Now Playing: Eve of Extinction

 Can I do it? Can I finish it before New Year's Eve?!

 Back when I owned Eve of Extinction, I didn't particularly care about it, but this year I had an urge to play it, so I bought it. Watching videos, and reading things about it, I prepared for the worst... It's actually really friggin' decent! I remember the game having a ton of weapons, and evidently every boss is going to leave a weapon behind... yet, combat is incredibly repetitive and a bit bland. Still, it's kinda maybe sorta fun, graphics are pretty friggin' decent, Music is alright, Voice acting is cheesy but passable, the plot is a prequel to Bionic Commando(PS3) and the gameplay is borderline dull... however, the game is more than a sum of it's parts. So far, I can tell that a lot of effort and thought went into the game, there's great ideas even if the execution is a bit iffy.
 Bottom Line? It's good. It's not awesome, but it's really good.

Review #84: Minority Report: Everybody Runs

 It could've been so much worse.

 Minority Report is based on the movie that goes by the same name, that tells you everything and anything you need to know about this game. The game is your standard,  if a bit generic, 3D brawler. You goal is to move from area to area while pummeling dozens upon dozens on enemies ad nauseam.
 The story pits you as John Anderton, a member of a futuristic Agency called "Precrime". Precrime, as the name implies, are to prevent future crimes from taking place, this is done by relying on Precogs, psychics that can see crimes before they are to be committed. Unluckily for John, the Precogs predict him killing someone, so John must find a way to clear his name, while avoiding Precrime from turning him in. The game is somewhat faithful to the movie, there were a couple of changes here and then, namely the fact that during gameplay you will kill people, Precrime officers above all, but the game won't make mention of it. Gameplay-and-Storyline segregation at it's finest, ladies and gentlemen.

 John has access to punches and kicks in order to get the job done, different three-button sequences of these two produce various different combos. You can also block, which feels useless as most enemies and every boss have unblockable attacks, and by using the same button near a dizzied or fallen enemy, you can grab them and then throw them, or pummel them for good measure. Still, the most invaluable technique of all is the slide, when enemies group together, just use and abuse the slide and it'll be alright. You can also use guns, these aim automatically at the closest enemy, or you can use the right analog stick to switch between targets. As a whole, combat feels a bit spotty, hit detection is alright but at times it feels stiff, it doesn't flow just quite right.
 Hidden throughout each level is money, which you can use in order to buy new combos, temporary power ups(Strength Boost, Armor), Permanent power ups(Just clip size and total health) or weapons. You can buy anything at any time by pausing the game, but you need to be careful, as supplies are limited, you really don't want to waste those Armor power ups until the last level! Another cool feature is that you can interact with almost anything, punch bottles and they shatter, punch glass and it will shatter too, kick silverware and it will scatter. They also applied ragdoll physics to John and the enemies, which looks hilarious most of the time. These two gimmicks, as cool as the interactivity is, take a heavy toll on the framerate. It will chug at almost every time, and while it doesn't get in the way of the gameplay, it's hard not to notice it.

 The game is not too hard, even if the last boss is needlessly annoying. The AI is, initially, pretty dumb, but in the latter levels they learn to block and jump over low attacks, still, the game attempts to bring you down in numbers, it will throw large amount of enemies at the player, with a couple of armed enemies, the most dangerous, for good measure. Still, if you master the art of the slide, it's pretty easy to cheese your way through. Enemy variety is a bit lacking, there's about 4 different Precrime Officer type( Color coded for your convenience), a couple of bystanders that only turn aggressive if attacked and the robots(That are immune to the slide). There's also a couple of stages in which you are given a jetpack, which even though it's not too easy to handle, it's fun to use. For what it's worth, the game is pretty lengthy and there's a nice amount of unlockables, from the challenging Pain Arenas to different skins for John.
 As cool as it is how you can interact with almost everything in every stage, the overall graphical presentation is pretty lacking. Characters are pretty ugly, especially bystanders, and some of the animations look pretty stiff. Music is used very sparingly and when they finally play music, it's really bland, and sometimes it doesn't even fit the game. Voice acting is lame, John being at least serviceable, and the audio effects are just as bad, landing blows doesn't feel right!

