Review #306: Devil May Cry 4

 When you gotta save the world, ya gotta save the world.

 And then the DMC franchise made the jump to the then-next-gen and... they made exactly what one would expect of a generational jump. And, considering how much games fail at those, that's a good thing. Instead of streamlining, the game builds upon what the previous game set as foundation, and it uses the power of the then-new consoles to give us stuff that would've been impossible on the PS2.

 What took many people by surprise, was that DMC 4 featured a new hero, and we all know how bad gamers take that, just as Raiden from Metal Gear Solid! Still, I'm always open for a franchise to grow, evolve and expand, so I had no problems with Nero. And NEro is fantastic, he is basically a younger version of Dante from Devil May Cry 1. Speaking of Dante, he's never had a consistent personality before, but DMC 4's Dante is DMC 3's Dante, a totally ridiculously awesome guy, and he is even more ridiculous this time around. As for the supporting cast, they are a bit lame, Kyrie, Nero's love interest and damsel in distress, only exists to smile or look depressed. Those're the only things she does in the entire game. Human bad guys are relatively plain and forgettable, the final boss included, and there's one that's a walking joke, Agnus, however, he and Dante share one of the best cutscenes in the entire game. Then there's Lady and Trish, and... they went full Japan on them. Lady was an amazing character(well, as amazing as it gets in DMC, since characters don't really have much depth, but they make up for it in coolness) back on DMC 3, now she only appears about a minute or so and is only there to jiggle her breasts, plus, her visual design is a mess. Trish looks like she did in DMC 1, and her personality is a neat complement to Dante's, shame she looks ridiculous whenever her breasts move all over the place, since, y'know, Japan. And don't even let me get started on Gloria, one of the worst character designs I've ever seen. And it does matter, DMC has always had cool character that lived and died by the rule of cool, now both Trish and Lady look ridiculous(Not the good ridiculous) in whatever few scenes they get.

 Nero and Dante are the only playable characters, and they each get their own missions, kinda. But first onto what matters, the combat system feels even better than it did on DMC 3. EVEN BETTER. Not even gonna bother mentioning how much better it feels to land hits, thanks to the audiovisual feedback, although I kinda just did. But then there's the fact that Nero and Dante are completely different. Nero only has two weapons, Red Queen, his sword, and Blue Rose, his gun. The gun is about as as useful as long-range weapons get in the DMC series(Read: useless), but he also has a Devil Arm, the Devil Buster, which is used with the circle button. The circle button can be used to use powerful attacks on enemies, and even on bosses if you know when to use it, it can also be used to pull enemies towards you, or in the case of big enemies, pull yourself towards them. When using Nero there's no downtime when it comes to fighting, it's fast, furious, and you force enemies to come towards you. And the Devil Buster grabs look so visceral that it makes it very satisfying to land, heck, on each boss he performs a unique grab. And then there's the EX-gauge, Nero can rev up his Sword to land stronger attacks, or even EX versions of some of his attacks, problem is, revving up his sword, normally, takes a while... but there's a time-window after each slash that, when pressing the rev up button, will instantly fill the gauge. It's not as easy as it sounds!

 And then we have Dante. He plays very similarly to how he did on 3, retaining the 'Style' system. But this time around, Dante has all four basic styles(And later down the line, a fifth) at the same time, toggled by tapping different directions on the directional pad. On DMC 3 you could only change styles before a mission, or on save spots, which was a bit of a downer since certain styles where much better for certain bosses or situations, that's not a problem any more, tap a button and BAM, switched styles. Dante only gets three fire-arms and three melee weapons this time around, but much like Vergil, he carries all six at the same time, and you can switch between them in real time. A few of them are predictable, Rebellion, the sword, and a new 'punching' weapon, his guns, Ebony and Ivory, and a shotgun... but the third new weapon of each is crazy amusing. The melee weapon throws arrows towards an enemy, and if they stick, you can make them explode by throwing a rose(Back+Attack), which, trust me, is much better than it sounds, and Pandora is... Pandora is a lot of long-range weapons in one, including a floating sphere with cannons all over its surface.

 It sounds too good to be true, and it kinda is. There's not enough game to make the most of either character, sadly. A lot of people made a lot of fuss about Dante's stages being 'Nero's in reverse', but that's not quite right. Y'see, while you could play the entire DMC 3 as either Dante or Vergil, this time around, Nero gets 13 chapters to himself, while Dante only gets 7. To add insult to injury, Dante's stages are quicker, gimmicky versions of Nero's levels, 'Now there's poisonous gas!', 'Now there're portals so exits take you to different places!', 'Now you can't sit in place, else a monster takes you onto an enemy arena!', etc. There simply isn't enough game to make the most out of Dante, which is a shame since he's got an incredibly deep moveset, and the way you have to use him is different from Nero's. 

