Posts Tagged ‘nintendo

04
Nov

What’s with the new Nintendo DSi

By gameophiliac 0 Comments
Categories: Wii
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The new Nintendo DSi is out in Japan. I have no doubt that it will come out here in the Philippines very soon. It has new features that will gain some attention, like the camera and the SD card slot. But what do I think of it?

I like the idea of the new DSi, but I have mixed feelings about it. Nintendo has been doing this to us for quite some time now, making better versions of their current popular handheld console. Although previous hand helds only made the system better, not a total remake and adding new features. This is why I have mixed feelings about this system.

I like the camera feature, it makes a better Pictochat, especially that you can play around with images and faces of what you capture on your DSi. With the camera, I like the idea that it can play music too, although so far from what I heard it can’t play MP3’s but AACs. With the camera and music capability, obviously this will take a lot of space, so the SD card is another nice added piece to it. The online DS shop is a good thing, it makes it just as accessible as the Wii Shop Channel, downloading demos and games will not be erased anymore since they can be saved on the SD card.

Okay, now about my problems about this DSi. One thing, battery life is going to be a problem, its not going to be as reliable as the original DS especially with all the new features packed in. The AAC music format is not a standard, but at least there are file converters out there, but it still is a hassle. The Gameboy Advance slot is totally gone. So, if you want to keep playing GBA games, you have to get a DS, DS Lite or a GBA. Another problem with this is the Region locking of the new DSi games. This is going to be the first on all handheld consoles, from what I remember. Gameboy games, DS and PSP games had no restrictions whatsoever.

This is a double edged sword though, I like the idea of the system making pirated software useless, but it will kill off a lot of homebrew development. Flash cards won’t work on this one this time around. So far a lot of people have tried R4’s and M3 Real cards and none of them work. Although, it may just be a matter of time until someone works it out.

Without new software to justify a DSi, I don’t see why I need to buy it. The added camera, music player and the SD slot is nice. Heck, my phone already does those things, so what’s the point adding more music players and a camera?

This system will need to wait until games do come out that takes advantage of the camera. I know Nintendo will come up with one, no doubt about it, but they should have released a camera enabled game together with the DSi. At least it should justify the purchase.

To everyone else, it’s your call to buy one, remember, the new DSi games will be region locked and its only released in Japan. The US is still waiting another year before releasing it, so no english games for the DSi until next year.

05
Apr

Super Smash Brothers Brawl Wii Review

By gameophiliac 0 Comments
Categories: Games, Reviews and Wii
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Nintendo has been hyping their exclusive fighter for some time now. Especially with Konami’s Metal Gear hero, Snake and Sega’s famous mascot, Sonic. A lot of Nintedo games are excited to get their hands on SSBB, it was a bit hard to relate since I haven’t played any version until this one. What does this appeal to me? Why was I excited? Fortunately I have a Wii and I can rent and borrow games this time around. It makes gaming a lot easier and cheaper. Anyway, I was excited especially with Snake on board and it would be nice to see Mario kicking Snake out of the arena.

As I got try out this game, I immediately got into playing Brawl. Since I just started, I really didn’t have much characters to choose from, but don’t think that it’s very little to choose from, there are a lot of characters. There are several arenas to choose too that resemble other games that you may be or may not be familiar. The locations are so focused on a lot of Nintendo related games that it’s fun to play any of them.

This is not any typical fighting game. It does have its own style and identity. Most fighting games rely on a health bar, the more hits you take and the bar goes lower, once it’s empty you go down. This is not the case in this fighting game, here you rely on how many times you fall down out of the arena. You don’t have a life bar to think about, and any gamer has a fighting chance even if he or she has taken many hits. The thing about this game is that the more hits you take, the bigger the chances you can get thrown out the arena.

Since I’m a new gamer, I played trying out several controllers. It was nice that this game offered many ways to play, from only using a Wii Mote, Wii Mote and a Nunchuk, or a Gamecube controller. You can even configure the controller to any button configuration that you want. Even though it’s difficult to play using a Wii Mote alone, it still works great once you know how to use it. Special moves are simple enough to understand and anyone can easily get into this game.