 Minority Report is not a bad game. It's not good either, but it could've been so much worse! What's more, I had fun with it. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the game, it's very by-the-numbers, but it's not broken. Minority Report is a rental on a boring weekday, a game to keep you occupied for a little while during the week, you don't expect much of it and you don't get much in return.
 5.5 out of 10.

Review #83: Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate

 This game...

 Fighting games are not known for their tasteful portrayal of women, in fact, Dead or Alive is quite infamous for it. Dead or Alive 5 does NOTHING to help it's cause. There's no other game that let's you choose from four different types of "Breast Motion" at the Options menu, that's how silly it gets. Luckily, one of those four options is to turn it off, which I did, because "Natural" and "DOA" are downright silly while the unlockable "OMG" is just ridiculous. This is Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate, a game that panders to the lowest common denominator, and don't you even dare suggest that the reason people don't take the game seriously is it's sexual pandering, else you'll be called a feminist(Do they even know what that is?) or a conservative prude. As for the game itself, Ultimate is not a sequel to 5, it's just an expansion that was released only in retail. Is it worth it? Yes and no...
 As far as Modes, this game has every feature that Dead or Alive 5 had, namely: Story Mode(Which is silly and presented in a disjointed and confusing way, not worth it), Fight(It consists in Versus, Arcade Mode, Time Attack, Survival and Team Battle any can be played in both Single Player and Multiplayer variety) and Training(Tutorial, Normal Training Mode and Command Training, in which you are to complete a character's movelist).  The only new Mode is Combo Challenge, where each character has a set number of combos that you are to clear. There's a decent amount, but there's not a whole lot to it. There's also a really neat feature called "Exhibition Mode" that unlocks every costume for Multiplayer play, but disables stat tracking and trophies, pretty neat if you take the game to a friend's.

 The basic gameplay remains unchanged save for the obligatory balancing done to each character's moveset. Each character received at least one new move called "Power Launcher", which behaves exactly like a Power Blow(You can only use one of them in a given round). The Power Launcher deals less damage than the Power Blow, but leaves the enemy in a juggle state, leaving them open for a full un-counterable combo. New options include the previously mentioned Breasts Motion(Sigh...) and the ability to simulate lag during normal single player gameplay, pretty cool.
 The game adds a total of 5 new characters: Leon, who was considered a Bayman clone by many and probably the reason it was missing in the first place, Ein, often times considered a Hitomi clone(Although Ein came before, and they are not that similar) and is Hayate with a different Moveset, Jacky from Virtua Fighter and Momiji and Rachel from Ninja Gaiden. The new characters come with new movesets, and everyone but Bayman is quite fun to use. Some may want to count Ein among the "Bland new movesets", since he shares moves with Hitomi and Hayate, but he was my favorite character from the DoA series, so I can't complain. Momiji, Rachel and Jacky have totally unique movesets and they are very fun to use, specially Momiji with all of her aerial attacks.

 There's also a couple of new stages, and they are not too bad. Dead or Alive 5 had a pitiful amount of costumes, taking into account the massive costume lists characters had in previous installments. In Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate, every character saw his/her wardrobe doubled. This also means that most guys have 8 costumes at most, while gals get about 12, Team Ninja's priorities are quite clear. Oh, and the 5 new characters only have 3 to 4 costumes each. Almost, if not every, new costume was DLC from the previous game, and what's worse, not every piece of previously released DLC was included, still, what they left out were the Swimsuit DLC as it's probably what earns them the most money, the DoA average fan is amazing. Most of the costumes aim at some demographic, you get the "sexy cop", the "sexy nurse" and so on, and they even had the gall to have many costumes shared among characters, which makes the amount of costumes less impressive.
 Is Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate worth it? If you don't own Dead or Alive 5, very much so. As stupid as the sexual pandering is, Dead or Alive is a very easy to pick up and play game, you can just mash buttons and make stuff happen, and if you delve deeper you can find actual depth. And hey, now you can turn off the breasts jiggling, it's a start! If you own DoA 5, however, it's a harder sell. The new movesets are pretty fun, and at least 3 of them are very different from the rest of the cast, and quite fun to use, but there's not enough new content to justify buying it again if you don't really care about fighting games. All in all, Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate is what Dead or Alive 5 should've been from the start, but there's no real incentive to buy the same game again.
 7.0 out of 10.

