Now Playing: Tomba! 2 - The Evil Swine Return

 Talk about an improvement.

 So, the gameplay in Tomba! was fantastic, no two ways around it, but the visual presentation left a lot to be desired. Boom, pretty 3D graphics, and just the first part of the game alone is visually pleasing, with houses and moving hammers. Next area? An underground pipe facility. And I remember having it much more different locales. Already on a good track.

 And the music? I'm not sure if it's nostalgia, 'cause I couldn't stop smiling as I was reminded of the tunes and soundbits that play when triggering events... but either it's very memorable, or nostalgia is kicking back.

 So we are off to a good start already, good!

Review #213: Tomba!

 For some reason, I wanna eat some ham...

 Tomba! is one of those quirky PS1 games that are considered to be really good, but few people talk about it. It's also one of those games that had their price skyrocket due to how rare it has become.

 In Tomba! you play as the eponymous Tomba, a jungle boy that lives, seemingly, alone on a rather large Island. 7 Evil Pigs have banded together to cure the Island in its entirety, and after a run-in with Tomba, they steal his grandfather's bracelet. Now Tomba is out for blood, and the pigs will pay in blood. Or not. Turns out there are 7 different 'Pig Bags' in which Tomba must seal these Pigs, save the Island and recover his bracelet. Simple enough, the story is but a set-up for the adventure, so it really doesn't matter that it ain't particularly original, it never meant to. As with most games of the era, it's about the gameplay, not about telling a story. You'll come across NPCs and other weird folk that inhabit the Island, but none are particularly memorable or deep, not that they need to.

 Tomba! is a very interesting game, and it's a bit complicated to label under any genre, but I guess the best way to describe it is as a 2.5D Metroidvania with heavy Adventure elements. The Island is made up of many interconnected areas, and as with any good Metroidvania, you'll come across obstacles that you can't yet interact with until you get another ability, or as with Adventure games, people that need help, but you haven't found the item that you need yet. Most of these 'sidequests' are called 'Events' and can be triggered in many different ways, some you get automatically after clearing another one, some are triggered by talking with NPCs and some just by interacting with something, be it touching a bonfire or coming across a locked door. There's 130 Events in the game, which includes both Story and optional Events, although just how many of these are 'optional' I'm not sure, as many rewards from seemingly optional sidequests became necessities to clear the game. That said, there's a lot of variety in these, from getting a Jar to collect Tears from a Flower(On which you must use a special Powder to make it cry), to simply capturing an Evil Pig, you can always expect something new. And I really appreciated the creativity in the game,  take the Mushroom Mountain, which has Laughing and Crying fungi, if eaten, it will make Tomba cry or laugh, which will affect the behavior of the enemy flowers and the background flower, which will raise or lower the platforms in the area! That said, there's a tiny little issue I had with Events... when triggering them, most of the time, particularly when they aren't triggered by talking with an NPC, the only hint that you get is the name of the Event and nothing else, so, y'know, it might be hard to figure out what to do on your own sometimes.

 Being a Metroidvania, it means that backtracking is pretty much mandatory, but the game gives you multiple ways to make it less tedious. For instance, 'Charity Wings', items that can teleport you to any place you've already set foot onto, are in abundance, and finishing the Puppy's Event grants you an usable that acts as Charity Wings, but with limitless uses, then there's the four Bells of the old wise men that teleport you to their abodes. Basically, there are many ways to make the trips shorter. That said, there are some events that can boil down to tedium... for instance, there's three different 'experience bars' that, even when maxed at 10, do nothing for Tomba, but you need to get them to 10 if you want to collect three different Gems(Which make up 3 different Events, by the by), and in order to raise them you must defeat enemies by jumping onto them... and it takes about 100 enemies for each Experience bar. There's usually one or two areas filled with enemies that give a particular type of experience, but the fact is that you will, probably, have to grind. There's also an 'AP' counter, that is raised by killing enemies(In any way) or completing events, and these are used to open a couple of 'AP boxes'. It feels as something that they came up with at the last minute, as there's only two of these, that said, if you are like me and go for completion, you won't really have to go out of your way for these.

