Review #205: The Sims

 Back to the past!

 Who hasn't played The Sims? No, really, there's few games with such a wide audience as The Sims. It's been over 15 years since the release of the very first version of The Sims, and we are up to the fourth iteration of the series. After all this time, is it worth it to go back the game that started it all? And a console port at that? Nope, it's not.

 The premise of The Sims is to create a family of 1 to eight Sims and... play god. You can build them a house, and expand it at any time, then buy furniture, toys, electronics or decorations to make an abode that suits your fancy. You can let your Sims have free will, but you're always allowed to order them around, and they themselves can study, train or practice different activities such as cooking in order to better themselves, or even get promotions in their jobs! I really don't need to explain what is The Sims, but the point I wanted get at, is that there's no 'goal' in The Sims, there's no 'end' to the game, no objective... unless you play the PS2 version.

 Exclusive to this port is the Get a Life mode. It's a sort of goal-based story-mode, in which you start as a slob that lives at home with his mother, eventually moving into his Dream House. It's a great idea, and I appreciate having the mode, really, I like having objectives in my games! However... back in the Sims 2, keeping your Sim happy was kinda tedious, and keeping your Sim happy is a necessity if you plan on finishing this mode, as he or she will refuse to study or train if they aren't happy, and taking into account that they have to eat, sleep, socialize, have clean rooms, go to the bathroom and have fun.... it's pretty tedious, and you'll be doing progress every few minutes during hours of game time. It's not much fun, and sadly, it's a requirement to finish this mode in order to unlock the classic The Sims mode... or you could use a cheat. Definitely use the cheat and keep this mode as a curiosity or novelty for a rainy day. Or something.

 As far as the port goes, it's pretty decent. The interface is pretty clean and easy to navigate, even if finding objects to buy is a bit cumbersome. This version also lacks everything The Sims would eventually have through expansions, although it does have some content from House Party, it lacks a ton of furniture and other items. Another thing to keep in mind, is that the framerate can chug a bit from time to time, I found it better to simply hide all walls(By pressing circle, you can also make it so that they disappear if the cursor is over them, but this is what makes the framerate dip the most). So far, it sounds like a very inferior port, and it kinda is, if only it didn't have the two player mode.

 There's two ways to play in Multiplayer, either the Minigames or Classic. The Mini-games are unlocked as you advance through Get a Life, and they are pretty dull. For instance, there's one in which you compete with another player to socialize the most and then get money donations from them, the one with the most money when the time runs out wins. Yeah, they are pretty bland. But you can also play the classic mode with another player, and that's awesome. The screen gets divided diagonally, with each player having their own cursor. Sure, going into Buy Mode pauses the game for both players, but it's a small concession to make in order to play with another player! For some it might be just a novelty, but I thought it was genius. And it's pretty fun too!

 The graphics are certainly... not the best. Character models are simple, and the textures look pretty muddy. The music and sounds are... they exist, and they are there, but I didn't care much for them, although the Sims theme is pretty good Still, the presentation isn't The Sims best feature, and it never was, and for what the game is intended to be, the presentation is more than acceptable. The Joystick controls are fairly good, it's no mouse, but it gets the job done, and I'm pretty sure they did the best they could.

 So, is it worth it to go back? No, I don't think so. Yes, the Multiplayer Mode is a huge selling point for me, but the other day I found out that the PS2 port of The Sims 2 also features this Mode! Which makes it even harder to recommend to come back to this version of The Sims. It's still a good game, but sadly it has been outclassed by every other iteration of the series, so... skip this one.
 5.0 out of 10.

Now Playing: Half-Life

 It's fun, has aged pretty well so far.

 So, here's the deal: Gods Eater is a blast, I'm close to the end of vanilla GE(Meaning, Diff 6 missions... but then there's the Difficulty 7-10 Burst missions...), but right now I have to farm Emperor Fangs from the big bad Vajra Emperor... and it's gonna take a while. So I need an interim game, and since I had to delete my Half-Life data a couple of months ago to make space in my memory card... Well, Mr Freeman, it's time to get reacquainted!

