Now Playing: Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late

 This game is amazing!!

 I loved Melty Blood back in the day, so I was very, very interested when French-Bread announced Under Night... and very disappointed since only an Arcade release was confirmed, and then the waiting game began.... and it's finally here, and it's everything I wanted. Kinda.

 First, the cast of characters: They are alright. I mean, I love the fact that there's no fanservice, there's no lass wearing a ridiculously skimpy outfit of the likes Japan is so fond of... but none of the characters is particularly note worthy. These aren't bad characters, and maybe after playing with them I will grow to like them, but so far, they are just alright. Oh, and Akatsui from Blitzkampf is in as a guest character! BADASS!

 But where it really shines, is in gameplay. I love it, it's fast, and very easy to get into. It uses three buttons for attacks, like Melty Blood, and a fourth for other actions, and with these four buttons you can pull off a wide variety of technical mechanics. There seems to be a lot of focus on this 'GRD' gauge, which seems to reward 'playing well', and it culminates in a 10% attack buff and free cancels for whoever has the highest GRD. Then there's EXS for the special moves and 'Veil Off'ing. It's very easy to jump in and have fun, since everything combos into everything(Well, not literally, but it's very easy to mash into combos). However, it has that mechanics I hate that many fighters are using nowadays.... the AutoCombo by mashing on the Weak attack button. I understand why it's in the game, but having grown on Fighting games since Street Fighter 2, it's a bit annoying, I just want to mash the weak attack! At least on Persona 4 it made sense, if you got bored of the Story Mode, just mash on the square button and carry on.

 This being a Fighting game, it's unfair to hold the story against it, but... it's a bit ridiculous. They vomit all these terms on you, like 'Hollow Night', 'Night', 'In-Birth', 'Re-birth' and the such, and they expect you to know. There's no Story Mode, and the Instruction Booklet tells you jack, so you must rely on the Internet if you wish to make sense of the story. Me? I don't care, I was having too much fun with the game as to be bothered by it.

 And, by the by, this game had a clearly smaller budget than Blazblue or the like, and they don't charge you for DLC. Extra Color Palettes? Just play one of the many modes, earn points and buy them.

 All I know, is that I'm loving the hell out of UNIBE:L.

Review #216: Escape Dead Island

 Not as bad as you've been lead to believe.

 Funny story 'bout EDI, I've known about it ever since it was first announced, but I wasn't very interested in it. 'Borderlands starts the loot-based RPG FPS and Dead Island copies it, so now that they announces Tales from Borderlands, they have to make an adventure game too, boo!'. And then it released, and reviews poured in, bashing it. But I wasn't listening, I was looking at the gameplay, and it looked like something I would like to play. Turns out, it's not half as bad as they make it out to be. How many 'Worst of 2014' list had this game in them and said that 2014 sucked for gaming? If EDI made it in, 2014 mustn't have been so bad!

 Escape Dead Island begins with Cliff... no, that's not right, it begins with you playing as an Spy of sorts, out to get some mole, as you dismember every enemy in your sight with a Katana.  But once that's over, time moves forward about 6 days, where Cliff and his buddies, Devan and Linda, are on a trip to find out what happened in Banoi Island, by travelling to a neighbor island. It probably makes more sense if you played Dead Island. Disaster strikes and they lose the boat and Cliff gets hit on the head, and it all spirals down for him then. Most of the game is spent either trying to help your friends or deal with Cliff's hallucinations... or are they? The 'maybe it's a dream maybe it's not' angle is a bit cliched, but it can be done well... as for this game? It's alright. It feels a bit rushed, and you'll be able to see most of the twists coming a mile away, but it's not too bad anyways. They also integrate Cliff's apparent insanity into the gameplay, the camera angles may twists, or stuff may rain down on you from thin air. The ending is a bit... off-putting, and makes you wonder just how true is it that this game is the 'missing link' between DI 1 and Riptide.

