Gundam Versus Impressions Part 1(SEED, ZZ)

 As per usual when a new game in the franchise is introduced, I'm gonna go suit by suit. I began with Seed and ZZ this time, most suits felt pretty much exactly like they did in Extreme VS.

Gundam SEED

Strike Gundam

 Let's start with what used to be my favorite suit in Extreme VS, nothing has changed about Strike, it's still a fun all-around unit. That said, Impulse on Full Boost has spoiled me, so I didn't enjoy him as much as I used to. Plus, he feels a bit weaker than he used to.

Freedom Gundam

 Pretty much the same suit it's always been, it has a wide variety of beam attacks, but it works well at any distance.

Providence Gundam

 I wasn't the biggest fan of its Extreme VS iteration, although I enjoyed him in Gundam VS Gundam. For whatever reason, my opinion on this suit has changed and I loved it. The Providence Gundam is a beast, funnels are great to use and its projectiles are way too strong. I love it.

 Duel Gundam(Assault Shroud)

 Straight out of Maxi Boost, this unit plays just like it did in Extreme VS but with the ability to purge and re-equip the shroud at will, which makes it a bit more fun to use. Regardless, the Duel Gundam has been a unit I've never really liked, even though its design is quite cool. It's too slow and weak for my taste.

Blitz Gundam

 Blitz used to be a DLC unit in Full Boost, so I never got to play it, that said, I'm pretty sure it's exactly the same as it used to be in that game. The invisibility gimmick is quite useful, but both physical and beam attacks are too slow, making it a bit weak.

Forbidden Gundam

 I still dislike this one. The melee is weak, and the beams are slow. Nothing has changed.


Gundam ZZ

Qubeley Mark II

 For such a cheap unit, this one is REALLY good. I hadn't been a fan of this one previously, but I found it to be a terrific support unit thanks to its various projectile attacks to pester enemies with.

Qubeley

 Haman's Qubeley is an interesting unit because it has a ton of projectile tools... but where it really shines is in its strong, albeit long-winded, melee attacks. At close range, Qubeley can deal tons of damage if properly protected by a support unit, and its mid-range tools lets it close in while chipping away at its prey. It's quite good.

NEW ZZ Gundam

 A new unit, kinda, this is the simple ZZ Gundam that was featured in the original Extreme VS. It has good, although slow, attacks, which makes him fairly balanced, even if a bit slow. It's a good unit to have at mid range.

ZZ Gundam Full Armor

 Horrid melee, even if it looks cool, but massive and strong beams. It can now unequip and equip its armor at will. Without its armor it gains a more balanced moveset, with decent melee and decent, albeit low on ammo, projectiles. It's a great unit with proper support.


Bonus:

Gundam Throne Drei

 A really fast, and really weak, gimmick unit. It has lost some moves, thus it can only work as a support unit. That said, it's main gimmick is the stealth field, which turns all locks on friendly units into green locks. I wasn't much of a fan then, and the nerfs don't help, so I won't be using this one very much.

Review #568: Klonoa - Empire of Dreams

 One crazy dream.

 Klonoa made the leap from Sony to Nintendo through the GBA, enter their first effort: Empire of Dreams. This is a puzzle-platform game that has you solving puzzles, by using and abusing enemies, and collecting gems in order to clear various stages.

 The plot is a bit wonkers, basically Klonoa is having a dream which soon turns into a nightmare as he is whisked away to the Empire of Dreams, a place where no one dreams anymore, and Klonoa is forced to take down four bullies in order to prove... something. It doesn't make much sense, but plot isn't the reason you'll be playing this game. As for the setup, the game is made up of five world, 5 puzzle-platform levels, 2 bonus levels and a boss each. There're also 3 bonus unlockable stages if you clear the game and fulfill certain conditions.

 Klonoa has only two abilities: Jump and shoot. Jump is self explanatory, but his other ability will be your main means of solving puzzles, shooting 'wind bullets'. A wind bullet is a colored orb that travels a short range in front of Klonoa. If you hit an enemy, he will become capture by Klonoa, who will now carry it over his head. You can use this enemy as a projectile or as a platform to perform a double jump upon. But this isn't an action game, enemies respawn indefinitely, so very rarely will you be using enemies to defeat other enemies, save for bosses.