 There were also a couple of sections I could've done without, involving a die. This is an action game, and while there's some exploration, you are constantly moving, It's a fast paced action game, with some adventure elements here and there. And then you get to the die room, in which you must hit a die, and then wait for a board piece to move, depending on where it lands, you'll either get showered with red orbs, or have to fight some enemies. This section brings the game to a halt, and its so very boring that it sticks like a sore thumb from the rest of the game. Hilariously, Dante comes across the same die, but he cuts it in half. 'Oh! So maybe it was worth it to endure that part, since that was really funny, considering how boring it was'... except that they bring it back for the 19th mission. And this time around, unless you hit the exact number, the board piece is gonna do rounds around the board. Fun. But what's even worse, they brought back the only part I didn't like in DMC 3: The boss rush at the end. And this time around, it's tied to this annoying die-mini game. Oh boy, it's gonna take a while. And this makes it so that most bosses are fought three times. THREE TIMES!! And there's not much in the way of unlockables, no characters, no costumes, just more difficulty settings and some art.

 It's not all bad though, the game runs at a very consistent 60 frames per second, which looks beautiful in motion. They really took advantage of the new hardware, most bosses are huge, and it's a joy to fight them, up to the second time as Dante anyways, the third time, again with Nero, was just pushing it... And they did away with most fixed camera angles, there's a few here and there, but usually not where monsters are, now the camera is under your control, which is about damn time! The currency used to buy skills and items has been divided into two: One for items, the red orbs, and one for skills, the Proud souls, which are earned upon completing a mission. This... this is pure genius, no longer having to decide between more moves or health/devil trigger upgrades. Proud Souls are refundable as well, so if you don't like your new moves, or want to try others, you are free to do so.

 DMC 4 did so much good for the franchise. The combat is as tight as ever, Nero was a cool new character, the little enhancements to the camera, the way you buy items and skills from the store, it's a shame that, whether the budget ran out or Capcom rushed the development, Dante wound up having too little game to himself. Still, I can't help but love the game, but part of me wonders just how much better would it have been had Dante gotten his own levels and bosses.

 8.5 out of 10

Review #305: Devil May Cry HD Collection

 A Devil never cries.

 If I had to say what the Devil May Cry franchise is all about, I'd say it's about a white haired half-demon dude that must defeat enemies, trying to score huge combos, in order to earn more red orbs and then use them upgrade his skills, all while traversing gothic locales. This collection bundles together the three first games in the franchise, the PS2 games, in one neat little package with a few bonus art pieces.

 Right off the bat, I have two small gripes with the package: A) You must unlock every difficulty setting, which isn't so bad, but seeing how most people are gonna be replaying these games, it would've been nice to have all difficulties from the get go. Mind you, I don't want the rewards, just the option to start off on the higher difficulties from the start. Which might be a bit silly for the uninitiated, since these games let you carry over your upgrades from difficulty to difficulty. Speaking of rewards, these games do an absolutely fantastic job with the difficulty settings, as clearing the game on each will unlock another difficulty setting and a new rewards, from costumes, to alternate character modes... if you don't mind replaying a game, these games will keep you busy. And hey, future playthroughs when you want to replay them, will yield new rewards if you dare play it on a higher difficulty!
 And my other issue is that there's no way to change games, or discs in the case of DMC 2, without exiting the game entirely.

 Devil May Cry 1 has aged, it has aged a lot. Originally meant to be Resident Evil 4, it shows a lot. The game follows the serious, but fun-loving Dante as he follows his mysterious client, Trish, to defeat Mundus. It's a silly story, with silly dialogue and silly delivery, but it's gameplay where the game shines.

 What made this game stand out from other action games was the focus on combos. Depending on how you timed your triangle presses, or which direction you held on the D-Pad, you'd unleash different attacks, tying them together into big combos, that could even end with you juggling your opponent and even following them up into the air. And you want to do big combos, since the better you do, the more red orbs enemies drop when defeated, which in turn can be used to get more moves or more health, and even healing items if needed. There's two different weapons, Alastor the sword and Ifrit the gauntlets, and both have widely different styles. There're also about 4 different fire-arms, while these don't contribute to the combo rating, you can use them to zone enemies, or alter your hang time on the air in order to avoid attacks. There's a decent amount of depth to the system.

 It's loads of fun, but it has aged, and it's mostly due to its Resident Evil roots. For instance, you can't shoot without first targeting an enemy, and there's fixed camera angles, lots of them. It's not unusual to come across enemy-infested areas with multiple angles that mess you up and your controls, as well as sometimes allowing for hits to come off-camera. For whatever reason, and its something that stuck throughout the series, the game is divided into missions. It's a bit weird since everything is interconnected, and you can actually backtrack, as a matter of fact, backtracking may sometimes find you into secret sub-missions!