 Unlike the other games in the series, this is not an RPG FPS. It's not an action game either, this is an adventure game with some Metroidvania elements sprinkled in. You'll come across high ledges, or chambers filled with gas that you can't explore, initially, but get your hands on a grappling hook and a gas mask, and you'll be able to explore them. However, there are no hidden optional areas or nothing of the like, these rooms just hold a few collectibles and bullets, and nothing else. Still, you are rewarded for taking your time and backtracking for them, but they are not mandatory in the slightest. And this is another thing to keep in mind, the game is mostly linear, it's always pushing you forward, you are always told where to go next, and holding L1 triggers a marker towards your destination, but you can explore on your own if you so want to, and you should! However, the in-game map is very unreliable, so hopefully you can navigate your way through, and unlike a bonafide Metroidvania, you don't open up shortcuts, so you've always gotta go through the long way.

 Why would you want to go back and explore these rooms? Well, the game has a whole slew of collectibles. Most of these are pretty much worthless, like taking photos of NPCs or random objects, for some commentary on Cliff's part, or useless postcards but there are a few, like audio logs, that deepen the narrative a bit, not that I cared too much about them. But you may come across the occasional weapon upgrade or health upgrade. The game employs a 'regenerative' health, and you are to realize how hurt you are by how red the screen gets, so it's not readily apparent just how useful the health upgrades are. Same goes for weapons, the game automatically replaces the old weapon for the new one, so you have to trust it that your new weapon is better than the last. One thing to keep in mind is that you can't manually save the game, so even if you found a new collectible, gonna have to wait until you hit a checkpoint and the game decides to autosave, which is pretty annoying in a game like this.

 Combat is... dead simple. Cliff has a Stamina gauge that is tied to Strong attacks, dashing and dodging, which is something that you need to keep in mind when engaging enemies, plus, near the end of the game, you get to choose between melee weapons, and the heavier one consumes Stamina even on weak strikes, but I digress. Weak attacks come in the form of a three hit combo, which is the same regardless of what melee weapon you are using. Eventually you'll come across a gun and a shotgun, these have their uses, like enemies on higher ground, but they are not very reliable. Early in the game, they are fairly good, but latter enemies can take a whole lot of lead. Plus, the game's framerate can be... inconsistent, which can make aiming and shooting a pain in the butt when it's crowded. And even then, it seems that guns have a rather short range, a ton of times I felt as if my bullets should've hit, yet they missed their mark. There's also some rather sloppy stealth mechanics implemented. They're never mandatory, but can make combat a whole lot simpler. By getting to an enemy's back without being noticed, you can press X to pull an instant kill... and sometimes, even if you are in front of them, you have some leeway to get to their back and instant kill them anyways! Still, stealth isn't very polished, sometimes in your favor, sometimes in the enemies', but you are not forced to use them and they can offer a bit of a break from all the fighting.

 In the entire game there's about 5 or 6 different enemy types that get progressively stronger as you go along. It'd be easy to fault it for the simple, and eventually repetitive, combat and the very few enemies you fight... but this game doesn't want to be the next God of War or Devil May Cry. This is an Adventure game, not an Action game, it's focus is on the exploring, on going through the Island, not pulling the fanciest combos and perfectly timed dodges. Which brings me to my next point, there's no Game Overs. Dying has Cliff hold his head in his hands, white out, and recover on the previous checkpoint. Enemies respawn, and you lose anything that you collected between the checkpoint and your death. What's more, lose twice in a row(Or more), and bullets will start spawning next to you. And as easy as it can be... the last stretch of the game has a rather unforgiving difficulty spike. By this time, enemies can take a whole lot of punishment, and you'll be bombarded with enemies from every side. Enemies shooting poison at you, zombies lounging at you, zombies that can hold you from behind so that others can get cheap hits in... It was borderline frustrating to be honest, but the 'infinite lives' made it somewhat tolerable.

 Now then, the game has more than its fair share of problems. Firstly, the framerate. It can't keep a stable framerate at any time. Even moving around barren areas won't be free of hiccups, and during combat it can get pretty bad if you are a gun aficionado, since it will temper with you aiming. The game has some animated 2-D cutscenes... and they all run like garbage, with stuttering audio and visuals, no in small part due to the fact that the game decides to auto-save when they are running. I also came across a couple of bugs. There's this cave, in the Beach Bar, at the start of the game, that has breakable trees coming out of it... this area has an easy-to-fall in corner of which you can't get out. I fell on it three times. Oh, and if you explore it and then try to exit it, it will spawn a breakable branch... that you can't break. You have to reload the game and then exit the cave. This happened twice. Fairly annoying. And then, during the lab sequence, the voices, during dialogue, stopped playing, eventually locking the game on a loading screen. At least it only happened once, and I didn't lose much progress.

