Archview #42: Kid Icarus Uprising

 At least, it makes for a great showpiece.

 Kid Icarus Uprising is the third entry in the Kid Icarus series, which have starred Pit since the NES era. This is also the first time that the series has made the jump to the third dimension, Smash Bros not withstanding. Deviating from previous games, which were 2D adventure games, Uprising is half railway shooter half third person shooter, with only a couple of rewards for exploration.
 In this installment, Medusa returns from the dead, and it's up to Pit, guided by the goddess Palutena to stop her. Most stages start off with the on-rails segment, in which you move around to dodge bullets and obstacles, while shooting at your agressors. These are, arguably, the most fun segments of the game, controls for this "mode" feel fantastic and responsive... then comes the on-foot segment. These segments are longer, and on paper, should be more engaging, but the controls just don't work. Aiming is done with the touch screen and shooting with the L button, and it feels fine, but moving is the stuff of nightmares.

 The issue is that they mapped too many actions to the analog nub. Walking, Dashing and Dodging are all done with the nub, and more often than not, you will dash when you want to walk or dodge. The plataforming sections in particular, can get quite annoying, specially when botomless pits lie below. Also, be prepared for hand cramps unless you are using the stand(Included with the game). Sadly, these segments tend to go on longer than the impressive on-rails shooting segments.
 Moving on, the games does something very interesting regarding the difficulty. The currency used in the game, to buy weapons, are hearts. Before each stage you can either spend hearts to make the stage Easier or bet hearts to make the stage harder, and in turn, earn more hearts. The game rewards the player for playing in harder difficulties by placing doors in certain levels that can only be opened when playing on a specific difficulty. If you die, however, not only will you lose hearts, but the difficulty will go down by one grade(It goes from 1.0 to 9.0).

 Rather surprisingly, there are many weapon types that Pit can equip(Going from Bladeguns, Bows, Cannons and Maces to Staves, Claws or Orbitars) and they all behave and look differently, even weapons of the same type have different charge shots. Weapons can be found inside chests on the on-foot segments or bought at the store in between levels, and you can even fuse them to make better weapons that inherit skills from the weapons fused. It's not too complex, and it can be interesting to fuse powerful weapons. Pit can also equip skills, equipped in a grid before each level, that can be used by touch their icons in the touch screen, and range from adding effects to Pit's attack to healing him or makin him jump.
 The game looks very pretty and colorful. While enemies are a bit on the simple side, the stages look very interesting and attractive. It goes from great to spectacular when playing in 3D, it really does make make a difference. The music is also great, as expected from a game made by Nintendo, but the real treat is the voice acting. Every stage has back and forth banter between Pit, Palutena and the boss of the level, it's incredibly funny and full of references to other games and breaking the fourth wall. Later levels even add Hades and Viridi to the conversations. Hades deserves a special mention, pulling off a very charismatic and smarmy villain.

 Finally, there's a lot to do in the game. There are hundreds of "Idols", figurines of sorts, to collect. And there's also 450 "challenges" of sorts, that reward you with songs, idols, powers or weapons. There's also a Multiplayer mode, of which I played only a little, it's a fun diversion, if you can stand the on-foot controls.
 Kid Icarus is a great package, it looks great, it's funny and has a lot of content, but it's a bit hard to recomend due to the on-foot segments. Movement there can and will get annoying. Still, if you can get over them, there's a really fun game beneath. And if you can't, you can still marvel at the on-rails segments in 3D, they make a great showcase of the system!
 7.5 out of 10.

Archview #41: Samurai Warriors 3

 There are better Musou games out there, just sayin'.

 Samurai Warriors 3 is yet another entry in the long-running "Musou/Warriors" games and holds the distinction of being a Wii exclusive. Outside Japan anyways. In Samurai Warriors 3, you take the role of one of 37(And a hidden extra) different generals as you lay waste to hundreds of enemy soldiers, while re-enacting(In a very loose sense) battles of the warring states period of Japan History. Except they couldn't produce flames out of their swords, but that's a whole 'nother story.
 Gameplay is very simple, pick a character of your choice, pick an item preset( There are three preset with 6 different items per stage), mash the attack button and clear hundreds of enemies. Most enemies are just fodder, being quite content at taking a beating, enemy officer however(They have their names over their heads, so you just know that they are special) will put up a battle. Most of the time, you have to slay a certain general in order to finish the battle, and more often than not, a battle is lost if either you die or a certain general of your army dies.

