My Favorite Playstation 2 Games

 Here's the gist of it, in this world there's only one constant I'm entirely subjected to: Change. I am a person, and right now I'm not the same man that I was when I first began writing, heck, that guy wasn't even the same guy that wanted to write this in the first place! What I want to get to, once I stop digressing, is that this list is how I feel right now, at this very moment, so when and if I feel like making this list again, and knowing myself I probably will, it might change.

 So, what is that list? These are the games I liked the most on each particular system, this time around the Playstation 2. These are not necessarily the games I consider best, but the ones I liked the most and the ones I have the fondest memories of. For these lists I tried to stay away from multiplatform games, or from ports. I tried to, but in a few cases it was impossible to.

 Also... this list was by far the hardest to make, so many games got cut, and I even cheated a bit to get to talk about a few more games, which is a testament to just how good the PS2's library is.



10) Zone of the Enders 2

 Even though I prefer Gundam VS Gundam when it comes to mech games, as a 'Japanese mech simulator', of sorts, this is my choice. I must've finished this one hundreds of time already, and it never gets old. Non-stop, fast paced, all-terrain mech on mech action. It also has some of the most memorable setpieces I've ever played, like the battle in the desert, or using the Cannon to bring down giant gunships. And then you get the Zero-Shift and the game gets ridiculous, in the best kind of way.

9) Neo Geo Battle Coliseum

 I've been a fan of SNK's fighting games for as long as I can remember, always preferring their characters over Capcom's, although, in my opinion, Capcom always beat them at gameplay. Regardless, Neo-Geo battle Coliseum is a celebration of everything SNK. There's nods and cameos even to their non-fighting franchises, like a playable Marco from Metal Slug. I remember that most of the time my sessions of NGBC ended, my thumb would hurt a bit, the mark of a really good fighter.

8) Capcom VS SNK 2

 Did I mention that I preferred SNK's characters but Capcom's gameplay? Well, this game is exactly that. True, it's mostly Street Fighter VS King of Fighters, but there's a few surprises here and there, like Last Blade's Hibiki or Rival School's Hyo. There's a great number of characters, and 6 different ways to play them, all mimicking different Capcom and SNK's games, and the soundtrack is just amazing. Easily on my top 3 2D fighting games.

7) Shinobi

 While I played this game when I was younger, I don't think I was able to appreciate it as much as I did a couple of years ago. It's challenging, fast paced, exhilarating and offers it own brand of hack-and-slash, different from other games of its ilk, like Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden or God of War. It helps that Hotsuma is one of the coolest ninja designs ever.

6) Virtua Fighter 4 - Evolution

 The ungodly amount of hours I must've poured into this game! I remember playing vanilla VF 4 when I was way, way younger, and when the PS2 graphics were still amazing, and seeing the little trails fighters would leave in the snow, or seeing the tiles of the floor break. It looked amazing, and it didn't stop there, the moves looked amazing as well, it all leads to some of the most fantastic fights I've ever had the pleasure of watch, and even perform in. I would even duke it out with my best friend, I clearly remember this one time we did over 100 rounds of Akira VS Akira. I love this game, and while VF 5 is probably the better game, it doesn't hold the same amount of memories this one does.

5) Wild Arms 3

 Wild Arms 2 was pretty good, but Wild Arms 3 completely blows it out of the water. Now then, Wild Arms 2 had a very original, and fun, battle system, and Wild Arms 3 expanded upon it and polished to a sheen. The exploration remains the same, although in this case, it's a good thing, offering a hearty amount of puzzles and different locales to traverse. Then there's also the huge amount of side bosses and sidequests to complete, even though I could never really trigger the UFO event!

4) Outrun 2006 - Coast to Coast

 I'm not really a 'cars dudebro', so I'm not really into racing games. Which is a good thing, since this game is more of what I like to call a racing adventure game. You race against checkpoints, you race against yourself, while going though different routes and scenery. It's beautiful to look at, and I always manages to give me a certain sense of adventure, which I really like. But it doesn't stop there, the gameplay is very arcadey, appropriately of an Arcade game, easy to pick up and play, and once you get the hang of the drifting, it's pure bliss. It's easy to lose yourself into a trance while playing this game, and it feels so good. So. Good.

3) Killer7

 Suda 51 is my favorite videogame director, but I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't get to this game as soon as I should've. This is easily Suda 51's masterpiece, a game unlike anything you've ever played before, and quite probably, unlike anything you'll ever play. It's hard to delve into what makes the game so good. How about the insanely engaging premise? The unique gameplay? The amount of depth behind the story? Trust me, there're FAQs out there in order to help you understand the story. And it's true, this is a port of a Gamecube game, something I tried to avoid, but... It's Suda 51, dammit.

2) Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne / Digital Devil Saga part 1 and 2

 Alright, I'm cheating, I admit it, but I wanted to fit more games into the list, and... and they are both Shin Megami Tensei games(At least outside Japan), so... so.... I'm slotting them together. I tend to dislike games with mute protagonists, since it's almost impossible to give them any depth, so I was worried before starting Nocturne... but somehow, somehow, they managed to make you feel like you mattered without uttering a single word. It's a gripping tale, after the World ends and only a few humans survive, all trying to recreate the world under their own personal views, and you, the Hitoshura, while not able to recreate the world, have enough power as to be able to ensure the victory of whoever you aid. It's fantastic, the supporting cast is interesting and engaging, and the setting is so bleak, but so interesting....
 Digital Devil Saga is a more interesting case, with a stronger emphasis on the supporting cast. The first game is downright amazing, and while the second part is not quite as good, seeing the characters evolve as the story moves along is a thing of beauty, as you learn to love these characters. Even Cielo, who I never used in battle, I wanted to see him succeed. It's a phenomenal story.
 Oh! and both games run under the same combat engine, which is another fun twist to the turn-based system of yore, focused on hitting the enemy weakenesses in order to get extra turns.

1) Shin Megami Tensei - Persona 4

 Oh, poor Persona 4, getting milked to hell and back again by Atlus. But it doesn't matter how much they milk it, how much they dilute and ruin their characters with Persona Arena or Dancing All Night, the original Persona 4 remains a fantastic little game. Not only does it borrow most of the battle mechanics from Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga, but it mixes it with pseudo-dating sim elements, which sounds like a drag, but it works, it works really well! But it's the characters and their stories that really take the cake, all the supporting cast, from playable characters to NPCs, have their own trials and tribulations to go through, and they're so interesting that makes you want to follow them all the way to the end, and not for the reward, but to see them coming to terms and solve their conflicts!
 And they somehow managed to give personality to the mute hero. Sure, your decisions don't matter much when it comes down to it, but they somehow managed to give the protagonist a semblance of depth thanks to how he interacts with the characters around him.

My Favorite Playstation Games

 Here's the gist of it, in this world there's only one constant I'm entirely subjected to: Change. I am a person, and right now I'm not the same man that I was when I first began writing, heck, that guy wasn't even the same guy that wanted to write this in the first place! What I want to get to, once I stop digressing, is that this list is how I feel right now, at this very moment, so when and if I feel like making this list again, and knowing myself I probably will, it might change.

 So, what is that list? These are the games I liked the most on each particular system, this time around the PSOne. These are not necessarily the games I consider best, but the ones I liked the most and the ones I have the fondest memories of. For these lists I tried to stay away from multiplatform games, or from ports. I tried to, but in a few cases it was impossible to.


10) Chrono Cross

 Chrono Cross was, at one point in time, my favorite game ever. So much so that it even influenced my E-Mail address. Time has certainly started to show the game's edge, with a rather weird leveling up system, terrible, terrible enemy design, and a convoluted summoning system. Not to mention the fact that they tried to cram in over 40 playable characters, which meant that most of them hardly get some character development, if any at all. Regardless, the combat system is a joy to use, taking some cues from Xenogears of all games! And the plot had some fun moment, like having your body hijacked!

9) Strider 2

 Strider 2 is nonstop Arcade action from beginning to end. Honestly, the game isn't very deep, combat-wise, but it makes up for it with style, pure, pure style. It also has some fantastic boss battles, and segments, how cool is running over a giant iceberg while stuff blows up behind you? The game's Arcadey pick-up and play gameplay as well as its short length contributed to me replaying this game every now and then, it just doesn't get old!

8) Parasite Eve

 When I was younger, I used to play Parasite Eve II, but I didn't really like it. And then, two years ago, I decided to give Parasite Eve 1 a chance and it blew my mind. It's amazing, the JRPG/Survival Horror blend is fantastic, with a phenomenal combat system and a story that remains very original to this very day.

7) Legend of Legaia

 In this world, there's two things I love: JRPGs and Fighting games. Legend of Legaia mixes both to spectacular effect. While you explore towns and dungeons as you would on any other RPG, triggering a random encounters results in a turn based system in which you input combos with the four different directions of the digital pad. And performing certain combinations produces special attacks. And then there's super attacks. And ultra attacks. I love this game.

