of the extremely robust combat system, the game is filled with awesome adventure elements such as climbing, swinging, rappelling, shimmying, and jumping. The sense of adventure is always happening in this game, and every stage is just as fun to explore as the last. To say this game is JUST an action game would be wrong. It's most definitely an adventure game on top of that. There's just as much exploring and swinging around as there is combat. I really enjoyed the adventure element of this game, as a matter of fact, just running around the stages and exploring was sometimes even more fun then kicking the crap out of werewolves and zombies (and that never gets old, let me tell you)!

There are also thought-provoking puzzles littered through-out the stages of the games. And good news for the idiots out there: each puzzle has the option to be skipped by basically missing out on the experience point gain you would have received for figuring it out on your own. Now no one can complain that puzzles halt the game too much, since it's entirely up to you on whether or not you want to take the time to figure it out or not. It's really a great idea, and I hope more games in the future implement this idea, especially since I love puzzles in my action/adventure games. Seriously, what's an action/adventure game without puzzles? That's like having an Indiana Jones movie where Indy doesn't have to figure out one puzzle in an entire labyrinth or tomb or whatever he happens to be exploring. You need puzzles to make this kind of game work, and I'm glad they are here.

Some of the boss battles are pretty damn amazing. I love the battles with the titans! Sure, they might remind me of Shadow of Colossus, but you know what... this game controls a lot better than that game did, and it's a lot more fun, so there. I said it. I think this game did a better job with it. There are also a couple of bosses (and I mean that literally, just two) that utilize the Light and Shadow magic system. These were some awesome fights as well. I think a few of the other boss battles fall short in comparison to these, especially since MercurySteam is sitting on a creative gold mine for boss battles that can make interesting use of the Light and Shadow dynamic (or even a titan encounter that has a light/shadow gimmick, oh the possibilites). Aside from that though, the gameplay doesn't fall short in any other respect.

The graphics are amazing. I mean that, this is one of the prettiest games I've set my eyes on in a long time. From lush green forests, to stinky bogs, frozen lakes, and lord only knows what else. This game has it all, and it's simply beautiful. My personal favorite stage was the Outer Wall. The view of the castle, with the snow creating this "hit the screen effect" with the full moon in the background... it was just breathtaking. The graphics are just the icing on the cake with this gem of a game, it's so much fun to explore in general, but when you're exploring something this luscious, well it just makes it that much better. Not to mention the loading screens are very short, so it just makes you wonder how it loads that much beauty so quickly. I was unsure as to whether this next part belonged in gameplay or graphics, so I will simply put it here; the camera in this game is GREAT! This is coming from an avid player of the Ninja Gaiden series, so when I tell you that the camera being placed in one spot and the angles changing as you progress is just sensational. It was so nice to not have to worry about changing my camera angle. I must say that this game really did a great job in putting the camera in all the right places, they must have did a lot of testing to pull off such great camera work in a 3D action game. I'm going to go as far as saying that this is the best camera in any 3D action game I've ever played. I hope all others in this genre aspire to MercurySteam's new, and awesome standard.

Then there's the music, I'm not going to lie, for a Castlevania title, we're a bit lacking here. When the music is present, it does a fine job of letting you know. The tracks are great, and pleasing to the ear. I especially loved the track that kind of sounds a bit like the "waterfall" stage of Super Castlevania 4 (or at least, it does have that musical cue in it). The only problem is that the songs never loop, so once the track plays through thats it. Silence. I don't see why games today do this. It's as if the music isn't important anymore, and it's annoying because I love videogame music. I love the music in this game, don't get me wrong, I just which it the developers set it to 'loop' instead of 'play once.' Maybe next time! Ah yeah, I should also mention that the music is orchestrated as opposed to the typical heavy metal, which in my opinion is perfectly fine considering it suits the type of game this is. In my opinion, the typical metal tracks wouldn't have worked here anyway. I'll also throw this in there: the voice acting and sound effects or top notch, really quality stuff here. If only they didn't have the bosses repeat what they say in the encounters, or that damned chubacapra constantly telling me that I'm cold, but then again that's a problem in tons of games now a days (Shattered Dimensions, anyone?), and it's a minute issue at best.

Last but not least, the storyline. I love the story in this game. It's about a bitter and broken man going up against legions of monsters in hopes that he can bring his wife back from the dead. It's a very touching story, and by the end you can't help but feel bad for this poor guy. I thought the ending was fantastic! It brought everything together, and it just made Gabriel seem like a powerful, self-sufficient man ready to fight more legions of bad guys and do the Belmont clan proud. It seemed like there was a great growing process for the character from the beginning to the end. It was satisfying to see nice character development like that. Then the epilogue came and pretty much ruined all of it, but whatever, I'll deal with it somehow.

I hate to end the review like that, on a down note, especially since regardless of that, I loved this game from the moment I started playing it until the moment I finished it. This is really an amazing game, and truly proves that Castlevania can in fact, exist in the third dimension, and be a great experience on top of that.