 As for replay value, there's a bit actually. The game has a 'New Game+' feature, and apparently, it can be done up to four times, each time you'll get a new key which will allow you to access new areas. Some people speculated that finishing it four times might unlock an extra bit at the end, but I'm not interested in it, not anytime soon anyways. There's also free DLC that adds new weapons, new skins for Cliff, new areas and a new enemy type, which sounds pretty nice, but I wasn't able to try it out(Since I found out about it a bit later after I finished the game).

 I read some comments out there claiming that it looked like a PS2 game. Do you even know how a PS2 game looks? There's good and bad in the visual presentation, though. For instance, the game has a very colorful cell-shaded look, character models look a bit... off for some reason, but the Island is downright beautiful, although there are a couple of ugly textures here and there, like those of windows and glass. Zombies, as mentioned before, come in few types, and they have few 'alternate' looks as well, and they are pretty forgettable for the most part, I didn't care about these enemies in the slightest. One little detail that I loved was that every item or equipment piece that you found is equipped on Cliff, so you can see everything that he is carrying on him, which is really cool. Music on the other hand is laughable. Really, it's pretty bad, there are very few tunes in the game, and they are pretty darn bad. As for the Voice Acting, it was alright, no performance was particularly noteworthy, but I'm not complaining.

 Escape Dead Island is a horribly underrated game. It's far from being a great game, and I'm in no hurry to replay it any time soon, but I liked it a lot, technical issues not withstanding. It's a functional game, with an interesting premise and an alright execution. It was not their best first attempt at a Spin off, but I wouldn't mind seeing them explore the concept in a sequel... provided they can lock that framerate down, polish the combat and add more nuances to it, iron out the bugs, better rewards and a damned jump button!
 5.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Escape Dead Island

 So far... so good?

 Here's the deal, I know about this game's poor reputation, I know that it even made it to some 'Worst of 2014' lists.... but even so, it looked, from what I saw, like a game I would like... and so far, I think I was right.

 I just cleared the Prologue, and I felt like it was a good stopping point to write my first impressions and see how they change, 'sides, it's before you get to play as the douchebag on the cover! Well, I like the gameplay. It's simple, but fun. Attacks lack some oomph, mainly in the sound department, but it's just a minor issue. A bigger issue, but one I didn't care for, is that Stealth is... wonky, for lack of a better word. Walk in front of a Zombie? It's cool, you get a couple of seconds before it notices you. Run? The immediately notice and run towards you. Oh, and there's the guns. If you have a gun equipped, pressing Square or Triangle instantly brings out your sword, which is useful and makes sense... but once the sword is out, the gun gets unequipped. I understand why, L2 acts as Melee targeting or as free-aiming for the guns, but it could've been handled a bit better I think.

 The last thing I want to mention, is that I don't know how I feel about the graphics yet. It's very cartoonish, and colorful, which normally, I would like... but I think the game tries to take itself seriously. Not that a cell-shaded, cartoonish game can't be serious, but if it tries to convey horror.... the colorful, cartoony look isn't the best. And you can't do much 'psychological horror' with Zombies, so that excuse is null and void.

 All in all... I like it. Maybe the critics were wrong, or maybe the game just manages to check all the boxes of things I like. Either way, it's on!

Review #215: Injustice - Gods Among Us - Ultimate Edition

 And we're back!

  Back in 2013, I did an awful write-up on Injustice. Not to say that I'm good at writing, but I'm slightly less awful than back then. I cringed as I skimmed through it, and did some touching up. Just a little, I want to keep it as awful as it is! Afterwards, I would continue to play the game on and off with a couple of friends, but it spent most of 2014 unplayed, so playing it again reminded me of how awesome it was. I'm not particularly fond of DLC, which is why I never invested in it, plus, I knew that an Ultimate Edition was coming, and here we are.

 I stand by everything I said about Injustice in my previous review, but how did it held up? Marvelously. The game is fast, way faster than MK, which I really like, the combo system is fun once you get the hang of it, and I liked how they adapted the characters into the game. Graphics are slightly less appealing than before, some textures are muddy, and there's the occasional ugly animation, plus, some character models are just terrible(Wonder Woman and Sinestro come to mind). It's also a very drab game, with many greys and browns, while the rest of the colors look very washed out. Overall, it looks decent, it's not the prettiest fighting game out there, but it plays well and does the license justice.