6) Lunar 2 - Eternal Blue Complete

 Remember Working Designs? Those guys knew their craft, which is the reason their localizations are fondly remembered. But it helps when the source material is so fantastic. This is an oldschool JRPG, so a little grinding is in order, but the game is so good that that is hardly an issue. The game really shines with its story and characters, if you played Lunar 1, you get to see how the world has evolved, and even get to meet a few familiar faces or the grandsons and granddaughters from the original cast of characters. But that's just a plus, it's the new cast of characters that really make the game so engaging, which each of the five(or rather six) get to go through their own personal arcs and actually evolve. The game also mixes the gameplay with the story to great effect, Lucia is AI controlled, so while at the beginning of the game she'll run away or only care about herself, she'll begin healing the party, and even prioritize Hiro over herself!

5) The Legend of the Dragoon

 I used to hate this game when I was younger, but lo and behold, now I like it even more than my then-favorite game, Chrono Cross. And I wonder why, it's a JRPG, with a transforming hero, and I always like heroes that can transform. And it's not just the designated hero Dart, the entire cast of characters have alternate transformations into all powerful Dragoons. This is a four disc epic filled with surprising twists and turns, as well as fun battle mechanics, which have the player timing their button inputs in order to maximize damage and fill the Dragoon gauge faster.

4) Crash Bandicoot 2 - Cortex Strikes Back / Crash Bandicoot 3 Warped

 While Crash Bandicoot 1 has aged rather poorly, both Crash 2 and Crash 3 are every bit as good as they once were. It's hard to me to pick between both of them, Crash 3 had tighter collision detection, and smoothed out the levels to take out some of the most annoying bits from 2, like having to run towards the camera if you wanted to 100% it... but Crash 2 had a much stronger emphasis on the platforming and its higher challenge was welcome, which is where these games really shine. Regardless, there's no going wrong with either game, both offer the same tight of gameplay, even if one diluted the jumping a bit with vehicle and 'variety' stages.

 The Crash PS1 games have shown their worth as time went by, one has to remember that the mascot platformer market was pretty much saturated by the time, and in an era when everyone wanted to be Mario, the Crash games delivered their own twist on the formula, making them unlike other platformers of the era.

3) Castlevania - Symphony of the Night

 I always felt like the Metroid games were a bit boring. I played, but never finished or got into, Super Metroid and Metroid, and while I did finish Metroid Fusion, I never really liked it too much. Castlevania takes Metroid's exploration approach, a giant interconnected map for you to explore, having power ups and routes blocked off by obstacles requiring a specific tool to bypass, but adds RPG elements. Now combat actually matters, because you constantly grow stronger, not to mention the fact that they may drop equipment pieces. Armor not only increases your defense, but sometimes even comes with passive abilities, like allowing you to walk through otherwise lethal spikes. And while Metroid gives you dull energy cannons and missiles, here you get a whole slew of medieval weaponry, axes, swords and... Nunchuks? Knuckle dusters? Well, maybe not all that medieval, but you get the gist of it. Symphony of the Night made the Metroid formula fun for me. It's endlessly addicting to earn new abilities and then get the ability to cross-over obstacles you couldn't before, and it seems as if every time I play it I get something new, a weapon, an armor, an item, what have you!

2) Xenogears

 Fact: Xenogears is incomplete. The developer team had four discs worth of content planned for the game, but legend has it that Square cared more about Final Fantasy VIII, so they decided to pour more money onto that project, leaving the Xenogears team to cram three discs worth of content onto the second disc. And it shows. But y'know what? Even despite that, against all odds, I still consider this game a masterpiece. Just like Legend of Legaia, it has a combat system with roots in fighting games, only that you have three attacks here: Weak, Medium and Strong, but they too can be tied together into powerful special moves. And then there's mech-on-mech combat, with its own combat mechanics. And the mechs? They look amazing, each character has his or her own machine, and it reflects on the owner's personality. And let's forget about the gameplay for a second, the story is amazing. Even though the storytelling took a huge hit on the second disc, it still managed to put forth a cohesive narrative, that delves into more philosophical matters, religion and even some psychology. I adore this game. It's a shame the spiritual prequels, Xenosaga, are so bad(My first blog posts were a bit more... candid about how much I hated those games), but at least Xenoblade turned out great.

1) Final Fantasy VII

 I've already sung this game oh so many praises, but... let's do it again. Before Final Fantasy VII there were games I liked more than others, yes, but I don't think the word 'favorite' ever came to my mind. And then Final Fantasy VII happened. And it's true, as I grew up, other games took its place. I was young, so at a time, even Final Fantasy VIII seemed like a better game. Chrono Cross, Disgaea, Zone of the Enders 2, Persona 4... just a few of the games that held the 'My favorite' label over time. But as time goes by, as I replay them, those game start to show their age. But Final Fantasy VII is like wine, it only gets better with age. After Final Fantasy VII, everyone wanted to make the next big RPG, they even aped the amnesiac hero. Heck, with time Cloud was flanderized into a brooding, silent hero, which he never was. But it doesn't even matter if Squeenix keeps diluting the franchise and Cloud himself, they can't touch the original Final Fantasy VII.