After playing a few brawls, I tried my hand in playing the SubSpace Emissary which is more like a story mode. The story was light, without any use of words, but it was nice to be able to see pre-rendered cutscenes with so many different characters which made it worthwhile. The levels are also inspired from many Nintendo games, which makes it fun. It was nice to see a more traditional game that doesn’t rely on too much fighting but can also be fun and entertaining. The SubSpace Emissary is a pretty simple side scroller, but your characters have all the abilities of a fighter. The only problem with this mode is at the last part before fighting the last boss, you have to take time to walk around fighting and look for hidden doors.

Playing SubSpace Emissary and playing hours of Brawl can give you a lot of unlockables. Snake, Sonic, Toon Link and more. There are levels, music, artwork, game demos and more. There’s so many reasons why any gamer will enjoy trying to open up these options. You can even unlock the tmie limit on the demos and be able to fully play them.

It alone can give you so many hours of gameplay, and with the addition of online brawl, this gives you more reason to play this game. From online fights or even make your own arenas, this is worth every penny. This is one game I don’t recommend renting, this game is one for keeps. I doubt that you’ll have enough time to enjoy this magnificent game if you just play it a few days. I tell you, hundreds of hours of playing this game is worth while in many ways.

Thanks to Diobrando for lending me a his copy of the game.

15
Mar

No More Heroes Wii Review

By gameophiliac 0 Comments
Categories: Games, Reviews and Wii
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I had no idea what to expect when I heard about No More Heroes. This is a game that is supposed to be radical and extremely violent than what you are used to. It was a surprise that this Xbox360 title shifted to a less powerful Wii, but what attracted the developers was more of the unique control scheme. The trailers show a very unique look, almost similar to Killer 7 (GameCube) but not as dream like.

The game starts immediately teaching you how to play the game with basic attacks using the A or B button, but you’ll use movement gestures to make finishing or heavy blows but these moves will show up on screen before you can use them. You use an electric beam blade that sounds like it came from Star Wars, but other than blade you can use your feet and hands to fight too. Slight gestures can make some slight changes on the fight. Tilting the Wiimote up will make high blows and tilting the Wiimote down will make lower attacks. The training will take a while but it will instantly show you how violent the game is. In just a few seconds you’ll be seeing a lot of red. Bodies will gush out red liquid, explode with red smoke and for the bonus of money spewing all over and goes directly to your character on each kill.

You start in a mansion; roaming around doing an intense killing spree and before you reach the boss you will receive a call… FROM YOU WII MOTE!!! Wow that was fun. A woman named Silvia will talk to you explaining that you have to kill the assassin and Silvia has very low confidence with the lead character that he won’t live through the fight. When you reach the first boss it will give a sense of the story and humor of the lead character Travis Touchdown. If you watch “Great Teacher Onizuka,” you’ll notice that Travis almost has the same personality and it is quite fun. The first boss can be difficult but once you notice the pattern, it will be easy to adjust. After defeating the boss, a female character named Silvia will tell you that you have killed the top 11th Assassin, now he has to continue to the top if Travis wants to get see more of Silvia. Now you are an official assassin, but you have to pay an insane amount of cash to continue up.

No More Heroes

After than long and fun introduction, you are placed in a more open city, much like playing Grand Theft Auto. You can travel around to different areas, but there are a limited amount of things that you can do… very limited that I really didn’t have many choices to do. At first you’ll only do work as getting coconuts, but once you finish that you’ll get your first generic assassination mission. After getting more work and more money, you’ll be able pay up and start getting up the ladder of killing more top assassins.

The fun part of this game is that it plays around several ideas. Each time you are going to kill an assassin, something interesting and unsuspecting can happen. One enemy twists the entire screen upside-down for a few seconds, making you confused on how to use the controller. One mission forces you not to use any weapons and makes you run like crazy. Each mission can be unpredictable and enjoyable which can make you want more to see what more stuff you’ll be able to see or play through.

No More Heroes

The graphics immediately plays around a lot of classic games. The visual style resembles watching some anime in 3D, but the surrounding interface looks like it came from an old cellular phone. The pause button even shows the game details, but the graphics now resemble classic arcade menus. After doing an objective, the game even flashes a screen like looking at a Vectrex arcade machine. It gives me an impression that this game really targets a lot of older crowd who has played arcade games or some Atari games to boot. But that doesn’t mean that game is only for veteran gamers, this is so much fun even for people who just started gaming. Just make sure you are 18 and above because the visuals in action can get bloody.

