Review #421: Spider-man 3(GBA)

 A due send-off unworthy of the franchise.

 For every good Spider-man game on the Gameboy Advance we had two stinkers, so to call Spider-man's tenure on the GBA spotty would be an understatement. Spider-man 3 not only was the last Spider-man movie directed by Sam Raimi, but the last Spider-man game we'd see on the Gameboy Advance... and it's really good.

 As with every handheld Spider-man movie tien-in game, it attempts to follow the story from the console game, but doing a mediocre job at it. Spider-man 3 does a particularly poor job at it, Eddie Brock is introduced before the two last levels and only so that he can get the Venom suit, so people unfamiliar with the franchise or the movie might've trouble making heads and tails from the story. There's a few new microplots borrowed from the console game that didn't appear in the movie, and even then, the game is VERY short, you can probably be done with it in little over an hour.

 Spidey's abilities are par the norm, B punches, or kicks if you hold the L button, R is used to throw web, either to bind enemies, pull hostages(Or enemies!) or pull yourself towards a wall, A jumps and a double press web-swings. Spidey can also crawl on walls and ceilings. This time around, webbing is unlimited, so feel free to shoot web to your heart's content. Peppered throughout stages are Web and Punch power ups, you can grab up to three of each and they will power up your capture power or your strength, but only for the stage's duration. It's interesting, and gives it an arcadey flair. The last new mechanic is the Symbiote Suit, by dealing damage you increase your rage, fill the gauge and you'll be healed to full health, turn black and get increased strength. The suit is lost upon getting hit though. While it doesn't make much sense franchise-wise, it makes for a fun little mechanic.

 Stages are usually about finding stuff, but, unlike previous games, there's no time limit, which makes all the difference in the world. Now you can explore levels at your leisure, so finding stuff is actually fun. There're a few time-sensitive objectives though, but they don't overstay their welcome and help spice things up since they are used sparingly. Plus, most of the time you get a compass aiding you.

 Spider-man 3 on the Gameboy Advance is one of the three 'good' Spider-man games on the little handheld. I think it might be a tad too short, but the rest of the game is pure quality.
 8.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Spider-man 3

 It seems like we might go out with a bang.

 Sam Raimi's last film also gave us the final Spider-man game on the GBA, and it just might be a winner. I just played the first three levels, and... they are kinda fun. They're a lot of fun. Controls are tight, collision detection is at an all time high, they managed to cram a neat amount of functions on only four buttons, etc.

 The levels are much better designed than the previous Spider-man movie tie-in games, we've got a compass now! Thank you, Ultimate Spider-man Advance for that.

 I don't wanna be too hopeful, but I think this one might be as good as Ultimate Spider-man.

Review #420: Spider-man - Battle for New York(DS)

 It won the battle for worse version of the same game. Kudos to you, DS iteration.

 I'll make it short and simple, this game is horrible. There're almost no redeeming qualities to it, besides the high production values they employed on everything that's superficial and to be watched and not played. Bad move.

 Battle for New York is a very loose retelling of the first couple of issues of Ultimate Spider-man, and it used beautiful comic-like panels as cut-scenes, as well as top notch voice acting. It also uses the same engine as Ultimate Spider-man, so it looks gorgeous. There's not much else that I haven't said on the GBA version's review, it's the same story, the same comic-book panels.

 Everything Spidey could do in Ultimate Spider-man(DS) he can do here, so I won't go over the basics, what has changed is that now you're limited to only four special attacks, but it works pretty much the same as it did before. Green Goblin's the new addition, and he plays the role of the Muscle, he can punch, jump extra high, cling to walls and fire three different types of fireballs, he also gets his own four unique special moves. After clearing a certain number stages you'll be allotted points to spend increasing four stats: Health, Strength, Web Fluid/Fire amount and Web Capture Duration/Fireball power. It's an OK system, and at its core, it should, make for a fun game.

