Now Playing: Nightshade

 Hibana is one cool Ninja.

 Hibana and Hotsuma are the two coolest Ninja out there. I also like how they are fairly different when it comes to personalities as well, which kinda reflects on their costumes. While Hotsuma was taciturn and a loner, Hibana has a sassy personality, and she wears white and red, because she's cool like that. She also wields two swords, since one sword isn't cool enough.

 As for the game, I'm up to stage 3 and it feels just like Shinobi. It's the same game, albeit, I feel, a bit easier. And Hibana now has to break the defenses of certain enemies with kicks. Also, inverted camera controls that can't be changed, whose idea was it!? Regardless, I'm liking the game, a whole lot, just as I did with Shinobi before it. 

Review #287: Clock Tower 3

 Unintentionally hilarious.

 When one thinks of Clock Tower, one thinks of scary games, some of the earliest horror games created. And then there's Clock Tower 3, which isn't very scary, but it's so wonderfully weird. You can't come to this game expecting a horror game, unless you want to be disappointed, or in my case, weirdly amused.

 The game pits you as Alyssa, a 14 year-old girl who is one day away from her birthday, and receives a letter from her mother telling her to hide. Alyssa, being as smart as she is, decides to come back home, and all kinds of weird stuff starts happening. This is what happened to me, early in the game you come across a man in black, who acts all weird and creepy, it creeped me out, and it made me second guess my steps and what not. I was creeped out! And then... you are sent back in time. I kid you not. And you have to... aid ghosts? But then you are introduced to this big guy and his hammer, as he squashes his first victim, and you are next! YEAH! This is what I wanted, the game finally got scary again. Yeah, this is awesome! Wait... Alyssa, why is your flask glowing? Why is a bow forming out of..... Alyssa, why are you shooting energy arrows? Oh yeah, Magical girls? This game's got'em. And the game only gets more ridiculous from there on. Then comes the next 'Subordinate', and he is introduced as he brutally kills a mother and his son, yeah, this scene is phenomenal and scary, now we are back on trac....why does he attack you by tackling you with his butt!? THE HELL IS THIS!? And the next three Subordinates are Onimusha-Godangantess wannabes. Yeah, this game is ridiculous alright, but it's oddly amusing. Except for Dennis, this guys ruins any scene he is in... although I guess he is part of the game's ridiculous charm. And it's not like the voice acting is bad, but the character models are very facially inexpressive, but everyone moves in very over-the-top fashion, which produces a very bizarre clash. Look, if I haven't made it clear by now, this is not a horror game, as hard as it tries to be, but if you are up for a weird game, with Time-travelling, Magical Girls, Ghosts and a protagonists that is sent flying at high speeds while riding debris and decides to laugh and dance, instead of, y'know, being worried for dear life, this is your game.

 80% of the game is spent exploring the numerous locations for different items in order to solve puzzles. Occasionally you'll be surprised by the level's Subordinate, an Alyssa being an unarmed 14 year old schoolgirls needs to run and hide. There's different ways to deal with these bastards, you can use Holy Water, which can only be refilled at special fountains, to temporarily stun them, or find Hide Spots or one-time use Escape Spots. Escape Spots incapacitate the Subordinate, letting you go along on your merry way, while hide spots may stop working if you use them too frequently, plus, they can't be used while under a Subordinates sight. Eventually you'll learn to complete puzzles while avoiding subordinates though, however, you have to be careful, as the Panic Gauge increases every time they attack you, even if they miss, if it gets too high, Alyssa will enter 'Panic Mode' and any hit will kill her, plus, she becomes harder to control.

 Puzzles are very 'Resident Evil'-ish. Find items to use on other places, find and read files to learn more about what's going on or even obtain clues for a few puzzles. There are also ghosts that can hurt you(Or rather, increase the panic gauge, and kill you if you are hit while panicking), but can be dealt with by specific items and using them on their corpses, it's entirely optional, but they reward you with usables, items that decrease the panic gauge or even make you invisible temporarily, so it's a good idea to 'help' them, plus, they disappear and stop bothering you when you are trying to escape from a Subordinate!

