review

All posts tagged review

Super Mario 3D Land Review! (3DS)

Posted by The Gameanater on March 14, 2012
Posted in: Reviews. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a Comment

At first, my review was simply going to say “BUY. THIS. GAME. NOW!” But I figured you’d want to know why you must have this game. Here we go.

What you need to know:

Guess what? princess Peach has been kidnapped by Bowser, and Mario has to rescue her. Yes, the story is that deep and thought-provoking.

ESRB Rating: E

Platformer, 1 Player

Review:

The 3D effects

The 3D effects in this game are truly outstanding. Well, it may not be as “IN-YOUR-FACE!” as Star Fox 64 3D, but it still has an excellent sense of depth. Just look at it. You’ll know what I mean.

The level design

Levels are very well designed, to. About 98% of my deaths have not been because of poorly designed levels (or because of glitches), they have been my own fault. There are some pretty cleverly designed levels, to, for example; in one level several platforms appear and disappear in time with the music. Though I’ve always hated the auto-scrolling levels and this game has some of them. Thankfully, those ones are few and far between.

What?! No multiplayer?

One of the most surprising things in this game is that there is no multiplayer of any type. Which is a huge step down from New Super Mario bros. Wii. There isn’t even a local competitive multiplayer mode! It would have been very enjoyable if you where able to play through the game with a friend.

Streetpass is used well, but could have been a little better

The Streetpass in this game is used pretty well, you can play through these little “Mystery Boxes” things and beat them to earn Star Coins (the form of currency in the game) ,shere them through Streetpass with others (and also share your best level clear times)… and that’s it. It’s not bad, it just leaves a little to be desired.

The Tanooki Suit returns!

Though the suit no longer provides the ability to fly, and it now only lets you flutter down to the ground and spin-attack enemies, I’m sure everyone’s happy to have it back. :)

Judgement

This is an outstanding game overall. My main problem was the complete lack of multiplayer, and that cannot be forgiven. And I do wish there was some more suits to use (as Nintendo Power once said, “The goofier Mario looks, the more deadly he becomes”), but still, except for the no-multiplayer thing, they’re all minor complaints. This game is why you must own a 3DS.

Rating: 5/5 stars -Fantastic

Shadow The Hedgehog Review (Gamecube)

Posted by The Gameanater on November 28, 2011
Posted in: Reviews. Tagged: , , , , . 1 comment

ESRB rating: E10+

what you need to know:

Released in 2005 for the Gamecube, PS2 and Xbox, Shadow The Hedgehog puts you in control of, uh, Shadow The Hedgehog, who is suffering from amnesia and must collect the 7 Chaos Emeralds to regain his memory of his past. The way you play (completing dark, normal or hero missions) determines the games ending.

This review is to also help celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Sonic series. :D

It’s Shadow in his own game!

The first time I saw him in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, he quickly became one of my favorite characters in the Sonic series. I like that he gets his own game.

Graphics are really good

The cinematics in particular are really good. You can really see a lot of detail on the characters. Like the fur on Shadow or Dr. Eggman’s mustache or shine on the aliens. The in-game graphics, well not AS good, are still pretty good.

Swearing

This is the first and only sonic game that I know of where some of the characters actually swear. It’s also the only really big problem I had with the game. Thankfully, the swear words are kept only to the “d” word and “h” word, but it still kind of irks me…

Nothing gets in the way of Shadow!

Great action and speed

Whats a Sonic game without speed? Not much, really. Shadow The Hedgehog does a good job of keeping the speed the games are known for. It’s really cool to watch Shadow run massive loop-de-loops, go flying above huge pits and grind across thin steel beams over bottomless pits.

The action is also great. In this game the developers finally let Shadow pick up and use the guns that fall off of the enemies, so you give them a taste of their own medecine. Shadow can also drive cars now, instead of only being able to destroy them. And if you don’t like that, most of the time the guns and cars are optional.

Minor complaints

First off is that most of the stages that take place on the A.R.K. are way to slow and maze-like, the camera can sometimes take a bad position. And although it’s neat that you can decide whether to play as a hero or villain there are some problems with this. Let’s say for example you decide in the middle of the stage to change from playing the hero mission to playing the dark mission, when you do though, the guys on the dark side will still attack you. It’s rather annoying to have to navigate past your so-called “allies” to stay alive. These aren’t very big complaints, though.

