The boys are back in town! Bring it! Lets get ready to ruuuummmmbbblle! Throw as many clichés as you want, its not going to encompass the anticipation that people have felt for this game. Super Smash Brothers Brawl [Sora Ltd.] is the game the Wii was made for. Well, that’s not true at all. In fact this game would work on any system if the characters were fare game for anyone to use. But their not and Nintendo is making the most of this system seller. People who were getting bored with some of the lack luster 3rd party titles, get ready to put your Wii straps back on!
This is truly Wii fighting at its best. There is no doubt that the series has a fierce following of people who play casually and professionally. This is a game that is simplistic; A is attack, B is Special Attack. That’s it. The difference between a beginner and a new comer is what each character will do with it. And one of the new additions to Super Smash Brothers Brawl is the final smash. This is, in most cases, the stage clearer. Killing almost everyone on the screen. This adds a new dynamic to the game, or more accurately, a “drop what your doing and sprint for it” type situation.
Was it mentioned that you are doing this with one of 35 different playable characters! This is only counting Poke’mon trainer, who uses one of 3 different pocket mosters at a time. Or characters like Zelda (who turns into Sheik) and Samus (who turns into Zero Suit Samus). Along with the usual suspects from previous games, some of the new characters include Pit (from Kid Icarus), Sonic the Hedgehog, and Meta Knight among the 14 new guys. No one really seems to mind that four characters didn’t make the cut; Dr. Mario, Mewto, Pichu and Roy… they sucked anyway.
Nintendo doesn’t “do” online. That is officially no longer true, but it still isn’t something they do well. It takes quite a bit of communication and WWII style code breaking in order to do something as simple as add someone to your friends list. But once this is done, playing with a friend online is fairly simple and smooth. Sometimes the Brawl with anyone mode is a little slow to connect but for the most part works very well. The only other complaint one might have with this title is that the final smash item is a little bit un-balanced. Some characters like Lucas (from Earthbound) is a garunteed killer, while others like Peach is pure terribleness! Yes, it’s a word! It drops fruit on the ground! What is that?! Thankfully, this, along with all the items can be turned off.
The Wii is knows for its first party games, and this is a prime example why. Another triple A title. The amount of time this game will consume is monsterous. 35 characters, hundreds of trophies, and unlimited online brawling await.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Gamers Divorce
The unthinkable has happened. Young gamers have grown up, but inexplicably still play games! Yes, it has finally happened. My brother and I, who have been playing games since the Sega Master System, have to enact order 66. The gamers divorce! What was once one of our greatest assets has now finally come home to roost. We are two separate people with a common interest. We have shared our games and consoles in order to obtain a larger collection. In childhood getting a combined gift from friends and family making a $40 game a more reasonable purchase (killing two covenant with one Spartan laser). And now in adulthood having a combined income, which Sony almost made necessary to purchase their latest venture. But now we are “adults” with responsibilities to people other than Simon Belmont and Sonic T. Hedgehog.
So what is the best way to split up such a collection? While it is nice to hang onto older systems, they are mostly just for nerd points. The real conflict is for the three current gen consoles, which only makes it more difficult that there is an odd number. Thankfully one of them is practically worthless! Yes, I am referring to the PS3. I don’t care what everyone is saying about how 2008 is the year that Sony takes the stick outta their asses and turns it around. I guess it’s a good sign that Blu-Ray is officially the winner of the FWII (Format War 2). But so far DVDs are just fine for me.
Now it’s the Wiis time to be judged. This little guy has gone from dust collector to superstar as of 3/9/08. Sure it was enjoyed from time to time before this date at the occasional party. People love bowling and tennis, plus everyone played Mario Galaxies at least once. However it does somewhat feel like cheating that my favorite Wii game is played with a Gamecube controller. Super Smash Brother Brawl is what retail persons call a “system seller”. The friend code thing still hurts this consoles potential for greatness; laziness is certainly a trait many gamers share.
As for the real point of contention, the Xbox 360 is the console of choice. Blockbuster games as far as the eye can see, an online arcade full of grade A games, and a friends list that has been with us for years. Bioshock- check. Halo- check. Madden- no thanks… but check. This one certainly has the most hours of use out of the three, but that partially has to do with it being the most expensive. I feel I have to get my moneys worth after two separate breakdowns, both of which were not covered by the “extended warranty”. That was something like $80 for the refurbishing. That combined with four wireless controllers and a large selection of games makes this the highest dollar amount invested.