 The combat system remains just as good as it once was, featuring a surprising amount of depth centered around linking materia on the different equipment pieces. Materia not only alter your stats, but they also grant you access to magic... and they can level up. And depending on what materia orbs you link, you can create some very powerful combinations. It's not an amount of depth you used to see in the day, heck, even by today's standards.

 The story has lost some of its originality, since it's been copied oh so much, and it doesn't help that the translation was so bad as to sometimes treat Tifa as a 'he'. But even then, I still get goosebumps when Cloud's reveal happens. And just as with the greatest RPGs of its time, each party member gets a surprising amount of depth and backstory, each getting their own arcs they have to go through. Even Yuffie and Vincent, while optional, have their own scenes, even if shorter and making less of an impact than those of the main cast, you still get to learn about Vincent's past, and how Yuffie's upbringing is tied to her hometown, Wu-Tai.

 What can I say, as JRPGs continue to get more and more terrible, with pandering games that appeal to the lowest common denominator, like the Neptunia series, Final Fantasy VII gets better and better in comparison. Heck, most of the JRPGs of the era do, but that's a rant for another time.

Review #317: Metal Gear Rising - Revengeance

 More like, rethink your title so that it's a real word. Am I right or am I right?

 Metal Gear Rising is a hack-and-slash action game spun off from the Metal Gear Solid franchise, starring our favorite Cyborg Ninja: Raiden. It's a wildly different take on the franchise, that offers a lot interesting ideas to the genre, even if it doesn't break any new ground.

 The story takes place after Metal Gear Solid 4, Raiden now sporting a more human-like cyborg body fails to protect his client, and is left eyeles and armless by Jetstream Sam, a member from group of terrorists, Desperado. Armed with a new cybernetic body and a need of vengeance, Raiden goes off to stop Desperado. The story is... a bit of a mixed bag. The story itself is alright, but sometimes it feels as if it was written by a group of people, or the writer hadn't a clear idea of what he wanted. You'll go from learning about kids being stripped of their bodies and organs, turned into cybernetic brains and eyes, forced to endure combat VR training, to... to getting punted like a ball by a boss and having an invisible audience cheer him. As a matter of fact, the final boss sometimes feels like a caricature, which is funny, because at times it felt like this pseudo american parody was getting somewhere... only to turn into something out of a caricature, that likes to use Sumo moves. Yeah. It also goes full anime at times, with a pre-teen girl building a rocket ship, or juvenile humor like 'Taking a Doomp'... yeah, it's hard to pinpoint what the tone they wanted for the game was. Also, they decided to bring back Raiden's nickname, 'Jack the Ripper', y'know, that thing that is mentioned during Metal Gear Solid 2? Now it's somewhat of a split personality.... I don't even.... For what its worth, the cutscenes are at their best when stuff happens, because there's some seriously cool scenes to be seen. Just try to turn your brain off when the characters start talking. The audiovisual presentation is a bit lacking as well, characters' faces are off somehow, and Raiden's voice actor sometimes tries to sound ruff, but it comes off as forced.

 But gameplay is where it's at with this game, and it delivers. Your main offensive tool is your sword, which is can be used with weak and strong attacks. Later in the game you'll earn new weapons that can be equipped as your strong attacks. It may throw you off at first, but there's no sidestepping in the game, so you'll have to rely on parrying, which is done by pressing weak attack and the direction the attack is coming from. Parrying is very important and a necessity, the game will quickly pound you into the ground until you learn how to parry incoming attacks. The game's main mechanics is Blade Mode, holding L1 enter you into 'Blade Mode', in which you can cut in almost in direction by combining both analog sticks... or you can just mash square and triangle. A lot of stuff on the environments can be cut down, but enemies need to be worn down before you can freely cut them apart, which you can tell since their weakened body parts will blue. As a matter of fact, once their torso turns blue, you can cut them apart to reveal cells that can be used to refill your entire health bar and the gauge that allows Blade Mode.