Judgment:

Shadow The Hedgehog is a pretty good game. There are flaws present, and I don’t like how some of the characters swear, and that’s the main thing that prevents this game from getting a five-star rating, but you should definitely get this game if you’re a Sonic fan. Prehaps the flaws in this game could be fixed in a 3D Classics version or, better yet, a long over-due sequel.

final rating: Four and a half stars; pretty good.

Played though the entire game over several years.

Review Ratings And What They Mean.

Posted by The Gameanater on November 7, 2011
Posted in: Reviews. Tagged: , . Leave a Comment

Here are what my review ratings mean.

ONE STAR: TERRIBLE. Avoid this game at all costs. A game rated this is NOT worth buying.

TWO STARS: BELOW AVERAGE. This Game is so-so. It may or may not be worth buying.

THREE STARS: AVERAGE. This game is worth buying. There are some bad parts, but they are made-up for with the good stuff.

FOUR STARS: ABOVE AVERAGE. This is a pretty good game. It’s worth buying.

FIVE STARS: EXCELLENT. A must-have. Definitely worth the money.

HALF-A-STAR: HORRIBLE. Buying this is equivalent to burning your money.

:)

Half-Life 2 Review (PC)

Posted by The Gameanater on November 6, 2011
Posted in: Reviews. Tagged: , , . 2 comments

What you need to know:

HL2 is the sequel to Half-Life. And also one of the BEST PC games ever made. Taking place 5 years after the first game, the world has become a very different place (the bad kind of different). Did I mention it’s one of the best PC games ever made?

Review:

Story telling is good

The first game didn’t have much of a story. I’m not going to tell you the story of either game. (Hey! You have to play the games!)  But I’m glad there’s more of a story this time. I’m also glad it’s deeper and more thought-provoking.

Action is good, too

Better than the first game in fact. It’s paced better, and the AI (artificial intelligence) is smarter than the first game. There are very few not-well-thought-out spots. (Most of these are in the chapter Ravenholm where you fight nothing but zombies.)

Puzzles…not so much

This is a problem found in all the Half-Life games.  They feel unnecessary and are mostly frustrating. The worst of them is the first one you encounter, the valve puzzle.  You have to find a valve and turn it to make the water rise so you can get through a hole in the wall. Sounds simple, right? Well, the valve is placed in worst spot ever (on top of a hard to reach pipe). Who was the bonehead who made that building? Thankfully, most of the puzzles are short.

The Combine recruited some stupid humans

Although the AI is generally better then the first game, there’s one enemy that is dumb compared to the rest. The Civil “Protection” Unit, AKA the Metro Cop. (In case you don’t know, Metro Cops are normal humans working for the Combine. And the Combine are cyberneticly enhanced humans and humanoid aliens, most of which are the latter.) The Cops just seem to refuse to take cover that’s right in front of them. And sometimes they’ll run in to each others’ bullets killing themselves. Or sometimes they’ll take cover behind a barrel that’s about to explode, causing their own death.

No friendly fire this time

In the first game you could kill your own buddies by mistake (or on purpose) or vice versa. This time, you can’t. This is good because sometimes your buddies will run into your bullets, or you’ll accidently fire your weapon, or you will accidently run into your buddies’ line of fire.

Difficulty is more consistent

In the first game the difficulty was a bit uneven sometimes. It’s much better in this game.

I would of liked to fight more aliens

In the first game you got to fight a lot of aliens, which I thought was pretty cool. This time, sadly, you only get to fight Headcrabs, Zombies, Barnacles, Antloins, and Combine. There are no gargantuan Gargantuas, no armored, hulking, hornet-shooting Grunts, no massive Headcrab Queens, no gigantic Tentacles, no poison-spitting Bullsquids (speaking of that, it’s rude and gross, which is why they deserved to be defeated), no Houndeyes and no flying Xen Masters.

Judgment:

HL2 is a great game. It has a few flaws, but the good stuff make-up for them.

RATING: FIVE STARS

EXCELLENT