Archview #16: T´ai Fu: Wrath of the Tiger

 Your Kung Fu is no good here.

 Let´s keep it short and simple, T´ai Fu is really good. The story is not as interesting as it´s setting, keeping it short, you play as T´ai Fu, sole survivor of the Tiger clan, raised by Pandas(I´m not making this up), and must journey to learn of your past and avenge your clan, who fell to the Dragon clan. There are no humans in the game, just various animals, part of different clans, who each have their own martial arts. As you play through the game you´ll be taught from the Mantis, Leopard, Monkey and Crane masters.
 T´ai´s moveset is not incredibly large, but it gets the job done. As you play through the game, T´ai will earn new moves, imitating his masters, running like a Leopard, hovering like a Crane or rolling like a Monkey. All styles serve T´ai Fu to move around through the levels, as he will need to make use of their abilities, but each one also has combat purposes. Combat itself is pretty simple, and enemies are not too challenging, most of your deaths will come from the traps each level has. Lives are quite plentiful, sometimes it seems as if the game is looking for excuses to give you more one ups!

 The graphics are great, characters look really good, and there´s virtually no slowdown, great lightning effects too. Stages themselves are quite varied, from the jungles, to the snowy mountains, there is a lot of variety. The music is quite forgettable, but it´s appropiate for the martial arts setting. The voice acting is quite good, surprising for it´s time! All in all, the game sells it´s Kung-fu inspired setting really well.
 While the game´s lenght is appropiate for the type of game, ending before it gets repetitive, there´s no replay value at all. Stages, while not small, don´t house many secrets, and said secrets are mostly one ups, nothing worth returning for. After you beat the game, you only get the ability to Level Select, but there´s nothing new, no new moves to try, nothing!
 Despite it´s lack of replay value, I had fun with T´ai Fu. It´s fun, and the presentation is quite interesting and well done.
It´s an 8 out of 10.

Archview #15: Alundra 2

 I´m doing this without my notes, so I might forget some stuff....

 For starters, Alundra 2 has nothing to do with Alundra, any similarities are purely coincidental. This time around, you play as Flint, a young Pirate Hunter, who gets roped into helping princess Alexia to free the kingdom from Baron Diaz, who replaced the king with a Puppet. Yup, it also tries to be funny, but the game has a very... quirky sense of humor, more often than not, it falls flat on it´s face.

 Although Alundra 1 was very clearly inspired by The Legend of Zelda, Alundra 2 tries, and manages, to do it´s own thing. Puzzles no longer rely on various tools, but revolve either around 4 elemental rings or the enviroment itself. Puzzles get almost as hard as Alundra 1, however, they don´t ever get frustrating, since most rooms reset themselves if you screw up. And screw up you will, puzzles are very varied, from setting up chain reactions, to acting as a tile for a statue to go over, the puzzles are quite varied.

 Combat is a bit challenging, due to the clunky system, it´s not quite obvious when the invincibility period, after the enemy gets up, ends, so you might end up getting sucker punched while you hit an invulnerable enemy. Another issue, is that the fine folk at Activision decided to rename "Normal" and "Hard" into "Easy" and "Normal", so if you are like me and choose Normal... get ready to recieve tons of damage from the enemies. Bosses are not as hard, since you must learn their patterns and how-when to attack. Some bosses are quite original, there´s one boss where you need to grab the bombs the lesser enemies drop, walk under the boss´ fire attack, to light up the bomb, and time it, so that when you throw it towards the boss, it explodes in the air. Another one has you evading his attacks, until he winds up for a punch, where you must slide into his feet, to throw him off balance, and hit his head.
 The game looks... quite bad actually, graphics are simply and messy, there´s clipping everywhere, and slowdown is quite frequent when there are many things on screen. The music is quite generic and forgettable, voice acting however, is quite decent. Luckily, the ending is much more fulfilling than Alundra 1´s, however, there are loads of loose ends by the end of the game. How did Flint´s father survive? Will Flint ever find out that that guy is his father? And the king, did they ever find him?... there are many loose ends.