I can't... no, I REFUSE to give this gem any less than a 9 out of 10. It's really a near perfect game, and I suggest anyone who's into action, adventure, or both to give this game a swing (excuse the pun), you won't regret it.

C'mon Get Into the Pile!

Just when I thought there wasn't enough games to buy in October!

We've got Castlevania, Lufia, Vanquish, Kirby, and now the newly announced Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1. The game is hitting XBox Live Arcade and the Playstation Network October 13th.

Gaming gods, I appreciate all ye have done this month, but couldn't you spread things out just a little?! I mean, seriously! I promised myself I wouldn't sell games anymore, but it's either that or wait for some of these games to be given to me as a present for the Holidays.

And we all know I'm NOT doing that.

Oh, and as per usual, more Castlevania Lords of Shadow reviews (because someone has to hype this damn game, Konami sure isn't)...

Another 9/10! Link to Gamesradar below!

Gamesradar

Another 90+ Score For Castlevania Lords of Shadow!

94/100!?!?! OMG!!

I'm dying on the inside. That's 3 reviewers giving this game a 9/10. This is going to be EPIC (and I mean the kind of EPIC that was before the word was used in every sentence).

Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions Review

It's been a long time since I've played any Spidey games personally, ever since the sand box style gameplay came around I pretty much gave up on the series, even though I used to purchase just about all the ones that came out. I gave up on it all though after Ultimate Spider-Man.

There was a gleaming light of hope however when this gem was announced. Gone is the repetitive free roam style, and Spidey returns to real, level by level gaming (or in this case, split up in Acts). You play as four different Spider-Men after the Amazing Spider-Man shatters the Tablet of Order & Chaos, a mystical relic that apparently grants great powers to evil minded villains (even when only in pieces), in a scuffle with Mysterio. This begins Spidey's journey to recover the tablet shards and restore order before these villains dish out complete havoc. The storyline is basic, and doesn't change from start to finish, which I personally don't mind, I'd prefer an overly-simple story over an overly-complex one (which most comic books and games in general do now-a-days), so I suppose it's a breath of fresh air to not get any dumb plot twists and other stupid things of that nature.

The graphics are pleasing to the eyes, looking they were torn straight out of the comic book pages and onto our televisions. Every dimension (Amazing, 2099, Noir, Ultimate) has a unique look and feel to it. Amazing looks just like the comic books, 2099 is very bright with lots of lights and flashing, Noir is very dark and mysterious (the sky looks awesome, just thought I'd mention that), and Ultimate looks pretty much just like the Ultimate comic (probably the more lackluster of the three since the Amazing universe does that too).

Gameplay is where this game shines. Each universe has a different gameplay style, from the Noir stealth, to the crazy free-falling 2099. Amazing and Ultimate are a bit more on the normal side though, but that doesn't make them any less enjoyable to play through. Each stage has a lot of variety, and plenty of nooks and cranny's to explore for Spider-Emblems, and Hidden Spiders (which give you more Spider Essence to purchase upgrades). There's plenty to do in this game, due to the Web of Destiny, which is a series of challenges or goals that you must do to unlock the entire web. As you unlock more challenges, you gain access to more of Spidey's special moves and new costumes. Some of them are inevitably unlocked (such as defeating a boss, etc), but a lot of them are not, and you won't want to ignore them. I also must mention that zipping around the stages couldn't be easier with the easy to learn control scheme, and beating the crap out of enemies is a real pleasure too. There's also the first person view brawl scenes with the bosses, which I thought was a weird thing to add at first, but it grew on me very fast. The camera has its problems I suppose, though to be honest I've only had issues with it when I'm wall crawling, which I rarely do anyway.

The sound is great, notably due to the amazing voice actors of the Spider-Men and their foes. A lot of classic Spidey VA's are here, with funny lines and witty phrases being spout at every corner. It was a trip down memory lane for me, hearing Noir Spidey in particular, since I loved the 90's animated series, though I'm sure others will be partial to other VA's. The music isn't memorable, but that doesn't mean it's bad either. It gets the job done, to say the least. I particularly enjoy the music of 2099 and the Noir universes. I'm guessing by this point it's obvious that my two favorite dimensions are those two, since I continually mention them with praise.

This game is a must buy for Spidey fans, and fans of the action genre, or just plain anyone that's into a good game. There's a lot of potatoes with the meat with the Web of Destiny, 3 difficulty levels, rankings, and alternate costumes, so there's a lot of reason to go back and continue playing (probably more than the reasons I mentioned here). This is a great direction for Spidey, and I hope Activision keeps Beenox on board for their next Spider-Man release. Crossing my fingers for an exclusive 2099 game.

This bad boy gets an 8.5/10!

Metroid Other M Review

Metroid Other M is the latest installment in the classic Metroid series since Metroid: Zero Mission for the Game Boy Advance in 2004, so I'm sure MOM's release is a long time coming for many Metroid fans, such as myself.

The game starts off with an amazing recreation of the final encounter with Mother Brain at the climax of Super Metroid for the SNES. This scene right here really sets the stage for the quality of the game from here on out. In the beginning, there are a lot of cutscenes, which really slows down the beginning, but once you take in the story and head out into the Bottle Ship to explore, things start to move at a fantastic pace.

