Happy Xmas/Quanza/Chanukah/the others everyone

Now, regarding those 12 months of 2007 posts I planned to do. Scratch them, I don't remember enough games that I bought. Instead, I'll finish off the year with a look at whats coming in 2008.

Battalion Wars 2: America already has this game, and Australia itself probably won't see it until 2nd quarter at least. However, Europe are apparently getting this game in January. This is a very interesting real time strategy meets action/adventure. You have armies that you can order to attack enemies, or defend bases, but you can also take over as any unit in your army, and act as them. For example, you can take command of a tank, and lead your troops into battle, while firing alongside them. The original on gamecube was very fun, if a little short. Now with online multiplayer, and more factions, this is a brand new game.

Super Smash Bros Brawl: I haven't shut up about this game for months. America gets this masterpiece in February, however Europe might not get it until 3rd quarter. Which would mean something like a 2008 Christmas for us. That would be extremely F***ing gay. I may import an American Wii for the game. Anyway, the sequel to the best selling game, Melee on gamecube, Brawl is a fast paced, fighting game, involving major Nintendo, Nintendo related, or third party characters fighting it out for supremacy. Wanto to see who would win if Link and Samus ever fought? Don't you want to know who is more powerful, Bowser, or Donkey Kong? It's these sort of questions that are answered with Melee, and now Brawl. Online play, co-op adventure mode, new characters (including Snake from Metal Gear Solid, and Sonic), more random online stuff, this is going to be one of the best Wii games ever, if not, one of the best games ever.

Trauma Center: New Blood: I got the first Wii game, second opinion, for Christmas. It's very fun. But that's not the point. Truama center is a game which lets you operate on people with diseases or wounds. Under the Knife (DS version) was the first, and it was then turned into a Wii-make in Second Opinion. Now New Blood comes along. It has a completely new storyline, and co-op operating. Using the Wii-mote and nunchuck to operate feels better than the stylus, and I'm looking forward to a European release (Second Opinion still hasn't hit Australian shores)

Mario Kart Wii: This was expected. It is apparently coming to America halfway through the year, packaged with the new Wii-wheel (a go-kart wheel, that the Wii-mote can be plugged into). Not much is known about the game yet, but it has motorbikes, and is looking pretty good. It will definitely be delayed though.

Apollo Justice: The first real DS Phoenix Wright game. The first three games were remakes of the Gameboy Advance games. However, all the games so far have been the greatest on the face of this earth. Epic storylines, fantastically created characters, magnificent gameplay. This game is the perfect DS game, and the sequel shall be even better. Already released in Japan, America will get this in February. I intend to import.

I'm sure more will pop up over the course of next year, but those are the best coming. I cannot wait for '08. Happy New Year everybody, I'll see you in 2008!

Super Mario Galaxy review

Well now. It's here. The game that threatened to knock Ocarina of Time off it's high horse as the best game ever made. Super Mario Galaxy, delayed like so many other games, has finally made it. We have it, we've played it, and I have found all 120 stars. Now I'm going to review it. Now, to start:

Name: Super Mario Galaxy
Platform: Wii
Players: 1-2
Developer: Nintendo

The story begins, as most Mario stories begin, with Bowser kidnapping princess Peach. This time around, his actions are much more sinister (you'll see by playing through). You'll start the game in the Toads village. When you start, take a run around for 20 minutes, looking at the beauty of the game. I know I've said this about every reviewed Wii game since Resident Evil 4, however, this time, I'm backed up by so many reviewers it's not funny. Galaxy looks equal to an Xbox 360 game. Anyway, graphics later. Because of Bowser and his baby self, Mario is blasted into space, and ends up being enlisted to find the power stars to run the spaceship of a mysterious women named Roselina. The more stars you get, you'll be able to fly your spaceship to rescue your "special someone". And that's how the latest Mario adventure sets off.



American boxart

The controls are very simple. You press A to jump, point the Wii-mote to collect starbits (resourceful collectible), press B to shoot starbits (Mario with a gun???!?! Not quite), control stick to move him around, Z to crouch. And that's the basics.No awkward combinations, Miyamoto and his gang made this one very easy to get into. You can also use the D pad to change camera angles in some ares, or go into a 3rd person view. In actuality, the camera function is the only real negative in the game. When swimming, the camera sometimes doesn't center exactly where you need it to be. However, this is usually very easy to work around.

