Now Playing: Mega Man X - Command Mission

 It's pretty dope!

 On my way through Chapter 2, and the game is pretty good. 'But duuude, what 'bout the Mega Man-athon?', well, 'dude', I'm gonna marathon the Sidescrollers, this is an RPG, plus, this game is a bit hard to place in the Mega Man timeline, taking into account X's redesign, it probably takes place after X8 but before the Elf Wars. Speaking of the redesign, X looks badass. The new enemy Robot Masters look badass as well, it makes me wish we could've gotten a sprite of this new X, as in having a Mega Man X9 with this sprite or something. And how cool would've been if Axl and Zero got the badassification as well?

 Still, I like the mechanics, I like customizing each character with Force Metals, the Hyper Modes, the Unique special attacks and the side-arms mechanics. The Encounter Rate seems a bit... random, sometimes you'll get a Random Encounter seconds after the last one, yet at times it can take a while. One thing I'm really digging is that Status Effects appear pretty early in the game. I played, what, 2 hours? And enemies are already attacking X, who is my only party member at the moment, with Poison and Blind! It's cool little RPG, I like it.

Month Overview: January 2015

 Games finished in January 2015:
Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst      8.0
Guilty Gear Judgment                                                       8.0
Power Stone Collection                                                     8.0
Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution       7.0
LocoRoco                                                                          7.0 
Patapon                                                                             N/A
Super Mario 3D Land                                                        8.5
Lunar - Silver Star Harmony                                             8.5
Evolution Worlds                                                              3.5
All Kamen Rider Generation 2                                          7.5
Bit.Trip Complete                                                               7.0



 It was a decent month, mostly games I liked or had fun with. Evolution was a total letdown! I had been aching to play it for so long... And finally, finally I can say that I finished Lunar - Silver Star properly, a game I started over 5 times on the PS1, heh! AND KAMEN RIDER GENERATION 2 WAS BADASS. BADASS. For some reason, I also played... rhythm games, and Patapon totally broke me, I had never felt so defeated before, not in recent memory anyways. I might, MIGHT give it another go later down the road, something about leaving a game unfinished doesn't sit well with me.


 Game of January 2015:

 This game is an improvement on almost every front of the PS1 version... yet I found myself wanting to play the PS1 version again. It's quite obviously nostalgia, but... I can't fight it. Still, Lunar 1 was a fairly solid RPG, but Lunar 2 will forever be number one in my heart, I just liked the cast a whole lot more. But then again, Dragon Master Alex is badass.

 Runner-up:

 I loved All Kamen Rider Generation 2. I wanted to give it an 8.5, but the game just isn't deep enough.... it's hard to explain, I loved the game, but I know that it's far from being a great beat'em up. Still, it's my blog, so I should be able to do whatever I want.... Ah, whatever. I kept playing this game long after I finished it, and I still find myself longing to play it again right now. It's just so much fun, you get so many riders, even if at their core they all play the same, and having an ally rider of your choice alongside you.... I dunno, I just love this game.

Review #201: Bit.Trip Complete

 Run, Forrest, run!

 The Bit.Trip series is often regarded as one of WiiWare's premiere titles, it's made up of six very different games(Except one of them), but all of them follow a storyline and are developed around chiptune music. Yes, Music, you might even consider them rhythm games and you wouldn't be too far off. But that's not everything that these games are, these are arcadey games through and through, with a very minimalist aesthetic and a difficulty curve that harkens to the NES era.

 'Complete' is a physical rerelease of all six games bundled in one disc. This isn't just a compilation, it also includes a bevy of unlockables, art, letters(That basically explain the story behind each game and how it ties up to the gameplay and music, very cool.), videos and music. Speaking of music, packaged alongside each copy is a disc with the soundtrack. Futhermore, now there are three difficulty settings per game, which makes most games more lenient without turning them into a cakewalk, and 20 tough-as-nails challenges for each of the six games.