Now Playing: Minority Report : Everybody Runs

 I will finish it before New Year's eve, that I swear.

 I liked this game as a kid, I don't know why, but I liked it. So of course, I had to get it, and get it I did. So far so mediocre. It's not bad, I mean, there are a couple of thingies that really irk me about the combat, but it's serviceable. The game as a whole is serviceable. I'm up to level 6, if I'm not mistaken, and it's not awful. It's not good, but it's not awful.
 Combat is alright, but it feels a bit floaty, and I'm not totally sold on the hit detection. It doesn't help that punches don't pack any, well, punch, combat is not satisfying. Grabbing people and throwing them towards stuff, or even endless pits, is fun as hell though. This game was experimenting with ragdoll physics, and you can tell that it's experimenting, as they are incredibly funny. I love it. It's not a bad game. It can get infuriating, but it's not bad.

Review #82: Okage: Shadow King

 Consider my childhood satisfied.

 Okage: Shadow King is quirky JRPG, a bit reminiscent of Earthbound, it doesn't take itself too seriously, it's set in a very mundane world with NPC that are as weird and odd as they get. It also happens to have been criminally forgotten, is this how people reward uniqueness?
 In Okage, you play the role of Ari, your average run-of-the-mill teenager who lives with his quirky family on the outskirts of the village of Tennel. Ari is, as the people refer to him, a very "overshadowed" person. Everyone downright ignores him and walks all over him, if he wasn't there, people probably wouldn't notice. Soon, his sister gets afflicted with a Pig-Latin curse, and their only hope is the Evil Shadow King Stan, who cures her in exchange of making Ari his slave and becoming his shadow. Ari's sister ends up with a pink shadow as well. Now Ari, slave to Stan, must aid Stan in defeating all the other Evil Kings in order to regain his former power and rule the world. Because that's what an Evil King is supposed to do. Evidently, the game doesn't take itself seriously at all. The game is fairly humorous too, many times Ari will be allowed to choose between three answers, the third one usually being hilarious, but everyone ignores him and his answer doesn't affect anything, funnily enough, it is a conscious design decision, as it becomes a major plot device in Chapter 5.

 The world of Okage is just as interesting. NPCs have very odd and surreal designs and their dialogues are just as weird, in a funny and engaging way. Enemies too are quite interesting to look at, chances are you there's more than a couple you haven't seen before in any other game. The cities themselves are very different from each other and have their own styles, the cities ooze creativity everywhere. Buildings look really weird, in a good way, and their insides are just as unique. There's one house, in Madril the town of Metal, that has giant cogs as tables and giant screws as chairs! Dungeons however... Every dungeon but the last one look exactly the same, same tileset, same objectives(Destroy the Urns. Sometimes you have to step on switches too, but you still have to destroy the Urns). Saddest part is that they are as bland as they are generic, quite perplexing since the rest of the game is so unique. They can get quite confusing too, specially the last one.
 As unique as the setting is, the gameplay is your standard turn-based JRPG. During the course of the game, you'll go from town to town in search for clues as to where to go next. Sadly, a couple times the game isn't very clear on where you should go next, so you'll have to try everywhere and every NPC, which isn't much fun. As you travel outside cities, ghosts will try to swarm Ari, if you touch any of them, battle ensues. There's really not a whole lot to it though, you have basic attacks and spells, you can also defend use items or run. What sets it apart, is that MP is shared among your three characters, some characters may be really strong or get great spells, but they might add a insignificant amount of LP to the pool. You can also set party members to "wait" and then combine your attack on a single enemy for major damage. A very odd design choice is that you can select what enemy to target, you can only target "packs" of enemies, but you'll quickly get used to it. One thing to keep in mind, is that if Ari dies, even if your other two party members are standing, it's game over. It kinda makes sense, Ari is so hard to notice that they probably forget about him, poor Ari.

