Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3

Yummy! It’s Yoshi time.

This game is very sadly overlooked in the gaming industry but I can’t quite figure out why. The story goes that the Mario brothers are kidnapped and a Yoshi rescues Mariofrom a Koopa wizard guy and leaves Luigi to do whatever. Anyways, you end up having to run through the weird and imaginative Yoshi world to save Luigi (Why couldn’t we just leave him there, because the only game he appears as the main character in is Luigi’s Mansion which definitely not a good game). There’s quite a few different kinds of enemies ranging from Koopas (A staple in every Yoshi’s diet) to giant jello-ey blob thingies (That don’t look to appetizing). Instead of Mario’s jumping and Fire Flower throwing you have Yoshi’s jumping (Gasp!), eating, and egg throwing ( Seriously though, no matter how hard you throw an egg, it isn’t going to hurt THAT much). When you’re eating enemies yo can swallow them and fart out little Yoshi eggs or you can spit them out like in Super Mario World. The worlds are decently diversified but they are still just to stereotyped (Lava, ice water… you get the point). There’s an original Mario Bros. multiplayer or single player game but if you’re that desperate for multiplayer action, I feel pity on you. The graphics are decent for the GBA but not for anything else. The sound is really well done but the kiddy music WILL drive you insane after more than two hours of playing in a row.Overall, the game is pretty good compared to other GBA games but there’s a few flaws here and there that should’ve been smoothed out on the transfer from SNES to GBA (It was originally on the SNES).

Gameplay:8/10

Story:3/10

Music/Sound:5/10

Graphics:8/10

Difficulty:7/10

Overall:6.5/10

The New Super Mario Bros.

Yay! Here’s another DS game.

As the name implies this game is pretty much just an updated verion of the old Super Mario Bros. for the NES with a few new additions that don’t make much of a difference. The storyline is basicly the same as from most of the Marios except instead of Bowser kidnapping Princess Peach; it’s Baby Bowser (Gasp!), so there’s no difference there. Another change are the mega and mini mushrooms that I think were introduced in Mario Party (Not sure…). The mega mushroom makes you really REALLY big so you can crush anything and everything that’s in your path. The mini mushroom is the exact opposite; it shrinks you down to a size so small that it’s hard to harm a Goomba (Wow, that’s small), but it does give you the ability to enter smaller pipes. The most noticeable changes I saw were the wall-jumps and ground pounds from the previous 3D Mario games but they’re more of an hassel than an help, because what’s more annoying than wall-jumping into a gaping hole of darkness when you don’t want to. There’s a few new enemies here and there but most of them only appear in one world. But other than that, there’s not much of a change to gameplay. The graphics are pretty cool because they mix 3D Mario with his 2D counterpart so it looks more realistic (For a Mario game). The sound hasn’t changed that much and the music stays humble to it’s roots. But, there’s one thing that REALLY got on my nerves, the ending; the ending is UNBELIEVABLY anti-climatic and that’s probably the worst part of the game. There are some mini-games but they’re not worth your time but the Mario Vs. Luigi mode isn’t that bad, but still it’s not great either.

Gameplay:9/10

Story:4/10

Music/Sound:8/10

Difficulty:7/10

Overall:7/10

New YouTube video

Eh, I know I’ve been slacking lately, (darn Age of Mythology) but I havn’t been doing absolutely nothing. Here’s my new video.

Zelda: The Windwaker

Wow, a Zelda game I’ve actually enjoyed (Stabs Legend of Zelda 2 for the NES).

Since this game has gotten so many decent reviews, I thought I would try it out. The story can be engrossing at times and at other times you could stab it with your big, fake, plastic Master Sword. Anyways, the story starts out on your birthday and you get these green Zelda-ish because you’ve come of age or something and those are the same clothes that were worn by the legendary hero or what-not and then your sister gets kidnapped (Well, I guess you need some reason or another to get off your lazy butt). The gameplay is really fun, but can be so easy at times that you’ll want to quit and play something like Age of Mythology (That’s what I did). There’s a TON of collectable thingies, but alot of them are only good for one use and after that you’ll probably never use them again (I.E. Treasure Maps). But there are about 10 to 15 items that are very overused and you’re constantly going to the start menu and assigning them to buttons. The world is HUGE but once you get a certain song it’ll become much smaller, but that is DEFINITELY a good thing, because it can get really boring sailing around that huge map. There’s alot of enemies and each have a specific way of getting killed but it seems you’re always fighting the same ones (BAD POINT).