 I heard that the game is supposed to be hard, but it ain't so. I mean, at the start of the game, Dante can only take very few hits, but when I went into the store, I found that most of the moveset upgrades were unappealing, so I mostly invested on health. Afterwards, I invested on a few moves, among them, 'Air Raid'. Air Raid absolutely wrecks bosses, if you get that ability there's no excuse for not finishing the game.
 8.0 out of 10

 Devil May Cry 2 gets a lot of undeserved flak. As a matter of fact, back when I was younger, I actually preferred this game to the first one! Anyways, chronologically speaking, this is the last game in the franchise, even after DMC 4, and it sees an even more serious Dante, but with the occasional cool moment, team up with Lucia, who is basically another take on the concept behind Trish, to take down a new bad guy. The story, what little there is, is forgettable. The game's gimmick is having two playable characters, Dante and Lucia(And Trish, if you finish the game on Hard with Dante. But that means finishing the game twice(Dante and Lucia) to unlock Hard, and then a third time with Dante on hard, and I just wasn't too keen on playing this game so much), but to be honest, both characters are basically the same. The weapons are different, the animations are different, but when it gets down to it, they are basically the same. Their levels are more or less the same as well, think Resident Evil 2 A scenario and B scenario, enemies and objects might be on different places, there might be an exclusive stage or two, and a few different bosses. Dante gets more 'missions', but both playthroughs last about 2:30 hours each.

 Here's the thing about DMC 2, most things have been simplified. There's a designated dodge button, that can be used to run on walls, shooting can be done without aiming and the such... but the combo system has suffered, there simply aren't as many moves as there were on the previous game. While DMC 1 had lots of tight corridors and mostly small areas, which facilitated combos, most areas in this game are huge, which makes maintaining combos a chore. This time around guns(And knives, in the case of Lucia) can be used to maintain, but not increase, a combo rank, so they are not altogether as bad as they used to be.

 A lot of people took issue with how easy this game is. I don't care how easy, or hard, a game is as long as it's fun. And that's where DMC 2's problem lies, it can be a bit boring at times. There's a particular stage, which both Lucia and Dante have to go through, in which you have to run around searching for four orbs. While enemies respawn indefinitely on designated zones. And as much as you enhance your weapons raw damage, it feels as if taking down enemies takes ages. It's not hard, it ain't, it just can get a bit... boring. And that has to do with the direction this game took: This is all style and no substance. The game looks fantastic, animations in particular are sublime. The way Dante and Lucia run, or run on walls, the way Lucia shoots her knives, everything about this game looks cool, but when you get into the nitty gritty, you discover that there isn't depth to the combat.

 Still, this is not a bad game. It's an average game, that can be a bit boring at times, but it can also be fun.
6.0 out of 10

 Devil May Cry 3, man oh man, Devil May Cry 3 is amazing. It takes the best bits from DMC 1(The combat, the level structures, the feel of the attacks, all its substance) and the best bits from DMC 2( Simplified controls, all its style) and delivers an amazing game. So far Dante has had two distinct personalities, well, now he's got a third, this time around he is a cheesecake. And the story is as unremarkable as before... but this time it's got style, man does it have style, if you think about it, everything that happens is rather silly... but it looks so cool that it keeps you invested. You want to follow these characters, this goofball Dante, his no-nonsense brother Vergil, the amazing Lady(Who's the best counterpart to Dante there's ever been, and unlike Bayonetta, she doesn't need to take off her clothes) and the mysterious Arkham. And finishing the game unlocks Vergil as a playable character, who is completely different from Dante, even though he gets the exact same levels(And gets to fight a red-coated version of himself!). It also boasts the most unlockables, with various costumes for both Vergil and Dante, this is a game that can keep you busy for a long, long time.

 So what does this game get so well: The combat. It's incredible. For starters, now there are styles, there's four to start with, and you unlock another two later down the game, and Vergil gets his own unique 7th Style. Styles basically affect how your circle button behaves, for example, Sword Master gives all your weapons new attacks, and as you level it up, because styles can level up, you get even more attacks by mixing the circle button and directions on the analog stick. Gunslinger gives your hand guns new abilities, and Tricksters lets you dodge or run on walls, like DMC 2. This adds a lot of depth to the game, and lets you play how you like to play. Me, I liked SwordMaster, since it greatly expanded on my comboability. Keep to things in mind, Styles can only be swapped before starting a mission or on a Save Point, plus, Dante gets six melee weapons and six guns, but he can only take two of each, which again, can only be swapped before a mission or on a savepoint.