The sounds are very impressive too. They are done well and I had no problems getting into the story with it. Note that the people behind voicing these fun characters are also the same team who did Metal Gear series. So obviously, they know how to act in voices and it is very satisfying. The music is also nice to listen to, I really liked the song called Heavenly Star, but this title already came out on Lumines II. But I also liked listening to some of the in-game sounds that I made a ringtone out of it. Short MP3’s are downloadable from the official website if you want to know.

No More Heroes

Overall, what I liked about the game is that it is does know who to market it to. The veteran gamers, in which they overwhelm with classic visuals and plays around with a variety of gameplay. The story can surprise you although it is a bit light but at the same time crazy and fun. The open city, usually called an open sand box game, is very limited, not as extensive as playing Grand Theft Auto or other incarnations of it. Although it’s not as big, the action and variety of work are fun and interesting. It can end quickly but very satisfying. Just make sure to get everything before ending the game, there are two endings in this game and the standard ending is just too short but plays around with Star Wars. The second ending will explain more interesting story elements.

04
Dec

Contra 4 DS Review

By gameophiliac 0 Comments
Categories: Games, Reviews and ds
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I missed playing Contra and Super C. Contra was one of four of the first games I got on the NES and I couldn’t wait to play Contra 4. What I remember about Contra? The insane difficulty. This game continues on with how we remember playing the classic game. I mean, the graphics also looks like a throw back to the original side scrolling action. Visually, it looks almost like an upgrade of the first game, but it expands more on it. If you have played any of the previous games, you will notice the levels look the same too, even the bosses are too. What’s fun with the graphics? You play it using 2 screens, which makes the gaming environment wider, a gunfire from the top screen that you will eventually dodge while you’re at the bottom screen. Or you’re riding a jet ski on the top screen, while you try to attack aliens underwater from the bottom screen.

The gameplay hasn’t really changed, the 2D side scrolling action is still the same as before. They did add some elements to make it interesting. You can now have 2 weapon upgrades that you can switch. If you die using a particular weapon, you’ll lose that buy you’ll still be able to use the one that you didn’t die with. You can also climb up walls and you now have a grappling hook that you can use on certain locations, like hanging on a helicopter while trying to defeat a boss. The game feels fresh but stays true to old school gameplay.

As I said before, this is like playing the classic games. In other words, no way to save the game… the traditional matter that is. You do have several lives and a few continues. There is also a way to stop your game and continue on later, but remember your lives and continues because that is it. Once all of those have been depleted, you have to go back to stage one. It can take you so many hours just trying to work on finishing one level. This is even harder than playing Ninja Gaiden (Xbox or PS3), but for players who love the series can really appreciate the difficulty. But it can be too hard for more traditional players, especially since we are spoiled with the option to save.

There are reasons to go back playing, some unlockable characters that shows some of the characters from previous games. You can also unlock a comic book and the original Contra and Super C. There is also museum which lists down all the Contra games with a small description and a few screenshots, it also mentions the difference between titles in other countries.

I enjoyed playing this game, but you really have to dedicate your time playing it. It’s not like most games where you can play a few minutes and enjoy. This game requires mastery and a lot of memorization to get through. Even with the small number of levels, the difficulty will keep you playing for so many hours and days. It’s not for everybody, but if you are a fan of the series or love a great challenge, this is going to be one of the most satisfying experiences you’ll have one you finish just one level.

21
Apr

SSX Blur Wii review

By gameophiliac 0 Comments
Categories: Games, Reviews and Wii
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It has been hard to play a game that I wasn’t familiar with, I have played SSX before on the Xbox, but I had trouble using the controls. It never felt user friendly to me, actually games like Tony Hawk and SSX never really caught up to me. But the Wii version intrigued me because I wanted to know how the game controls, now what do I think of this snow boarding game? If it came out on the Wii first, maybe I’ve been a fan a long time ago.

SSX stands for Snowboard Supercross, it’s like the snow version of Motocross or Tony Hawk series. SSX Blur is not the first, but actually the fifth game in the series. Basically you go down tricked out mountain and perform events and do stunts, and you are rewarded with more events and you can enhance your character along the way. EA has been doing good with sports, and EA Canada has done NBA Street series, Need for Speed series and more. They have a good reputation in developing sports related games and it still shows here.