 Combat works almost perfectly. I felt like the targeting system was a bit weak, as pulling off certain moves was a bit hard, and even while targeting an enemy, if you accidentally push towards another and attack, you will attack this other enemy instead. I also disliked the relatively high amount of QTEs the game is filled with, just give me cutscenes, they look cool and I don't need to bother pressing buttons in order to make me feel like I'm doing something when I'm not. I mean, some of the QTE segments are impossibly cool, like running over missiles, but if you are gonna use QTEs I 'd rather get a cutscene. There's also a few optional stealth sections. They feel very out of place in an action game, but the icing on the cake comes from the fact that characters will chastise you for not approach the enemies stealthily. Guys, this is NOT Metal Gear Solid, this is an Action game. I want to fight stuff, not silently kill it from behind. And I need to mention just how good the soundtrack is, and it's timed so that the music gets really cool during the coolest moments.

 And now comes the bad news.... the entire game is 4 hours long, less if you skip cutscenes. On its defense, there's about 20 VR Missions to find, and then complete, there's also unlockable weapons and costumes by finding hidden Data storages and cutting 30 arms of certain enemies, so there's certainly a fair amount of replay value. Early in the game's life, Konami released two Campaign DLC packs, one letting you play as Jetstream Sam, and the other as Bladewolf. Each costed $10, but Konami eventually made them free. And it's easy to see why, both are about an hour long, have no new environments, enemies or bosses, although they have a few new cutscenes. Since these include so little new stuff, they might as well just made both characters playable in the main Story, since they offer entirely different movesets from Raiden, and it would've been nice to have more game to try them on in.

 Metal Gear Rising - Revengeance was a valiant effort from Platinum games. While it took me a while to learn just how important Parrying was, I eventually ended up loving the combat system. Cutting stuff is so much fun! But there's so little game to try all these fun mechanics in, and the story was so... baffling, I didn't know what it was going for. And it's true, MGS has always had humor in its story, but this one had some very off-putting moments. Not that it really matters, since the gameplay is what matters, and gameplay they got right.
 8.0 out of 10

My favorite PSP and Vita Games

 Here's the gist of it, in this world there's only one constant I'm entirely subjected to: Change. I am a person, and right now I'm not the same man that I was when I first began writing, heck, that guy wasn't even the same guy that wanted to write this in the first place! What I want to get to, once I stop digressing, is that this list is how I feel right now, at this very moment, so when and if I feel like making this list again, and knowing myself I probably will, it might change.

 So, what is that list? These are the games I liked the most on each particular system, this time around the Gameboy Advance. These are not necessarily the games I consider best, but the ones I liked the most and the ones I have the fondest memories of. For these lists I tried to stay away from multiplatform games, or from ports. I tried to, but in a few cases it was impossible to.



10) All Kamen Rider - Rider Generation 2

 It might not be the best beat'em up ever, or the most complex, but it's one I adore. As a fan of Kamen Rider, and heroes that can transform in general, I love the huge cast of characters, even if they all play basically the same.

9) Me & My Katamari

 In some ways, this is one of the best Katamari games I've played. I love having the formula distilled to its most brainless, yet most entrancing form.

8) Gods Eater Burst

 I might not agree with some of its artistic design choices, but goddamn, this I like GEB. One of the PSP games I've spent the most time with, and I don't regret any of it, I really like this take on the Monster Hunter formula. As a matter of fact, in some ways, I actually prefer this game over Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate.

7) Dissidia Duodecim Final Fantasy

 Sometimes I really don't know what the &*#$%! goes through Square's bigwigs' heads when they come up with these presumptuous titles. Dissidia Duodecim? Seriously? Nova Crystalis? Birth by sleep? Square, how about going back to making good games instead of weird titles? But I digress. Dissidia Duodecim is a very original Fighting game with hours upon hours worth of content to keep anyone busy. And it's not just fluff, there's a ton of unlockables to earn as well. The one thing I'd hold against it, believe it or not, are the customizable movesets. When it comes to fighting games, I'd much rather have set movesets across the board. But that's just me.

6) Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max

 I love Street Fighter Alpha 3, it was one of the reasons that veered me towards jumping ship to the PS2 and abandon Nintendo after the N64. Alpha 3 on the PSP has all the modes from previous iterations on the PS1 and GBA, it has Arcade-perfect gameplay and sprites(Something the PS1 couldn't handle), and it has all the extra characters the GBA had plus a newcomer. If it only wasn't for the fact that this game is only available on a handheld console, this would be the definitive version of Street Fighter Alpha 3 bar none. Regardless, seeing how most of my friends dislike fighting games, I'm quite used to fighting against CPUs, and I love this game even though I don't have human competition.

5) Half-minute Hero

 This game is more than just a novelty, they managed to cram a full-fledged JRPG experience into 30 seconds. Kinda. The game is a blast, forcing you to be constantly on the move, exploring, going to towns, dungeons and grinding for money and experience, under a 30 second limit. Kinda. And that's just the main mode, there's three alternate modes that, while not as fun as the main mode, are nice little time wasters. Every now and then I'll pop this one in to replay the challenge modes, Hero 300, Hero 30 and Hero 3. I love this game.