 Speaking of weapons, every weapon gives Dante an entirely different moveset, and you can change between your two selected weapons in real time, even mid-combo. Vergil himself only gets three weapons, but he has all three of them at the same time, and even though he shares a weapon with Dante, the Beowulf, both characters use them in entirely different ways. As far as Dante goes, his moveset is now akin to the one in DMC 1, depending on your timing, and which direction you hold, your attacks will change, and this holds true for all six weapons. Vergil doesn't have as many variations(Timing doesn't affect his blows), but he deals waaay more damage than Dante.

 Alright, so the game keeps the fixed camera angles that plagued the previous games before it, but, you can actually rotate them on certain areas, and, the camera angles are much better this time around, not one time did I felt as if the camera angles screwed me over. Environments are smaller this time around as well, as to encourage comboing. And boy, is making combos fun. The combat system has so much depth, so many possibilities, between the Styles and each individual weapon. One thing that I thought was rather neat is that enemies will go down faster as you go through the game. But here's the thing, you can't upgrade a weapons raw damage, they go down faster because you, the player, learn how to make better combos, learn when and how to dodge. It feels great.

 Regarding the difficulty setting, it's just right. This is actually the rerelease, Devil May Cry 3 special, since Capcom thought it'd be funny to make the Japanese 'Hard' our 'Normal' on their first release. Y'know, the difficulty setting that you unlock after beating the game, and on which you can bring over your strengthened character? Yeah, fun times. But regardless, this is not that version, Normal is Normal here. And look, many bosses actually took me down the first time, but that first time was enough for me to learn and take'em out on the second try. Oh, mind you, there're two ways to play, 'Gold', which has a ton of checkpoints, and 'Yellow', in which death means restarting the entire level. I played on Gold, but even then, if you need even more help, you can always buy healing items.

 It's hard for me to convey just how good Devil May Cry 3 is. Everything it sets out to do, it nails right on the heard.
 9.0 out of 10

 Basically, Devil May Cry HD Collection is a fantastic way to re-experience all three games. If you already own them on PS2, there's no need to get this version, as the new 'extras' are rather lame. One last piece of advise: Don't play them in chronological order. As that would mean going to DMC 1 after DMC 3, and... yeah, it's gonna be hard to get used to. It's not like the story is particularly good anyways as to warrant a 'chronological playthrough'.
 9.0 out of 10

Review #304: Super Mario Land 2 - 6 Golden Coins(Virtual Console)

 Ain't that a descriptive title!

 Now this, THIS is a sequel. I had a bunch o' problems with the first Super Mario Land, and it seems as I was not the only one, since this game was made from the ground up, doing away with most of the things Super Mario Land introduced. This game is bigger, better and longer than the previous game, and while I'd be hard pressed to call it a Gameboy Classic, it's a decent entry into the Mario Franchise.

 But do you know what's the biggest draw to this game is? Wario made his first appearance here! Oh boy, he took over a Castle, protected by a gate that can only be opened by collecting six golden coins(Title drop!), and it's up to Mario to stop him. Super Mario Land didn't really feel like a Mario game, and it seems they took notice, as now you'll come across Goombas, Winged Goombas, Koopa Troopas that behave like Koopa Troopas, and Mario even gets his block-breaking spin jump from Super Mario World. Even then, the game does its own thing, which makes it stand out against other Mario games. There's six 'Zones', each one with its own theme, made up of 3 to 4 levels each, and you'll do stuff that Mario's never done before, like trekking inside a whale, wearing an astronaut suit on his adventure through the moon and even do battle against the three little piglets and coming across giant ants. This is not your average Mario adventure.

 Being so different was something I held against Super Mario Land, but why am I so unconcerned with it this time? Because the previous game had wonky physics that made it rather annoying to play. If you don't get the jumping right on a platform game, you are doing something wrong. Physics-wise, this game doesn't feel like traditional Mario either, but at least it's fun. Some things might throw you off, like the game not freezing for a second when you get a power up, but it's something you get used to. Jumps feel looser than on traditional Mario games, but it's nothing you can get used to. Graphically the game was made from the ground-up, featuring large sprites that make jumping not feel like a chore, and it's not a walk in the park either, the final level can get quite nasty! And you know what, the game even brings its own ideas to the table. For instance, you can travel to any of the six zones at any point in time, so you can clear them in any order you wish, and it has its own original obstacles, like floating pools of water to aid you, or hinder you, through gaps. Or a stage in which you can use a bubble to float... but must avoid birds that want to pop it! It's a very different Mario game, and this time around, it's a good thing.