 Interestingly for a console game of this era, there's kind of a lot of leeway in how you complete objectives. For instance, the first Evil Pig you defeat has to be the green one, as far as I know, but there's a lot of Events that you can complete, or skip, if you so want. Afterwards, which pigs you defeat are pretty much up to you, minus the Navy Blue one, that has to be the last one. There's a lot of freedom in how you tackle most of the game, and that's pretty cool. However, sometimes it can be a bit hard to know where you have to go next, sometimes one of these seemingly Optional Events might be just the quest that holds the item that you need to open up more of the game. It bears mentioning that the game can get kinda challenging at times, some zones more than others. The Stormy Mountain is an absolute nightmare and it comes pretty early in the game, the Mushroom Mountain can get very frustrating, and let's just not talk about the Race.... While the game gives you plenty of lives, most of the times I chose just to 'Reload' my file, just in case, and I'm pretty sure I could've lost all of my lives had I not resorted to it.

 Tomba's main form of defense is to jump on top of enemies and then throw them below him or to the sides(Throwing an enemy onto another will kill both of them), but you can also find weapons in order to aid you. Honestly, weapons are kind of useless. For starters, killing an enemy with weapons doesn't grant you Experience for the Experience gauges, and secondly, killing an enemy with the BlackJack takes 3 hits, while jump-and-throw kills them instantly. There's really only two weapons that you'll use, the Grappling hook, to grapple around, and the GrappleJack, a fusion of the BlackJack and the Grapple that kills most enemies in one hit, but you get it fairly late in the game, kinda. Every Boss in the game is fairly easy, and while the obstacles and attacks change, you just need to jump on top of the Evil Pig and throw him into the rotating or moving bag, and you are done. Even the last boss is beaten in this manner.

 As far as the presentation goes, I was left fairly unimpressed. There's not a whole lot of variety in the jungle, as far as colors go, with mostly colorful greens and browns. I wasn't particularly fond of the 2D sprites either, they are not bad by any means, but they lacked a certain... punch? Or maybe more creativity in the enemies themselves? I can't quite put my finger on it, but the spritework in the game leaves a bit to be desired. The music wasn't very good, there were a couple of tunes that actually annoyed me a bit.

 As much as I didn't care for the presentation, the gameplay is solid, and the game itself is very entertaining, it does feel like an adventure. I liked its twist on the Metroidvania genre, and while some things could've used better hints, fumbling around trying to clear Events was pretty dang fun, to the point that I would often walk all the way through the entire Island on foot every time I got a new ability or Key. Is it 100$ worth of fun? Probably not, but if you don't mind the inflated price, it's a blast.
 8.5 out of 10.

Review #212: Street Fighter X Tekken(VITA)

 Oh boy, have I been waiting to write about this one....

 Street Fighter X Tekken was one of last generation's biggest fiascoes. Lemme paint the picture, the first teaser was released, Kazuya beating the hell out of poor Dan. That trailer alone was one of the reasons I wanted to get a then-current gen system. As time went by, the hype surrounding the game grew larger and Capcom spent a lot in their campaign, they even financed a reality-show that pitted two teams against each other. Fans from both Tekken and Street Fighter were hyped, Fighting Game pros would sing the game praises, the game was a sure sell. And then it released, and on the very same day, DLC characters and costumes were found on the disc. 'Wait, maybe it's just data for the characters'. Nope, the full models were found. 'Maybe they aren't finished' some hoped, heck, Ono himself talked about how he wanted Blanka to make it in but they couldn't port him properly... and the very next day, people found a way to make these DLC characters available, and they were completed in their entirety, they even had Prologues and Endings. And then Capcom came with their usual bullcrap 'It's to make it easier for people that don't but the DLC to play against people that do'. Whatever. Capcom wanted to make SF X T a DLC cow and milk it for all it was worth, and it backfired on their faces. What's worse, while the game was fun to play, assuming you forgave Capcom for screwing you over, it wasn't so much fun to watch. Professional matches would often end in time outs, and would end up as an stalling game. They patched it numerous times, but it was too late. Heck, one of the patches added a game-freezing bug that they didn't patch well until a week after the fact. Even worse, they would tell their investors that the lackluster sales were due to the saturation of the genre. Bullcrap. And this is where I'm coming from, someone who was unbelievably hyped for the crossover of two of his favorite fighting game franchises, and how Capcom screwed up in the name of money.