Maybe we should just put it all on eBay and split the cash. Or perhaps just make one last combined purchase of a second Wii and 360, but that brings up more questions about who gets the new hotness and who gets old and busted. I dunno what the end result is going to be… sorry for the big let down. I apologize if you took the time out of your day to read this whole thing. I’ll try to let you know when I find out.
So what is the best way to split up such a collection? While it is nice to hang onto older systems, they are mostly just for nerd points. The real conflict is for the three current gen consoles, which only makes it more difficult that there is an odd number. Thankfully one of them is practically worthless! Yes, I am referring to the PS3. I don’t care what everyone is saying about how 2008 is the year that Sony takes the stick outta their asses and turns it around. I guess it’s a good sign that Blu-Ray is officially the winner of the FWII (Format War 2). But so far DVDs are just fine for me.
Now it’s the Wiis time to be judged. This little guy has gone from dust collector to superstar as of 3/9/08. Sure it was enjoyed from time to time before this date at the occasional party. People love bowling and tennis, plus everyone played Mario Galaxies at least once. However it does somewhat feel like cheating that my favorite Wii game is played with a Gamecube controller. Super Smash Brother Brawl is what retail persons call a “system seller”. The friend code thing still hurts this consoles potential for greatness; laziness is certainly a trait many gamers share.
As for the real point of contention, the Xbox 360 is the console of choice. Blockbuster games as far as the eye can see, an online arcade full of grade A games, and a friends list that has been with us for years. Bioshock- check. Halo- check. Madden- no thanks… but check. This one certainly has the most hours of use out of the three, but that partially has to do with it being the most expensive. I feel I have to get my moneys worth after two separate breakdowns, both of which were not covered by the “extended warranty”. That was something like $80 for the refurbishing. That combined with four wireless controllers and a large selection of games makes this the highest dollar amount invested.
Maybe we should just put it all on eBay and split the cash. Or perhaps just make one last combined purchase of a second Wii and 360, but that brings up more questions about who gets the new hotness and who gets old and busted. I dunno what the end result is going to be… sorry for the big let down. I apologize if you took the time out of your day to read this whole thing. I’ll try to let you know when I find out.
Monday, February 25, 2008
X-Men: The Official Game- Activision
So I wrote this little review a while ago... I forget why.
I start this review with a something to keep in mind. I stepped up to the plate with an avid love of the X-Men to begin with. I read the comics when I was younger and continue to enjoy their adventures in game and movie form. So just putting the word “X-Men” on the box made it a pretty good game. Anything else is just icing on the cake. But it hurts me to say that the cake is a little stale.
The game itself is not very interesting to say the least. Almost as if they took Spider-Man: The Official Game, and replaced the main heroes and villains. In other words it mostly plays like any standard comic book hero game. They try to spice things up with some unlockables and some kind of story line, but the game itself should be the star of the show. And unfortunately it falls flat.
The mail selling point of the game was supposed to be the ability to use three different X-Men and to find out why Nightcrawler isn’t present in the third chapter of the movies. The first one somewhat implies that you might be able to choose any of the three characters for any of the levels and do things your way, but that might be too much fun. You simply choose the level you want to play and go with the hero that is was designed for. Wolverine’s levels are all hack and slash anything you see, which is mostly just button mashing until they are dead. Iceman’s levels are “ice sliding” from here to there and freezing this and that, sometimes they time it! Oh what fun! And by far the most entertaining are Nightcrawler’s levels, where you “bamf” around punching people in the back of the head and fixing things. Why? Because they said so!
They do try to throw in some Danger room missions, but those can only be played after going through a number of the campaign levels and aren’t that much more interesting. But if you find all of the little unlockables then you can play the game again! But this time in street clothes! Or classic comic outfits. But the unlocking “sentinel tech” cards and “weapon X” cards are mostly pretty easy to find. From time to time they might be slightly more well hidden than sitting in the corner of the room. But I can’t say the game is all bad, after all they did get most of the cast to do the voice work for the game, with the exception of Miss Hale Berry. But who needs her anyway! And the cut scenes are one of the most enjoyable parts of it. If you can see past the laziness of them being cut outs moving across the screen and enjoy what little story there is to it. And if you have a 360 and are just worried about getting gamer points, then I was a fairly easy 1000 points. When all is said and done I would give it 2 and a half out of 5 stars.