 First let's go over the Spider-man stages: Most of the time he has to rescue people, same as before, except that now it's made extra annoying. The time limit to rescue hostages is very tight, so if you can't find it in time, chances are you're gonna have to start the stage from scratch. It's hilarious because the 'time' is supposed to be their health, but even if you prevent the enemy from harming them any longer, it will still decrease continually, so don't be surprised if you lost as you were trying to deplete the bad guy's life bar. Ultimate Spider-man's tacked-on forced touch-screen activities are back but worse. Using computers is extra annoying now, and there's a new 'web the door' activity used to close off doors to prevent enemies from spawning. Problem is... they can attack you while you are trying to close the door. Even better, as soon as you finish a touch-screen activity, the game immediately resumes so you might want to have that styles on your mouth or something, and yes, you'll want the stylus precision for the annoying web-door minigames.

 Green Goblin's stages fare much better since they are more action-based, but they suffer a bit from minor flaws, also present in Spider-man's levels, like poor level design thanks to enemy placement, and sometimes spotty collision detection. Oh, and they made the special move button the same as picking up civilians. Brilliant. Then we have bosses, and they're not hard, but they are boring. 90% of them are about waiting, waiting and waiting so that they are left vulnerable and you can do a modicum of damage before they go back to their invincibility frames.

 Spider-man Battle for New York on the Nintendo DS is EASILY the worst Spider-man game I've played yet. What hurts the most is that they had a brilliant plot, they had beautiful cutscenes, fantastic artwork and the already decent Ultimate Spider-man engine. But they screwed it up.
 2.0 out of 10

Review #419: Tekken 4

 The Black Sheep of the series takes a step forward...

 Tekken Tag Tournament was more than just another Tekken game, it was a celebration of everything that had come before it, but when it came to the next numbered iteration, they knew they needed something new, fresh, different... and thus came Tekken 4, which now earns the title of the black sheep of the franchise. But me? I think it's one of the most alluring titles in the series.

 Being a fighting game, it offers the usual assortment of modes: Story Mode is an 8 to 9 VS ladder with a narrated prologue and an animated ending for each of the 20 characters, Arcade and Time Attack are two variations of the time-based enemy ladder, VS, VS Team, Survival, Training and a Practice mode in which you can attempt to perform the simpler strings while timed for each character. There's also a beat'em up mini game, Tekken Force, which is rather good, for what it is, and gets really challenging near the end. It's a good offering, and it's bound to keep players busy.

 Returning characters have been entirely redesigned, while new moves are to be expected, Jin Kazama now has an entirely different style. The new characters bring their own new styles as well, except Christie Monteiro, who is just an Eddy reskin. While previous games had open-ended stages, now every stage has a lot of personality: They have walls, different widths and heights as well as uneven terrain and different objects that serve as walls for you to pummel your enemy against. While it has been called unbalanced by the pro-gaming scene, I find it to offer some of the more diverse and memorable stages in the entire series. All these new redesigns and these fantastic, diverse new stages make for a Tekken game that feels very different from one another. If I were to complan about Tekken 5 and 6 is that they tried too hard to be like Tekken 3, Tekken 5 and 6's art design being almost indistinguishable from each other. That personality, that uniqueness is what makes this entry so special.

 That said, there's a little big issue with Tekken 4... the fact that Tekken 5, 6, Tag 2 and 7 exist. As much as I adore it, the game has expanded every character's movesets massively, after playing future games it's hard to come back to the smaller movesets. While I'll defend Tekken 4 for the rest of my life, it's hard to recommend to someone who has already skipped it as something else than a curiosity.
 8.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Tekken 4

 AKA Now playing: My childhood.

 While I first came into contact with Tekken with Tekken 2, Tekken 3 was when I finally got to play it at the comfort of my house. Tekken Tag was bloody great, and then came Tekken 4, a thing of beauty. My boy, Kazuya, now featured this baddass formal clothes, and we had all this fantastic stages and fresh new designs for the rest of the cast...

 But sadly, most of the aesthetic changes would revert back to a more Tekken 3-ish design, most classic characters would return for no reason and the uneven terrain was axed for Tekken 5. Tekken 6 followed suit. If you asked me to differentiate between Tekken 5 and 6 I wouldn't be able to. And it's a shame, and that's why Tekken 4 feels like a proper sequel, while Tekken 5 feels like Tekken 3.5 and Tekken 6 like Tekken 3.8.

 As much as I liked both 3 and Tag, 4 was the game I had the most beloved memories of, and having played with both Xiaoyu and Hwoarang through story mode, I remembered why. Everything looks so good, so fresh, and not only thanks to the beautiful graphics, but thanks to the new character designs. Characters evolved and changed! The biggest flaw with the game is the existence of Tekken 5, 6, Tag 2 and 7, simply put, characters lack a ton of moves that they would eventually gain.