 Where do I begin? The game uses the Street Fighter's standard 6-button configuration for your normal moves, while inputting certain motions with the joystick and pressing a button will produce a Special or Super Move. Tekken characters get motion specials as well as some simple attack strings to try to reproduce Tekken's strings. I think it worked well, for what it was. As far as unique mechanics go, the game borrows Tekken Tag's ruleset: You pick two characters, and as soon as one of them loses all their life, you lose the round. Now then, being a Capcom game, of course you get a three-tiered energy gauge, EX moves consume one bar, while Super Moves consume two. Alternatively, each character can charge one of their Special moves in order to get a free Super, it's very impractical, usually. Using all three bars you can use a Cross Assault, to summon your ally for a while and pummel the enemy two-on-one, or use a Cross Art, a move in which both of your characters use a Super Move on the enemy. Since you do pick two characters, you can tag with them by using Switch Cancel, which consumes some energy gauge, or use a Cross Rush, by double tapping a Fierce Kick or a Strong Punch mid-combo, in order to tag out while leaving the enemy in a juggle state. Worth mentioning is that the combo system is much more lenient that Street Fighter 4's, probably to make it easier to juggle, and I quite liked it. Then there's the Pandora Mode, by sacrificing a character with little health left, you can strengthen your remaining character, for a few seconds, and if you fail to defeat your enemy before said few seconds are up, you lose the round. Pandora is a terrible mechanics, that they patched a couple of times, but never managed to make it any useful. Lastly, Gems. The least we say about them the better, the Fighting Game Community shunned them, and casuals didn't care for them, it was just Capcom trying to make money by selling you stat-enhancing KBs of data.

 Capcom was so invested in milking the most money out of the consumer that they made the features as awkward as possible. Take Customization, which should have been awesome, for example. By the time this version was released, a ton of colors had already been released on the Console, but out of the box you only get FOUR measly colors. Let me remind you that these colors are ALREADY ON THE DISC, but they were made free DLC for two purposes: A) Get you into the store, which is one of the Menu options by the way, to try to break you into buying DLC and B) Making you think that Capcom was giving you stuff for free. Customization should've been awesome, instead you first have to spent five minutes activating over 10 different individual Color Palette downloads through the slow as molasses interface. It's not a fun experience. The worst part about it is that the colors are fairly limited, and they aren't even organized, why not put all the yellows together? It's so stupid, a Color Wheel would've been a much better, smarter way to allow for customization. But if they did it that way, they wouldn't have made you think that you were getting extra stuff for free, or you wouldn't have the need to even get into the Store. Heck, you get a Trophy for entering the Store. Capcom was that DESPERATE into getting you in the Store.

 I'm not done yet. Each character gets two costumes, and most of these are downright stupid. They were sold $1 a pop(52 characters x 2 = $104. Plus $15 for the DLC characters. Plus $ for the base game. Then there's some the gems...), To be fair, the idea behind the 'Swap Costumes', having Street Fighters cosplaying as Tekken characters and vice versa, was genius, but they went for either Humor or Fanservice, making most of the quite ridiculous and unappealing. The PSP version only includes the 12 DLC characters, costumes must be bought... unless you got a new copy, which includes a code that nets you costumes for 38 characters. What?? Let me remind you that both the Console Discs and PSVita card have EVERYTHING already on it, so... why do we only get 38 costumes? Why? Money, that's why. Money so that you can download 100 KB unlock keys for stuff that's already on your disc/card. Way to go, Capcom, way to go. Low Sales were definitely due to saturation of the genre.... the DLC genre they must've meant. Why make such a big deal about the DLC? Because Capcom made a big deal out of it, they wanted their DLC cow so badly that they compromised the game's integrity, heck, their integrity as a company, in order to make more money.