 And then there's the boss battles... After finding out about the Subordinates' previous lives, by reading conveniently placed files about them on the areas the inhabit, you will get to fight them. Alyssa will produce a magic bow, complete with a reused 'transformation' animation before every single fight, like any proper magical girl, and the fight starts. You must outmaneuver them, and hold triangle to charge an arrow and shoot it. Hitting them with fully charged arrows will bind them, making further shots easier(And making it harder, sometimes impossible, for them to reach you, until the chain expires if you fail to keep binding them), and binding them with about 5 arrows will let you unleash an special attack that will most probably kill them. Boss fights are pretty dumb, and Alyssa always auto-aims... although you can't change where she is gonna shoot and you are rooted in place. It's very stiff, and wonky, and in a particular Subordinate fight, the auto-aim is a bit broken and most often than not, Alyssa will aim in-front of her, which makes this particular fight a bit of a pain. Not to say anything about the last boss, who can bind you, and if you are bound by three shots, he can unleash a 10-15 second long instakill attack that you can't skip. Fun. The last boss is incredibly fun, until you figure him out, and then he becomes incredibly tedious, since it may take a while before he goes down, even though you aren't taking any damage at all!

 The game is four hour longs, probably less if you know what you are doing, taking into account that I went into the game completely blind and figured everything out by myself, that's a bit short. Finishing the game unlocks fetish costumes for Alyssa(Since, y'know, the Japanese love to sexualize young girls!) as well as a harder mode.

 Clock Tower 3 is a game that (jump)scared me, that made me laugh, made me think, engaged me and overall entertained me. It's not the game I expected, but I was pleasantly surprised with how weird, and at times 'so-bad-it's-good' moments. I figure that Haunting Ground is probably the game that they really wanted to make, y'know scary and stuff, but Clock Tower 3 is pretty good, provided you aren't expecting spooks.
 7.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Clock Tower 3

 I've mixed feelings about it so far.

 At first, the intro was so good, the creepy man, the creepy mansion. I was creeped out and second guessing my every move during the initial manor segment! I thought that it got the ambiance right... and then it teleported me back in time, and I felt it was a bit... ridiculous? And then I was helping ghosts, and the scare factor disappeared entirely. I was actually a bit disappointed....

 ...Until I entered the creepy Tailor Shop and the first stalker appeared. The setting was spectacular, with broken glass and blood everywhere. And then came that phenomenal cutscene that introduced the Hammer stalker? The game just got scary again!

 Basically, I'm a bit torn. On the one hand, I feel some things are a bit... ridiculous. But when the game gets scary, it gets it right oh so well. I was expecting something a bit more like Haunting Ground, but oh well, I'm only 30 minutes into the game and got into the Concert Hall, so there's still time.

Review #286: Megaman Powered Up

 And now we've come full circle, the first game I started the marathon with, is also... the last one.

 And now it's Megaman Powered Up's turn, a remake of Megaman 1 with a ton of new bells and whistles to make it worth the price of entry. As with Megaman Maverick Hunter X, this game is much more than 'just' a remake, with multiple modes and character to make it enticing both for new players and people that know Megaman 1 by heart.

 At the start of the game, you can choose either 'Old Style' or 'New Style'. 'Old Style' is probably not what you'd expect. It's Megaman 1 redone with the new game's engine, which means 3-D graphics, new physics(Megaman doesn't slide anymore, but his movements comes with a bit of a... quirk) and what not, which translates into a much easier and much more manageable game. You don't get any of the new features, like the cutscenes, the two new robot masters or the alternate playable characters, plus, the screen has borders on the edges, in order to maintain the original game's ratio. This mode doesn't unlock anything, so I think it's best of left as a curiosity.

 But if you pick 'New Style', you get to pick a difficulty setting(Easy, Normal and Hard), features two new robot masters, for a total of eight, and entirely redesigned stages. It doesn't stop there, defeating a robot master using only your Mega Buster lets you unlock as playable characters. You can also unlock Protoman, Roll and variations of Megaman(A version that can slide, one that can charge his Buster and another one that can... kick?), Oh, and it has fully voiced cutscenes, which are fantastic. The entire game has been redone in a 'super deformed' style, with huge heads and tiny bodies, with the entire world being very colorful and animated. The entire audiovisual presentation makes it look like a children's cartoon, and it's amazing.