4) Mega Man Maverick Hunter X/ Mega Man Double pack

 Maverick Hunter X is one of the best remakes I've ever played, displaying high production values in its fantastic presentation. And it's not just skin deep, the game looks and sounds beautiful, but it keeps the same polished, tight gameplay from the original Mega Man X. And to sweeten the deal, it comes with Vile as an unlockable character, that turns the game on its head featuring an entirely different play-style. It's amazing.
 The only thing better than Maverick Hunter X is getting the 'dual pack' which includes Mega Man Powered Up, another excellent remake of another Mega Man game.

3) Mobile Suit Gundam VS Gundam Next Plus

 Arcade on-the go 2 on 2 action on the go, what more could you ask for? It has a large character roster, made up of entirely different units, as well as a variety of different modes to test them in, assuming you somehow get tired of free battling. The only bad thing I can say about this game is that it's been overshadowed by Gundam Extreme VS and Full Boost, but hey, even then, this is still a more complete game than Extreme Vs Force on the Vita... At least for the time being.

2) Pursuit Force/ Pursuit Force - Extreme Justice

 The short-lived Pursuit Force franchise is one of my favorites, condensing into two little UMDs almost everything I look for in a videogame. These are high octane action games, that sees the player chasing criminals on foot, on wheels and on water. The missions put you instantly in the midst of the action, and it never stops.
 I just couldn't pick between both games, the second one had some slight tweaks and improvements that I really liked... but also a few things that I thought the previous game did a little bit better. As it stands, I think both of them are just as good.

1) Castlevania - The Dracula X Chronicles

 Castlevania fans come in two groups, those that like the linear 2-D action-platform games, which I like to call Classicvanias, and those that like the more exploration-based games, Metroidvanias/Castleroids. Me? I like both styles just as much. Castlevania - The Dracula X Chronicles contains a remake of one of, arguably, one of the best Classicvania games as well as a port of, arguably, one of the bestr Metroidvanias. And, if, for whatever reason, you dislike the remake, the game also includes the original version of Rondo of Blood. Three fantastic games on one tiny UMD, there's absolutely no going wrong with this one.



 And, just as with the 3DS, I really don't think the Vita has a strong game library, not even as strong as the 3DS', so I decided to fuse that one with this one.


4) Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs Force

 Alright, so I'm cheating a bit because the game just got really good today, but I can already tell that I'm gonna spend a ton of time with this game. Hopefully subsequent patches make it even better. Hopefully.

3) Uncharted - Golden Abyss

 This game was a promise. A promise of things to come, as it showcases just what can be done with the system under people who actually care. Not only is it a great game, surpassing the original Uncharted(Not that that is saying much), but it's a bit of a wonder, as it captures the feeling of Uncharted perfectly, despite it being developed by a different developer. This is the golden standard all Vita games should aim to match... except that it seems nobody really cares.

2) Digimon Story - Cyber Sleuth

 I'm still amazed at how good this game turned out. It features a mature storyline with hints of Shin Megami Tensei, particularly Nocturne, and tried and true turn based combat. This game can be so much fun when you aren't grinding like a degenerate, but once you finally get that team you've been yearning for since the start of the game... Oh man, oh man!

1) Persona 4 The Golden

 Alright, alright, so I said no ports unless I'm talking about the original release, but... but... Come one, it's the Vita, it barely has great games, just let me have this one. Just this one. I'm gonna be honest here, I thought most of the new additions were just... additional fat. Some people argue about how it adds more depth into the story, but the thing is... the story was perfectly fine and complete beforehand, it needed no extra characters or explanations, because everything was perfectly self-contained. And the new plot-related character is just a somewhat unfitting waifu sterteotype caricature, and the new social links... they further dilute the personality of a certain character that's been badly handled on subsequent games, like Arena. You can't make the villain sympathetic, stop trying, you are just ruining other characters. Still, now you can fuse Magatsu Izanagi as a Persona, which is quite badass.
 But here's the thing, even though I dislikes most of the extra content... you can perfectly ignore it and just play this game like it used to be. Want more content? You got it. Dislike it? Just ignore it. Win-win.

Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs - Force Update 1.03

 Now this is more like it!

 The Asia release of Extreme VS Force finally got updated. And unlike the Borderlands Patch, this one actually matters and makes the game a whole lot better.

 It has two major additions: Six new units and two new modes. The units are: Master Gundam, 00 Gundam, Strike Freedom, Turn X, GP02A and, for the first time on console ports of Extreme Vs, the Mack Knife. It's a nice selection of units, with different playstyles, which is more than welcome, and bumps up the character roster to 46. It's a far cry from Full Boost's 96+ roster, but it's something. 