I haven’t been a sports fanatic in video games because of it felt like I’m button smashing most of the time just to get some moves. I was having a hard time remembering all the controls you have to memorize just to make certain moves. Although one thing I really liked about this game is the controls, it feels more natural. Moving around the game will be easy and you really don’t need to memorize complicated button combinations anymore. Your nunchuck is used to move around and you don’t even need to press anything except the forward analog to accelerate. You can brake by tilting back the nunchuck and you can move left and right by tiling it too. The purpose of the Wiimote is to control your character’s spins, but you need to press A at the right moment or it won’t work properly. You also can press Z to do a grab trick on your board while you’re in the air. You will need to combine moving your nunchuck, the grab and spins to make various moves.

I was surprised how easy the controls seem to be. It did take me a while to get used to playing a game that relies on a lot of hand movements but it did feel very natural than button mashing all the time. It will take practice because of the timing and if you point the Wiimote where the sensor can’t see the pointer, it won’t be able to perform the move that you want. Even though I think the controls are easy, the game is still not, the challenges are good and it feels balanced enough that practice does make perfect.

There is a certain thing that takes a bit harder to do, it’s the Ubertricks. These moves can only be done on certain conditions and it will show up on the screen when it can. The ubertrick that shows up is actually a suggestion, not a requirement. You can do other ubertricks that you have discovered and there are tons of stunts in the game. Although I like the idea of these stunts, the controls are a bit hard to do. It will require you to make a certain hand gesture with both the nunchuck and Wiimote. The basic ones are easy enough but it still takes practice to execute them, my problem is when the required gestures get a bit complicated. It gets a bit too hard to actually accomplish the gesture.

The game does remind me of Need for Speed, since you navigate to certain events by using your snowboard or skis, to travel around there or practice movements while you are at it. Since you are on top of a mountain the only way to go is down, the terrain splits up to different sections so you have to be familiar with the mountain if you want to travel to an event. But when you reach the bottom you will be brought by a helicopter to the top of the mountain. What I like about this is that you don’t need to travel like that if you don’t want to, you can access a mini-map and go straight to an event. I like having that option; it makes things a lot faster than having to go to an event which may take time.

The events are listed as Slalom, Half-Pipe, SlopeStyle, Race, and Big Air. Most events will require you to make stunts as much as you can, but Slalom and Race are basically simple by it’s name alone. Race is a good start for any gamer since it’s pretty easy to get into, making stunts while racing is just for show. Slalom is ridiculously hard for some reason, which I think they do need to improve if they are going to make a new SSX game. The bad thing about this is that you need to get used to playing Slalom because you won’t get far if you don’t.

Tournaments are accessed as long as you do a lot of good scores on the leaderboard. These tournaments are a combination of 2 or more events which needs qualification before you start an event. These are great but it will take time to get thru one and you can’t save midway. You have to practice a lot and if you repeat an event, it repeats the entire tournament.

The soundtrack is quite good and reacts to your movement. The music is energetic while you slide down the course but it will stop when you do. The music fits the game and I do wish I had an option to listen to the music on its own. Hmm, is EA offering SSX Blur soundtrack already? The sound effects are done quite well, which I really expected from EA. You can really feel that you are on the snow and that itself is impressive.
The graphics are done well, and it shows that this is one of the best for the Wii. Character animations have small gestures when they do something wrong and they get splattered with snow. The mountains are vast and you can travel from the top to the bottom without any loading. It does have a few slow downs on certain areas but it’s not something that really bothered me.

Generally, the game is the most fun I had in a sports related game. The controls are mostly great, the music is perfect, and the graphics is one of best in Wii. It’s one sport game that even a new player can get into, but can get a little frustrating in the some events. Even though I do have issues with the Slalom event and the Ubertricks, this is still one game that I’m happy to play for several hours.

21
Apr

Sonic & The Secret Rings

By gameophiliac 0 Comments
Categories: Games, Reviews and Wii
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Sonic is back and i do hope its for the better. I enjoyed the classic sonic and i had fun playing Sonic Adventures too but recently with the new games for the xbox360 & ps3, the franchise is getting a bit questionable. Maybe its time for another Nights (hint, hint)? Will this new Sonic for the Wii step up from the rest?

Well, sonic is back and this time he’s not with his friends anymore… Kind of. Sonic is transported into the fantasy world of the Arabian Nights with the help of a lady genie in distress. The world of the Arabian Nights is being erased by Erazer Djin. Sonic will have to defeat him to free the world from destruction. The story is told in 2d illustrations which usually work if done right, but its not in this case because from the start, it doesn’t feel it was thought out. It shouldn’t have been bad but the game wasn’t linear to play and the cutscenes are fixed on certain missions. Also the character cameos doesn’t help either, it feels more confused than it should have.