 The game is not too hard, except a couple of bosses early on. Heck, some bosses sometimes feel very much luck-based, the... third or fourth boss in particular, I had to pray that the lesser enemies alongside the boss wouldn't gang up on Ari, otherwise they would kill him instantly. And I was overleveled for that part of the game! The last boss is also pretty tough, having a higher damage output and total hitpoints that any other boss in the game(The last boss has 10.000 HP, the second to last one has around 2000), so be ready! One of the biggest annoyances was the camera. You can turn it around(The axis is inverted, and you can't change it. WHO DOES THAT!?) but it just loves to get stuck on buildings or objects, often times it feels as if you were wrestling with it.
 As I mentioned previously, graphically, it's very unique. The game came out pretty early during the PS2's lifespan, and it shows. As unique as the whole game looks, the animations are very stiff and awkward, admittedly, it does add up to the overall quirky charm of the game. Music is downright fantastic. Tunes are usually pretty upbeat, but when it wants to get somber, it gets somber. They are also very catchy, few are the times I actually care about the music in a game, this is one of those times.
 Okage: Shadow King is a pretty different game from the norm. Half of it is really unique, the half that has to do with the presentation, the rest of the game, meaning the gameplay, is very basic and sometimes even bland. I always say that gameplay comes first, and since the gameplay is serviceable, I'd it's very much worth it to give this game a whirl just to experience the oddity that is Okage.
 7.0 out of 10.

First Impressions: Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z

 COLOR EDIT!!!

 Dragon Ball Legends is one of my favorite Dragon Ball game ever, second only to Super Dragon Ball Z. Ever since I laid my eyes on Battle of Z I've been incredibly hyped about it, as it seems to be a spiritual successor of sorts. The demo just hit PSN, and I just had to try it, specially since I'm gonna buy it on day one.
 First impressions after the first missions? "It's alright, nothing special, a bit disappointing". But I soldiered on. And after I discovered color edit? Sweet Jesus almighty, the fun I was having with the demo just got multiplied by three. Yes, color edit means that much to me. As for the gameplay, it eventually grew on me, I actually like it. The whole X/Square to ascend descend it's alright, but both buttons acting as a dash is a bit iffy, y'see, if you want to descend you either have to be standing still or double-tap the button, otherwise you'll just dash. I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually.
 The one thing I disliked is that CPU allies seem to be dumb. On the Piccolo fight I didn't really keep track of them, but on the previous mission I gave Krillin "Full power" orders and he'd just run around the enemies without attacking. One of the things I liked the most about Legends was watching your allies fighting around you... hopefully, on larger fights they won't act so dumb, since I'm pretty sure that they were kinda-somewhat useful against the Piccolo clones.
 Final Word? January 28th can't come soon enough.... and two days later, Gundam Extreme VS Full Boost gets released, sequel to my second favorite Last Gen game, Gundam Extreme VS. Who knows, Full Boost might be able to dethrone Tekken Tag 2.

Review #81: Donkey Kong Country Returns

 Or how Donkey Kong goes bananas. Again.

 It's been a while, well up 'till this game was released, since gamers had seen a proper Donkey Kong adventure. Donkey Kong Country Returns is everything fans of the older series could've asked for, not only does the spirit of the series is kept intact, but it also adds a couple of features that are very welcome, and a few that are not so much.
 The original duo, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong, are the stars of this game. Just as usual, Donkey Kong's banana hoard gets stolen and he wants it back. Since the Kremlings' legal rights are over murky waters, split between Rare and Nintendo, for this entry a plethora of new enemies have been created. The new bad guys are floating tribal Masks, Tikis, and they put the whole jungle under mind-control, but the Kongs won't have any of it. The adventure takes you over 8 different worlds, each one under a different theme(Jungle, Cliff, Volcano, Factory, etc), just like the Platformers of old.