 But you are not done with the game yet! You can create your own levels and even share them online(The servers are still up!), or download stages from other players. Still want more stuff? How about 100 challenges, which unlock Protoman on completion!

 As fantastic as it all sounds, there're a couple of issues with the game... Firstly, there's a ton of construction pieces, as well as Roll and all her costumes, that need to be downloaded.... except that you download 'unlock keys' since everything is already on the UMD. This is downright idiotic, as one day Capcom's online servers will close and you won't be able to get them anymore, even though they are on the UMD. And y'know, as with almost every PSP game, it suffers from slowdown every now and then. Lastly, Megaman's movement is a bit quirky, after coming to a full stop, when you start to move again, Megaman will stop for a second or so before taking another step. This was probably done to help you with some pixel perfect jumps, as it makes moving towards an edge much easier and precise, but, unless you're planning a jump, it just makes movement feel weird, although, eventually, you get used to it.

 And just like Megaman Maverick Hunter X before it, Megaman Powered Up is a phenomenal little game, that packs a lot of content into a tiny UMD. Capcom really knocked it out of the park with this one.
8.5 out of 10

Review #285: Megaman Maverick Hunter X

 And thus I conclude with my Megaman Xathon.

 So, Megaman X was amazing, arguably the best game in the series. Let's go back in time, Megaman X's story had gotten incredibly convoluted, after Keiji Inafune kinda left the series to work on Megaman Zero, so with Maverick Hunter they planned on reboting the entire series. Sadly, sales weren't very high, and the whole plan was scrapped.

 While there is a story to each installment in the series, it's a mess, both in part due to poor translations(on all entries, even X4 had a few errors(Like Magma Dragoon being referred as an Irregular, what the Japenese call the Mavericks)), but Maverick Hunter features, for the first time in the series, a good translation and fantastic voice-acting. If you've played the first game, you know the deal, Sigma goes Maverick and it's up to X and Zero to stop him, although Zero works on the background, while you, as X, do the legwork. The 8 Mavericks have been given a bit more developement, thanks to dialogue before each battle, and they get three different, fully voiced introductions: One for X, another one for X after watching the OVA and a third one in Vile Mode. Speaking of the OVA, finishing the game unlocks an animated 30-minute OVA as well as Vile Mode.

 As for the game itself, it's basically the same 2-D Action-Platform game from before, but now with 3D graphics. There's been slight changes to some levels, and while the Heart and Energy tanks are hidden on the same places that they were before, the four capsules have been switched around, and if you opt for the secret Z-Buster, it's actually different from the upgraded X-Buster. I noticed that some things are slightly harder this time around, and others are easier. For example, Armored Armadillo's stage, destroying the excavators is much easier this time around, but remember those annoying birds near the end of the stage? They can knock you out of the mine-cart very easily this time around(I think it has to do with the minecarts being a bit smaller than before). Boomer Kuwanger's invincibility period lasts longer, so you can no longer just spam missiles until he dies... but Spark Mandril can now be frozen immediately after he defrosts, making him a much easier boss. After you are done with the 8 Mavericks you'll unlock the 4 Sigma Stages... and they've been completely redone. While they are not terrible, they are not quite as good, or fair, as the originals. But hey, at least now you can replay Sigma Stages, save mid-way through them and keep the Hadoken! These changed stages would've made me lower the score a bit, but while Megaman X(SNES) had the better stages, Maverick Hunter X makes up for it with....

 VILE MODE! Clearing the game unlocks Vile, and he plays entirely different from X. Mind you, at the start, it's incredibly challenging, expect to die on the tutorial stage. Multiple times. Not only is Vile slower, but the new enemy placement is much cheaper and annoying. When you start off as Vile, you are supposed to move slowly and take out enemies methodically... until you defeat your first Maverick(Preferably Chill Penguin, since he drops an upgrades that halves the damage you receive) and get new weapons. Unlike X, who carries 8 different weapons from the 8 Mavericks, Vile can only take 3 weapons with him.... from a weapon pool of 45! There's a ton of variety and combinations to make Vile a lean, mean killing machine. Vile Mode is a fantastic little extra with a ton of replay value by itself.