 The other new addition is 'Vs Extend Mode', which is made up of Free Battle and Course Battle. Free Battle lets you play against CPUs, finally, and offers all the options available on a console release, you can tamper with the AI difficulty, the boost gauge, the battle gauge, and even the timer to make it infinite if you so want to. This is the reason we play these games, and something that should've been here from the start.... but it's finally here, and it's gonna extend the game's life by a lot. As for Course Battle, it's basically an Arcade mode, featuring 8 courses of varying lengths. It's alright.

 The only thing I will complain about is how Vs Extend works, after you select Free Battle or Course Battle, the X button('cancel') takes you back to the main menu and not the Extend menu. It's a tiny nitpick, but still.

 Overall, while the character roster is still a bit lacking, this is at least acceptable by the series' standards, and bumps up my score to:

8.0 out of 10.

My Favorite Nintendo DS and 3DS Games

 Here's the gist of it, in this world there's only one constant I'm entirely subjected to: Change. I am a person, and right now I'm not the same man that I was when I first began writing, heck, that guy wasn't even the same guy that wanted to write this in the first place! What I want to get to, once I stop digressing, is that this list is how I feel right now, at this very moment, so when and if I feel like making this list again, and knowing myself I probably will, it might change.

 So, what is that list? These are the games I liked the most on each particular system, this time around the DS. These are not necessarily the games I consider best, but the ones I liked the most and the ones I have the fondest memories of. For these lists I tried to stay away from multiplataform games, or from ports. I tried to, but in a few cases it was impossible to.


10) Dungeon Explorer - Warriors of Ancient Arts

 This game was my favorite Nintendo DS game for a while actually, but I don't think it has aged quite so well. As a matter of fact, I'd argue it was pretty dated for its time as well. But, for quite a while, I played the hell out of this cart, decking out multiple characters and making different builds and loving every second of it. It was the closest thing you could get to Diablo at the time on the DS.

9) Golden Sun - Dark Dawn

 It's funny, because I remember arguing over how overrated the original Golden Sun games were with the fanbase, and once this game came out, they despised it... and I defended it. Because this game was everything I expected out of a new Golden Sun game. Heck, characters were more expressive and a teeny bit more depth than the previous cast... well, most of them anyways, there were two or three main characters that were, basically, cardboard boxes, with no depth whatsoever. The game's biggest problem though, is that it ends on a cliffhanger, one that's probably not going to be resolved anytime soon.

8) Final Fantasy IV

 Final Fantasy IV is the Final Fantasy game that's gotten the most ports and remakes in the entire franchise. But the DS version is a very unique beast, until it was eventually ported to iOS devices. The game was entirely remade in 3D, and it looks beautiful, and it also retains the original Japanese difficulty setting, restored skillset(Basically, 'Dark' was quite watered down compared to what it was in the Japanese version) and a new translation. It also features new mechanics with the Augment system, allowing you to get your characters to carry over skills from the few allies that leave the party. If you ask me, this is the best version of Final Fantasy IV out there.

7) Mario Kart DS

 One of the two Mario Kart games I've spent the most time with(Foreshadowing), and it's still a mainstay among the games I regularly take on long trips with me. This Mario Kart has an excellent character and vehicle roster, coupled with 16 courses, most which are total hits. But it's best feature is the Random Offline Vs. As someone who likes variety, playing courses in random order never grows old. Never. Which is something that makes this version widely superior, in my eyes, to some of its future installments(More foreshadowing).

6) Bleach - The Blade of Fate/ Bleach - Dark Souls

 The Blade of Fate is among my favorite 2D fighter ever made, and it's a handheld fighting game, where has the world gone to? The combat is fast and intuitive, which makes it a blast to play even at a casual level. And I even took the fight online and could pull off some nasty Soi Fon combos. The reason both the first and second installments made it here is that I consider the first game a superior competitive fighter, due to the balancing and mechanics... But even though the second game is rather unbalanced(Ishida and Inoue are borderline useless now), even though I don't agree with some of the changes to the mechanics and even though it has a fair amount of bugs... it has more characters, which at a casual level, is what matters the most.

5) The Phoenix Wright series

 While, technically, ports of GBA games, those were never released outside Japan, which means that this is the official console of choice outside Japan.. although they were later rereleased on the Wii, and I believe iOS as well, but I'll pretend those don't exist. The entire Ace Attorney franchise is fantastic, even Apollo Justice has its things. But if I had to pick just one, just one that showcased the creative writing, the original characters and the engrossing storyline, it'd be the third one, Trials and Tribulations. This is franchise I wouldn't mind Capcom milking more.

