Now Playing: Star Wars Episode 1 - Jedi Power Battles

 Not one with the force.

 So, somehow I made it to level 2, and now I'm presented with platforming sections that have nothing to do in this game, and I'm like... no, this game isn't very good.

 I started the game on Jedi difficulty with Plo Koon, since he looks like a Predator and wields a yellow lightsaber, but pulling off moves is rather dumb. You've to be perfectly still unless you want to do running attacks, which are unwieldy and hard to aim. But why even bother with that, L1 is the button you want to spam in order to kill everything. Everything.

 I think I will start again and lower the difficulty, the game just isn't worth my time, and I'm tired of being sent back 4-5 minutes because I failed the silly platforming segment that shouldn't have been in the game in the first place.

Review #384: Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam

 A downward spiral course straight to mediocrity.

 What is this game? Thank you for asking! This is a Tony Hawk game based around Pro Skater 1's worst level: Downhill Jam, yes, they built an entire game around the first game's lamest level and the end result is... well, it's better than it deserves to be!

 There's no story mode to this game, you just pop in the game and you'll be received by two different modes: Downhill Challenge and Multiplayer. Multiplayer simply lets you play in a few different modes against another player, but the real meat of the game lies in Downhill Challenge. It's made up of 50ish goals, and as you complete levels you'll unlock more characters, costumes, more boards, more stages and a few other extras. Goals come in different flavors, just as simple races down the different courses against other skaters, slalom challenges through gates, having to smack a certain amount of bystanders as you go down, elimination races and even a few weird ones like having to avoid certain parts of the floor which turned to lava! There's certainly a fair amount of missions, but sadly, the amount of stages just isn't enough, so they will get boring pretty soon.

 While this is first and foremost a racing game, it retains the same controls from Tony Hawk's main games. Circle and Square do tricks, hold X to speed up and perform Ollies, triangle Grinds and... and you can use cheats to enable manuals as well. A new addition is L2 to boost when the gauge is full, which is filled by earning points as you trick around. You can also pummel your sides by tapping L1 or R1, which earns you points if you smack passerbys or knocks other racers off their boards. It kinda works, but be ready, the physics feel fairly different from the other Tony Hawk games, so it might take a while to adapt.

 The game's highpoint are the different courses: They are big, they are pretty, they are fun to skate down from top to bottom and they also offer various different routes. There're no pros besides Tony Hawk, but the new cartoony skaters are alright and they fit the tone of the game.

 As good as the controls are, as good as the level design is, the game falls apart on a technical levels. There're a dozen different graphical glitches, I came across multiple invisible grounds. Some collisions also felt kinda wonky, and don't even let me get started on the unacceptable slew of framerate issues that rear their head more often than I would've liked. Don't be surprised if the framerate issues throw you off your grove. The game froze on me once, and after clearing the tutorial I had to restart the game since it wouldn't read my button inputs. Yeah, it's a bit of a mess.

 But the cherry on top is the rubberband AI. You'll easily catch up to CPU opponents, but don't worry, it doesn't matter how well you skate, they will magically catch up to you. Dear developers: Rubberband AI isn't fun, it's annoying, please do away with it. Thank you.

 Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam isn't a total stinker, racing down these fantastic levels can be fun... when you aren't dealing with glitches or framerate issues. To be honest, it would've been easy to build upon this engine and make a better sequel, but it won't ever happen.
 4.5 out of 10

Archile's Grab-bag: Ebay Edition

  It's been a while since I've done one of this, and boy, is this one a doozy!

 Darkstone: Filler game. There was a 'Buy 3 get 10% off' deal, and Darkstone was very cheap, so I purchased it. I played it a bit on PC, but the game failed to really grip me. Guess I'll be giving it another go. I never did figure what 'Age' did to your characters!

 Wild Arms: There're three videogame RPG sagas I want to play ASAP: Suikoden, Wild Arms and Shadow Hearts. I don't know why I waited so long on Wild Arms 1, considering I love Wild Arms 2 and Wild Arms 3 is one of my favorite JRPGs ever. Ever!!

 Star Wars Episode 1 - Jedi Power Battles: While I never finished it, I remember having played this game a fair amount back when I was younger, so I wanted to give it another go.

 Castlevania - Curse of Darkness: The only Castlevania I've easy access to but hadn't played yet. To be honest, the Pokemon-type gameplay doesn't really appeal to me, but apparently it's supposed to be a better game than Lament of Innocence, which I thought was great, so I'm willing to give it a chance.

 Dead to Rights: I remember having read that this game was hard as balls, yet when I finally played it... I got through it without much hassle. It was a fun third person shooter, but this genre hasn't aged well, so I hope the game's still fun.

 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3: I used to play this one on PS1, and apparently, it's a different game! But regardless, my quest to play all Tony Hawk games marches on.

 Suikoden IV: The only cheap Suikoden game, it was as good a time as any to grab it. I probably won't be playing this one anytime soon, at least until I can secure the rest of this rather expensive series.

 Super Bust-a-Move: Back in my Nintendo 64 days, I remember reading about the Bust a Move games, and while I was mildly interested, I never got to rent them, since no local Blockbuster carried them! Ah well, it was a good chance to add more variety to my PS2 library.