 The game plays pretty similarly to older incarnations of Donkey Kong Country, you run, jump and roll your way around stages. You can also smash on the ground, to uncover secrets, or grab and throw barrels. And here lies my biggest gripe with the game: Controls. For some reason, the developer saw fit to include motion controls, when it comes to smashing on the ground or blowing, it's not bad at all and somewhat fits... but you must also shake the Wiimote in order to roll. For newcomers, rolling is the Kong's secondary offensive option(The primary one is jumping on top of enemies), and having to shake the Wiimote WHILE moving(Otherwise you'll smash the ground) feels very imprecise and awkward. In the older games there was a technique commonly known as "rolling jump", executed while jumping during a roll, which would give you longer and higher jumps, Retro Studios faithfully kept the technique in place, but having to rely on shaking the Wiimote? Not cool.
 You start each level as Donkey Kong and can take up to two hits before losing a life. Sometimes you'll find a barrel with a "D.K" stamp, this one holds Diddy Kong. Diddy Kong allows you to take up to four hits(However, he is gone after the second one), but allows Donkey Kong to use the jetpack in order land jumps safely. The game is pretty challenging and unforgiving, there are plenty of sections where you only get one chance to make the jump or you lose. Luckily, there are Checkpoints, usually longer stages are have more than a couple of them, but are not as hard as the short stages. Speaking of stages, each one has some particular gimmick, so the game never feels repetitive. Each world also has a Shop in which you can buy extra lives, for coins found in the levels themselves, you can even buy 1-time items that let you withstand a third hit, give you a brief period of invulnerability or help you find collectibles.

 Each world has a decent amount of levels, and each level holds a pretty large amount of secrets. Y'see, each level has plenty of collectables: Bananas(Get 100 and gain a life), Coins, Puzzle Pieces and the letters K, O, N and G, getting every Puzzle Piece usually involves finding the hidden bonus sections. Basically, there is a ton to do per level. Getting every Puzzle Piece in a level unlocks items in the gallery, while getting every KONG letter on every level in a world unlocks a secret, extra hard, level. Clear all 8 secret levels and you gain access to Mirror World, which is even harder.
 As previously stated, every level has each particular gimmick. Some may have falling platforms, some may have you activating platforms and many, many others. There are also levels that take place on top of a minecart that have you jumping over obstacles or broken rails onto other platforms. Every time a gimmick is revisited, always in a different world, there's an added gimmick to it. The first minecart level is pretty straightforward, well, the next one will place you inside a rolling egg's shell, as it breaks down due to spikes on the floor, so you'll have to jump over the spikes and onto what remains of the rolling shell. Exciting stuff. This is how the game manages to never feel repetitive.

 Something that I found was very neat, is that Multiplayer and Single Player feel very different, and neither feels easier than the other. Multiplayer has the advantage in that if one player dies, as long as the other one is alive and you have lives to spare, you can revive the other player if you touch the flying homing barrel that respawns them.... But in levels that involve gimmicks like MineCarts, meaning both players on the same object, if you die you lose two lives. Multiplayer also means that Donkey Kong(player 1) doesn't get to use the jetpack, while Diddy has it on at all times. At any time the second player can get on top of player 1 and grant him the jetpack, but that would mean that one player would control both characters and that's no fun at all.

 The presentation is all around top-notch. Graphically it doesn't push the Wii at all, but everything looks very crips and clear, this is a very colorful game. There's a large amount of vistas and backgrounds as you go from world to world, and everything looks fantastic. Music is made up of returning music, remixes and a couple of new tunes. The new tunes feel very Donkey Kongish, and the rest of the music is great. I said it once and I'll say it again: Music in Nintendo games are always phenomenal. Always. Sound effects are also very apt for the game, and I actually grew fond of the sound that bananas make when collected, it makes you want to gather them even more!

 Donkey Kong Country Returns is a fantastic game, it feels just like the older Donkey Kong Country games, it's very lengthy with an incredible amount of secrets to find and levels never feel the same. It's also pretty challenging without feeling unfair. It's a shame the just had to add unnecessary motion controls, they were so unreliable that I wound up just relying on jumps... but, luckily, it doesn't hold the game back by much.
 8.5 out of 10.