Ok, now into the graphics. Look at Twilight Princess. The game looks good, but it's a gamecube port, right? Same with Resident Evil 4. Metroid Prime 3? Was the first step. Perhaps not a big step from Metroid Prime 2, but still, it was the finest example of graphics on Wii. Super Mario Galaxy is not a port of Sunshine. It's new, and it looks excellent. This proves those idiot 3rd parties that say" the Wii doesn't have good graphics, don't blame us" wrong. If Mario and his gang could come into the real world, I believe they would look like they do in the game. Have a look at this shot of Bowser and Mario,and just how amazing it looks:


Admit it. That's great

Some people may wonder about the "2 player" hovering at the start of the topic. Well, you can have a second person use a second Wii-mote, and they can grab starbits for you, and freeze enemies, which makes the game a bit easier, particularly with levels where you're racing and can't aim the Wii-mote forward.
The gameplay has not been sacrificed either. It plays the same that Super Mario 64 played years ago. The game has several different applications which add intuitiveness to the game. Being set in space, Nintendo have been able to introduce many different ideas; my favorite and my least favorite is gravity. Some levels will have you running on the ceiling, dodging goombas, until you reach an electric wall, where you have to jump down to another level and run right-side-up to get past. There are stars you use to launch yourself through space; grapple points which you grab onto in space and spiderman yourself across the galaxy in a bubble. And there's the traditional moving platforms, racing, and of course, Mario's outfits. Two that I will spoil for you are Bee Mario (he dons a bee suit, and can crawl on walls and hover), and invincible Mario (rainbow Mario seen so many times). The toads, goombas, koopas, Petey, Bowser Jr, Peach, Boo's, Kamey. Most of the old characters return, with some new space enemies.

Now, finally, longevity. You need to get sixty stars to get to the final boss (three guesses who), and there are then another sixty to get to finish it completely. And, without spoiling too much, there's more to do after that (a lot to do). This took me a week to get sixty stars, but I took my time looking at the beauty.

Now, overall. This is the greatest game in existence. Shut up Cloudy. OOT may be reviewed better, but this game brings so much to the gaming table. You can tell how much effort was put into this game, just how great it is. Also, a quick note. Mario talks a lot more in this game, but not enough to ruin the experience. I cannot give this anything other than a perfect score. And while I hope that Brawl is good, and I love Metroid, this is the game for Wii. Buy it, love it, play it again and again.

Graphics: Ideal. The same cutesy colors seen from Nintendo for years, and they've never looked better. 10/10
Length: The games not over once you collect all 120 stars. Which takes a while. And you'll play it again. 10/10
Gameplay: Shines through. Without a doubt excellent. Some very minor camera controls, but brilliant controls for the rest of the game 10/10

Overall: 10/10

Hmm... maybe a little biased. Still, this was supposed to be my least favorite of the big 3. Now there's only Brawl to go. Incidentally, it's been revealed that Brawl won't come to Europe before Q3 next year. Which sounds very bad for Australia. Which means a long time until the review for that....

The 12 months of Gaming: Part 1

Welcome! I've been thinking recently, about all the games I've bought this year. I don't remember all of them, but I thought that it would be fun to do small reviews of them, and describe the highlights of each month. I'll do 3-4 months each part, partly because I don't want a massive post, and partly because I only remember the first three months tonight. Now, on with the games!

January: WarioWare: Smooth Moves
My cousin was having a LAN (one of many this year), and we both picked up this game day one. Driving down to the EB, opening in the game, and smelling that freshly opened packaging. The smell of victory. I was an expert at this game at the connection tour that went around before the Wii came out, and I was entertained with this game for a while.

February: Excite Truck
Being delayed for about 2 months does not make happy gamers. My cousin had played this before the Wii came out, and was desperate to play it again (he wanted this more then Brawl at one point). Once we got it, we were somewhat disappointed with the length, but it was nonetheless a fun game. Personally, I wanted more freedom to explore.

March: Command and Conquer 3
The LAN game that we all bought (seriously). We all picked up the special Kane Edition, hooked it up, worked brilliantly. Excellent gameplay, we're still playing this as one of our key RTS games. I don't play with my cousin a lot though (the jerk team kills at the end a lot due to a disagreement in an early game).

Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII
This also came in March. Was very fun; more so than I thought it would be. It kept me entertained, and filled that WWII void I'd had since finishing Call of Duty 3. And it proved to be more fun than Heatseeker (to be shown in a later post; November).

That's it for tonight. Have a merry Xmas (Xmas, not Christmas. If you say Christmas, you're using an archaic pronunciation. Like when you say "ask" instead of "ax".), and I'll be back soon with more fun games from 2007. And a review of Galaxy soon, I swear. I want to get all 120 stars first, I only need 17 more.