 The game has aged pretty well. The ally CPU is absolutely terrible, it loves getting stuck, in no small part due to the game defaulting to the 'Dash' speed, so unless you are incredibly precise with the analog stick to just maintain a run... they are gonna be left behind. There's also platforming. In a First Person Shooter. It feels pretty off, I only fell to my death once, but more than a couple of times I felt as I wouldn't make it. No bueno!!

 That said, the gameplay is pretty fun, it's hard to explain, but it feels good. It's a pretty basic game, from an era long gone by, but it feels good. Shooting is fun, exploring Black Mesa is fun.

 And after I'm done, I'll have to do a DECAY run, the PS2 exclusive(I don't remember if the Dreamcast had it as well, or if it had its own unique alternate mode) in which you play as two female scientists, with their own power suits! It's pretty alright, although it doesn't work very well with one player.

Now Playing: Gods Eater Burst

 Easy-mode Monster Hunter?

 So, when I first popped in the game, I expected a Monster Hunter clone. I wasn't ready for the anime. Let's say that the anime opening is as ANIMUUUU as it gets! And so is the character creator. This is both good and bad. The good? Like most post-apocalyptic anime media, it features a pretty cool setting, the monster design, so far, is pretty neat, and the weapons are fairly original... however, female characters are walking fan service pieces of meat. Because that's the only way Japan knows how to portray women. Ironically, the female avatars are pretty decent, it's the NPCs that look all kinds of ridiculous next to the fully clothed badass male characters.

 That aside, I'm diggin' the gameplay, it's like an easier Monster Hunter. Sure, the Vajra kicked my butt in the Cowboy Mission, but I'm pretty sure that if I had tried harder, I could've beaten him. I love the gameplay too, it feels like a more agile Monster Hunter, the dashing is more responsive, the 'stepping' covers more ground and there's jumping and double jumping, plus, the weapon attacks are much faster. I like it.

Review #204: Half-Minute Hero

 Time is money, yo!

 Half-Minute Hero is awesome. No, really. It's an affectionate parody of the RPG genre as a whole, parodying various Tropes and mechanics, condensing 30 hour games into 30 seconds. Kinda. It also contains a RTS(of sorts) sub-game, a shooter sub-game and a escort-mission sub-game. While it has that 30 second limit, there are ways to extend that limit, but stages last less than 5 minutes at most. It's a very interesting package, and makes the most of its gimmick without wearing it thin.

 The game takes place during 4 different centuries, beginning in Goddess Era 100 in which you play as Hero, who must defeat over 30 Evil Lords that have cast the Spell of Destruction that ends the world in 30 seconds. Hero gains the aid of the Goddess of Time, and together they travel together to stop the enemy that is teaching the Spell of Destruction to the Evil Lords. Goddess Era 200 has you playing as a beautiful Evil Lord, as he defeats the brainwashed humans and the one creating the tempering with the human minds. Goddess Era 300 stars a naive Princess that turns into a no-nonsense badass whenever she wields her crossbow, and must try to heal her father's illness. Lastly, there's Goddess Era 500, after two centuries of Darkness, it's up to the Knight and the Sage to resurrect the Hero and put an end to the darkness. The story is very tongue-in-cheek, as it makes fun of everything it can. There's a level that slowly turns into gameboy graphics, starring Evil Lord CATS who has 'set you up the bomb', if you know what they mean. Even at it's bleakest, the game is always trying to put a smile on the player's face, and it works, it's particularly effective if you enjoy RPGs and know what it's parodying, but even then, I think the humor would work on anyone.