 Final Fantasy XII: The beginning of the end? For some reason I had put off playing this game. Maybe because they did away with turn based combat for this MMO hybrid weird thing... but having played Xenoblade, I will give it a chance. At least it doesn't play itself.

 Wild Arms 5: The final game in the Wild Arms franchise, it'll be a while till I tackle this one, since I mean to play 1, Alter Code F and 4 before it. Honestly, I forsook the franchise after they went with the HEX battle system, since why break what isn't broken... but I realized that it was pretty close minded of me to hate the changes without trying them, so here I am.

Now Playing: Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam

 That one level...

 So, I boot up the game and... no story, just a mission select screen. Then I have to go through the tutorial, which hung up and I had to reset. I played a couple of races and it didn't feel right. I thought the game was terrible.

 ...but I soldiered on. I remember my kind of games: Who cares about plot? I play games, not watch them, plus, it brought me a sense of... nostalgia, reminded me of old Nintendo 64 games that didn't need all these fluff. And I didn't get another glitch. And I learned to like the game.

 It's not brilliant by any means, but it can be rather fun. Something still feels off, maybe, maybe it's just the fact that the physics are so similar, yet different from mainline Tony Hawk games. Hopefully, by the time I review it I've a firmer grasp on what feels so weird.

 Basically, it's decent.

Review #383: Koudelka

 Resident Fantasy I

 Koudelka is the result of a game director that wanted to make a game akin to survival horror games, but a team that wanted to develop an RPG like Square's. It's an interesting mix, akin to Parasite Eve, but with a flavor all to itself.

 The game puts you in the heels of Koudelka, a gipsy prostitute medium that finds herself in Nemeton Monastery, at the behest of a ghost that called to her. It's not too soon before she meets Edward, a man of vices and maybe a few virtues. Last to join the party is father James, a man of religion and literature. These three will bicker, fight and bond their way through the mysteries surrounding Nemeton Monastery, it's eccentric inhabitants and the creepy monsters seeking to make mincemeat out of our heroes. While the story is nothing to write home about, the main three characters are very interesting, and as unlikely as JRPG heroes get, and there're a few very poignant scenes that make you fall in love with them. The game's monster design also deserves praise, these monsters are creepy and brilliantly designed, some of these are unlike anything you've fought in any other JRPG or Survival Horror game before!

 At first glance, this sounds like a Survival Horror game. The entire game takes place inside Nemeton Monastery, there're guns as well as limited ammunition, there're puzzles that require hogging items around, and doors that have to be unlocked in order to open up shortcuts. It's pretty much a Resident Evil ripoff.... until you come across a random encounter, which is when the game's true nature surfaces.

 Battles are fought by turns, dictated by your party's agility as well as the enemies' agility. There're some strategic elements at play as well, you can move character through an invisible grid, you need to be in range if you are to attack enemies with melee weapons, but guns can bypass having to run towards your enemy, or you can simply use magic. You've to be careful though, ammunition is limited, and every melee weapon will break eventually.

 There're a few conflicting elements in the game, however. for instance, the more you use weapons, the higher your proficiency with them will be, and the more damage you'll deal with them. So you want to conserve weapons, but you also need to use them in order to enhance your abilities with them! To be fair, Koudelka's magic will do short work of most enemies in the game, and if you build Edward right, he can use his bare fists just fine.

 Speaking of building characters, when you level up you'll be granted 4 Ability Points to spread among the characters' stats. While you could build them in any way you want, you should strengthen their strengths instead of trying to play against archetypes or building jack of all trades. Koudelka's built as a mage, so making her a tank or a melee character will handicap yourself in the long run, while Edward is supposed to be your main tank as well as your main attacker! James is a little bit unique in this way, as his stats lend himself to act as a secondary tank, a melee attacker or another mage... but Magic is so useful and important in the game, that he's better off as an off-tank mage!

 A little issue you may have as well is that armor and accessories are entirely reliant on luck. You've to hope that enemies drop armor or rings. Heck, if you're unlucky, you might get stuck with armor weak to the bosses element and have to grind for something better. To be honest, I never had any trouble of this kind, as I had plenty of spare weapons, armors and rings, but you may not be as lucky. Ironically, the game's biggest issue is that the game is paced like a Survival Horror game, which means that it's a very, very short game. While it's made up of four discs, I was on disc 2 by the second hour, disc 3 on my 6th hour, disc 4  by hour 8 and finished the game in under 10 hours! And I played the game blind, so I wasted a few minutes trying to figure out some things.

 Koudelka was fantastic. I liked the survival horror/JRPG mixture, I loved the cast of characters and I enjoyed the combat system. It has its issues, some design choices clash with each other, and it's a very short game... but it's a very enjoyable one.
 8.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Koudelka

 Even the game isn't sure how to pronounce it!

 Koudelka certainly is... different, but in a good way, I think. I liked how you can customize each character's stats, and the combat system is relatively fun, I don't understand why it was panned at the time. Considering the time of its release, the voice acting is relatively decent, and I'm loving the story, it has had some pretty creative plot points.