 There's three different power ups in this game: The mushroom, that makes you grow large and lets you take an extra hit, the fire flower, represented by a feather on Mario's hat, that lets you shoot projectiles and the radish, represented by bunny ears on Mario's hat that lets him hover. Interestingly, I felt as if each power up was akin to different difficulties. Small Mario can have a tough time, since he can only take one hit, and even Large Mario will have some trouble clearing stages. The Fire Flower lets you do away with most enemies, so you need only concern yourself with jumping, while the Radish turns most stages into a joke. Luckily(Or unluckily) Radishes aren't all that common. That said, the game isn't particularly hard, the only time I somewhat struggled was during the last level, previous stages don't really prepare you for the new obstacles you must deal with. Still, it was a fun stage!

 The game lasts little over an hour, probably even less if you are good at it. I wasn't expecting much of this game, but taking into account that it's a handheld game, and one that improved on its sequel in so many ways... It's a really decent Mario game that's worth giving a try, even if just to check out Wario's first videogame appearance!
6.0 out of 10

Month Overview: February 2016

 Tally:
Mega Man Anniversary Collection                       8.0
Megaman X Collection                                         9.0
Megaman X 7                                                        4.5
Megaman X 8                                                       7.0
Megaman - Maverick Hunter X                            9.0
Megaman Powered Up                                          8.5
Clock Tower 3                                                       7.0
Nightshade                                                             8.5
Extermination                                                        6.5
Naruto Shippuden - Ultimate Ninja 4                    5.0
Chocobo Racing                                                     6.5
Short Peace - Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day     8.0
The Evil Within                                                      9.5
Katamari Forever                                                    8.0
Vitamin Z                                                                5.0
Tomb Raider                                                           8.0
Super Mario Bros. 3                                                9.0
Samurai Champloo - Sidetracked                            3.5
The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time 3D            8.5
Resident Evil 2                                                         8.5
Custom Robo Arena                                                 6.0

 Holy chiplote, I've no idea how I managed to cram so many games, seeing how I was busy, both by studies and holiday-life. My daily literature did suffer a bit though...
 Ah well, I played a ton of survival horror games this month, and I actually liked them! Megaman too, I finally got through most of the games. And for the first time ever, a Suda 51 game let me down

 Game of February 2016:

 I fell in love with this game. It was a blast from beginning to end, and I just couldn't stop playing it. This is what I feel survival horror should be. There's item management if you really want to make it through, but it doesn't limit the player with cheap fixed camera angles or stiff controls. Everything is up to your skill as well as to how you manage to make the most of your ammo and healing items. That said, if you play your cards right, it's very possible to make it to the latter chapters with ammo to spare, but the shooting mechanics feel so good that I didn't even care.

 Runner-up:

 I... I just couldn't decide. On one hand, Megaman X is phenomenal, it's amazing, and guess what, X collection includes X2 and X3, which are really good, as well as X4 which is just as good as X. There's also X5 which is good and.... just ignore X6. But then there's Maverick Hunter X, the remake hits all the right notes, and for what little it got wrong, it got so much right to counterbalance it. And the new Vile Mode is a blast and offers an alternate way to play same ol' fantastic Megaman X. Technically, X Collection 'should' win since it offers the same quality, but it also offers quantity, but you just can't write off Maverick Hunter X, which is the perfect example of a remake done right.

 So instead of choosing between them, I picked both of them. It's my blog, I can cheat if I want to.

Review #303: Custom Robo Arena

 Pokemon with robots. Wait, Robopon?!

 Y'know, Custom Robo makes me sad. It makes me sad how underutilized the franchise is. There's been 5 games in the franchise already, of which we only got two localized overseas, and even then, this was the last game they released. It's not like the game is fantastic, far from it, but it has untapped potential.

 The Story... the story is the game's only mode if you don't have anybody else to play offline VS with, although there once was online battles, but it went away alongside the Nintendo DS servers. So, the story mode... it's a total drag. It starts with you getting your own Robopon, and one thing leads to another, and you join a Custom Robo battler team. And everyone admires how good you are even though you just started. There's also this girl that's supposed to be 'the best support ever' and, supposedly, she helps you a lot, though in-game she does jack all. It's a very generic anime story , heck, the 2-D cut outs, for when special NPCs talk, are downright terrible, they look as if they had been drawn at the last minute with little to no effort. And it's so slow paced, so repetitive(The game is divided on 'days', and every day starts with you going to breakfast and ends with you going to dinner with your family, and they repeat the same lines when the scenes end), sometimes you'll ever wonder why they say 'I'll stay here and show X the place, you go on ahead', only for these characters to arrive as soon as you get to where you had to go. What was the point? Immersion? The script is so lame it adds nothing to the game. And characters are very anime, but anime for kids, most characters have this one trait that defines their entire personality.... which makes it surprising how dark the story can get, dealing with themes of revenge, murder and even 'using your friends', makes me wonder just who they were aiming for with the script. Adults will grow bored, fast, and kids won't even care.