 If there was one thing to complain about, besides me preferring the old Sigma stages, is that every now and then, the game suffers from slowdown. It's not a huge deal, and it's not very prevalent, but it's there and it's a tad annoying. One time, the game froze for a second or two as it decided if X had died or not(To be fair, a lot was going on at the time of my death!).

 I wouldn't say that Maverick Hunter X is superior than the SNES game, but I wouldn't say it's worse either. It has different strengths and weaknesses. I may not like the 4 redesigned stages, but Vile Mode is a blast and the 30-minute anime OVA is a nice treat. It's clear that a lot of work went into this game, and the result is phenomenal, it's a shame it didn't sell much, but what was Capcom expecting making it a PSP exclusive?
 9.0 out of 10

Review #284: Megaman X 8

 Almost but not quite.

 Megaman X hasn't been quite the same since X4. X5 was alright, X6 was a disaster and X7 was a mess. Instead of building upon X7, they decided to begin anew with X8, axing the 3D/2D segments(as well as crouching!) and opting instead for classic Megaman X 2D action, albeit with 3D graphics(2.5D if you will). It goes a little further, characters have been redesigned and streamlined, so no more silly stubby legs, and look better than ever.

 It's the eight time around, so you know the gist of it: Defeat the 8 Mavericks then tackle Sigma, yadda yadda. The three heroes have been further differentiated this time around, X is a long-distance power house, however, charging his Mega Buster takes a while, Axl can't charge his shots, but he fires rapidly in any direction(Although it roots him to the ground) and is the only character that can hover, while Zero is the only character with a double jump and specializes in close combat. And just as it was on X7, you can take two characters with you, and a new 'Team-up' attack has been introduced, which is fairly unimpressive but deals decent damage.

 X5 introduced the Reploid saving mechanic, which I never cared for, but after X6 they got tied to upgrades. Not this time, now you have to find their chips and then buy them. Yes, Megaman X8 introduces a shop system and I love it. You can purchase a few basic upgrades, like more health or one-time use health items, and once you find a life tank, extra charges, at the outset, but the really juicy stuff must be found. I absolutely love this new system, much, much more than having to rescue Reploids. And on New Game plus, you can unlock new armors for the three main characters(Or, y'know, use a cheat code and get them on your first playthrough) as well as three female characters, which behave as nerfed versions of their male counterparts, but hey, new characters! Kinda. And you can cheat codes to unlock them early as well.

 The game's difficulty is a bit higher than what we've gotten used to, more reminiscent of X3 than anything. And it's mostly fair. Mostly. All fairness goes out the window once you hit the last levels, filled to the brim with cheap deaths and stuff you can't see coming the first time through. And the last boss, if you take too long to figure out how to off him, he automatically kills you, no matter how much health you've got left, because that's fun, isn't it? At least Megaman X4 through X7 offered unlimited continues and generous checkpoints, this time around, continues must be bought and they are a one-time use only, so unless you've got the cash, you are stuck with the default two continues. There's also an Easy mode, but they don't let you fight the true boss and get the true ending, not cool. There's also two horrible, horrible vehicle stages. The least said about them the better.

 When all is said and done, while not as good as the SNES games, this is the best Megaman X game since X4. Level design is, mostly, fair, the weapons are fun to use, all three characters are completely different from each other, there's a bunch of fun unlockables as well. It's a fine game all around, that lacks some refinement, but the X series had finally gotten on the right track again. Not that it matters, since Capcom basically did away with the series.
 7.0 out of 10

Review #283: Megaman X 7

 At least it's not Megaman X 6.

 Took long enough, but Megaman X, a series that worked wonders as 2D action games, finally took the plunge and went 3D. Kinda. It actually mixes 2D and 3D areas for... interesting results. I'm gonna cut straight to the point here, Megaman X 7 isn't very good, but at least it ain't X 6.

 The story... well, you should know by now, a villain who is totally not being manipulated by Sigma, must be stopped, there's 8 robot masters to defeat, yadda yadda yadda. New to the series is Axl, a hero who can copy normal enemies's forms for a little while. He isn't too bad, but his voice actor is terrible and doesn't fit him very well... something that stands true for the rest of the cast. Something that irked many a player was the fact that X must be unlocked, either by saving 64 reploids or defeating the 8 Mavericks, but I don't mind. Series evolve, you don't need to play as the same characters all the time. That said, between the plot being centered around Axl, who is a very stereotypical rash teenager, is a bit annoying. Not that you should play these games for their stories anyhow...