Pokemon Diamond/Pearl Review

Hey, it's only a few months late. I'm from Australia, what do you expect, all our games stuff is late. Anyway, one of Nintendo's most popular series has come to DS properly (screw Dash, Trozei, but not Mystery Dungeon, that was good)back in all it's RPG, gotta catch 'em all glory. Once again, you're a trainer, and you've got to fight your way through the ranks, doing the same thing you were doing 12 years ago. Does this tried and true method bore us, or will this work the same way as Mario and Zelda games, and continue with the same basic principle for years to come? If you said the latter, you know Nintendo very well

Name: Poke'mon Diamond / Poke'mon Pearl
Platform: DS
Players: 4 (and online play)
Developer: Game Freak

Wow, my first real online game. Better do it justice. Now, ever since I was 7, I have been playing Pokemon games. My first game was Pokemon Blue, and my gameboy colour was that special pokemon one that was released at that time. From there, I bought every pokemon game that came into existence. The only ones I don't own are XD, Ranger, Trozei, and Dash. And through all of them, they've had the same basic principle. Catch all the pokemon, or at least, train a team that can kick the other persons butt.

The story goes that you're a 10 year old boy, and in the world of pokemon, that's your coming of age (go back to the first game, it explains this), and it means you can get your very own pocket monster. Your town has a professor of pokemon (in D/P's case, Professor Birch), who gives you your very first pokemon. You also have a rival, who also starts out with a pokemon. And in this version, the professors grandchild gets the last starter. Each pokemon has a different type, like, poison, dragon, grass, etc. All professors in pokemon games have three different types. A water type (in this case, Piplup), a grass type (in this case, turtwig), and a fire type (Chimchar). You pick which one you want (through a battle with a wild pokemon), and it becomes your partner. Which one you start with is very important, and make the game easier or harder. For example, the first gym is a rock gym. Water and Grass pokemon are very effective against rock types; fire types suck. So you have to catch other pokemon to help you if you want to win. And you'll need to level up your pokemon, to give them any real attack advantage.


From left to right: Turtwig, Chimchar, Piplup. I started with Piplup, because penguins are awesome.

Now, anyone who's played these games before will know what I'm talking about in that last paragraph. New players will be going "what? Gym? battle? catch pokemon? Level up?" Never fear, I shall explain for new players:

Trainer: a pokemon trainer has pokemon friends that he fights with. You will battle against many different trainers on your adventures, and each will have unique pokemon.
Gym Leader: These are the bosses of Pokemon if you will. They're much stronger than normal trainers, and specialize in a single type of pokemon (eg. ground, ice, whatever). In this game, you need to beat 8 gym leaders.
Gym: The place where you find gym leaders. sometimes containing puzzles or trainers to fight (sounds like Zelda games).
Levels: Being an RPG (role playing game) each pokemon has different levels of strength, ranging from lvl 1 - lvl 100. The bigger the number, the better your pokemon is. To train your pokemon and level them up, you fight other trainers.
Pokemon: How could I not explain this. Animals with great powers, they can be found hiding in grass, mountains, rivers, caves, snowy peaks, and forests. Never in cities. Pokemon are used as pets for normal people, fighting machines for trainers. Basically a friend. You can catch pokemon and make them your friends by battling wild ones, and catching them in poke balls.

Now that the terminology is out of the way, i can get onto controls. Since the DS has the touch screen, a lot of the button bashing that was in the old games has been replaced with stylus stabbing. You'll still use the d-pad for walking around, and the other buttons to interact with the world, but most of the battle and inventory screens are handled on the touch screen. This control will probably not be used by hardcore pokemon fans, who've gotten used to using the buttons, but it is a nice alternative. As for graphics, someone at game freak likes their 3D engine. It has been used to the point of bragging in this game. Players of the GBA games will recognize the look, and approve of the new adjustments made. Every pokemon has it's own animation, which ads to the effect, and other small adjustments make the game more enjoyable.

Now, online play. When you make a good team, and can beat everyone on the game, you can take your team online and get beaten to death by people around the world. Using friend codes, the scum of the earth, you can fight against anyone else with the game using Nintendo's Wifi connection. You can also play wirelessly with friends, trading, battling, and even (in a place called the battle tower) co-op battling. Incidentally, trading. Any pokemon you catch you can trade to another person. If you want to catch all 493 pokemon, you'll need to do this, as the people who make the game have cunningly designed it so that you need to either have all the GBA games, and Diamond and Pearl, or friends with the copies, to catch all the pokemon. That's the reason I've taken so long to do this review. I have caught 489 pokemon, I still need 4 legendaries which can only be caught by hacking/ trading someone who has a hacked one.