 Hero30: This is the game's centerpiece, it's the most in-depth and longest game. For instance, the other modes have 30 stages(or 'quests'), this one has alternate routes for a total of 50, there's even alternate endings! While the other modes would take, at most, an hour and a half to complete, Hero30 can easily take up, as a whole, more than 5 hours of your time. As Hero, you walk around an overworld, usually, filled with random encounters, which play out automatically with the hero running towards the enemies, dealing and taking damage, and winning a fight earns you XP and money. Towns may have equipment pieces on sale, as well as healing herbs or on-the-spot healing food. 30 seconds is too little time, most of the time, to grind for experience, get better equipment, solve the quest's puzzle and slay the Evil Lord, which is why the Goddess of Time will rewind time, for a small fee that increases as the more you use her services, if you find any of her statues in towns.
 You start each 'Quest' in level 1, a side effect of the Time Goddess using time in your favor to hasten the grind, but you keep the equipment you bought on previous quests. That said, you can't use equipment earned in later stages while replaying old ones. Each quest is more than just slaying monsters until you are strong enough to defeat the Boss, stages usually have some kind of issue or gimmick, there's a stage that has no monsters, for example, or another one in which you must find a hammer so that a bridge can be rebuilt. As previously mentioned, depending on what you do, you may open up alternate routes depending on how you finish a stage. All in all, it's extremely fun to play, it's very simple and requires little of the player, but it's very engaging. The only blemish on this game is an alternate stage that requires killing 108 Evil Bosses in order to play... which means grinding the stage you can beat the fastest, even if you go around each route, you'll only end up with 50+ bosses defeated on your first time through the game. A better alternative would've been requiring you to earn both titles in every stage, since these titles are virtually useless, and it would've been a good incentive to replay levels in different ways to earn them.

 Evil Lord30: This is the game I cared for the least. As the Beautiful Evil Lord, you must summon monsters to defeat humans. The game follows a rock-paper-scissors system when it comes to battles. This time around, the Goddess will take up all the money you're carrying in order to rewind time, so you can pay her as little as 10G. The thing is, whatever money you've got after finishing a level adds up, and it's then used to upgrade the Evil Lord, so you want to keep as much money as you can!
 The reason I didn't like it as much as the others, is that, while it is fast-paced as the others, it feels slower, mostly since you have to wait in order to summon the strongest monsters, which was a bit boring. It has the best soundtrack though!

 Princess30: This one is a blast. It's a bit of an on rail-shooter, as 30(notice a trend?) knights carry the arrow-shooting Princess to her goal, an item of sorts, and then back to the castle. The Princess has a 30 second curfew or her mother will shut the castle gates, so your objective is to have your knights go as fast as they can, while avoiding obstacles and killing enemies, since losing Knights means losing speed until other knights come and take their place. You can earn more time by walking over the Time Goddess' carpet, which will slowly spend your money for more seconds.

 Knight30: This one is a bit slow-paced, but it's fun. As the Knight, you have to protect the Sage so that he can cast the Spell of Destruction, which takes him 30 seconds, and destroy all enemies. The Knight is fairly incompetent, so while he can wield the weapons or objects throw on the ground, he can't kill the enemies, only dizzy them. Most of the time, your weapon will be your body, as you dash into enemies in order to slow them down. It's OK if you die, just walk your ghost back to the Sage, and he'll revive you!
 You can also carry the Sage in order to take it out of harm's way, or throw enemies into other enemies as well. Before each stage you are also allowed to take items with you to aid you in buying the Sage time.

 Hero300: Finishing the other four modes opens up Hero300. As it takes place in Goddess Era 500, the Time Godess is gone, so five minutes is all you get. This one is pretty exciting and fun, it's like an extended version of Hero30, with everything that made it so good in the first place.

 Hero3: There's no story to this one, the Time Goddess just felt like challenging you, so you only have 3 seconds to save the world. Naturally, the Time Goddess is available in this mode, not that it will help much. The hardest mode in the game, it unlocks the Music Player, but it's a fitting end to the game!

 Half-Minute Hero employs a pseudo 16-bit look, sprites definitely have as much, if not more, colors as most SNES games, but they aren't as detailed as, say, Final Fantasy IV sprites. It's also done on purpose to make fun of RPG character designs, just look at the official art(Which is unlockable in-game) and compare the intricate character designs with the simple sprites! Even then, the characters manage to be impossibly charming, and everything single piece of equipment is reflected on the Hero's sprite, which is pretty darn neat. The Soundtrack is a bit small, but it sounds pretty good, particularly the Evil Lord30 music, which features heavier-sounding tunes.