 As far as ways to play, it's actually fairly decent. There's the Arcade Ladder, Kumite(Survival), Training, Challenge Mode which houses; Trial, each character gets their own set, Mission, which has you fight certain fights under certain rules and Tutorial; and the already mentioned Customization. As far as the VITA port goes, they also tacked on forced touch controls for customization and traversing the gallery. They aren't too bad, but the fact that you are forced to turn the VITA 90 degrees every time you want to set gems or colors is pretty annoying. There's also optional touchscreen 'buttons' to allow for shortcuts when battling, this I'm OK with, it's optional and can be pretty convenient. That said, I felt the PS Vita lent itself well Street Fighter X Tekken.

 I also want to talk about characters. Street Fighter characters get a very few new faces(Hugo, Poison, Elena and Rolento), and the rest of the cast got very few new animations. This I wouldn't mind had the DLC characters not been, well, DLC characters. Which on the PSVita they are not, so it's kind of a moot point, but I wanted to mention it. The Tekken characters were done relatively well, I loved seeing them in Capcom Style, and I felt the translated them well. However, for some reason the animations for the dashes look... off, on every character, both Street Fighter and Tekken, almost... unfinished? These look fairly weird for some reason, which is inexcusable. Furthermore, you might recognize some of the animations on the Tekken cast as... borrowed, from other Street Fighter 4's characters, heck, some people claim that some of the Tekken's models borrow from some of SF 4's cast.... Regardless, as good as their overall appearance is, I feel as if story-wise, Tekken characters got misrepresented immensely, particularly poor Xiaoyu and Elena, Tekken characters are like caricatures of their other selves.

 But the thing is, are the 12 new DLC characters worth it? That's the only reason you'd want this version over the Console ones, and... they are, kinda. As far as the SF side goes, you get Elena, which is alright, but almost every DLC Tekken character offers something unique to the table, which I really liked. Elena and Wulong were particularly fun to use. And, hey, as 'vanilla' as Bryan's moveset is, he looks so insanely badass. The game also has some gorgeous cutscenes, for the Opening and Endings, but for some reason they ran very poorly on my VITA. I only read about one other instance of this, but no one seems to be mentioning it? Plus, the game will drop some frames every now and then, this wasn't a total deal breaker since it was fairly rare, but more competitive players won't like it.

 As far as content goes, the VITA version nets you 55 characters. There's the 38 base characters, the 12 DLC characters and Sony's bonus five. Pacman I didn't care for, and Bad Boxart Megaman is living proof that Megaman fans can't take a joke. No, Capcom is not 'teasing' you that you are not getting a Megaman game, knowing Ono, he just thought it'd be funny. As characters, they are both terrible. Then there's Kuro and some other cat dressed up as Ryu, they are both terrible characters as well. Lastly there's Infamous' Cole which is actually pretty good. Still, Xbox players aren't missing out. There's also 11 stages, 10 without counting the Training Stage, and they are... meh. They are swarming with character cameos, but I would've preferred something that... referenced Tekken and Street Fighter locations instead of... of what we got. And yes, 10 stages is pretty lame, they obviously spent all their budget on the pretty cutscenes, amazing promotional story-videos(Which are not included in the Gallery, for some reason) and the reality show.

 Expecting a handheld port to look as good as the Console version is just silly, however, it looks pretty darn good, occasional FPS drop aside. As a matter of fact, it looks leaps and bounds above the 3DS port of SF IV, clothes actually have physics now! Stages have lost some animations and other minor details, but, once again, they are much better looking than the Street Fighter 3DS port's stages. Basically, it's not just a 'good looking port', it's a 'good looking game'. The music is fairly good as well, and so is the voice acting, both Japanese and English.