 Alright, so everything regarding the story mode is dull, it's the opposite as far as battle are concerned. While the Story Mode is completely 2D, battles are full 3D, in which you must annihilate the opposing robot. You do this by... customizing your robo. Custom Robos are made up of six pieces: A Body, which defines the type of melee charge attack. a gun, a missile launcher, a grenade pod and legs that affect how you'll move around. While you get full 3D movement, your robot automatically aims at the opponent, no matter how far you are, so you can just shoot your projectiles at a distance. Keep in mind that missile actually have to be aimed, by holding the R button, while grenades alter their course depending on how you move the analog stick(Or directions on the digital pad if you are using a Nintendo DS). Movement around the arena can be done by either running, d'oh, or jumping and air-dashes. Depending on which leg parts you are using you might get more aerial dashes. Lastly there's the melee charge attack, that makes you invulnerable while you charge ahead, making it a viable move to protect yourself from incoming projectiles, if you time it right. I found combat to be rather fun, even if the CPU has somewhat inhuman reflexes. There's over 30 different robot bodies and over 40 of each type of weapon, although not as many leg parts. And no set-up felt particularly stronger than the others, so I think it's safe to say that it's relatively balanced.

 But do you know what really, really sucks? You start battling with the Ray Mark II, which is a really cool robot. And then they start teasing you with the 'Ray Mk III', so you start looking forwards to this robo. And then you get it early in the game, and it SUCKS! Sure, it's slightly stronger and sturdier than the Mk. II, but it's also slightly weaker and has a worse charge attack. It will throw you off if you made your strategy about closing in to mash that charge attack. Luckily, by the time you unlock 'Grudge Matches', the open-ended post-game, you can get it back. And it feels so good.

 The Grudge Matches are really interesting, you can fight against many NPCs, as well as unique NPCs, over and over again, as well as collect secret Robos and.... extra powerful 'illegal' parts. The one problem I had with the post game is that you'll require a ton of money, which translates into a lot of grinding. You've no idea just how much grinding you'll have to do, with about 6 robots costing $500 each(That's a lot in this game). And a grudge match with a prerequisite of giving her $500... and illegal parts costing about $300 each. Then there's the many grudge matches with prerequisites of owning(buying) a certain amount of parts... it's gonna take a while and not for the right reasons.

 This game was made when people were still going ga-ga over the touchscreen, so of course they had to tack on some touching mechanics to it. This time around your Robo will get dirty as you use it and it takes damage, and if you don't clean it, it's performance will suffer. Cleaning is done by rubbing all of its individual parts(Head, Chest, Forearms, arms, legs, feet, crotch(Yes) and Pod). At first its cute, but it grows old. Supposedly you can find better, consumable, cleaning clothes that make it faster, but I didn't find any, and even then, it's not like they would prevent it from getting dirty.

 The thing about Custom Robo, is that as good as the battles and how fun customizing your robo is, the story mode is a real drag. And it's not like you can avoid it, even if you found another person to play with, you have to go through the story mode to find the different robos and pieces. Mind you, the Story Mode isn't all that bad, it simply is very boring. But if you are willing to endure it, you'll find a little rough gem of a game that Nintendo just isn't exploiting enough.
 6.0 out of 10

Review #302 - Resident Evil - Code Veronica X

 You are still alive!?

 Did you know? Resident Evil Code Veronica was supposed to be the third entry, but, supposedly, due to some contract thingie with Sony, Nemesis went to become the third game. But Code Veronica holds the distinction of being the first one to hit then-next-gen, so good bye pre-rendered backgrounds, and hello beautiful 3D. Fixed camera angles are back though.

 The story follows Claire, who is still looking for her brother Chris. She ends up a prisoner on an Island that holds deep ties with Umbrella Corporation, those that started the T-Virus outbreak that turned people into zombies. And then midway through the game, you end up as Chris, who has to finish what Claire started. Y'know the deal, cheesy dialogue, simple but serviceable premise. Alfred is one of the new main villains, and he is a rather interesting homage to certain horror movie icon, and then there's Steve. Steve is the worst thing to ever happen to the Resident Evil series. THE WORST THING. Sure, his voice and the delivery is terrible, but that's not even half of the problem, the problem lies in how he is portrayed. His lines are HORRIBLE, and his actions are cringe-worthy. And you can tell how hard Capcom tried to make him look cool, and to force this sad excuse of a character to become Claire's love interest. But he sucks, he is terrible and he is unbearable. Every scene he is in, he ruins it completely.