 What I didn't like was... breakable weapons. I hate it when weapons have durability, worst of all, you're expected to raise your proficiency by using weapons, but if you use them, you break them! The encounter rate might be a bit too high, maybe.

 Well, this year I decided to give the entire Shadow Hearts franchise a go, and so far, it's looking promising!

Review #382: Sonic Heroes

 No hero can save this game.

 Sonic doesn't have the exact perfect record after he hit 3D. While most people would agree that 3D Sonic is pretty terrible, a few vocal minority still like them, while a few would concede that Adventure 1 and 2 were decent. Sonic Heroes was the next game after Adventure 2, and it's all kinds of terrible.

 Sonic Heroes ditches Adventure's format, instead focusing on four different 3-man teams. Rose, Big and Cream have a silly adventure about searching for different characters. Their adventure consist of short stages and few enemies. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles represent the medium difficulty setting, with more enemies and longer versions of the same stages, trying to foil Eggman. Shadow, Rouge and Omega represent hard difficulty, with the longest stages and hardest challenges, while Rouge looks for treasure and Shadow and Omega search for Eggman. Lastly, there's Team Chaotix, with mission based gameplay. They all suck.

 While the stories might differ, each team has only slightly different stages. The game is your typical platformer: Go from one end of the stage to the other, jumping through platforms and defeating enemies on your way. As with any Sonic game, you can collect rings in order to be able to tank extra hits, as long as you are holding at least one ring you'll be fine from enemy attacks, but getting hit makes you drop every ring you've collected... still, there's plenty of time to pick some of them up before they disappear. Teams also play slightly different, for example, Sonic and Shadow can tap Square to dash through ring-trails, while Team Chatoix's Espio throws shurikens instead. Knuckles and Omega attack in pretty much the same ways, but Big the Cat and Vector can belly pound form the air, etc. There's a heavy focus in formations, Speed, Power and Flight, and you'll have to switch formations in order to clear different objectives and progress through the stages.

 Speaking of Stages, Team Chaotix has some rather annoying mission-based stages, like destroying every enemy or gathering X amount of something. This can either be a chore or easy, and if you miss something... you've got to loop back to the start of the stage and traverse it all the way to the end again in hope of finding what you missed. Team Sonic and Team Dark have boring, annoyingly long stages that go on forever and overstay their welcome as soon as they hit the 8 minute mark. The annoyance is exacerbated thanks to shoddy level design and terrible controls.

 Let's start with the controls: Every character moves too damn fast, and in a very slippery and floaty fashion. It's impossible not to die because stuff was out of your control, because your character slipped out of the platform. Knuckles and Omega, the Power characters from Team Dark and Team Sonic, dash around when you use your normal attacks, you will fall down over and over again because of how slippery it is. Hitting enemies also lacks feedback, you it feels as if you are hitting air. It was so bad that I avoided using Shadow/Sonic/Espio/Rose's homing attacks since I was scared I would fall off the platform, and Omega and Knuckles were so finicky that I was reduced to using jumping attack almost exclusively. Basically: Running around is slippery and floating, jumping is floaty and imprecise and ground-combat will get you killed. Just moving around can get you killed in Sonic Heroes, and it won't feel like it's your fault at all. The camera is wonky as well, sometimes deciding to zoom in on your character for no apparent reason, and using the analog stick to move it around is as imprecise as moving around.

 As for the levels themselves.. it runs through the entire gamut of problems. Some stages have bad designs, like the Casino level, featuring the worst pinball physics I've ever seen, and then pits are introduced and... let's just say that if you are playing as Team Sonic or Team Dark, you will sink a lot of lives here. Then there are problems related to the shoddy game design itself, a few times, as Sonic and Shadow, you will be required to tap Square to automatically follow a trail of rings... more times than I can count, Shadow and Sonic fell off the trail to their deaths for no apparent reason. There're a few 'autorun' segments in which you are supposed to not press a thing, I think? I think because sometimes getting through these was a gamble, if I pressed something I died and if I didn't I died too, either because, somehow, my character fell off the path or because at the end they decided to jump in... another direction? I can't count the times I didn't know if the game expected me to press anything or expected me not to, thus I don't even know how I got through them. And don't even let me get started on the fact that characters don't produce shadows, making platforming in 3-D even more of a hassle.

 If you hate someone with a passion, you can maybe coerce them into playing the silly 2-player versus mode with you. There's a needless amount of multiplayer modes, if you are so inclined, from races to battles. Gathering all Chaos Emeralds and finishing all four story modes(Are you feeling masochistic?) unlocks a final chapter... but it's not worth it. The game is an uncontrollable mess, it's not worth it.

 Sonic Heroes is awful. It's almost unplayable at times with how difficult to move around safely it is. If you like Sonic... I'm so sorry that you have to endure this. Nothing about this game works well, there's almost nothing good I can say about this game, except maybe that it looks pretty and that the concept of 3-man teams was pretty interesting. It's a shame nothing works well. I don't remember the last time a game made me so angry.
 2.5 out of 10