 Half-Minute Hero is a phenomenal game, and an excellent reason to own a PSP... or would've been. An updated re-remake is available on Steam, as well as its sequel, which was actually released on PSP too... only in Japan. Regardless, as a PSP game it's an excellent game that lends itself to playing on the go or during short breaks, and it brought me back to the 'Just one more stage' empty promises we all make ourselves when playing an addicting game.
 9.5 out of 10

Now Playing: The Sims

 Yes, the Sims one, I'm goin' retro baby.

 Now then, I'm not much of a Sims guy. Sure, I was hooked back when the Sims 1 first released, who wasn't? But I abandoned the series afterwards, I never even played The Sims 2!

 But there's a reason as to why I went back to The Sims 1, on the PS2 no less... Multi-friggin'-player. You can play The Sims on PS2 with two players at the same time, genius. Anyways, in order to unlock classic The Sims mode you have to go through the Get a Life mode... or use a Cheat Code. For Backlogging/Completion reasons, I'm gonna go through get a life... and what can I say, it's a bit tedious. I had forgotten just how fast a characters Status dropped in the Classic Sims! You barely have time to study books when your Sim gets depressed so fast! Oh, and your 'mom' is a real... pain in the ass, so, Ok, she won't clean your messes, that's fair, but she won't clean up after herself either! What a royal.... That said, I finished the first 'house'(Mission) already, so I'm good to go.

.... And I'm wishing the game would give me a weapon and enemies to crush, just sayin'!

Review #203: Mega Man X Command Mission

 Turn-based Maverick hunting!

 What is a Mega Man, you ask your self. It used to be one of Capcom's flagship franchises, one that they milked as hard as they could, but since the quality was somewhat consistent, we didn't mind. This one time, someone had this weird idea of turning Mega Man into an RPG. No, no, not Mega Man Battle Network/Rockman.Exe, a turn-based traditional JRPG. And it worked.

 If you ever played a Mega Man game for the story, you were doing it wrong. You'd expect otherwise in a JRPG, but it isn't the case, if you play Command Mission for the Story, you'll be sorely disappointed. The story is as lame as latter Mega Man X installments, this time around it concerns the Resistance Army(X and company) VS the Revolution Army, led by Epsilon, a new villain. The story has a couple of very obvious plot twists, and a very forgettable cast of side characters. Being an RPG, it introduces new allies for X: Spider, a generic male suave bounty hunter, Cinnamon, a generic female nurse, Marino, a generic female thief(Japan LOVES this archetype) and Steel Masimmo, the most interesting character of the bunch. There's a very big issue with the cast... each character gets a chapter that introduces them, Cinnamon and Marino sharing theirs, but after X, Axl and Zero group up, which is the very next chapter after the last of the other characters are introduced, these characters fall to the wayside, never to be seen in a cutscene again, except the second-to-last one in the game. They don't even get an epilogue in the ending. The only way to get more information about these characters is to speak to them in the base during chapters, and get a couple of lines of dialogue from each. So if you expect a gripping story and deep characters, this is not your game.

 Now then, gameplay, that is where it's at in this game. The game is divided in Chapters, each one sending X and his allies to a different location in order to find a Maverick at the end, except that X doesn't get their powers this time. While the game is very linear in that regard, you are free to explore previously visited areas at any time, in order to retrieve missed goodies or open up previously locked doors to get better weapons by fighting challenging hidden bosses. The Energy Tanks return in Command Mission, you start the game with one E.Tank, but you can collect more throughout the course of the game, and they can be used in or out of battle to heal your characters by spending their contents. It's a fairly interesting mechanic, since there are no other health-replenishing items in the game(Besides revival items), and Cinnamon needs to spend her Weapon Energy(More on this later) in order to heal her allies, and it can only be done in battle. Energy tanks are replenished by finding Yellow Crystals on the ground, or you are sometimes rewarded with E.Tank energy after a battle, so you must choose carefully when to use them.... Or return to base and sleep, which also replenishes all your E.Tanks.