 Street Fighter X Tekken is the perfect example of everything that is wrong with Capcom, nay, gaming as of late. That said, would I recommend it? Yes and no. Competitive players stay away, the framerate isn't locked at 60 and what you really want is an Arcade Stick, but casual players like me? I gotta say, having all 55 characters is pretty darn tempting, but it also means losing out on playing against other people(Unless you coerce them into buying a VITA and SF X T). Basically, it's a lose-lose situation. The sad part about it? I liked Street Fighter X Tekken, I had fun with the pseudo-juggling system, I enjoyed the simplicity of the mechanics, I loved seeing the Tekken characters in Capcom style, I had fun customizing the colors of the character... but Capcom did it darnedest to let you know that they were trying to get into your wallet, and it's hard to shake it off.
 6.0 out of 10.

Now Playing: Tomba!

 What a Pigpen!

 Tomba! is a game about pigs. It's also a game that I've longed to play for quite some years now. I first heard, or rather, read about Tomba! back in my N64 days, when I used to read Gamepro and Xpert Gamer, and would run across ads for Tomba! every now and then. Funny story, I eventually got my hands on Tomba! 2 and I can clearly remember being surprised at the 3D graphics, I was expecting 2D sprites as the ads for Tomba! 1 promised! Regardless, I would eventually enjoy Tomba! 2, even though I never did finish it(Something that I plan to change this year), it made me want to play the prequel.

 And today, for the first time, I played Tomba! and it was glorious. Well, not quite, it's fun, but I'm still not completely sold on it. I like the look of the game, I like the structure, but the game is a bit... it kinda throws you into the wild, so to speak. It's also a joke, since Tomba looks like a Jungle kid, but I digress. Y'see, the game explains little to the player, you have to find out about equippable items by yourself(Not that it's anything close to Rocket Science, but still), heck, the 'Events' are but a name, and you have to figure by yourself how to figure them out. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the lack of hand-holding, but I think the game might be a bit too vague at times. Like Experience Points, what the hell do they do? I'm level 4 already and I haven't noticed any change to Tomba!

 Surprisingly, I'm digging the Metroidvania-like elements, getting the Jump shorts allowed me to reach new places, and I've already been promised a Swimming ability, which will open up another route. I can get behind that. Seems backtracking is the name of the game, and as long as it's fun, I'm cool with it. Bottom line: I like the game, but I'm still not OK with everything. As fun as it is, is it 100+ bucks worth of fun? ...I'll get back to you on that later.

Review #211: Pokemon Omega Ruby

 Hoenn is back... oh god.

 You knew it was coming. Everybody and their dogs knew that the Hoenn remake was coming. Usually regarded as one of the weakest installments, alongside Gen IV, for some reason, now it turns out it's everyone's favorite generation, go figure. But I'm not like them. I've never been particularly fond of Hoenn(I am a fan of Sinnoh however, by the by), so I wasn't really looking forwards to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, but I wasn't planning on skipping it either!

 The story is... the same as in every other Pokemon game, you, a kid, are entrusted with a Pokemon out of three possible species, and it's your goal in life to become The Pokemon Champion, by gathering all 8 badges and defeating the Elite 4, while dealing with a crime organization that has evil plans. You can also dabble into collecting the 700 plus creatures, if you will. That said, the story does have some charm and some of the series' first, for instance, you have two rivals, albeit one later decides that he or she can't stand up to you and challenges you with discovering more 'mons, while you get to see the other one grow from a timid boy into a fully fledged Pokemon trainer. Depending on which version you got, the bad guys will be either Team Magma or Team Aqua, in my case, Omega Ruby, Team Aqua aided you in defeating Team Magma. Their involvement is... it's there. I mean, it's hard to be afraid of impending doom when you can leisure take the time to challenge Pokemon Gyms instead of trying to stop these guys, lest not we forget that their leader is an absolute clown and his lackeys lack any kind of intimidation. To be fair, this is a kid's game, so I shouldn't be expecting a Shin Megami Tensei-type storyline, but I didn't care for it. New to the Remake is Episode Delta, which is a weird retelling of Pokemon Emerald. Kinda. This is a bit more interesting, and it kinda confirms that there's two alternate time-lines, one in which Mega Evolution wasn't discovered and one in which it was.