 All six games share a couple of mechanics between each other. For instance, every game but Runner and Fate feature 'levels', scoring points will make you go up a level, while missing beats will make you lose points. The higher you go, the more hectic the visuals will get, and the better the music will get(which is a huge motivator to do well, since the music is pretty dang amazing), which, at least in my case, made it harder to discern the next patterns... which is, probably, while going into the lowest level, Nether, makes everything go black and white, allowing you to get a better focus in order to avoid a game over. And avoid a game over you'll want, only one game has checkpoints, die in any other game and it's back to the beginning of the stage, and stages are particularly long, to make up for their scant quantity(Usually 3). One little thing I enjoyed was that a lot of bosses are throwbacks to other games, like Arkanoid, Missile Command or even Pacman!

 As previously mentioned, the games have a very minimalist aesthetic. Every game but Runner and Fate have a very simple look, using simple geometrical shapes made up of very few pixels, not unlike something you'd find on an Atari, but more colorful, with fancier, but not by much, backgrounds. Runner and Fate have more complex forms involved, and use way more colors. The music is excellent in every single game, with various simple themes to convey the story each game wants to tell. The way the beats of the music are tied to the gameplay is very pleasing, makes you want to do good in the games to get the most of it!.

 Bit.Trip Beat: The first game, you control a paddle on the left side of the screen, and your object is to bounce off the oncoming bits. This game is played with motion controls, something I wasn't particularly fond of, but I managed to find a somewhat precise way of holding the Wiimote by using my fingers. This is probably one of my favorites... and, in my opinion, the hardest game of the bunch, still, it's incredibly addicting and oftentimes hypnotic! There's three very long stages, and bit patterns eventually get devilishly hard. Can be played with up to four players, but the paddles start getting shorter, two players is just the right amount of players if you want to have an easier time!

 Bit.Trip Core: This time around you shoot beams. Using the directional pad you can choose to shoot a beam up, down, left or right, and try to hit the bits as they move onto the beam sweet spots. It was fairly fun and challenging, while the gameplay is completely different, it's still similar to Beat's.

 Bit.Trip Void: In this one you play as a black circle, moving around with the analog stick, you must collect the black bits and avoid the white ones. Collecting beats makes you grow bigger, but you can press the A button to collect your points and shrink back. Why wouldn't you shrink all the time? Because the bigger you get, the more points you'll get, so you'll want to put off shrinking as much as you can, since touching a white beat will not only get you closer yo going down a level, but will revert you back to your original size and you'll lose the points you had amassed! Supposedly this game had checkpoints, but they didn't work for me, every time I'd use a continue I'd still start back at the first segment of the stage I was playing.

 Bit.Trip Runner: Easily the most complex game, both in looks and in gameplay. It plays like the endless runners you'd find in many App games, that the screen scrolls automatically to the right and the only thing you have to do is jump. Except that in this game you must also Slide, block or even kick different obstacles while trying to collect gold pieces. This game is way longer than the others, but the three stages are divided in 12 sections(Thank god!). This game is almost as hard as beat... but not as satisfying. I mean, the first two worlds are excellent, I must've retried the first boss over fifteen times and I wouldn't give up because of how much fun I was having. But the last two stages of Level 3? They felt cheap and I just started getting frustrated and annoying, they were just hard and cheap without being fun. Still, it's only two sections in 36, and that's not counting the secret levels! One of the best games in the series. There's no 'levels' in this one, if you touch any one obstacle is back to the beginning of the segment!

 Bit.Trip Fate: The bleakest game in the series, it's also the easiest and the least fun. This time around, it's a sort of on-rails shooter. The stage scrolls automatically, very slowly, but you are free to move over a 'wave'. It's an... interesting mechanic, you are free to dodge, while restricted to the wave. You shoot by aiming with the Wiimote and pressing the A button. There's 6 levels in this one, but they are fairly short.