 Lastly, there's no traditional armor equipment in this game, you can arm your characters with one main weapon and two side weapons, but the real customization comes in the form of 'Force Metal'. Each character has a different amount of slots(For instance,X has 4, while Massimo only has 2) and a different numbered total Erosion. Each Force Metal has a different number of Erosion, and while you can exceed the max amount of Erosion, it will have negative consequences on your character. These Force Metals have different attributes, some raise your Strength, some your Life Energy, others give you resistance to certain Status Effects or there are some that give you bonus Weapon Energy per turn.

 The game used the infamous Random Encounters, meaning that battles are triggered at random by walking through dungeons. The Encounter Rate is fairly inconsistent, sometimes you may get another encounter just a couple of steps after the last one, while other times you'll be able to walk through an entire zone without triggering one. Battles play out fairly similarly to Final Fantasy X, you can see the turn order on the bottom of the screen, so that you can plan your moves, and you can press L2 on one of your character's turns to swap him out with another character, without losing a turn. On your turn you can use items, either of your Sub Weapons(Consume Weapon Energy(WE)), Special R2 skills(Which consume WE), attack normally or engage HYPER MODE.

 Characters are fairly unique, which makes combat very engaging, you have melee attackers like Zero, Cinnamon and Massimo, ranged fighters like X and Axl, while Marino's attacks depend on her main weapon! Flying enemies are weak to ranged attackers, while some enemies need to be hit with melee attacks to damage their shields and allow ranged characters to deal more damage. Each character starts each battle with a different set amount of WE, and they recover WE each turn, this WE can be used to unleash the powerful R2 attacks or the sub-weapons. The R2 attacks are unique on each character, Zero has you inputting different commands in a set amount of time, X's only needs you to hold X to charge your buster, Cinnamon requires you to spin the right analog stick, etc, and each R2 attack is unique to each character. X's damages every enemy(And if you use 100 WE, it's a guaranteed critical), Cinnamon's the only healing skill in the game, etc. Furthermore, Hyper Mode is unique for each character, although only the S-Rank hunters(X, Axl and Zero) get the more interesting ones, X and Zero even having unlockable alternate Hyper Modes. For example, Axl's cloaks him, meaning every attack will miss, if you equip him with the 'bait' sub-weapon, you can make your entire party invulnerable since they'll keep aiming at him. X's and Zero's make them even stronger(X gets different R2 and Sub Weapons while in Hyper Mode), and their unlockables are game breakers.

 The game is very colorful, and character designs are, in my opinion, some of the best in the franchise. X's new design is particularly badass, and Epsilon looks like something you want to destroy. That said, the models aren't particularly good looking, the mouth animations are particularly cringe worthy since they aren't synced to the audio, and even if they were, their mouths flap around very eerily. Music is really good, it's not as good as some of Mega Man's finest, but it's certainly a pretty good soundtrack, and fits the X series to a tee. Voice acting ranges from passable to terrible, but then again the story isn't very good, so I didn't mind it, no matter how convincing the Voice Actors could've been, they wouldn't have been able to sell me on the game's plot.

 Command Mission is a very weird game. It's a RPG spin off from a Platformer series, and it's a JRPG with a terrible plot, that manages to be good thanks to the gameplay. It's hard to recommend to either X fans, because this is a slow-paced game that plays nothing like other X games, or to RPG fans, because the story is so dull. That said, the gameplay is really good, the Force Metal and Sub-Weapon system is very engaging, battling is a blast, the locations are appealing and fun to explore, character design is very neat. It's pretty good, just not for the reason an RPG is supposed to be good.
 8.0 out of 10.

Now Playing: Half-Minute Hero

 Saving the world in 30 seconds or get your money back.

 As the goddess says, 'Time is money', yo! I just beat both Stage 5 of Hero30, and it's pretty good. It's like playing a bite-sized RPG in small bursts, it's.... it's more fun than it sounds like. I love the art style, and how equipment pieces reflect on the miniature hero. I haven't been able to give the other modes a try, but as my break-game, it's pretty good.