 There´s almost no replay value, but the game is as long as Alundra 1, and has as much hidden stuff to find. It also has loads of minigames, like Shooter, and many secret activities, like dog hearding. Sadly, most of the good rewards require you to play the games for a long, long time, even games like Shooter, which are fun, end up becoming quite boring. Also, getting the item for the best shield in the game, means that you will almost surely give up on the magic ring enhancements, since they use the same currency, and it´s hard to aquire with the dart games. And you also need to farm loads of darts from enemies... so yeah, they are nice distractions, but the game overstimated their appeal.
 All in all, Alundra 2 is a good game. I enjoyed it more than Alundra 1, however most of it´s charm is missing. Hardly a classic, but it´s quite fun.
7.5 out of 10.

First Archimpressions: T´ai Fu

 Coming from Alundra´s 2 less than spectacular graphics, this is... whoa.

 I´m on level 3, just cleared it actually, and so far so good. Game looks great, although the music is a bit on the boring side. Combat is fun, and levels are just long enough. It does seem like the game lacks replay value, since there are not many areas, and most of them just house extra lives. Still, first impression? The game is gonna be fun. On a sidenote, why does T´ai look different on the cover? Lampshading maybe?

How Capcom killed Darkstalkers.

 Remember how Capcom blamed fans for the death of Megaman Legends 3? They expected the fans to BUY a DEMO to help THEM with the game, kinda like Raccoon City, except it wasn't a complete game, if you could call Raccoon City complete at launch that is. Said demo never made it through since Inafune left, Capcom got cold feet and blamed the fans. Regardless, they now killed any hope of Darkstalkers 4 through bad decisions.
 Capcom, fans wanted Darkstalkers 4. You didn't need to do much really, all we wanted was the full Darkstalkers 3 cast(The Playstation port that had everyone), you could skip on Dee, that new inclusion from DS collection, which was Demitri with a new head and Donovan's moves. You could also skip the Sprite edits, like Oboro Bishamon and Gold Talbain. You needn't make any new characters. Just a new engine, which you could've borrowed from SF IV or MvC , the same characters everyone loved, with a new coat of paint, and maybe a few new mechanics.
 What did you do? Port two older games and hold DS 4 hostage. You wanted to earn twice as much money, by ransoming DS 4 if DS Ressurrection sold well. If fans really wanted DS 4, they would have to buy Ressurrection AND DS 4, sneaky. So what's the problem? You offer Vampire Saviour 2. Sure, it has better graphics than the PS 1 port... but not as many characters, which makes it inferior, even if it looks twice as good(It really does look much better). And the worst part is expecting it to sell much. True Darkstalkers fans probably own these games in other way or forms:
The Saturn Vampire Saviour 2 port? The Ps1 Darkstalkers 3 port with all the characters? The Dreamcast port of VS 2? Darkstalkers Collection for PS2 importers? Darkstalkers Chronicles for PSP? Emulate it for free with M.A.M.E or WinKawaks?. The people that want and clamor for a new Darkstalkers game have, more than likely, already bough the game before and probably own it more than twice. Another blunder? Digital only. I admit that if it had come out in disc form, I would have bought it.
 So, Darkstalkers: Ressurrection, while being the 7th most sold game on PSN of it's month, failed to meet Capcom's expectations. Capcom is either very, very blind or thinks it can ride off nostalgia forever. It can't pretend to take as much as they can from the consumer, without giving them what they want instead of devicing ways to rip off their fans.

First Archimpressions: Alundra 2

 Hmmm, it's alright. It's no TRAG.

 This game feels almost nothing like Alundra so far, so I dunno why call it Alundra 2. Sure, the view is sorta the same? But it feels much, much different, and I'm not just talking about the phyisics. I'm almost an hour in and I've mixed feeling about it.
 The music is the sort of music you'd expect from a game like this, it's nothing special, but it's not bad. Surprisingly for the time, the voice acting is quite decent. The graphics however are quite bad, not only are most characters very simple and low poly(Seriously, the textures for the faces are so simple and bad) and worst of all? It will have slowdown at times. With graphics this simple, they've no excuse for it.
 The controls are alrightish, it's a bit odd that the game supports the dual shock and you can control de camera with R1 and L1, yet you can't move it with the right analog stick, it feels like a missed oportunity. Also, moving the camera while moving Flint sometimes makes the left analog stick behave oddly, it's hard to explain. On the whole, they are not as tight as I would've liked, but it's not too annoying.
 I like it a bit so far, not as much as I liked Alundra 1 when I first played it, but I doubt it's gonna be a bad game.