 Bit.Trip Flux: The series had reinvented itself four times already, what would it do for the last installment? Fittingly, it closes the circle by being just like Beat, but this time around the paddle is on the right side of the screen. There are other differences, there's new Round bits, or Avoid Bits that you must, well, avoid, and all bits are white in color this time around. Oh, and there's checkpoints, which make it much more accessible than Beat, which is not to say that it's easy, some patterns are waaay harder than Beat, but the checkpoints make it more tolerable.

 While I love Arcadey games, these certainly aren't my type of games. That said, the Bit.Trip games were a fun little adventure that took me through Commander Video's life. Sadly, the high difficulty and the retro aesthetic makes it a bit hard to recommend to most people, but if you are even slightly interested in the premise, it's worth a look, just be prepared for a challenge. And do totally delve into the unlockable 'Letters', the backstory behind each entry is too engrossing to pass out on!
 7.0 out of 10.

Review #200: All Kamen Rider Generation 2

 HENSHIN!

 It's been almost three years since I played and finished All Kamen Rider Generation on the DS, time sure does fly by! AKRG2 was released simultaneously on both the DS and the PSP, but for reasons known only to me, I opted for the PSP version. One would think that the DS version, being the lead platform, would be the superior version, but you'd be surprised.

 The game has a story. But it's also in Japanese, so I've no idea what it's all about, but hey, over 57 Kamen Riders get united in one game to kick butt, do you really need to know why? The game is divided into 6 Worlds, with 5 to 7 stages each, and an unlockable 'Another' world with about 10 more stages. It sounds like a lot, but stages are pretty short, I finished the initial 6 worlds in 3 hours, but clearing the 'Another World' lengthens the game, even if there's nothing new to see. Still, for this type of game, the length is alright, it ends just before it gets boring. Each stage can also be replayed on 5 different difficulty settings for added replayability. Just as with the previous game, each stage has a mission, but this time around character unlocks aren't tied to the fulfillment of these, so if you can't read Japanese(Or find a translation), it's no biggie. The previous game had some run 'n jump stages that scrolled to right automatically, which have been removed... mostly. For some reason, there's only two of these in the entire game, which makes you wonder why even bother? They aren't very fun anyways.

 All 28 Riders from the last game are back, and each one has at least one new attack. There's 29 new characters for a total of 57. The core of the game remains the same, you, alongside a partner Rider of your choice, go through each stage killing every single enemy that stands in your way. There's a new mechanic, which I like to call jump cancel, by jumping mid-combo your Rider will dash forward, allowing you to start your attack chain anew, it's fairly simple, but it's fun to execute. It's a fairly brainless, uncomplicated game, every character plays basically the same, but there's so many of them, and it's so much fun to play as your favorite Riders! 

While I appreciate how they blended the different forms of each Rider on their special attacks, I wish every Rider got the same treatment as the then-new Riders. OOO, W and Fourze have complete form changes, with new weak combos and entirely different special attacks, as a matter of fact, Fourze can customize his four special moves from a rather wide variety of options.

 I though All Kamen Rider Generation was gorgeous. I was wrong. The game looks a hundred times better on the PSP, the sprites look much crisper and better defined, while the backgrounds are smoother. The difference is almost like night and day. Almost. While the DS version suffers from slowdown every now and then, there's none to be found on the PSP. The DS does have its advantages, however, since the PSP is a disc-based console... there are load times. Engaging in the 'form change' menu for OOO, W or Fourze will make you go through two loading screens, they last 3 seconds at most, but they can get a bit annoying. Using Super Moves also requires going through two loading screens, problems that the DS version does not have. It's not a deal breaker, but it's something to keep in mind.

 Graphics in the game are amazing. The 3D backgrounds are rather bland, but a huge step up from the barren stages from AKRG 1, but where the game really shines is in the characters. Sprites are very well animated, and look amazing in motion. You get to look at your favorite Riders, fighting recognizable enemies in glorious 2D. And on the PSP, it looks phenomenal. The music isn't anything special, but for a licensed game like this, it's alright, but would it have killed them to include music from the shows? Voice Acting is done by different actors than those from the shows, which is a tad disappointing, and for some reason, they don't sound very good.