The gameplay is really incredible, as soon as the controller is in your hands it really feels like classic Metroid, but with all new twists. For example, to aim at enemies with your missile's, you must quickly aim your Wiimote at the screen and lock onto your enemy and fire away. It takes a moment to learn, but once you get it down, it's a really simple procedure. It's also possible to charge your beam before aiming at the screen for when you unlock super missiles, you just simply use the 2 button instead of the A button, so that makes the process even more painless for later in the game. Aside from the aiming there is also the dodge technique Samus has called SenseMove. It works like a dream, a quick dodge and Samus auto-locks onto the closest enemy. This also auto-locks you in first person, so you can quickly dodge and dive into Samus' visor for a clean shot. On top of all this, there's also the Overblast technique's, where you jump on your enemy's head and fire a charged shot straight into there head, and the Lethal Attacks, which are pretty self explanatory, but if you need to know there pretty much flashy finishing moves that are always awesome to watch. The only things that are annoying are the three or four points in the game where they make you walk in an over the shoulder view for whatever reason, and the "Find a clue" first person parts where you can't progress until you find the clue. For me, these parts only took five minutes at most, but apparently there are a lot of people having problems with it. There is also the concentration system, which removes the annoying "go back and forth to respawning enemy's and kill them to recharge your health and ammo" with a simple but effective system where you hold the Wii mote up and Samus recharges her health (when it's really low) and missiles naturally.

Exploring the Bottle Ship is a lot of fun, even though the game is linear, at the end of the day exploration is exploration, even if you know what direction you're going, everything you're seeing is still new to you (unless you're on a second playthrough of course). The areas are polished and easy on the eyes, and everything fits nicely. All in all, the gameplay is superb with tight controls and amazing attacks and power ups. Speaking of power ups, they finally decided to stop making Samus' suit bug out and lose all her power ups in the beginning (which really made her suit appear to have some faulty design, lets hope they stop with that for good), and instead replace it with an Authorization system. It makes a lot more sense to me, considering she's following the orders of someone else and not just doing her own thing, she figures out of respect instead of going buck-wild and blowing the entire place up with super missiles and power bombs, she would wait for proper confirmation, like a soldier should! Kudos for the brilliant work around that bothersome issue with these games.

The graphics are equally as impressive, Other M is probably one of the best looking Wii games made to date, which is perfectly normal coming from the graphic obsessed developer's at Team Ninja. Samus looks awesome, the monsters are really sweet too, especially a lot of the awesome throwback monsters from Super Metroid and earlier games. It's great to see them all new in 3D. The cinematic cutscenes are also top notch, some of the best FMV work I've seen in a long time. For graphics, this game definitely goes above and beyond, and delivers the goods.

The story is also very interesting, not quite the best I've ever seen in gaming, but definitely stands well on its own. Samus receives a distress signal from a Galactic Federation ship called the Bottle Ship. When she arrives she meets up with her former Commanding Officer, Adam Malkovich and his team. Samus decides to co-operate with Adam and his team due to their past history, so she follows orders from him and that's how the game progresses, similar to Metroid Fusion, just minus all that annoying text every time you hit a save room. Instead, you get a small gold dot on your map that shows you the next area to go to, kind of like in Zero Mission. So, unlike earlier Metroid games and the Prime series, you won't be lost without a clue for hours on end, and thankfully can go through the game at your own pace and not get lost a lot. My only gripe is that at least with Zero Mission you did have some sequence breaking options if you wanted, but if you wanted it to be completely linear and follow the path, that was up to you as well, but lets hope we'll see sequence breaking in the sequel, right? I also have to mention I really like what they've done with Samus here, she's much more of a person than I've ever known, and it's nice to finally know the person behind the visor.

The music is very atmospheric as well, though it doesn't live up to the great tunes of Super Metroid (though lets be honest, its hard to live up to that), and quite frankly I'm just glad they didn't do a bunch of remixes of classic tunes to satisfy everyone. I'm kind of sick of hearing remixed Metroid tunes in these games, personally. I'd rather hear new music, even if it's not as great. It does what it must, it sets the tone and the mood of the lonely Bottle Ship, and that's all that matters. The music is original here, and solid. I also have to mention that playing with headphones is really awesome, the sound effects can be so appreciated when you can hear every single little one, from switching to the visor view, to the morph ball. If you have a headphone slot on your TV, I highly recommend it, the sound effects are great!

All in all, I would say this is a great step in the right direction for finally bringing classic Metroid to the third dimension, there are a few things that need to be worked out from keeping this game from reaching a 10/10 like it's brother Super Metroid, but it's still a great game all on its own. I think if Nintendo continues working with this formula, and improving upon it, their can easily be a new generation of great Metroid game's coming our way.

Fans rejoice! It's about time. Good work to Nintendo and Team Ninja on this very successful experiment, I'm looking forward to what comes next in the future progression of Metroid, and hopefully it won't be in six years from now like last time.

If Super Metroid is a 10/10, then this is easily a 9/10.Good stuff!