 Characters have two branches of attack strings, one performed by pressing the attack button many times( From 8-10 depending on the characters) and another one by pressing Charge Attack during the nortmal attack string, which produces many different attacks. There are three types of characters: Power, Skill and Normal, and they have little nuances to their charge attacks, some get multiple charge attacks in a row, some get a single one per string but have more charge attacks to choose from. There's also a Musou Attack, which consumes an energy gauge, that you rise by attacking and recieving damage. Unique to the "Samurai" spin offs, characters get an Evade button and an exclusive Skill, different to each general(Though some are suspiciously similar...).
 There are four modes, most of the playable in co-op: Story Mode, in which you tackle 5 stages that follow the story of a certain general(Only 30 out of the 38 characters have a story mode), Free Mode, in which you can replay any stage as any general, Historic Mode, in which you take your created(More on this later) character through 15 battles that follow the story of Japan and Murasame Castle, a stage-based mode that follows a original story, featuring demons and the like. Needless to say, there are lots of things to do in the game, and luckily, character levels carry throughout the modes, so you can level them up in Free Mode before tackling the harder Murasame Castle Mode.

 There's a Create-a-Character feature, but it's pretty basic, with few pieces to pick from, at least you can equip characters with any moveset from the other generals. Speaking of Movesets, there's not a single clone in the game, and each general has 4 different types of their weapons to be found. Each Weapon, regardless of type, comes with random skills, so you might have to grind before finding just the kind of weapon you want, and you can power up those skills at the Blacksmith, for a price. While there are no alternate costumes, you can edit the color pallette of every general.
 The game looks pretty good actually, while the in-game models don't move their mouths when they speak, they have a lot of detail. Stages can look a bit drab, but they have their defining features and props. Most impressive, there's almost no slowdown, despite the huge amount of enemies on screen, plus the special effects of your attacks. The music I found to be a tad boring, it's fitting for such a Japanese game, but I didn't feel it. Voice acting is... there are some really good voice actors, and some bad ones, not as bad as Dynasty Warriors, but still bad. There's dual audio, if you are into it, but Warriors games are meant to be played in English.

 Samurai Warriors 3 is not a bad game, but it feels a bit boring when compared to the other Warriors games, however, this is the only Warriors game on the Wii, so if you are a fan, there's no reason not to get it. In summation, it's a very good looking game, it's pretty solid and there is a lot of content, however, it can be a bit boring at times.
 7 out of 10.
 

Archview #40: Tekken 3D Prime Edition

 Most disappointing Tekken game ever? Probably( Hey, I didn't expect much of Advance Edition)

 Tekken Prime can  be summed up as a very barebones Tekken 6 port. Y'see, this game is very much based on Tekken 6, from the character roster and their movesets, to the stages and music. It also has the same balancing, although not the same modes...
 As soon as you pop up the game, you'll come up with the first flaw of this game: The menus are boring. It's very minor, yes, but when you add it up to other shortcomings(More on this later), it just shows that the game was rushed. Then the next flaw hits you: There's not much to do. You have Survival, which would be the main "Single Player" mode, Versus, Quick Battle and Practice. The first mode, Survival, comes in many varieties: 5-man survival, 10-man survival, 20-man survival, 40-man survival(With two EX variations) and 100-man survival. Clearing this mode grants the player Tekken Cards and Card Points.

 Versus Mode is, as it implies, multiplayer, it can be played either localy or online. Quick Battle has you battling 10 oponents and rewards you with Card Points, it's also the only Single Player Mode in which you can raise your rank, although mostly cosmetic, is the only way to unlock colors(There is no customization mode). As for the Practice Mode, it's pretty standard stuff. One of the most disappointing things you'll notice is that there are no endings. They probably meant to make up for it with the Tekken Cards, but they are a pretty sad excuse, even if the art is really good and there's over 700 of them.
 The game plays just like any other Tekken game, and while the buttons response is spot-on, neither analog nor digital pad are suited for Tekken. You can set up 4 short cuts in the Touch Screen, eight if you use the L and/or R button as "modifier". Call me a purist, but I just deactivated L and R buttons and comepletely ignored the touchscreen.

 The graphics are pretty good, if jaggy. Models look like downgraded Tekken 6 models, and I don't mean that in a bad way. The animation is as smooth as you would expect of Tekken, and all the pretty sparks made it in. Playing in 3D is just a gimmick, it neither enhances nor hinders the experience. Most Stages from Tekken 6 are in, plus a bunch of new ones. As for the characters, all 40 characters from Tekken 6 are in, altough Heihachi has his Tekken Tag 2 moveset and looks, and for a while, it was, for fans like me, the best selling point of the game: A sneak peak at Heihachi from TTT2. Just like Tekken 6, most characters speak in their native languages, although coming from TTT2, where every characters speaks his own language, is a bit of a downer. The music is your usual Techno stuff, and even if you are not a fan, it's pretty nice.
 Sadly, there's not much else to say about the game. There are no notable unlockables, unless colors are your thing, and it takes a long time to unlock every color for each character. Tekken Cards are barely rewarding, but if you want, there's like 700 of them. Tekken Prime also comes bundled with Tekken: Blood Vengeance, as a movie it's pretty bad(But the fight scenes are amazing, specially the Heihachi-Jin-Kazuya threeway) but it's probably the best Tekken movie.
 There's something odd about Tekken Prime, it lacks content and it's probably the most barebones Tekken game out there... however, Tekken gameplay is pretty excellent, so I found myself playing it. A lot. So all in all, as a Tekken game, it's a let down. As a game itself, it's passable.
 6 out of 10.