 Why would you want to buy the Ultimate Edition? The 6 new characters, the 30 DLC costumes and over 60 new Star Labs missions. Word of warning, it doesn't include every DLC costume. It's missing the Injustice Mobile costumes(Gotta get people to play the game and tempt them into the microtransactions!) or the New 52 Black Adam costume(You have to sync your Warner account, or somethin' like that). As for the costumes themselves, they are alright, but... poorly spread out. Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman have about 8 skins each, but then there's Cyborg and Nightwing with 3 each, or Sinestro only has two. It's a bit surprising, as there's a lot of character history for them to have drawn from, but they probably just went with what would've sold well... which is disappointing to say the least, nobody needs 8 costumes for Batman! And the DLC characters? Everyone but Zod only gets their default look.

 The costumes may be disappointing, but the DLC characters is the reason why you would want this edition. Lobo is a mid-range grappler, he is fun to play, but his Personal Action(PA) is a bit boring, he just strengthens his next Shotgun attack. Batgirl is ANOTHER Batman character, but she is a blast to play. She is strong, fast and very easy to combo with, a perfect newbie character. An agile rushdown character, her PA lets her switch between electrified knucles or bladed ones, the former deal extra chip damage, while the latter deals more damage overall. Zatana is... is definitely the most complicated of the bunch, she can switch styles, momentarily, with her PA, but it's very easy to break her out of it. Martian Manhunter's PA allows him to extend the reach of his normal moves, has a lot of tools, but is a bit on the dull side. Zod is amazing. A rushdown/zoner hybrid that has some of the best, and most fitting, animations in the game. With his PA he can call forth a Wraith from the Phantom Zone to aid him, and it allows him to pull all kinds of shenanigans with his combos! Lastly, Scorpion, who sports a costume from Comic Book legend Jim Lee, he is a rushdown character that might be a bit overpowered, but it's very fun to use. All of them come with their own endings.

 Lastly, there's the 60 new S.T.A.R. labs missions, and I will echo what I said before: They are a neat diversion, but I didn't care much for them. Most of them are the 'mini-game' kind as opposed to handicapped fights, but the Red Son storyline is a bit amusing. This bumps the mission total to 300, which is not too shabby. Something that will cause a divide, is that everything comes unlocked from the start. Tournament Organizers and a few gamers will probably see it as a huge plus and timesaver, but people that like to unlock stuff might not like that. I didn't care for it... but then again, I had unlocked everything on my previous go through the game!

 Is Injustice Ultimate Edition worth it? Yes. The 6 new characters are very unique and add new styles to the character roster. My advice? Do what I did, sell your previous copy of Injustice and then buy this new, upgraded Edition, which is rather on the cheap by now.
 8.5 out of 10.

Now Playing: Dragon Ball Xenoverse

'Nother year, 'nother Dragon Ball game.

 There's only three constants every year in my gaming life: A) I will play a Fighting game, B) I will a RPG and C) I will play a Dragon Ball game. As I've mentioned countless times before, I'm not particularly fond of Dragon Ball as a franchise, but I've always been drawn towards its games, particularly its fighting games..

 It's probably due to the fact that no matter the console, you can always trust on Goku and his friends to make an appearance, and I always love seeing how they will re-envision these characters. As for my favorite... it's a three way toss up between Dragon Ball Z Hyper Dimension, Dragon Ball Z Densetsu and Super Dragon Ball Z, yet the one I've spent the most time in is, probably, Budokai Tenkaichi 3, go figure.

 That said, when it came to the PS2 games, I always favored the Budokai games over Budokai Tenkaichi, and when it came to PS3, Burst Limit was where it was at. It's due to the fact that between Spike's Budokai Tenkaichi/Raging Blast and Dimps' Budokai/Burst Limit, it's the former that resemble a traditional fighting game the most. And I really dig fighting games. That said, I was a bit worried about Xenoverse, as much as I trusted Dimps' previous efforts, their last anime fighting game was Saint Seiya - Brave Soldiers, which wasn't... very good.