 There's no use in explaining how Pokemon works, everybody knows by now and it's not changing any time soon, so I'd rather write about the game features. Customization is gone, and it sucks. The developers explained it by claiming that they want each region to feel unique. Sure, buddy, that's why the whole Pokemon Amie was ripped straight outta X and Y, why it's always 8 Gym leaders, always some Crime Organization with a silly name that gets in your way, always an Elite 4 and a champion. Removing features is the way to make each region feel unique, it really is. I hate you Gamefreak. Why remove fun features like Seasons, Trainer Customization, Secret Bases(After Gen III) and the such just because? On the other hand, Secret Bases are back. Secret Bases are customizable areas that can be furnished with, well, furniture, dolls, posters and even trainers for visitors to challenge. Creating a room is fun, if limited, and it's a feature that I've missed, even though Gen IV's underground was a pretty neat alternate take on the concept. A neat touch is that the map now tells you if your Secret Base is in the area you are in, which is a godsend as I would always forget where my base was in Ruby!

 HMs are back, as usual, but they are a bit overwhelming this time around. You'll have to make use of: Flash, Cut, Strength, Break Stone, Secret Power(To make bases), Surf, Dive, Waterfall and Fly. It translates into a ton of useless moves that are required to get through the game. Worst part? They are mostly obstacles with no substance. There's a block in the way, and you need strength to push it. It'd be better if there were more Puzzles revolving the use of these instead of simply obstacles. Obstacles that reset every time you leave the area, so that you need to carry your useless HM Slaves if you plan on going back again on foot. That said, there's a new feature, and in my opinion, what they should've done with every other HM, Soar. Later in the game you get the Eon Flute that allows you to summon Latios, it doesn't even matter if you released him, he will come back and allow you to take into the skies. The getting onto Latios animation does get a bit dull after a while, and it can't be skipped, but soaring through the air is very fun and let's you free a slot on your roster, so that you don't need Fly anymore. This is what they should've done with every other HM. Even better, you can drop off almost anywhere you want, instead of just Towns.

 Sneaking is new to the game too, by lightly tilting the analog nub you can sneak onto Pokemon that rear their heads over tall grass, water or earth, this lets you net Pokemon with rare moves and good IVS, which is pretty neat. There's also the Pokenav, that tells you when you have caught every possible Pokemon in an area, as well as which Pokemon you can catch in it. It's unfair to expect new mons out of a remake, but there's a whole bunch of new Mega evolutions, and most of them look pretty cool. Mauville has gotten completely redesigned into Mallville(Not official), and it's now a huge town, not unlike Lumiose City. I didn't mind it to be honest, but I can see how some die-hard gen III fans might, heck, one of the things I liked the most about Heart Gold and Soul Silver was just how loyal it was to the source material. Naturally, Pokemon Contests and Pokeblocks are back, if that's your thing, I certainly didn't care much for them. Oh, and there's also a Cosplay Pikachu that you can dress up and learn exclusive moves(Depending on the dress), which I wouldn't have a problem with if only it wasn't Pikachu who always gets the most attention, it's a bit jarring hearing him cry 'Pika' while every other 'mon shouts some garbled digital sounds.

 One thing to keep in mind is that this is a Ruby and Sapphire remake, so none of the Emerald features made it in, which is sure to disappoint a few, they even tease about it! At least we get X and Y's Battle Maison, Y'know, because each Region should feel unique(No, I'm not letting it go). There's quite a bunch of post-game content, mostly Legendary Pokemon Hunting, there's almost as many legendaries to catch as in Sinnoh, although some of the requisites may require a guide. Did you know that which member of the Spirit Trio you get depends on the time of the day? Azelf only has a hour-wide time window from 8 PM to 9PM, while the Legendary Dogs require you having Ho-Oh or Lugia, and which one appears depends on the time of an hour in which you are(X:00 - X:20 gets you Raikou, for instance). Speaking of time, there's a couple of daily activities, like the Mirage Spots where you can catch Pokemon from other Regions, which change daily, and the Battle Resort that let's you fight trainers for experience daily. It's pretty useful, since they have high level mons, but X and Y did it much better, since the Trainers Rotated all the time instead of daily, putting a time barrier on your training is a drag! There's some trainers that you can rebattle, but it's not quite as convenient. And that's the thing, X and Y made it so convenient and easy to train low level monsters, that it makes ORAS alternatives look bad.