 This is pure Resident Evil, but times 10. The puzzles are more complex, the environments are larger, enemies deadlier and the game itself is longer. And the game is plays just like the others, run around a maze-like environment searching for items to use elsewhere and advance, while avoiding or shooting your way through hordes of zombies and other nasties. All that while managing your very limited inventory space, so you better think carefully about which weapons, or ammo, to bring. Personally I felt like level design was very lackluster. Environments are huge, and there's a ton of necessary key items as well as weapon and healing items that you will need to survive, but you simply can't carry enough, and the chests in which you can store items are very rare this time around. This makes the beginning of the game an absolute nightmare, particularly if you choose the 'wrong' fork of the road, which could have you going a loooooooong time, coming around enemies and items that you just can't carry. Locations are also far larger than previous games, which means that backtracking is particularly nasty this time around, and you'll be doing a lot of it. Oh, and there's plenty of rooms upon which enemies will be replaced after certain plot points. It's not a stretch to say that this is probably the hardest Resident Evil game, at least on default difficulty settings. And I kinda have mixed feelings about it, on one hand I liked how hard it was when compared to previous games, but on the other hand, having so few save points and store rooms feels rather cheap.

 Did I say hardest game? I think that it could also be the easiest. Y'see, I tried to play this game as if it was like previous games, and the game will punish you for it. Remember that useless knife from REvil 1-3? It's REALLY good against zombies and dog zombies. As in REALLY good. And if you mash buttons fast enough, you just might push a zombie before it lands a bite on you. And did you know? I finished the game without touching the Magnum, The Grenade Launcher(Or any of its various ammo types) and the Submachine guns. I didn't even touch them. And I had over 150 bullets and 40 shotgun shells to spare. You see, ammo is very plentiful on this game, and I might even say that there's enough ammo to kill everything you see, judging from how much left overs I had. I struggled so hard on Claire's chapter, but when I got to Chris I started unloading all my ammo(Since I had 300 handgun bullets) and regularly alternated with the shotgun(Non-zombie enemies this time around are very dangerous), so I had a much easier time with Chris. Heck even item management is more lenient when you begin Chris' chapter, since his environments are smaller. So you see, I'm pretty sure that if you don't hog ammo, you will have a much, much easier time with the game than I did.

 That said, there're a few things that I just can't forgive. For instance, there's a ton of ways in which you can screw yourself over. Early in the game there's a special... container on which you can deposit items. Since inventory space is so valuable, and you'll be coming across so much stuff, it might be tempting to leave stuff in there. Anything that you left in there, you won't be able to retrieve when you play as Chris. So hopefully you kept that seemingly useless 'empty fire extinguisher', otherwise you won't get the Magnum(Not that I actually used it anyways). And where you worried about a boss battle coming up, so you equipped Claire with your best weapons and all your ammo before leaving the Antartic base? Well, you are screwed, as Chris won't be seeing those items until much, much later onto his chapter. At least I remembered the 'cut-off' point from when I first played the game, but guess what, and I don't care that this is a slight spoiler as it's better to be warned, when you free Claire with a knife, you go back to playing as her. Well, hopefully Chris was carrying some kind of powerful weapon and had healing items, because you only play as Claire a little while before Chris is thrust onto a boss battle. A BOSS BATTLE. Thank god by that time I was carrying the Shotgun and its ammo with me. Oh, and remember not to equip anything on Claire, as that's the last time you'll be playing as her, and she took out my goddamn Bowgun, since I thought she might need it. And hopefully you'll have spare healing items, as Claire will need them to survive her event. Basically, there's a ton of ways you can screw yourself over. My advice: Keep many savefiles. I had up to four(Although by the time I was playing as Chris, I only kept two).

 There's a few other gripes I had, like the ones I had with previous games about fixed camera angles. It's not 'scary' not to be able to see in front of my character, I should be able to see what him/her is seeing. And this time around enemies can climb stairs, but guess what, if an enemy is climbing one, you can't use it. Picture my surprise when I was trying to evade some zombies(I hadn't figured that the game actually expected me to use my guns by this time), and I couldn't descend a flight of stairs! Turns out the fixed camera angle wouldn't let me see that a Zombie was slowly going up the stairs. And I tried to use them immediately after it climbed, but I couldn't... a second zombie was climbing them. Fun times, fun, fun times. Thanks, fixed camera angles! The auto-aim can be a pain in the butt as well, the game prioritizes enemies standing close to you, so even if a zombie just started dashing, it will aim towards the one that is closer, even though its not an immediate threat. Sometimes it will even aim 'through a corner' of a wall, so that your shots actually hit the wall, while another zombie rushes from behind. And you let go of 'aim mode', rotate towards the incoming enemy, tap aim again and.... again it turns you onto the enemy that posses no threat at the moment. It can be pretty annoying sometimes.

 Finishing the game unlocks 'Battle Mode' a score-based survival kind of mode. It's kinda fun since you get infinite ammo and can unlock a few extra characters, that translate into different weapon loadouts. It's a rather fun extra, but nothing to write home about.