The graphics are absolutely awesome except for a few unfinished animations that drove me crazy and the water always coming in your boat. The music is nice and fairly un-repetitive and the sound is unique, but every once in a while you’ll get annoyed but that’s perfectly normal.

Gameplay:7/10

Story:9/10

Music/Sound:6/10

Difficulty:6/10

Overall:7/10

Animal Crossing: Wide World

Just like I promised earlier this month or late last month (I don’t remember); here’s a Nintendo DS game review.

I’ve already gotten the GC version of Animal Crossing, so I have something to compare it to. Like AC for the GC, there’s NO way to beat the game (GASP!). The storyline is pretty much the same except that instead of coming to town on a train you come to town in a taxi driven by the guy who used to captain your boat. At least there’s a ton more things to buy and do, especially the events there’s quite a few more of those and item-wise, there’s about 700 more items. The touch screen makes it alot easier to move around, talk to people, and dig holes (Yay!). I havn’t been able to really test out the Wi-Fi, but from what I’ve seen it’s really nice especially if you have an wireless router at your house. I’ve seen a few online videos etc. on the AC:WW Wi-Fi and it’s really nice and easy to run. If you ask me, AC:WW was made for the DS, because it’s just better, especially since the GC graphics for AC are pathetic.

The sound and music is pretty much the same from the GC version, so that isn’t a very good point to the game and the graphics thrive on the DS, so they are really good.

Gameplay:7/10

Story:2/10

Music/Sound:5/10

Multiplayer:8/10

Overall:5.5/10

SSX

Ok, time for the original SSX that started it all.

Hmm… SSX that sounds kinda foul, but anyways time to tear up the slopes with your high-fiber snowboards (Yum!). This game is really fun, but not quite as good as SSX3 which, by far, was the best. There’s a lot of different characters, but sadly the only differences are the clothes and boards, which don’t make any difference at all. Once all the stats are maxed on the characters, they all become EQUAL in skills (like the world sometimes should be), but in video games that is just laziness by the designers. The story is non-existent; even if there was one who cares; we just want to do some mad tricks right? There’s quite a few tracks ranging from the middle of a city, to the sewers, and to the pinball machine (LOL!). There’s a nice amount of tricks, but all the characters get the same exact tricks. The multiplayer is really fun because what’s better than giving your friend a snowball down their shirt? (You can’t really do that on the game, duh…)

The graphics are really cool and wild, which the game loses as it progresses through the series. The sound is accurate and fun and the music is awesome.

Gameplay:7/10

Story:1/10

Music/Sound:8/10

Multiplayer:7/10

Overall:6/10

Eighteen Wheeler: American Pro Trucker

This was one of the first Arcade to Platform game I think I ever bought (Kinda, wish I didn’t).

This game is quite fun even if you have no one for multiplayer. It features the story mode from the arcade version and has a few extras here and there, but nothing amazingly original. The story game is two-player unlike the arcade version, but it’s just not long enough, because they should’ve added a few more story missions to at least lengthen the game past 1 hour. The story is pretty much driving from point A to point B before the time runs out and also beat your rival in the process which is very simple after a few drives across the course. In between the (somewhat) long drives there are parking challenges which like the driving just takes a few times to learn. There’s another optional parking challenge on the side for fun which will keep you entertained for a while. The multiplayer is very linear with the back-and-forth driving for story mode and and the split-screen money-making race, but at least it’s fairly fun.

The graphics are barely above that of the N64 because they tweaked them just enough to get away with it.

The music isn’t that repetitive, but the constant n00bish honking of the horn your multiplayer buddy is doing can drive one insane very quickly.