 As with previous games, there's 8 Mavericks to defeat, which you can tackle in any order, and they leave a weapon that is extra effective against another Maverick... kinda. Just as with Megaman X 5, even the 'effective' weapons don't deal that much damage, as soon as you unlock X, you'll find out that his charged Mega Buster is the most effective weapon in the entire game. Speaking of characters, now you can bring along any two characters between Axl, X and Zero, which a lot of people like, but strikes me as odd. It's only three characters, so I found it a bit dumb to only let you take two characters. Either let me bring all three of'em, or only one. Zero is a hard hitting, close-range fighter that can double jump... but sans boss-fights, he is gonna have a hard time connecting with his sword. Axl can shoot from afar and glide and X is Axl but with the added benefit of a Charge Shot. Oh, and Axl can turn into enemies defeat by the copy shot... which you'll never use, since transformations are useless(Except for rescuing a few reploids) and dealing the killing shot with the copy shot is pure guesswork against enemies that can receive a ton of punishment.

 Strewn throughout each level are 16 Reploids which you can rescue... or if you fail to get to them before an enemy hits them, they die. Forever. These reploids reward you with upgrades, life and weapon energy upgrades or... nothing, but you never know who has what. This offers a bit of a predicament when it comes to X, y'see, in order to access to him early you need to rescue 64 reploids, which if you are particularly good, can achieve in 4 levels, but it took me 5. This means that a ton of upgrades are gonna be going Axl and Zero's way, since you have to use them the moment you get them. Sure, you could also try to finish all 8 Mavericks without rescuing these Reploids, but remember, they can die, and it can cost you an upgrade. That said, after I finished the 5th level and unlocked X, I used him the remainder of the game, and once I managed to catch him up with the other two, became the best character in the game.

 Controls are also a bit of an issue, but I think it has to do with the game mechanics rather than the controls themselves. It's hard to explain, but wall jumping can be pretty finicky, since it seems that characters have troubles clinging to certain walls or objects. It was also fairly stupid to make Axl's hover work by holding the jump button, since in this game, depending on how hard you press said button it alters the height of your jump, so if you want to get maximum air out of your jump, you might accidentally trigger the hovering and screw yourself out of the air-dash, plummeting to your death. And hilariously enough, X's hovering works by tapping jump again, so if you are using both characters(Like I was!) prepare to have your muscle memory trick you.  The game also has auto-targeting, which loses its target very easily if you move around, and you toggle targets by tapping R2, although the reticule has a mind of its own when it comes to multiple moving targets, so it might make you waste that charged shot when the boss unleashes projectiles. Goddamn. This also means that when targeting, the camera doesn't follow the target, so bosses like the Kangaroo are a pain in the neck, as you hold Square, to charge your shot, tap circle to avoid its lounge attack while holding R1 to spin the camera and see where the hell the boss is, you'll be a hand gymnast in no time.

 That said, level design is.... OKish. Something tells me that the same team behind the terrible MMX6 was behind this one as well, since leaps of faith abound. The game physics are a bit wonky as well, standing over moving objects will jerk your character around sometimes(The Hyena boss battle, one of the moving planes in the planes stage.) and just try jumping over an object that moves vertically, it will mess with your jump. As for the 3D sections of the levels, they are not as terrible as people make them out to be, but for some reason, the game will only let you spin the camera on CERTAIN sections of this kind. Which is hilarious, because the sections with fixed camera angles are all kinds of terrible, like in the Flying ships stage, even parts throughout which you are supposed to go through will have walls obstructing your view. Genius. I could handpick a few other terrible pieces of the other levels, but I think that's enough to prove my point: Levels can be pretty bad. But, if its worth anything, it doesn't get as bad as X6.

 Megaman X 7 can be a tiny bit fun at times, when its working properly For as poorly designed as they are, the ideas behind some levels are pretty cool, and not something that they could've done in 2D, so they tried to take advantage of this new, third dimension. Not that they succeeded, but they tried. But the mediocre levels, the wonky controls and bad design choices all conspire against it. Megaman X 7 is amongst the worst Megaman X games, but sadly, the series has seen worse.
 4.5 out of 10