So, overall. I spent a lot of time explaining pokemon. This is a good RPG/adventure title which is worth investing in. Even if it is 12 years old, and the same as it was in the old gameboy games, even if people think it's childish (that's not the games fault, that's 4kids entertainments fault), it's still one of the best DS selling games, and well worth playing.

Graphics: definite boost from GBA. Not mind boggling, but more than we were expecting. 8/10
Length: I clocked 250 hours playtime to catch all those pokemon. It'll take at least 40 hours to finish the game normally, without all the side quest stuff. 9/10
Gameplay: Tried and true. Not much is brought to the table that is new. However, I'm not comparing this to the old games, but games nowadays. 8/10
Overall: 8.5/10

That's finally off my chest. I might let Cloudy review Phantom Hourglass, and then criticize it afterwards. As for me, I'll have Super Mario Galaxy and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic games by the end of the week, so I have a lot on my hands.

That problem I had

You know the Phone problem I had before? Regarding the phone stolen at Replay? Well, they sorted it out in a calm and peaceful manner.
They fired me, and refuse to give me a reference. Which means my first job, and 6 months of experience are worth crap. So now I'm fighting tooth and nail to prove that I didn't steal it. They say that the blurry video footage is enough to incriminate me. Which is bull.
Watch this space, hopefully this will be sorted by the end of the week. So I can tell everyone about Melbourne and eGames.

Sandgate High formal_ 2007

Welcome. We're done. We're finished. Myself, and my loyal friends never have to go back to Sandgate High again. I've just returned home from the formal, converted the files, and now, I'm going to post the pictures of me in my Phoenix Wright suit. I won't post pictures of my mates, at least not without permission.







Enjoy. Phoenix Wright suit, all going. And the pictures from the formal and the Valedictory; wow. Seriously, massive tip: when you graduate anything, take a camera. So many awesome memories already. I'm off to Melbourne tomorrow (without the Lucky Star costume, Cloudy won't have his Wii for another 2 weeks.), so when I come back, I'll have some really good games played, and some souvenirs.

BIAS!!!

Frankly, I think the Metroid Games are alright. Largely because I dislike shooty games. However, having seen the game, I'm inclined to give a different score, based on my 20 minutes of watching Tyro play.

The graphics are good. They're clean, and they really show this world. I don't think these are the greatest graphics (even on the Wii), by necessity, and the graphical style isn't a preference of mine. Overall, 7.5 for graphics.

The music is great. Nintendo is great at composing gems of orchestral music for the games, and this is no exception. Pounding beats when enemies are around, and anywhere from cautious optimism to OMG TRAP! are found throughout the game. 9.5 for music.

Controls. This game is a great treat to play. You'll love aiming with the remote, and the cool hyperminigames you have to do with the remote. 10 for controls.

Gameplay. It's great. You shoot stuff, and explore, while shooting things. Then you shoot a bigger thing. That can fly, falling through a tunnel. Also, it's big. What can I say? Gameplay is great: 9.5.

Overall, I'd give this game an 8.5. It's great, but it's not perfect. I'd love to play it, but first I have to start the other two. See you all later.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Review

Ok, I haven't reviewed a game in a while, but I hope I'm not rusty. I have about 6 games to review in December, so I hope to get through them all. Now, we all know the big 3 that were so acclaimed at the start of the year. Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. And what has happened to the through the year? All have been delayed, and now Brawl is a game for 2008. But never fear, I shall review all of the big 3 in due time, starting with my now favorite shooter, Metroid Prime 3. This title was originally going to be a launch title, but was delayed a lot. Now here it stands for all to play.

Name: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Platform: Nintendo Wii
Players: 1
Developer: Retro Studios

Right now, into this. Since I bought a Wii, I have been searching for the perfect shooting game. Call of Duty 3 was good, but the controls were very, very jumpy. Red Steel was also good, but had the same problem. And Far Cry... well, we won't go into that... Resident Evil 4 was a shot in the arm, but I was still looking for the perfectly controlled FPS. And I found it in Metroid. But before I get into that, some background about the story.