 While the gameplay received mostly small tweaks, it still feels like a better game than its predecessor. More moves on each character, the new jump-cancel mechanic makes creating combos a possibility, more stages and more appealing backgrounds, and over 50 characters. It kinda makes the old game obsolete. Still, what you see is what you get, this is a beat'em up, if you don't like the genre, you'd better look elsewhere.

 7.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Bit.Trip Complete & All Kamen Rider Generations 2

 It's... it's different.

 Let it not be said that I abandoned the Wii! After cementing what I already knew with Patapon, that I've no rhythm nor can I keep a beat, here I am playing a Rhythm game! I hate myself. It's hard to say how I feel about it, I just beat 'Beat', after countless retries. There's something hypnotic about it, once you get in the 'zone' and your arms begin reacting by themselves. I like it. What I could've done without were the motion controls, but oh well.

 I liked All Kamen Rider Generations 1, it was simple to a fault, and while every Kamen Rider was basically the same, there were loads of characters. Now there are even more, and I can already see new animations in Kamen Rider Knight. Oh! And the older characters? Everyone got at least one new move, which is kinda neat, but the characters work more or less the same. BUT WHO CARES, THERE'S MORE RIDERS! I played the last one on the DS, but I jumped ship on this one, the good? Sprites and backgrounds look much sharper, and I haven't come across any slowdown whatsoever. What's not so good? Load times. Characters with menu-based forms, like OOO and W, bring up loading screens during gameplay. Heck, even engaging in Super Moves brings up a loading screen. And while the music sounds pretty good, the voice samples sound terrible.
Sadly, as much as I'm loving the new characters(KAMEN RIDER KNIGHT! SHADOW MOON(Eventually), IXA!!!!!), and the new moves(KIVA'S THREE KICK COMBO IS BADASS), it feels just like the first one, heck, the stages feel the same. In a way, it feels more like an expansion than a sequel, but then again, I only finished the first World.

Review #199: Evolution Worlds

 A generic name for a forgettable game.

 Evolution Worlds is a Gamecube port of Evolution 1 and 2 on the Dreamcast. Two RPGs for the price of one sounds too good to be true, and it is. The game itself is rather dull, but even then, this 'compilation' has suffered from cuts, mostly on the Evolution 1 part of the game, making it the least ideal way to go through these games... or is it?

 The premise of the game, well, the first part, revolves around Mag Launcher, the last heir of the renowned Launcher family, a family of treasure hunters, tasked with taking care of the mysterious mute waif Linear by his father. In this world, there are weapons called 'CyFrames', which most party members use by the by, that come in many forms, Mag himself wears a gigantic robot arm on his shoulder. There's an ancient artifact known as "Evolutia", of  which many adventurers dream of finding, Mag included, but an army(where do they come from exactly?) eventually comes to Mag's town in search of leads. The second game is even worse, featuring a very underdeveloped and shallow villain. Evolution 1 certainly gets the raw deal here, as the 8 dungeons have been reduced to three, which also translates to longer cutscenes in order to convey more information. It doesn't work very well. Both stories are generic, predictable and dumb, trust me, you've seen these plots thousand of times before in animes or other games, but done much better. The dialogue is laughably bad, often times redundant and reiterative, with some fantastic logic thrown in the mix(' I don't want to hurt you!' so she's gonna destroy the world! MAKES SENSE.). The main cast doesn't get it much better, they are as underdeveloped as the supporting cast.