The game itself is a breath of fresh air since it changed because of the wii. Its nice to see what ideas they can make out of the wiimote. Its good to say that this game doesn’t need the sensor most of the time. So you can comfortably play the game at any reasonable position or distance. You will have to hold the wiimote sideways like a regular controller, but this game will take advantage of the motion sensor. You will have to thrust, twist, turn and more with the controller. I found the controls interesting at the moment but not for long. Playing Sonic continually runs, you can only manipulate his subtle movements thru turning the controller, he can jump and attack move back and a little more.

The game moves very fast as what you might expect from Sonic. But the camera view makes this game a memorization chore. The controls don’t react fast as classic sonic games. Most of the react a split second later than you’d want. Memorization is the key to this game so that you can react at the precise moment. Visual cues wont help much since the camera is terrible. Don’t get me wrong, the game get a lot better later in the game, although some players may not enjoy the game before the even reach that point.

There are skills that add up as long as you get more points. You gain them when you finish a mission and you can activate them by customizing a ring. You have 4 rings that you can customize at your heart’s content although you can only use 1 in a mission. You can activate only a certain number of skills per ring unless you level up. So keep on playing those missions until you get enough. Some missions will require you to have certain skills before you can more forward. The more skills there are the more mobile and flexible Sonic gets to be.

Visually, the game looks great if it wasn’t for the bad camera angles. The graphics are sharp and you wont experience any slow downs. Environments are varied and vast which you can appreciate but not beautiful enough to make you want to stop and enjoy the view. The level design at the start seems a bit bland, but it gets better the farther you get.

The music is rather ok, not my cup of tea. Although it does sound as most Sonic games it is not as memorable as the Genesis era. The voice acting are bad, something that you’d expect from most Sega games like House of the Dead. Everything feels forced in, not a lot of effort was put into it.

They really did a lot of things to each level and it would have been a good thing if only you aren’t too restricted to getting good scores on each mission. If you don’t get a good set of the requirements, you wont be able to open other new locations. If your not into perfecting each game this can be just a bad roadblock to enjoy the game to its fullest.

There are a ton of party games, something that was felt inspired from tons of party games but then again it feels like these games were an afterthought than actually part of the game. It’s hard to enjoy the mini games because the controls aren’t responsive as you’d expect.

This game is better than the previous Sonic games, the controls and the camera needs a lot of work. The game does make a refreshing take on the famous blue hedgehog which seems like a good direction. If you are persistent enough, the game gets a lot better and enjoyable.

20
Feb

Wii Hardware Review

By gameophiliac 0 Comments
Categories: Reviews and Wii
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Since Gamecube, Nintendo didn’t seem to intend to hit hard with the big boys (Xbox, PS2). But with the cheap price and great first party games, they still stood strong. With Xbox360 and PS3 trying to fight in the media home entertainment center genre, it was nice to see the new Nintendo Wii isnt trying to be the same. Nintendo is doing what they are good at, which is good family fun.

Once you get the package, you will know that its a good and complete package and for just Php24000 which also includes a game, its a better choice compared to the Xbox360 or PS3. The box is packed, very little wasted space, no styro junk, all the essential cables, the game system (which is just as small as a regular CD/DVD drive), the WiiMote, nunchuck, sensor bar and a copy of Wii Sports. The why i like the package is because of the inclution of Wii Sports which shows off what the system can do.

Setting up the Wii is not a challenge. I was able to hook up the entire thing in 5 minutes. The only thing that took a tad long is when i was setting up the Wii sensor bar, which should be placed at the center above or below the TV, I had to test it to see if it sees the WiiMotes.

Technically, the system is just slightly better than the original Xbox. Its not a powerhouse with graphics or processing power compared to the 360 or the PS3. The graphics are not as impressive. But the main attraction is the WiiMote. The controller is a technical marvel and what i consider a pure revolution in gaming. You hold it like a regular remote control and it detects your movements (sideways, forward, backward). Its also lightweight and very comfortable to use. Hook up the nunchuck controller on the WiiMote and it can also sense the movements that you do with it.

Navigating thru the Wii menu is simple. One thing obvious is that it works as easy as a mouse since a hand shows up on the screen. You will be greeted by the main screen which shows all your available channels or selections. Most of the channels are blank but it means that you can add stuff or see more updates in the future.