 Since I mentioned X and Y, ORAS carries over some of the problems as well. The graphics are a bit too much for the game to handle, at least on the Vanilla 3DS, sometimes the FPS will drop during some camera angles, which doesn't affect gameplay at all, but don't even bother turning the 3D on as it will make battles run pretty poorly. There are still some lazy animations, like Double Kick, which still has the Pokemon jump in place instead of, well, kicking. And the Exp. Share is still a problem, I like that it grants experience to all your Mons, but you receive it TOO EARLY. I'd be OK with it if you got it right before Victory Road, but by the time I challenged the Elite 4, my starter was on the high 70s and the rest of my party on the high fifties, and I didn't have any kind of trouble dealing with their stronger teams on my second time around, not to mention that I didn't lose a single 'mon on my way through the 8 Pokemon Gyms. The updated Exp. Share is a good idea, but you get it too early which makes the game too easy. There's also the issue I had about the Pokemon types, as I said before, for the first 3 generations, knowing a Pokemon's type was as easy as looking at its color scheme, but new mons are a bit harder to figure out, there should be a way to check a Pokemon's typing during battle, at least during offline play, I can't remember the type of every single 700 plus monster, and it's silly to expect anybody to.

 The presentation didn't get any major updates from X and Y, and frankly, it didn't need to. That said, it's a bit... amusing to see the very same battle backgrounds from the last game, they could've at least updated the City background, but oh well. As for Hoenn itself... I don't like it much, but the Gyms are much better than before, both in design and looks, and the Elite 4 Chambers are a total knock out, blowing every other Elite 4 out of the water, can't wait to see how, if, they top them off. I never found Hoenn's soundtrack to be particularly noteworthy, and it still isn't, but the few new tunes, particularly Wally's Theme, are downright amazing. Every new tune is pure gold.

 At the end of the day, Pokemon is Pokemon, even at its worst(Generation 3) it's still fun to play. After playing the remake, Hoenn still remains as my least liked location, but at least now it's a bit more fun to go through. ORAS aren't as good as they could've been, but hey, Shiny Primal Groudon is badass.
 7.5 out of 10

Archile's Grab-bag: Massive Edition

 Went abroad, yadda yadda yadda, bought games , yadda yadda yadda.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse: 'Nother year, 'nother Dragon Ball game. This one is made by DIMPS, the Budokai/Burst Limit devs, which is my favorite branch of DB games, but in the Tenkaichi style. It looks pretty dope.

 Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late: Y'know it's a Japanese game when the name is in English and it makes no sense. By the Melty Blood creators, I've been keeping an eye out for this one ever since it was announced for the Arcades. It looks pretty dope.

 Escape Dead Island: This game got terrible reviews.... yet it always seemed to me as a game that I'd like to play. And I got it for 19.99, so I can't complain if it sucks too badly.

 Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate: I think it's wrong of me to call myself a fan of the franchise, since I only played Tri and don't have any plans on playing the old games(Some peeps told me that the older ones aren't worth it), but I'm pretty dang interested in similar games and future games, case in point, MH 4 Ultimate!

 The Legend of Zelda - Majora's Mask 3D: Majora's Mask was a game I got as a gift for finishing School.... And sold about 10 years later alongside my other N64 games because I was an idiot. Anyways, Majora's Mask is back.