 The game mixes Rogue-Like dungeons with RPG-like battles, but these elements don't mix very well. Rogue-like games feature simple dungeon designs, usually randomized, with nothing else to do but walk around trying to find the stairs to the next floor. This holds true with Evolution, but while combat is very fast paced in rogue-likes, in Evolution touching an enemy means loading the turn-based combat arena, finish the turn-based battle, and then load the dungeon again. It gets boring fast. Dungeons have virtually no puzzles, there's the occasional hidden wall, and the very last dungeon introduces moving platforms and, for the first and last time in the game, poles that a character(That you get only moments before this last dungeon!) can grapple to and from. Oh, and the game doesn't tell you that he can even do it, so you have to figure out by yourself what the hell those poles mean, and that this character needs to be in the lead in order to use them. Fun. Another elements borrowed from Rogue-like games is the very limited inventory capacity, which makes you be more mindful about what to keep and what to throw, and trap tiles that can hurt you or heal you if you step on them. And you'd better have an extra 4 blocks of memory on your memory card, as 'Interim Saves', which means saving and quitting upon going up or down a floor in a dungeon, takes up a whole other file, unless you plan on going through 15 floors in one sitting, which is very boring.

 Combat is a fairly simple affair, firstly, there's 'party formation' on a 3x3 grid, characters on the front lines deal and receive more damage than the ones on the back, as expected. Battles pan out as any other turn based RPG, you have your basic attack, item, skill(Spells) and Defense, with the addition of 'Talents', which work just as spells, but instead of consuming FP, they have a time-based cool down. Defeating enemies rewards you with experience points, sometimes items, and TP. TP is used to learn new skills, what's more, you can learn them mid-battle, in which case you'll be able to use them for no FP cost on that one time! Money is earned by clearing dungeons or selling items.... but party members beside Linear and Gre will take money every time you clear a dungeon, with up to 80% of the prize money being taken away! Basically, money was needed to upgrade CyFrames, so I just wound up using Gre all the time. Hilariously, on both 'last dungeons'(What would be Evolution 1 and 2 last dungeons, respectively), the game takes away Linear, for plot reasons, which means you'll have to use at least one underleveled party member. Neat. It's not that big of a deal anyways, since they level up pretty quickly and the game isn't hard, but it's a hilarious curiosity.

 Graphics are very, very dated. They don't look very well, and the animation is nothing to write home about. That said, I do have a soft spot for this type of early-PS2 era graphics, so I kinda liked them, reminded me of Okage, but without the engrossing art style. Music is fairly decent, but ultimately forgettable. Voice acting.... is bad. At first I didn't much care for it, it didn't seem terrible, and for a cutesy game like this, it was alright.... but then the second game happened, and at the end of the game it tried taking itself too seriously, and repeating lines you've already heard before, but... they were delivered so poorly.

 Now then, I admit to not having played the games on the Dreamcast, but just as Evolution 1 was reduced to three dungeons, there's weapons and items missing from the Evolution 2 side of the game, but I doubt the extra dungeons and cutscenes from Evolution 1, or the extra weapons from 2 would've change my experience with the game. If anything, more dungeons would've made me tire of the game sooner, and dislike it even more. At the end of the day, Evolution Worlds is a very forgettable game, nothing is particularly broken about it, but it doesn't do the things it does very well. It's just another RPG, unremarkable at best and dull at worst.
 3.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Evolution Worlds

 Engaging man mode.... No interim-save run!

 So, yeah, I remember watching ads for these games on Xpert Gamer and EGM, and longing to play them... now's the time!

 Firstly, turns out it requires 4-8 blocks on the mem card to save your game... which kinda sucks, since I only had 4, which means no Interim Saves, and on the longer dungeons... it's gonna suck. That aside, I'm liking it. The graphic style reminds me a lot of Okage, which is always a plus, and everything is so goddarn cute. The gameplay is fairly interesting, it's a mixture of Rogue-like with RPG, which works surprisingly well.

 One thing I'm not fond of however, is that in order to get both games into this version... Evolution 1 got compressed into three dungeons, which translates into over 20 minute long cutscenes, which can drag. The plot is predictable, the voice acting is overdone(But it kinda works for this cutesy game), but I think the gameplay more than makes up for that.

 If you'll excuse me, I've a military base to raid.