It was easy to setup the WiFi connection, through automatic detection. I was able to update the system and I tried out the news and weather channel and so far I am very impressed to read updated news and weather. Although I do have problem accessing the Wii Shop to work, but I was able to enter it after a few tries, the problem was my router is having connection problems thru Wifi.

Wii Sports alone is very impressive. Being able to try out the WiiMote with Tennis, Golf, Bowling and Baseball is facinating. You rarely even need to press any button since it all relies on movements or gestures. While Boxing is my favorite because it relies a lot of physical movement than any other game, this game is also frustrating because the controls are slow and inaccurate. The games are short but challenging, the controls are almost effortless except for boxing. My favorite part is that it has a fitness test which you can do once a day and tracks your everyday progress. The best game in this collection in Bowling, because it’s a perfect unaltered game. You really have to stand up and pretend like you are actually bowling to get a good throw.

If you can’t see the possibilities of gameplay, i suggest you need to try out WarioWare Smooth Moves since it’s a great showcase of what the Wii Mote can do even without the use of the nunchuck. Try that out you will see that the possibilities are endless compared to the traditional controller.

Ok, about the Wii Shop, you can get the internet browser for free, which is powered by Opera. But the important thing about the Wii Shop is the Virtual Console, where you can buy classic games from Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis and TurboGFX16. Now this is one of the best offerings of this game system, to be able to play the classic games that we have always missed for so long. Although the list is not long enough yet, they add more games regularly… recently they added Donkey Kong Country, Legend of Kage, Streets of Rage and Adveture Island. It already has Mario64, Mario Kart, Super Mario, Gunstar Heroes, R-Type and more. The controlers for these games are different though, but some of them will work fine with the Wii Mote by just tilting the controller sideways and since the Wii mote uses bluetooth, the range is amazing. Some games will run ok with a Gamecube controller but I do suggest getting the Wii Classic Control pad which is perfect for classic consoles. If you want to buy software from Wii Shop, you will need Wii Points which is still not available here in the Philippines. You may need to have a friend or relative from the US to get you some points.

About classic games, the Wii is a perfect Gamecube system too. It’s 100% backward compatible with GCN games and you can use the GCN controller and memory card. I can still play all my GCN games without a hitch. The system is almost perfect.

There is an SD slot for additional storage space since the Wii only has 512Mb for saving and to store channels. You can also read images from your digital camera stored on SD. Although the picture viewer only displayes images in very low resolution. It does have a few fun things that you can play around with friends like the simple puzzle game or you can draw on your pictures. Although deleting images is a bit of a hassle since all posted images are marked in the message board. You have to go to the message board and find the date you have posted the image and delete the message to be able to delete the picture. You can’t delete any pictures or video from the SD card, you can only manage your save files and channels.

The console does have its problems and its with the sensor bar. It has problems detecting the Wii Mote in certain angles and it can get frustrating when your action fails because the sensor failed to see your wii mote. The Wii mote is a great innovative item but its sensor is not perfect. Because of this, gaming in the Wii will be hard to control perfectly not like a regular controller which responds quickly. But the wii mote is so revolutionary that it does make you feel more interactive than ever before.

Wii is new but it has more potential because developers will have to make new refreshing games this time around even with an old genre. Just look at the DS and you can see a lot of possibilities since it has revived some genres and making a few new ones along the way. Im very impressed with the whole system and this is one system i’m excited to see what they show up in the years to come.

04
Nov

Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door GCN Review

By gameophiliac 0 Comments
Categories: Gamecube, Games and Reviews
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Paper Mario from the N64 was one of the few great games from console that was never really caught on in the Philippines because it was released in a console a few really had a chance to get a hold on. Even though, it was one of the best games out there if you have an N64. Paper Mario is basically a game that re-imagines the world of Mario… in paper, or in flat drawn objects. Anyway, will this game stand out from any RPG game out in the market? With so many RPG games out there, Mario is not a new comer in this genre. Nintendo did come out with great RPG games in the SNES, N64, GB and GBA which includes Mario & Zelda. It’s not surprising that they would continue the interesting visual style they made in Paper Mario.

The game starts out with Princess Peach roaming through Rogue Island; she meets a street vendor and gives her a box that contained a magical treasure map. She sends it through mail to Mario to help her find the treasure. Mario follows her; unfortunately Luigi has other chores to do so he couldn’t come. There you discover that the princess is unfortunately missing again. So you as Mario are now forced to find the treasure in the hopes in finding Princess Peach into safety. Then the adventure starts and the fun gets better.