I start this review with a something to keep in mind. I stepped up to the plate with an avid love of the X-Men to begin with. I read the comics when I was younger and continue to enjoy their adventures in game and movie form. So just putting the word “X-Men” on the box made it a pretty good game. Anything else is just icing on the cake. But it hurts me to say that the cake is a little stale.
The game itself is not very interesting to say the least. Almost as if they took Spider-Man: The Official Game, and replaced the main heroes and villains. In other words it mostly plays like any standard comic book hero game. They try to spice things up with some unlockables and some kind of story line, but the game itself should be the star of the show. And unfortunately it falls flat.
The mail selling point of the game was supposed to be the ability to use three different X-Men and to find out why Nightcrawler isn’t present in the third chapter of the movies. The first one somewhat implies that you might be able to choose any of the three characters for any of the levels and do things your way, but that might be too much fun. You simply choose the level you want to play and go with the hero that is was designed for. Wolverine’s levels are all hack and slash anything you see, which is mostly just button mashing until they are dead. Iceman’s levels are “ice sliding” from here to there and freezing this and that, sometimes they time it! Oh what fun! And by far the most entertaining are Nightcrawler’s levels, where you “bamf” around punching people in the back of the head and fixing things. Why? Because they said so!
They do try to throw in some Danger room missions, but those can only be played after going through a number of the campaign levels and aren’t that much more interesting. But if you find all of the little unlockables then you can play the game again! But this time in street clothes! Or classic comic outfits. But the unlocking “sentinel tech” cards and “weapon X” cards are mostly pretty easy to find. From time to time they might be slightly more well hidden than sitting in the corner of the room. But I can’t say the game is all bad, after all they did get most of the cast to do the voice work for the game, with the exception of Miss Hale Berry. But who needs her anyway! And the cut scenes are one of the most enjoyable parts of it. If you can see past the laziness of them being cut outs moving across the screen and enjoy what little story there is to it. And if you have a 360 and are just worried about getting gamer points, then I was a fairly easy 1000 points. When all is said and done I would give it 2 and a half out of 5 stars.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Desktop Tower Defense
There is a new game sweeping the nation! Ok it might be just me and a couple other people who have too much time online are playing this. Either way all you guys need to check it out!
http://www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD/game.asp
If you played Bloons Defense (http://www.addictinggames.com/bloonstowerdefense2.html) thingie that we were all about a couple weeks ago then this is another great online game for you. Almost the same idea, except instead of just placing monkeys etc around the maze to try to stop the evil bloons, this time you make the maze yourself with towers. So you have allot more room to really make your own winning combination.
Be sure to start off on easy and see if you can get to the end. Then step up to medium mode and then you might be ready to start posting your scores on our Gamers Abyss group page. See if you can step to my top scores!
Update:
The new hotness is out in desktop tower... defense things. Its called Pixeljunk Monsters! Why play these games for free when you could be paying $8 to play it on your PS3. The PlayStation network has finally come out with something worth downloading. OK, other than Crash Bandicoot! Another great game.
http://www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD/game.asp
If you played Bloons Defense (http://www.addictinggames.com/bloonstowerdefense2.html) thingie that we were all about a couple weeks ago then this is another great online game for you. Almost the same idea, except instead of just placing monkeys etc around the maze to try to stop the evil bloons, this time you make the maze yourself with towers. So you have allot more room to really make your own winning combination.
Be sure to start off on easy and see if you can get to the end. Then step up to medium mode and then you might be ready to start posting your scores on our Gamers Abyss group page. See if you can step to my top scores!
Update:
The new hotness is out in desktop tower... defense things. Its called Pixeljunk Monsters! Why play these games for free when you could be paying $8 to play it on your PS3. The PlayStation network has finally come out with something worth downloading. OK, other than Crash Bandicoot! Another great game.
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