 The objective on each stage is to collect three gold stars and reach the exit. In order to do so you will have to clear various puzzles. Initially, these are very easy. Maybe jump from enemy to enemy by using the wind bullet. Later you might have to shoot an enemy towards a switch, in order to activate something. Then blocks get introduced, objects you can carry and don't break after being used as a bullet or a platform. Then water gets introduced, which Klonoa can't touch, so you'll have to use objects as shields to walk below waterfalls.... The game gets progressively more complex at a very nice pace, so there aren't any nasty difficulty spikes.

 While the game doesn't get too hard, I felt the repetitive nature of the game, searching for stars and reaching an exit, grew a bit dull, something that might not have happened had it been a straight and simple platform game. A few stages feature what I would consider badly designed puzzles, as it's possible to screw yourself out of an exit, which would reset the room. This was common on rooms featuring fans. Luckily, you can simply press start and choose 'retry' in order to restart from the room's entrance. The game is quite lenient in that regard, turn the game off at any moment and you'll restart from the entrance to the last room you visited.

 Getting down to brass tacks, Klonoa Empire of Dreams is pretty dope. It's a fun platformer, with neat commodities that makes it a great game to have on a handheld. Me, myself, would've preferred a simple platform game, without any fuss and stars, I still had a good time with it.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #567: The Simpsons - Road Rage(Gameboy Advance)

 Let's get craaaaaaazy!.... I mean, angry.

 Opinions may vary on how good of a game Road Rage was on consoles, but Road Rage on the Gameboy Advance is an impressive piece of software that proves ambition can be found even in licensed games.

 This is a Crazy Taxi clone through and through, which means that your purpose is to pick up passengers and drive them to their destination while under a time limit, the better you do, the more points you score. For a handheld, the game offers a nice amount of modes: Road Rage, which i what I just described, Sunday Drive, which is the game without a time limit, Head to Head, which I couldn't try since it requires a second player and, finally, a missions mode, featuring about 10 different missions, each one with a unique stage and goal, like jumping on clouds for a certain amount of time , or driving through narrow cliffs. There are a few neat extras, like being able to change the colors of any playable car and character in the game. There's a lot of replayability here, featuring about 20 different characters and 6 different maps, which must be unlocked by amassing points... or by inputting the correct password. Sadly, the game runs on passwords and not on battery.

 The game is a fantastic little experiment, somehow they managed to cram large environments into the cart, and created a faux feeling of 3D by using some technological wizardy. It's a very strange effect, watching compressed terrain on the horizon, decompressing as you advance, but once you get used to it... it looks great, complete with jumps and what have you. The gameplay is fun and simple too, A accelerates, R and B are breaks and L can be used to eject a passenger. There's a very good sense of speed in the game, making for fun and fast entertainment on the go.

 In order to traverse the town you're given a minimap on the lower left part on the screen, and aided with an onscreen arrow on top of the screen getting to your objective isn't too hard. Sadly, the arrow on top of the screen is a bit faulty, and may disappear altogether if you get out of the optimal route, only returning as soon as you set wheel on the minimap's highlighted streets

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 I had a blast with Road Rage on the Gameboy Advance, its arcadey nature makes it a perfect game to take on the go. Sadly, the password system hampers it a bit, since it'd be preferable to have everything you unlock accessible as soon as you turn on the system.  Simpsons fans might not get the most out of the game, but this game could've been just as a good without the license, make of that what you will.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #566: Nicktoons Unite!(Gameboy Advance)

 Unity makes strength, unless you are this game...

 Nickelodeon used to be a fantastic place to watch cartoons, you had these rough new artstyles, like Doug and Rugrats, that looked like nothing else on TV, or shows that loved to push boundaries, like Ren & Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life. But I fell out of love with cartoons a few seasons deep into Spongebob... which is probably not a good context to approach Nicktoons Unite! with, considering 'Nicktoons' here refers to Fairly Odd Parents, Danny Phantom, Jimmy Neutron and Spongebob.