The paper concept in Mario has been unique and hasn’t been imitated by any other game developer. It has this unique look gives the game the fresh looking experience it needs to keep you entertained through the game. It’s interesting to see that they really emphasized on keeping the paper concept. Mario and most of the characters in the game are plainly flat which could be seen if they turn around. Buildings fold like paper when you go in and out of them. Large characters have multiple folds like a paper toy. The game doesn’t have extreme special effects like in Crystal Chronicles where they did take advantage of the system hardware. Here they really kept the game from getting too fancy but keeping the games look and feel intact and nice to look at.

The game is an RPG game, where you have to travel around discover things on your own and develop from there. As with most RPG games, this game has lots of dialogue and I mean a lot. This game doesn’t have speech only cute sound effects so; you really have to keep on reading to understand the story and instructions of the game. If you’re not a reader, you’re eyes are going to be tired soon, but if you don’t read it, you’ll miss a lot of the great parts in the game since they have interesting comedy and characters that seems to be very memorable. Through out the game, you’ll be given a curse, which turns out to be more of an advantage like turning into a paper airplane or turning yourself flat or turning into a paper tube. These paper abilities make the game’s look and feel more fun to play. As most RPG games, you’ll discover places that you have to go back to each time you get a certain ability and try out if you’ll discover new locations.

Interestingly the game’s combat basically plays like a Final Fantasy game where you get a turn to do your moves. Mario has a selection of jump attacks, hammer attack, items and special. Other characters have pretty much the same options but no special menu. Badges which you get through out the game gives Mario more abilities like more special jumps and hammer attacks, badges also has more abilities that help you in combat and in more of Mario’s adventures. Timing really matters in this game because most of your moves from Mario and other characters require some timing on when to press this and that. It’s not really complicated because it’s always shown on the screen on what you need to do, which is pretty simple enough. The only thing that is not shown is the ability to time your jumping attack.

What’s interesting in the combat system is the need for an audience. In every battle, you are required to battle out on stage, at the start of the game, you usually have a few interested people watching, but it gets interesting when you get really good in battle. The more fans that you have in the game, you get more star power. Star powers give you special abilities which will be given to you as you discover more of the adventure. The audience reacts to your game too, if they don’t like you they’ll throw trash at you, but if they like you, they’ll through power ups for you to use. The audience reacts in real time so during a turn it doesn’t matter if it’s his or your turn, the audience may throw something at you, and you have to react as fast as possible when that happens. You can stop the person throwing the item or you can just do nothing and get the item which can be good or bad for you.

The game plays very well at a moderate level. It’s not really complicated to play the game since it teaches you along the way. This means you don’t have all the abilities at the start of the game. You have to gain them. At the start you’re only given certain moves which you could play the game properly, but as you get farther, you tend to discover more controls on how to play the game. The game is easy to control and gives you enough time to practice each new move so that you can get used to the controls better.

The music is really refreshing to hear, nice and simple, every location has its own theme, and even some of the characters have their own theme music. The tones are simple something I’d listen over and over, I can’t wait to get a copy of this soundtrack. The sound effects again are great and Mario’s voice is back too, which reminds me of the first time I ever heard of Mario from N64.

The game will remind you of what you need to do within the game. There are several ways to figure out what to do so that you won’t get lost. You can ask a fortune teller, he can give you clues on what to do. You could talk to people around the town, a few will eventually tell you or clue you in on what you’re objectives are. There’s also EMAIL, where you get email from people you’ve met in the game. There will be difficult times ahead but as most RPG’s are, take you’re time, don’t rush into things and you’ll get through it eventually. It’s not impossible.

There are also mini side quests in the game which can divert a little of your attention. This game is not like Fable where you are given several quests to build up, this is a story oriented game which doesn’t divert too much of it’s attention. You’ll be given small quest which some are easy some seem impossible, but give yourself time to build up and you’ll be able to easily finish the task in no time.

The story progresses quite nicely and this RPG is really story oriented while balancing a lot of fun game play. The battles are traditional but refreshing because of the real time element of the audience. Would I be playing it again after I’ve finished it? Not really since it’s a story oriented game, but the game is worth owning because of the unique look, style and fun game play for several hours to days.