 That said, this game is a blast, and I would not subject myself anymore to the trash that is Battle for New York DS.

Now Playing: Spider-man - Battle for New York(DS)

 I'm THIS close to abandoning this one.

 Before you consider playing this one: Don't. Ultimate Spider-man(DS) was already a flimsy base on which to build upon, now we've got tighter arbitrary time limits on hostages, and even worse touch-screen minigames. The Simian boss was awful too, I'm still not too sure of how I got past him.

 Regardless, the game is terrible. Terrible. Avoid, avoid, avoid!

Review #418: Spider-man - Battle for New York(GBA)

 They did it. They actually messed it up.

 Ultimate Spider-man on the Gameboy Advance had single-handedly redeemed the handheld Spider-man games, and ushered into a brave new world of decent handheld Spider-man games. And, y'know, when you hit it out of the park, you get lazy, so you recycle the last game's engine an build upon it. They did, and they messed it up.

 Battle for New York is a very loose, VERY loose retelling of Ultimate Spider-man's first issues, but swapping Electro with Silver Sable, since they had a Silver Sable sprite they could re-use... and, somehow, she has the power of flight now. It's a decent story, and told via beautiful, original, hand-drawn stills that look as if they were ripped straight out of the comic. Like before, two characters are the focus of the game: You'll be doin' some rescuing as Ultimate Spider-man and doing some smashing as Hulk's look-alike, Ultimate Green Goblin.

 The web-head plays almost exactly like he did in Ultimate Spider-man, he can punch, kick, throw webbing, stick to walls and ceilings as well as web-swing. He lost the unlockable Uppercut and High kick, both being replaced by a web-hammer, done by tapping up and punch, it deals a ton of damage but consumes a bit of web fluid. It's an OK change, I love having a high-hitting move and having a penalty(web fluid) to it, I certainly used it more than I ever uppercutted in Spider-man.

 Ultimate Green Goblin takes Ultimate Venom's role of villain powerhouse, and unlike Ultimate Venom, Ultimate Green Goblin isn't constantly losing health. He has three different types of Fireballs, but why would you use any other besides the giant, bouncy fireball is beyond me, as well as a pathetic little punch with little to no range. He can't crawl on walls, but will cling to surfaces. Ultimate Green Goblin's are horrid, enemies come out of nowhere and have huge range on their attacks, eventually I figured out that the best tactic was blindly spamming the fireball whenever I had to run through a hallway. The punch is pretty pathetic, but the collision detection can sometimes be off, so lest you want your fireball to go through the enemy, you might have to do a bit of punching if enemies get too close to Gobbie.

 Finding upgrades is a thing of the past, this time around every few couple of levels you'll be allowed to put 2 upgrade points on four different stats: Health, Melee strength, Fluid amount/Fireball recharg rate and web binding time/Fireball strength. I kinda liked how the upgrades worked in the first game, but this system is not too bad, although to be honest I didn't really feel like my attacks were getting stronger, but the extra health was nice.

 Level design can be hit or miss. As before, most of the time you're given a compass to aid you in your tasks, and when you're not the mazes are usually simple enough. That said, as previously mentioned, Goblin's levels are pretty bad thanks to how enemies and obstacles remain hidden from view until it's too late. As for Spider-man, a few of his last levels are kinda tedious, forcing you to defeat X amount of easily defeated, but time consuming damage sponge baddies.

 I've stopped talking about graphics and sound in my blog since those are very subjective, so besides a passing mention I won't dwell on those, but my god, the music in this game deserves a special mention: Most Spider-man stages feature a horrid music that sounds like an alarm. And a few of Gobbie's levels feature the exact same tune. It's grating to the ears, and I can't fathom anyone agreeing to it being on the game. There's a white enemy that has the wrong standing animation, so he'll magically turn from blue to white when he moves. Hilarious.

 I had fun with Battle for New York, I mean, it IS a good engine. But it's not quite as good as Ultimate Spider-man on the GBA was. Green Goblin's sections are more annoying than anything, and the music really got on my nerves. But, even though I can say that I had fun with it, I can also say that I didn't like it all that much. Bummer.
 5.5 out of 10