4) Castlevania - Portrait of Ruin/ Castlevania - Order of Ecclesia

 All three Castlevania games on the DS are fantastic examples of the genre, and outstanding games on their own right. But while it's easy for me to cross Dawn of Sorrow off the list due to it's needless touch mechanics, both Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia have things that make them stand out from each other.
 Portrait of Ruin has a varied slew of weapons and abilities, and a ton of extra characters that make each romp through the game feel different. There's also a ton of variety on the castle and the portraits, it probably has the most varied locales in a Metroidvania ever. But Order of Ecclesia has more interesting characters, both in design and personality, a beautiful art direction and a more consistent overall environment and a very high difficulty level. Both of them are fantastic for different reasons, Potrait of Ruin is the purer Metroivania experience, while Order of Ecclesia is the more challenging one.

3) The World Ends with You.

 The World Ends with You is one of the most original JRPGs you can find on the system. It has a very original story, although it reminded me a bit of the 'Shibuya 15' JDrama, with realistic character development and interesting characters. It also has a very original combat system, it might feel a bit unnatural at first, but after a while you can get the hang of it. And if it still proves too tough, you could always lower the difficulty.

2) Pokemon HeartGold

 Arguably the best Pokemon game ever released. Not only does it feature the storyline from Pokemon Gold, featuring both Kanto and Johto, but it also brings all the innovations two generations forward made to the franchise, as well as Pokemon from subsequent regions as well. There's so much to this game it's not even funny. Pokemon Gold has a lot to do, and I do mean a lot, but this game adds even more to it, and there's a few interesting new mechanics, like more involved contest and a key item that 'unremixes' the new music to make them sound exactly like they did on the Gameboy Color. Funnily enough, most Pokemon games are considered to be very easy, and they are, but Pokemon HeartGold is the other way around. The main story is as easy as it's always been, but if you don't stick to a single team, expect to have a hard time with the Elite 4 rematches!

1) Orcs & Elves

 Will this game ever grow old in my eyes? Every time I play it, I fall in love with it again. This is the perfect on-the-go game, thanks to it's slow pace. And even though it has a slow pace, it feels fast. It's funny, ever since I came across the series on the cellphone with 'Doom RPG' I got addicted to them. Doom RPG, Orcs & Elves, Orcs & Elves 2, Doom RPG 2, all games that I've played thousand upon thousand of times. And Orcs & Elves on the DS is probably the best among them, featuring the best graphics, the best controls, the best interface, and even more sections than the Mobile original. Sadly, the sequel never received a DS port, they could've done wonders with it....



 I find that the 3DS has a rather... lacking videogame library when compared to the DS, so I couldn't for the life of me pick 10 games that I thought were my 'favorite', so I fused that list with this onem and here it is:

5) Mario Kart 7....?

 I guess I can see why someone would consider this game better than the DS one... but if you ask me, the lack of VS CPU on random courses cuts the game longevity's in half. I get bored of playing cups with preset ordered courses, sorry. And the game lacks Wario, my favorite Nintendo character. And I felt like the gliding and underwater driving were gimmicks. And I think it's pretty clear by now that this game is filler so that the list doesn't feel short!

4) Pokemon Y

 I was probably a bit too harsh with it on my review here. Pokemon Omega Ruby only helped make this one look even better after all! Look, even a bad Pokemon game is a good game, at the end of the day, and Pokemon Y is anything but bad. It featured customization, for the first time ever, and it's a blast! The new engine makes everything look beautiful, even if a few animations are a bit lazy. On hindsight, the rollerskates were a great, cute, new addition that made moving around fun, often opting for them instead of the bike!

3) Shinobi

 Shinobi on the 3DS is not a game for everyone. But it's a game for me, being some of the most fun I've had on the system yet. The trial and error gameplay might frustrate some, which is totally understandable, but it encouraged me to keep going and learning enemy layouts and patterns to better dispatch them in order to conserve health and do better for the bosses. I dunno, I just loved this little game.

2) The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time 3D

 While I consider it the most overrated game of all time, there's no denying that it's actually a really good game. And while I don't consider the original dated by any means, Ocarina of Time 3D updated the graphics to today standards, and it looks beautiful, while polishing the item interface to make it more comfortable to go spelunking.

1) Super Smash Bros. 3DS

 Easily the game I like the most on the 3DS, and the one I take away with me the most. While it fell a teeny tiny bit short of my expectations, it still delivered on what matters: Smash on the go. Featuring the most characters the franchise has ever had, and the same tight gameplay, without the annoying tripping, Smash on the 3DS is the only game I'd consider a must-have on the system.