As expected, Metroid Prime 3 is the third game in the "Prime" trilogy (or pentrily, (5 games) if you count Hunters, and Pinball). The story continues 6 months after the effects of the second game, wherein phazon (a poisonous chemical substance, which mutates anything it's near. Thing Uranium meets Tiberium from C&C) has corrupted several planets in the universe, and it's up to Samus and the Galactic federation to save the universe. Alongside this, the Aurora units (basically the super computers of the federation) have also been corrupted, and Samus has to fix these too. However, similar to Hunters, she won't be alone. Three new bounty hunters join in the crusade this time; Rhundas, able to control and shoot ice. Ghor, android that can commandeer any machine. And Gandrayda, humanoid whom can take the appearance of anything, excellent at stealth. Unfortunately, before you can start on your endeavour, Dark Samus (the evil entity, that took your D.N.A way back in the first game, to create a Phazon-form of you) blasts her way into the base, and corrupts all the hunters with phazon. Through some quick surgery, they are all updated with new suits that can control the Phazon, and allows them to use it for powerful, new attacks. With these weapons, you start off on you adventure.


From this:



To this

Right, that's story out of the way. Now for the beauty of the rest of the game. Graphics. I'm sure that I have said it again and again: the Wii does not need games with really good graphics. graphics < gameplay. But Metroid (and several other games this year) break this barrier. Metroid Prime 3 is the prettiest game on the Wii at the moment (it's competition were 2 gamecube ports, but bear with me). Retro have added bloom effects to pretty much every corner of the game. Explosions look fantastic, worlds are vast and detailed, very much a step-up from the gorgeous mas of Echoes. I would post some screens, but they don't do it justice. You need to see this running at 60fps to see it's true glory.

Now, gameplay. The controls; they are perfect. Not only do they have 1:1 aiming and shooting down-pat, but Retro have added in a bunch of intriguing little tricks for the Wii-mote and nunchuck. For example, if you find an enemy with a shield, or some big antenna sticking out of it, you can throw the nunchuck forward (throws your grappling beam forward) latch on, and rip the thing right off them. Some puzzles require that you use your hand cannon to weld things together, pull switches by literally pulling a switch, or pulling walls or bridges towards you with the grapple beam. There are 3 different types of aiming, I recommend advanced (IGN describe the others as feeling like they're playing "Red Steel Prime"). And in a nod to the achievements available on Xbox 360 games, Metroid has a rewards section. When you scan certain areas of information, defeat certain enemies, solve certain puzzles, or other interesting things, you get reward tokens, which you can spend to buy music, artwork, or, (if you have some friends to trade with) really exciting tricks like screenshot capabilities, bumper stickers for your spaceship, or, my favorite, this:


Isn't he so cute? :P

Overall, I love this game. I have been waiting for this since 2006, and I was thrilled to pick it up a week before the rest of Australia (Gametraders are the best shop in the world). However, Cloudy will get up me if I give this 10/10 (he'll say I'm biased). So, now let's find something wrong with the game...
um...Ok. The storyline left a lot of questions about Phazon, although thanks to the secret endings (oh crap, I shouldn't have said anything. I shouldn't have said find 75% of the pickups to get the 1st secret ending, and find 100% of the pickups to get the 2nd secret ending) this might be resolved in a later. Well, Retro has said they aren't working on any more Prime games, so who does the torch get passed to? We'll see in the future, but many are hoping for a side-scroller, rather than the 3D adventure. Anyway, to wrap up. G buy this, play it, and get ready for Galaxy.

Graphics: Best on the Wii. They'll be trumped by Galaxy and Brawl, and aren't as good as say, Gears of War, but very solid - 9/10
Length: 20-30 hours first time through. If you want to find everything, including achievements, almost as long as Twilight Princess - 9/10
Gameplay: Excellent controls, interesting minigames. Storyline needed a bit more bulk for my liking though - 9/10
Overall: 9/10

Wow, I gave this worse than Phoenix Wright? I'm so biased for that game. Speaking of bias, if anyone out there has noticed my games are all rated extremely high, that's cause I only review games I really like. Don't have time for others. Hardly professional I know, but I'm a beginner, so it's ok. I'll be back with pictures of me in my Phoenix Wright suit in about 2 days.

Yes indeed

Yes, that situation does suck. People are like this constantly, looking for people to blame. Lady, you left you purse unsupervised. In a shopping centre. Did you really expect this not to happen? The fact is, you shouldn't have. Tyro was nice enough to return the bag, so why would he take the phone? Him and his friends are the ones under least suspicion.

Heroes aren't really big in today's society. Tyro's a more upstanding citizen than me. To be honest, I'm not really that person. I wouldn't steal a phone, and I'd take her bag back maybe. But really, if I did, I'd expect not to be accused of theft. That's my take, so I'm out.