Archview #14: Tekken Tag Tournament 2

 Part 2 of the Double Review Special

 This is my favorite fighting game ever, no lie. So, where to start from... Hmmm... There's 59 characters. Yup. There's only like 10 clones or so, and even then, they have different moves and different properties to some of the shared moves. Besides, some of these characters are here just to please the fans, and that's what this game is about, pleasing the fans and celebrating Tekken. Almost every character from previous games are in here, the few exceptions are Jack 1, Jack 2, Gunjack and Jack 4, however, Jack 6 takes their place. There's also missing Gon, for obvious copyright reasons, but then again, Gon is not really part of Tekken, so he's not a necessity. There's also Kuma 1, Armor King 1,King 1 and Roger missing, but King 2 , Armor King 2, Roger Jr. and Kuma 2 take their place, and they looked the same anyways.

 Just as there are loads of characters, there are loads of modes. Arcade ladder, Ghost Battle, Time Attack, Survival... and then, you can also play in pair-play mode, with 2 players, each one playing as one character on the "Team". Customization returns, but I'll speak of it later. There's also Fight Lab, and while it was presented as a "great tutorial into all that is Tekken", that's an exageration. It teaches you some basics, but you are left to do most of the work. For example, it teaches you what a launcher is, but since each character has different launchers, it's up to you to find them out. Fight Lab will not make you a master at Tekken, it will just teach you rough fundamentals, with some funny missions.

 Speaking of customization, it's a step back from Tekken 6. Now "Arms and chest" got grouped into Chest, "Legs and feet" into Legs, and creating hairstyles got a tad more cumbersome. The accesory department got expanded though, with lots of "in-hand" equipables, and most swords and knives are usable in battle! Most of them have a slow startup and deal little damage, so they won't affect a serious match, being there mostly just for show. It does feel like there are less pieces of clothing though, and some of them don't look too good on the characters. Luckily, most of previous alternate costumes from the characters are unlockable for equipping(You have to unlock both Chest and Legs pieces though, or just mix them with other clothings, who's judging?) and they do look good. Most of the unlocking is done in Ghost Battle, however what you unlock is random, so it could take a while before you complete your favorite character's wardrobe. It's worth noting that characters do have default alternate costumes, but most of them are really, really bad and feel completely uninspired, probably made in a couple of seconds just to have them. The game does provide around 10 slots per characters, so you can make up for them.

 The game looks amazing. While I feel, but can't prove, that the bodies feel a bit more streamlined, characters are still impossibly detailed, I dare say the most realistic muscles in a videogame ever. Characters algo get dirty and/or wet as they fall into the various types of ground, it looks really good. One thing I disliked though, is that replays got shorter, now it only plays the last 3 seconds before the killing blow, which is quite dissapointing. The music is your usual Tekken Techno, it's a shame they also got rid of the "Play your own music at any time" from Tekken 6, but the music is good. Voice Acting is great, each character speaks in it's native language! Portuguese, French, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, German, Japanese, English.... it proves just how much attention to detail they payed. Oh, actually, Lars is half german, but still speaks Japanese, go figure. Another neat touch, is how endings(Yeah, endings! In a fighting game! Again! Finally! REAL ENDINGS, WITH ANIMATION AND NO TEXT!) use many and different styles. Some are in FMVs, some are handdrawn, some use different filters... there are loads of different ending styles, and it's so good!. And, obviously, they reek of Tekken's trademark humor.