Gameplay:5/10

Story:1/10

Music/Sound:4/10

Multiplayer:6/10

Overall:4/10

Micro Machines

Ehh… sorry for no reviews in a while between Zelda: The Legend of the Windwaker and Age of Mythology: Titans I’ve been fairly busy, so I’ll just stick a review on right now while I’m in between games.

Why can’t all those toy-makers STOP making stupid video games spin-offs that are more of an utter annoyance (especially for me since I HAVE to beat the game or I won’t be happy) than anything else. This game is pretty pathetic; Pong is better than this game if you ask me. It’s very kiddy (Duh…) and yes, it might look like there’s a ton of variety in it, but there is absolutely NO VARIETY. All the tracks are annoyingly similar, all the cars seem to have the same stats, and the characters are exactly the same except with different looks (Not that it makes a difference…). The weapons are very basic; this game has the exact same weapons of every other battle racing game I’ve ever seen and it’s missing the good weapons from those other games. Yes, there is 48 different vehicles with 5 different versions of each, but when you’re picking them it’s picking for looks not stats because all the stats are SO similar. And the reason the story hasn’t been mentioned is, because like every other kiddy spin-off racing game, THERE IS NO STORY. The multiplayer isn’t even a good enough reason to play the game even if the multiplayer is the best part of the game.

The graphics are pretty mediocre for racing games so there’s nothing nice to look at. The music is as repetitive as it comes. and the sounds are annoying because there’s nothing more annoying than a reving RC engine for 3 hours with no difference in sound whether you’re stopped or moving at top speed.

Gameplay:3/10

Story:0/10

Music/Sound:3/10

Multiplayer:4/10

Overall:2.5/10

Activison Anthology

Retro games on a PS2?

Activision Anthology is pretty much all the games your parents grew up playing on the Atari 2600 (Yikes!), including favorites like Pitfall, Kaboom!, and Starmaster (OMG! That’s scarey!). Few people who actually read this blog will have any idea what those games are and if they do they have probably forgotten all about them. I think Atari was just wasting their time on this; they should’ve put it on the GBA or something else that’s handheld. There is a multiplayer, but I wouldn’t know anybody who would actually play this game with you, because they would rather go play with their WII, PS3 or something like that.

I shouldn’t even be writing about graphics unless you have time warped for the 80’s and think they are like the definition of top of the line graphics.

The music is something your parents will start Disco-ing to or something I wouldn’t know. It includes songs from Blondie, Missing Persons, and Twisted Sister (Yes, I know they are musicians anybody under the age of 20 dosn’t know about).

Gameplay: 4/10

Story: 0/10

Music/sound: 4/10

Multiplayer: 2/10

Overall: 2/10

Star Wars Battlefront

I know the Star Wars series makes quite a few good, there is always a bad one to go with it. Anyways, at least this one is probably one of the better ones, unlike Star Wars: Super Bombad Racing, I reviewed a little while ago, which wasn’t even worth being reviewed it was so bad. This game follows the same storyline as the Star War series, except it might have the same battles, they’re still just slightly different than the movies, which I didn’t expect, but it made the game sort of refreshing. There are a ton of different units, vehicles, guns, and other thingies throughout the game, so you’re never doing the same thing, except for the killing part(Duh…). And another good part is that you can play on both sides of the battle, so you could be a battle droid or a clone if you wanted to. The multi-player is pretty much single player with more human players, because there isn’t anything different, except the annoying campers (people who don’t move but keep killing you) and vehicle hogs.

The graphics are good, but what did you expect a bunch of stick-men running around?

There’s alot of Star Wars soundtracks in the game and I think (I’m not sure though) that there are a few new ones (I’m not exactly a Star Wars freak).

This game is really good, but they should’ve added some more stuff for the multi-player.

Ahem, I’m now introducing a number rating system (Woot!), so the games can be more easily evaluated by you, the reader, especially if I have mixed feelings about a game.

Gameplay: 8/10

Story: 7/10

Music/sound: 7/10

Multiplayer: 6/10

Overall: 7.5/10

Yes, you may think I’m fairly critical, but hey it’s not sugar-coated so that’s always good.