 First thing I liked: Cha-la head cha-la, as soon as the remix started playing, I couldn't help but smile the whole way through. Cha-la Head Cha-la kicks butt. Well, it got better, on the surface, the fighting seems very satisfying. Landing blows feels good, and I'm liking the combo system, or what I understood of it so far, even if it seems a tad simple. And then there's the graphics, which not only look good on a technical level, but as a lover of all things colorful, I'm really diggin' the oversaturated color palette.

 Then there's the Story Mode. Believe it or not, I'm still not tired of replaying and replaying the DBZ storyline. It beat the crappy 'What ifs' they come up with, plus, I always hate it when adaptations mess with the source material, not to mean that I hate absolutely every change, if it's good, I can roll with it. That said... I wasn't sold on the idea of 'saving the timeline', but after clearing the first scenario... I think I could, potentially, get behind it. I'm gonna reserve full judgement until I finish it, but... It could've been yet another 'evil clones' what if, so there's that.

 As for miscellanea, I couldn't helpt but notice that the Makankosappo scene keeps getting more and more censored! Budokai 1 had a textured fleshy red hole on Goku and Raditz, Burst Limit turned it into a textureless black hole and now... now they've no physical proof of having being pierced by an energy beam. I don't really mind it though. Then there's the fact that as soon as the game starts, they kinda throw you into the wild without any tutorials, kinda ballsy in this day and age! The three fights are dead simple, so that you can try every button in the joystick and get a feel for the basics. There is a tutorial later in the game, but it's short and straight to the point, so no biggie.


 Basically, Xenoverse is badass.


 Oh, and by the by, if you didn't make your first a character a Saiyan... you've no soul.

Review #214: Tomba! 2 - The Evil Swine Return

 Why won't these pigs play nice?!

 Y'know which game is even rarer and more expensive than Tomba!? Tomba! 2. Released about two years after the first game, Tomba! 2 is a bit 'by the numbers' as far as sequels go, it doesn't shake the formula too much, not that it needed to.

 The story has Tomba! and his companion Zippo the Fly, remember him from the first game in which he didn't appear nor was mentioned in the first one? Yeah, that Zippo, as they embark on a quest to save Tomba's girlfriend, y'know, the one that didn't appear nor was mentioned in the first one, from the Evil Pigs. Yes, it's basically the same story from the last game, Evil Pigs invade the Island, curse different parts of it, and steal(In this case, Kidnap) something of Tomba's, and now he must collect the different Pig Bags and challenge the five Evil Pigs. Yeah, we lost two Pigs, but never fear, as Tomba 2 is a bigger game than its predecessor. It's easy to tell that this time around they tried to have a better story, but both the script and voice acting are fairly terrible, and the translation's quality is quite... dubious. On the flip-side, you don't play games like Tomba for the story, so it's no real loss here, plus, the ending was so corny that I kept alternating between laughs and cringes!

 The game plays just like Tomba! 1 but with more bells and whistles. For the uninitiated, Tomba! is a 2.5 D Metroidvania-like Adventure game, in which you travel around an Island searching for items and abilities that will let you progress or interact with previously inaccessible areas or items. Remember how the last game had 130 quests? Tomba has 133, and an extra 4 if you have a cleared Tomba! 1 save file on the memory card. And here comes my first issue with the game... it does little to fix or polish Tomba! 1's shortcomings. While it is true that you get better hints as to how to complete most quests, it also has more quests that will require a guide than Tomba! 1. There's absolutely no way to tell where the 3 hidden Towers are, and the place in which they hid the Water Pig's Plate is just mean, protip: head for Circus village and travel underground to the Water Temple, you are welcome. That said, there's a lot more variety in the Events themselves, and some will have you travelling across the entire Island, which could be seen as a detriment if you really aren't digging the game enough to enjoy the backtracking. In my case, I didn't mind it, I went through the entire Island(Or what I had explored to the point) every time I got a new Key or ability-granting item, and I never got tired of doing it, a testament to how much fun the game can be.