 When it comes down to it, I liked Resident Evil Code Veronica, it's pretty fun... despite some of its most glaring flaws which makes it rather hard to recommend to people dabbling onto Survival Horror for the first time. My advice is not to be ashamed to find some kind of guide or something and make note of the 'character-switch' sections, you really don't want to screw yourself over. Also, keep multiple save files!
 7.5 out of 10

Review #301 - Resident Evil 2

 'Game Over'

 Resident Evil 2 is considered by many to be the game in the franchise, and its the game that marked Hideki Kamiya's debut as a videogame director. It's bigger, looks better, SOUNDS better, more action packed, more intricate and longer than Resident Evil 1, making it the prime of example of what a sequel should be.

 The action takes place on the streets of Raccoon City, where Claire Redfield, looking for her brother Chris, comes across Leon, a cop on his first day at the job, while zombies assault them both. It's not long before they get separated... and then reunited. And then separated again.... While both Claire and Leon go their separate paths, they do collaborate via radio. There's two ways to play the game, Claire A/Leon B or Leon A/Claire B, but it's not as interesting as it sounds. While Leon and Claire meet a different supporting cast, most of their puzzles are the same, it's just the location of a few items that changes. And while scenarios are called 'A' and 'B', they are basically the same, but scenario B is a bit tougher with even more zombies, sometimes even substituted by tougher enemies, and the addition of new bosses, including one that reappears every now and then to annoy you. Basically, you get two play 4 variations of the same thing. There's a few other differences between Claire and Leon, like the weapons they find. Leon gets better all-around weapons, with a gun that holds more bullets, the ever-useful Shotgun and the extremely powerful Magnum... and he even gets to upgrade them! And there's a few segments in which you get to play as an alternate character, Leon's has a gun to defend herself. Meanwhile, Claire gets a gun that holds 13 bullets top, can't be enhanced, and the very situational bowgun that can't hold a candle to the shotgun.... but she also gets the Grenade Launcher, which is extremely powerful, covers a wide area and is very versatile thanks to three ammo types, but the alternate playable character on her route can't even defend herself, and without spoiling too much, you even have to babysit her, run too fast and she'll stop dead on her tracks, and if she falls too far behind you won't be able to enter a different area. All in all, Claire's scenarios are definitely harder.

 The most important thing in Resident Evil is item management. Ammo and healing items are hard to come by, and your small inventory forces you to carry only the bare essentials, you really don't want to enter a new room, after skillfully avoiding enemies without getting hurt or wasting ammo, only to find out that you can't carry all the key items it houses, forcing you to do the whole trip again. I'd hesitate to call them 'puzzles', since they are very easy, but most of the time you'll be exploring mazelike environments, searching for items to activate mechanisms or the such someplace else. Strewn throughout the game are special chests, on which you can deposit your items, and magically retrieve them from any other such chest, as well as Typewriters, which at the cost of one ink ribbon, can be used to save your game.

 Savespots are rather uncommon, so dying hurts a bit, since it potentially means redoing minutes, upon minutes of gameplay. But there's a slight advantage to dying, now you should be familiar with what you have to do, and where the enemies are, so it's easy to learn and do things better the second time around. Now you know if going towards that dead end is worth it, maybe going through three zombies to get a healing item you don't need isn't really worth it. And that's the beauty of how the game works, you'll learn the environment, you'll learn to lure zombies, and run past them, without wasting a single bullet on them, so dying isn't all that bad, most of the time anyways.

 Unsurprisingly the game uses the two staples of the genre that the franchise itself cemented: Fixed camera angles and tank-like controls. People say that these create tension and add to the 'helplessness' feeling. I say it's hogwash. Fixed camera angles are downright annoying, you can hear the enemies, but even if you know that there's danger ahead, it's not unusual to get hit from an enemy just around the corner, a zone that the fixed camera angle just doesn't cover. If there are many enemies, you just might find out that all your dodging was for naught, as there's three zombies right in front of you. It's not fun, it doesn't make me feel 'tense' or 'scared', it only annoys me. And it's not like the game can't be scary on its own, the game caught me once without a jumpscare, by just having a Licker appearing on a window. And even though PS1 graphics are dated, they managed to make the monsters look gruesome and disgusting, which is just amazing. As for the tank-controls, I don't really mind them or find them annoying, but trust me, sometimes you'll wish you'd be able to turn faster.

 I found Resident Evil 2 to be immensely entertaining. But as fun as it is, and I do recommend doing an entire A/B run, since there's different bosses and a few new areas, unless you really, REALLY like the game, doing the alternate A/B run back to back isn't really worth it. It's the same game, two more times. That said, for future playthroughs, it adds replayability, so it's not a bad feature per se.
 8.5 out of 10