 Gameplay is your tried and true Tekken fighting system, forged in fire through over 7 iterations of the franchise, with the addition of tag mechanics. It's not just tagging, there's tag assaults and tag throws too, and a bunch of defensive tag additions. Wanna tag in safely? Just give up you red health and rage, and you can tag in while on the ground. Like the previous Tekken Tag Tournament, characters recover red health when they are not active, and rage is activated when you take damage... however, it's your partner character who gets enraged. There's a whole Allegation chart, based on character relationships, that can make your partner get enraged sooner, or take more time, depending on who's his partner. Wait, learning two characters is too hard? Well, characters do have at least 60 moves, some go beyond a 100, and all those stances... worry no longer, you can go 1 v 2(Or 1 v 1, if you are boring). Playing as one character limits your options, since you no longer have access to all those neat tag mechanics, but you do get more health, and get enraged sooner, still, fun people play as two characters.

 Tekken Tag 2 is an extremely fun game, proof of that is that I spent over 10 hours fooling around in ghost mode before even going to Arcade mode and getting the endings, it's that good(Also, the fact that most of my friends dislike Tekken. If you are reading this, EFF YOU, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.). It's not totally perfect though, I dislike how Arcade Mode and Survival mode are littered with crappy looking custom characters instead of their default looks. Also, most oponents "pretend" to be players, so you'll be running against the same teams multiple times, I've had prefered random teams, like Tekken Tag 1!. Also, there are few victory poses and special victory poses, specially for a game as big as this one. Then there's the "free" dlc. Yes, it's free, but if you don't have Internet,or 10 years from now, when PSN and XLive are dead, you won't have access to around 10 characters. All of these are just nitpicks though, and hardly get in the way of your enjoyment with TTT2.

 Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is the best Tekken yet. If you don't like Tekken, this game won't change your mind. If you do, this is a no brainer.

10 out of 10.

Archview #13: T.R.A.G : Mission of Mercy

 Welcome to a double Review Special, part 1: T.R.A.G

 T.R.A.G is a criminally underrated PS1 action game. It never seems to be mentioned anywhere. No Top 10s, no "Obscure PS1 games", no nothing. EVER. And it's a shame, 'cause it's surprisingly good.
 The game plays like Classic Resident Evil, characters move like tanks, you've got fixed camera angles on pre-rendered backgrounds. There's also lots of information logs, items(mostly keys) that are needed to open various objects. There's also a limited quantity of healing items, and the game never heals you, so you have to keep that in mind, albet enemies tend to be quite generous with health packs(These can't be stocked though). Unlike Resident Evil, however, you play as four different characters, each character can be swapped on the fly, and each one has a different weapon and fights quite differently from each other. Unlike REvil, however, combat is quite fast. You've got backsteps and special moves, using the D-Pad.

 The game looks pretty good. Characters and enemies are a bit on the simple side, but they look good, specially for a PS1 game. The music variety is a bit small, but it works for the game, voice acting on the other hand..... To be fair, back in the day, voice acting wasn't common, and it wasn't good, at least the dialogue is cheesy, so it kinda, kinda meshes well with the bad voice acting. One thing I loved is the amount of details, like different descriptions depending on which character is doing the examination, and the amount of alternate CG cutscenes and lines depending on which character you are using!.
 The game is a tad too short though. It's a shame, since it has many great ideas, like the initial sequence, where Alex and Michelle break up and each one handles a different area. You can switch characters and proceed at your own leisure, it'd have been nice to have more moments like that. Also, you can choose which character handles which area, so you get different CG cutscenes and dialogues, and a different latter consequence, but alas, the game is too short, and it's a one time deal.

 After finishing the game, two different endings by the way, you unlock different colors, and depending on certain conditions, different weapons and costumes(In some cases, like Alex and Rachel, it changes their moveset) for each character, plus, having Alex and Michelle take the paths they didn't last time, so there is some degree of replayability. My final complaints lie on the fixed camera angles, like other games of it's ilk, sometime it can make it hard to see what you are fighting, specially when the camera angle changes and on the controls. Tank-like controls probably wasn't the best way to go with this kind of game, and movement sometimes is a bit cumbersome, but it doesn't get in the way of the game.
 So, in conclussion, T.R.A.G: Mission of Mercy is a great game, and everyone who hasn't played, nay, hasn't even heard of it should get shot.
 It's a 7 out of 10.