 While it kept the last game's shortcomings, the developers instead opted on adding more stuff. There's more weapons, even though they are almost as useless as they were in the first one, almost, since now they have uses on the environment or to defeat elemental enemies that hurt you if you try to jump on them. Tomba also gets to equip different costumes this time around that grant him different abilities, like the Pig Suit that lets him talk with pigs or the Squirrel suit that let's him glide. I spent most of the game as Squirrel Tomba, since it's the most useful, but it's a nice idea non the less and some might prefer the swiftness of the Flying Suit, or would rather fall faster as normal Tomba. The laughing and crying mechanics from the previous games return, this time in the form of fruits as opposed to mushrooms, but they behave in the exact same way, and you can eventually get the same 'Mystery' and 'Normal' fruits so that you can change your state as will. And this is something that bothered me a bit, it revisits a lot of ideas from Tomba! 1, to the point of almost feeling slightly tacky. The four different keys for the four different chests returns, Tomba needs to get the swimming ability again, the grappling hook returns, the pig bags/evil pig dynamic, a frustrating on-wheels event. It is mostly a nitpick, as it's not a dealbreaker, but this being a sequel, I expected it to borrow only the basics, and then build as much as new things as possible. I though the Laughing/Crying mechanics were very interesting in the last game, but they really didn't need to return.

 It's not all bad though. I enjoyed the new Island, and it offers a lot more variety in environments than the first game. There's the initial beach, an underground city, a jungle, an ice-covered town and the Water Temple to name a few, and they all feature vastly different structures and color schemes, which makes traversing through the Island very appealing. It also does away with the life system from the previous game, instead opting for unlimited lives, and while you do see the 'Game Over' screen, you don't lose any progress. Boss Fights have been slightly revamped, for the worse I feel, as most of the time you'll be throwing the pigs towards the bag on the foreground, which works as well as you expect. They are not hard, but they can last a bit longer than they need to.

 While the last game used 2D sprites for characters, Tomba 2! only uses sprites for the items. The new 3D models look great, and the environments look just as good. It doesn't just look good for an old PS1 game, it simply is a good looking game. The music is delightful, with a lot of tunes that are still stuck in my head. The game also employs voice acting and it's.... it goes from passable to terrible depending on the character, but hey, at least it's fully voiced.

 I know that I ragged on the game a lot, but I actually really really liked it. It could've done plenty of things better, but what it excels in what it does well. Finding and clearing Events is as satisfying as ever, and sure, you may need some outside help, but I wasn't too bothered by it. It's probably not good as a sequel, since it's a bit too samey to it, but looking at it without the comparison, it's a great game, in fact, I liked it slightly better than the first one. It's definitely not worth the price that it commands now, but hey, if you can get it by other means(PSN, Emulation), it's a great PS1 game that deserves a go.
 9.0 out of 10.

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.

Now Playing: Pokemon Omega Ruby

 'Nother Pokemon generation, 'nother Pokemon remake.

 Whoopty do! So Omega Ruby, officially started it. I mean, what is there to say? They removed customization, with sucks since the Ruby's cap is terrible, but now you can run in diagonals, which is all kinds of awesome. I mean, what is there to say? It's Pokemon, it's the same game it's ever been, I like it.

 I guess I could write a bit about my history with Ruby? I bought Ruby pretty much at release, and at the time, I remember hating the new monsters(I still do!), but there were some standouts, like Groudon and Torchic, 'sides, I hadn't seen Generation 4 and how bad they could get, so I don't dislike them as much now a days. Trainer Bases were something I absolutely adored, it was like a enhanced version of your Room in Gold and Silver, however, I would've liked some way of knowing WHERE your Secret Base was, since coming back to the game after some weeks meant I would forget! I also remember being extremely disappointed that there was no Johto after finishing the game, no other game after Gold or Silver would house 16 badges ever again.

 For as much flak as I give Ruby, it's quite probably the Pokemon game I replayed, in its entirety, the most. After I first finished the game, a bazillion years later I would transfer all my 'mons to Pearl, and I gave it two other playthroughs to farm Legendaries and the other two starters to my Platinum game. Eventually, I would replay it again in order to transfer every Ruby 'mon to Heart Gold. At that time my Wi-Fi was being wonky, so I didn't bother farming legendaries, plus, I had everything I needed to fill the dex in Platinum, so my life long dream of completing the Dex had been fulfilled. Kinda. I eventually completed it in Y though!

 Expectations? I dunno. I'm open to the idea of being surprised, but I'm not particularly fond of Hoenn, and the removal of Trainer Customization was, in my eyes, a huge step backwards. But then again, Mega Beedrill is all kinds of badass... Even though my Mega of Choice is, usually, Scizor.