 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: I had no plans to watch the movie, as much of a fan as I am of TMNT. That said, people were saying that this game was a pretty good Diablo-like game, so I said what the hell!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Danger of the Ooze: Two TMNT games...? TURTLE MONTH 2015 CONFIRMED, BOOYAKASHA!

 Haunting Ground: One of PS2's most forgotten games, I've been wanting to play this one for a while, but the price was a bit prohibitive, but now i have my chance!

  Silent Hill  4 - The Room: As far as I'm concerned, this was the first Survival Horror game I've ever finished. As much as I love horror flicks, I don't like the genre when it comes to games, but I've a soft spot for this one!

 Legacy of Kain - Defiance: I tried Soul Reaver 1 and 2, but never liked'em too much... but I did enjoy this one. And I was reading the lore of the series and slowly got interested in it... I'm gonna get the other LoK games(Soul Reaver 1 and 2, Legacy of Kain 1) and give'em a whirl this year.

 Tomba!: One of those expensive PS1 games I've always wanted to play... and now I can!

 Tomba! 2 - The Evil Swine Returns: Now this one I played back in the day, and I absolutely adored it, can't way to get back into it!

 Shinobido 2 - The Revenge of Zen: I might've bought a Vita. I liked Tenchu 3, and the video I watched of this game looked pretty good, so why not?

 Street Fighter X Tekken: The game that exemplifies everything that is wrong with Capcom and Videogames in general.... Am I gonna have a field trip with this one!

Persona 4 - The Golden: Persona 4 is among my favorite RPGS ever created, shame Atlus milked it to death. Shame I'm encouraging them to by buying this one. I dunno, the fans are mixed on this one, a lot of them hate the new tsundere-waifu-type character introduced in the port that is now shoe-horned into being a major part of the plot... I'm gonna give it a fair chance, but knowing my tastes... I think I'm not gonna like the new stuff.

Borderlands 2(Vita): See the picture? There's no Picture, I got the digital edition. I would've never imagined that I would've been able to play one of my favorite games on the go. Am I loving this one!

Month Overview: February

 Games finished in February 2015:
Retro Game Challenge                                                     8.5
Megaman X Command Mission                                      8.0
Half Minute Hero                                                             9.5
The Sims                                                                          5.0
Half-Life                                                                          8.5
Power Rangers Super Legends - 15th Anniversary         5.5
Gods Eater Burst                                                              8.5
Crisis Core - Final Fantasy VII                                        4.0
Einhander                                                                         8.0


 Overall strong month, with only Crisis Core to blemish it. Man, was Crisis Core bad, I was so surprised to find out that it was written by the same guy that wrote Final Fantasy VII... The story did so many miss steps, remember how Sephiroth was supposed to be an anomaly in how strong he was? Memory Cloud was level 6-7 while Sephiroth was on the late 60s, if I remember correctly, to show you the wide difference between Sephiroth and the rest of the First Class SOLDIERs... except that now Sephiroth had to equals, in Angeal and Genesis... and eventually Zack too. Hilariously enough, Zack can't do half the amazing stuff Genesis, Angeal and Sephiroth pull, yet we are to believe that he is just as strong... And when Zack got promoted he wasn't even half as good as Sephiroth, while even have all these people on the same class? It made sense before, since it was only Seph, but if you've such power houses, it might be time for a new Rank or something.... or how about the fact that they felt the need to reboot the SOLDIER first class and Turks costumes to black, for whatever reason,  or even the randomness of the gameplay.... Man, Crisis Core just makes me angry.


 Game of February 2015:

 Half-Minute Hero, on the other hand, made me very happy. It's an amazing game, with a hilarious premise and a great execution. It's GOTY material no doubt. It's a tad disappointing that the sequel didn't get a physical release outside Japan, guess I'm gonna have to cave in and get it on Steam.

 Runner-up:

 Speaking of great games, Gods Eater Burst. It was so much fun that unless I found myself grinding for rare drops, it was hard to notice just how little meat to the game there was. Few monsters and few environments should've spelt death for the game, but the game was fun enough. At least for the 50+ hours I invested.