First Archimpressions: Dynasty Warriors 6

 AKA "What the EFF is goin' on?!"

 So, I pick Lu Xun and go into his Musou Mode, my first reaction? "What the eff is going on?!". This game starts off quite confusing, with loads of units popping up out of nowhere, eventually you get used to it, but the first impression is quite disorienting.
 Graphics are all over the place. The models are not too pretty, but they get the job done, however, some of the special effects are quite laughable. Surprisingly, I've a feeling there are more soldiers on-screen than on DW 7, although it comes with heavy slowdown... but when slowdown is NOT present, it actually moves quite faster than DW 7!. The animations for the attacks are fantastic though, and speaking of animations, I like how cut-scenes are presented in-engine, they look silky smooth!
 Now onto the gameplay.... Renbu doesn't deserve as much hate as it gets. Don't get me wrong, I prefer vanilla DW system, with the different charge attacks, but Renbu is not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Sure, it's annoying how it's constantly dropping, but it's not such a huge deal. I'm enjoying the "capture the base" approach quite a lot, wonder why they took it out on 7, hmm....
 On summation: It's decent, Samurai Warriors 3 or DW 7 seem, at the moment, better choices, but who knows, I might end up liking this a bit more.

First Archimpressions: Donkey Kong Country Returns

 'tis good. Really good.

 I'm about to start level 2! It's good. Really, really good. Also, I had more than a bit on trouble on just level 1, which means that it's challenging, specially trying to collect everything. It's fun, really fun.

 Y'know what's not fun? Motion controls for the sake of motion controls. There's not a single control option that allows you to play without them, and they are annoying. Ground pounding with them is fine, uneeded, but fine. Rolling(Attacking) by shaking the remote is not. This late in the Wii's lifespan it should be clear that things that demand precision, like say... ATTACKING, should not be relegated to motion controls.

 Ah well, it's looking quite promising.

Archview #43: Kirby's Epic Yarn

 I'd rather play Wario.

 Kirby's Epic Yarn is yet another Nintendo experiment that had Kirby attached to it, and to be fair, Kirby was probably the best fit for it. In this instance, Nintendo decided to make everything look made out of yarn, while giving it a very children's story-book feel. The end result is a gorgeous game, that may be a little too boring for most people.
 As with most Kirby games, Kirby is hungry and eats more than he should have, finding himself victim to Yin Yarn's anger, who turns him into yarn and sends him into a world made out of yarn. Here he befriends Prince Fluff, and together they venture forth to unite the land and save Dream Land from Yin Yarn. The story is told via some cut scenes, while a narrator, who sounds like he came from a children's show, explains what's going on and reads the lines that characters say. As for the children story-book feeling, they nailed it.

 Unlike other Kirby games, Kirby no longer inhales them, instead he uses thread to either unmake them(They are made out of yarn) or roll'em up into a throwable projectile. Gone too is the flying, instead he can slow his descent by turning into a parachute of sorts. Yeah, transformations are now part of Kirby's default moveset, Dashing makes him turn into a car, ground pounding sees Kirby turned into a weight and swimming turns him into a miniature sub. There are more transformations, but these are achieved by grabbing certain icons, these turn him into anything from a Dolphin, a Firetruck, a Spaceship to a giant tank.
 The biggest change is the fact that you cannot die, instead, Kirby will lose beads(Currency that doubles as stage score) when hit, just like older Wario Land games. You may think that it makes the game easier, and it does, but in order to unlock the secret levels, you must finish the bosses with a certain score. Hidden throughout the levels are 3 collectibles(two stickers and a piece of music), and these may offer a bigger challenge than the game itself. There's also a lot of "Sidequests", Minigames or what have you, that task you with reaching collecting a certain amout of beads, finding characters, bringing to characters to a particular place or beating a certain amount of enemies under a time limit. These can get quite hard, and you need to beat them all if you aim for 100% completition.

 All the beads that you collect are added up to your total bead count after each stage, and these are used to buy "furniture" and "wall papers". Stickers(Found in each level), furniture and wallpapers are used to decorate Kirby's room in Patch Land. There's no real purpose to it, but I'spose younger children may enjoy it.
 Probably the coolest feature of the game: It can be played in Co-op, in which the second player takes control of Prince Fluff. Fluff and Kirby play the same, and the only real difference between them(Besides colors) is the little crown that Fluff sports. Interestingly, Co-op opens up a couple of possibilities, and certain collectibles that you may have missed, and would have to otherwise restart the level to grab, can be reached by using Fluff or Kirby as a plataform and thus reach even higher places. Or treat your partner as a projectile to open up roads that needed you to carry an enemy-turned-projectile in order to break them! Co-op breaks the game, but it makes it much more fun.

 The graphics in the game are something to behold. Everything is made out of yarn and patchwork, with little things like buttons and zippers. It's very cool, specially the first time you pull a thread and affect the enviroment, but to be fair, some of these get old after a while, doesn't help that you have probably seen these moments in the trailers before, so it loses it's charm after a while. The music... I didn't really like it. It's good, but it's too... boring and... relaxing, I'd prefer something with a bit more oomph. The sounds are on the chirpy side, it IS Kirby after all. The Narrator also pulls an awesome performance, completely selling you on the idea that this is a story being told to little children.
 As for me... I didn't really enjoy the game. The art-style is really commendable, and it's always fun when Nintendo pulls off these experiments with styles(Yoshi's Story anyone?), but graphics alone cannot carry a game. I found the gameplay to be very boring, and this comes from someone who enjoyed the Invincible Wario games, the slow-paced music doesn't help at all. It's hard to recommend this game, but I guess there's no harm in trying it, at least.
 5 out of 10.

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