 Long story short, the villains from these shows, whose names I have forgotten save for Plankton, unite in order to wreck havoc, thus Jimmy invents a mean to travel between worlds, and thus forms a partnership with Danny Phantom, the other Jimmy and Spongebob in order to stop them. The game consists of 8 boring stages and 4 boring bosses, 2 stages and a boss per series.

 Y'know how most Gameboy Advance games tend to look ugly on screenshots but good on its original hardware? It's the other way around with this game. This game looks as ugly as it plays. This is a 2-D sidescroller in which you must explore ugly stages, searching for four chips and 3 enemy portals, which you must destroy. Every character has a projectile attack as well as a double jump, Danny can phase through a few select walls, Spongebob can crawl, Jimmy can float with balloons and Jimmy Neutron can use a jetpack, which behaves like Jimmy's balloons but is harder to get fuel for. Before each stage you can select two characters, but in order to find everything you'll have to make use of everyone's skills, luckily, there're portals through which you can change your characters, but both characters need to make it to the portal.

 Level design is boring, and you'll soon grow bored of searching through stages. There are a few puzzles here and there, but they can barely be called puzzles since they are so mindnumbingly easy. This is not a good game, and everything, from look and feel, seem as if it came straight out of an amateur flash game. This is not a good game, and can hardly be recommended even to fans of whichever franchise.
 2.0 out of 10

Review #565: Avatar the Last Airbender - The Burning Earth(Gameboy Advance)

 The only thing that burns here is how much of a joke this game is.

 Avatar the Last Airbender on the Gameboy Advance was dope. Like really, really dope, so I was really looking forwards to this game, plus, playable Zuko. No, I haven't watched the series, but I know who Zuko is and Fire is always cool. I mean hot. But they botched it, like really, really badly.

 This time around the game takes place during the second season of the show, how faithful it is to the series I don't know, but I can tell you that storytelling in this game is bland. I had no idea what was going on most of the time, and the short text-descriptions before each level helped very little to add context to the stages. The game is also on the short side, there're 8 basic stages, and if you get an A rank on each you unlock 4 more plus 'Single Run', which is basically every stage back to back with no breaks. It's not as taxing as it sounds, the game probably lasts about 2 hours which is probably why they went with the obnoxious A rank requirement on the first 8 stages. Not that it matters, since the game has no battery so you must rely on passwords. Lame.

 Remember how you always played as a team in the previous game? Now teams have been reduced to two-man groups, although the playable cast has grown to include Zuko, Toph and Iroh, as well as two stages in which you play as Appa and dodge stuff. New characters should mean more fun and intricate puzzles, but it doesn't. Puzzles have been simplified to the point of silliness, instead opting to throw endless waves of enemies at the player... which is hilarious, since combat is even worse than it used to be!

 To start with, characters that aren't Zuko or Aang suck at fighting or are boring to use. Katara has a weak 4-hit spin attack that deals negligible damage and seems to do more harm to her than to your enemies. Iroh has a single ability, a flame breath attack that needs to recharge, making him lame to play as. Toph has a single ability, shooting quakes that increase in size the longer it travels. It can clear off enemies very easily, but it's boring and unexciting to use. Sokka dashes while flailing his club, but it has no comboability since it pushes enemies away and deals negligible damage. That leaves us with Aang and Zuko, Aang having a two-hit combo and Zuko a three-hit combo, this makes them the only characters fit for fighting, which helps since either character will always be on your team, so you'll spend your time mashing A with the occasional R-button press to use Toph or Iroh's support attack, Katara and Sokka's being nigh useless in combat. Oh, and you gain life points back every time you lose health, making a game over become something of a miracle.