Archview #39: Star Fox 64 3D

 'Sallright. First 3DS review in mah blog!

 This game is not just a simple port of Star Fox 64, it's more of a remake than a port, however, while not much has changed since it's previous incarnation, it has a couple of new features and gimmicks that elevate it further than a port. You take the role of Fox McCloud, leader of the Star Fox team, and you are to take down the enemies who threaten the many planets of it's galaxy. In order to do so,  Fox takes to the skies in his Arwing, alongside his team mates.
 The game is very slim on story, evil scientist Andross threatens the world, killed Fox's dad, Fox must save the world and avenge his father, however, Star Fox comes from an earlier point in history, where games didn't try to be movies. Stories were but the side-dish, games lived and died by their gameplay, and here is where it shines. The game plays just like it did years ago and it's very entertaining, testament to just how good it was and is.

 Most stages have you going on a predetermined course, some having alternate roads, and you move around alongside your targeting reticule, while other times(Mostly during some bosses) you enter "all range mode", where fly around inside a small area. The Arwing can shoot lasers and a homing charge shot as well as a bomb that can be detonated at will. As for defense, it has the infamous barrel roll technique that deflects most enemy fire and sommersaults(And U-turns, but only usable on All-range areas). Each level has it's own boss, they usually are the "shoot it's weak point" variety and they are easy to figure out.
 There's not a whole lot of modes, there's the Main Game, which comes in three varieties: 3DS(easiest), 64(Normal) and Expert(Hard), Score Attack(You can pick any level and do a score run) and Battle Mode(Multiplayer mode, mildy entertaining and can be played with bots). It may not seem like much, but there are many stages, and you can't play them all on a single run. Accessing different stages is a matter of finding the secret routes, and there's 3 different branches you can take... however, stages may have alternate situations and dialogues depending if your wingmates are present or not, and which level you have previously played! Replayability, it has it.

 There's also a bunch of new features, besides the new difficulty settings, these are the revamped battle mode, which now has power ups, a new gimmichy gyro control setup(Optional, luckily, but the game will ask you if you want to switch to it EVERY SINGLE TIME you choose "3DS" difficulty) and, best of all, the fact that it saves your campaign mode status, so you can continue right where you left off. Also, you can now choose to replay the last stage, in case you didn't get the alternate route.
 Graphically, it's a decent looking game. Star Fox never had any complex shapes or anything, but it looks very crisp and clear. The water effects deserve praise, however, on some stages, sometimes it looks as if pieces come out of nowhere, so the short draw distance is a bit of a downer. The music is as great as it used to be, and the voice acting was completely redub... but it's not too good anyways.
 When it comes down to it, this version is not necesarily better than the N64 version, sure it's much prettier(Which technically does make it better), but not much else has changed... but when the base game is so good, it hardly matters.
 7 out of 10

First Archimpressions: Kid Icarus: Uprising

 The stand is awesome. Just awesome.

 So, Kid Icarus returns and... it's pretty nice. Graphically, it's incredible, having Pit soaring through some amazing backdrops... And the banter between Palutena and Pit is incredibly funny. It also plays very smoothly, and 3D makes it better, it really does. Then Pit hits the ground.... The on-foot sections are very meh. The controls don't help, Dashing, Dodginga and Walking are all done with the analog nub, so it can get pretty unwieldy. More than once I found my self attack-dashing instead of meleeing due to the nature of the movement. It didn't get me killed, but I like doing melee moves. Dodging can get pretty annoying sometimes.
 So yeah, one half of the game is really good, and the other is hampered by the controls. On another note, while the stand is just a piece of plastic, it's a very nice item, it can even stand on a bed.

First Archimpressions: Nintendo 3DS

 I'm just gonna transcribe my notes, taken in my cel!, as just to have my very FIRST impressions...

 Nice size. Not liking the DPad placement, but it makes sense since the main movement control is now the analog nub. The nub is alright. Love all the minigame, extras and gadgets included by default. Battery life is short as ****. L and R buttons feel much better, though I keep pressing R by accident!. On the lower edges, at the back, there are a couple of bumps for who know what, eventually they grind into the fingers. Not cool.

 The Internet Browser is a godsend. Why would I use the 3DS as an Internet Browser? Try travelling abroad without a computer. It may not load videos, but it's very serviceable.

Progress Report: 7/18/13

 I'm back! Also bought a 3DS and games. Sadly, I finished some of those, so it's kinda late for "First Archimpressions", but I will review them(Star Fox 64 3DS and Tekken Prime). Kid Icarus can be First Impression'd since I'm barely into stage 3.
 I also bought comics, many comics. I will try my hand at reviewing them laters.
 Gotta run, tah tah!