 But, know what? The first game had crappy combat too, even if it wasn't as dumb, but it shined on its brainbusters, and seeing how some characters, like Katara and Sokka, seem built exclusively for puzzles, surely, this game also shines there. But it doesn't. The puzzles are very simple 'figure how to hit all the crystals' affairs. Some you must figure out how to hit under a time limit, some you must figure the right order in which to hit them and some you must figure out which ones to activate and which ones to deactivate. It's very lame.

 I had very high hopes for this one, but they blew it. I can see why they went for a more arcadey-actiony route, as its a better fit for the series, but characters simply aren't much fun to use in combat. And the puzzles, which made the first game so good, were too simple to be any fun, which feels like so much of a waste considering how the various powers and abilities of these characters could've been used. Then there are the smaller blemishes, like having to use passwords and doing such a poor job at telling a story.
 3.5 out of 10

Review #564: Avatar the Last Airbender(Gameboy Advance)

 Advanced bending.

 I can't speak much about how good an adaptation this game is, since I haven't watched the series, but I can assure you that this is a good one.

 Aang is the latest reincarnation of the Avatar, a being that can manipulate, or bend, the four different elements: Water, Earth, Wind and Fire. Not that it matters, since Aang is restricted to just air in the game. Spending his days in the Water Village, the Fire Nation attacks and takes away Katara, Aang's friend, and thus he sets out to rescue her. Throughout the game you'll play as a three-man team of Aang, Katara and Sokka, each with their own abilities. Something I want to praise the game for is how much it feels like an adventure, characters constantly going forwards, traversing new lands and facing new puzzles.

 While the franchise lends itself for a good beat'em up game, this is more of a puzzle game, action being an afterthought. The three characters have very different abilities: Aang has a three hit combo, can push wind through vents and shoot air waves. Katara has a simple water-whip attack, that isn't too useful in battle but can stun a few enemies, she can also build ice bridges on water. Lastly, Sokka has a boomerang that can hit crystals from afar, or dash ahead while swinging his club back and forth.

 Undeniably, the game puts puzzles first, and you'll notice it pretty early, as some sections are entirely devoid of enemies, instead being puzzle affairs. This is for the best, as combat is pretty half-baked, only Aang has decent offensive abilities, but Sokka and Katara each have attacks that stun some of the tougher enemies, so a good idea is to use Sokka or Katara  to stun them and then bash them with Aang's three hit combo. Switching characters is as easy as tapping(Or holding, can be changed at the options menu) the L or R button.

 Luckily, puzzles are very fun to solve, and some are quite tough. Not all puzzles are mandatory,  but it's better to explore before leaving an area in order to get permanently missable health upgrades. The game is at its best when you are toggling between characters in order to solve puzzles, some which even have the party separating and collaborating while traveling on different paths. It's a very fun game.

 Avatar the Last Airbender is a surprisingly fun licensed game. The combat could've used some polishing, but the puzzles are great, and having each character having different skills makes for some fun brainwork. It's a shame the game is a bit on the short-side, about 3:30 hours in all.
 7.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Grandia & Freedom Fighters

 Nonsensical names are always fun.

Minimalist. Forgettable.

 Grandia is a game that never appealed to me, even though I really liked Grandia II and Xtreme(I was young!). And after playing it for five hours, I'm still not quite fond of it. For starters, playing it on a PS2 seems to be a fool's errand, as it's prone to freezing. I'm suffering a few freezes right now which halted my progress on the game until I can assess if it's the disc or the medium.

 As for the game itself, I really can't get myself to like the main cast of characters, children heroes just don't do it for me anymore. Justin just isn't fun to follow along with, and Sue is just annoying. I happen to hate the 'kid genius' trope, so Feena being discovered as the world's greatest adventurer irks me to no end. I hate the main cast!

Not to be confused with the super-heroes game, Freedom Force.

 I used to LOVE this game when I was younger, and one of the tiny details that made me love it so was how the main character's attire would change as you went through the game. It made it seem like Chris was getting more and more involved with his role, as well as it being a clear sign of progression as he grew to look more and more like a guerilla.

 I just cleared the first mission/area, and the controls are certainly clunkier than I remembered them to be, but you can get used to them and the auto-aim is decent.