Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter

Yay… more Star Wars…

 Ever wondered how the Jedis fought in the sky? That’s what this game answers.

I have no idea where the story for this game came from, because I don’t remember any of these characters in the movies, except battle droids (Roger, roger). The story isn’t that great but at least it makes sense every once in a while.

The worlds are fairly expansive and allows you to explore to a extent and some worlds even have Easter eggs (Woot!). You get special Jedi powers in the game to use like zapping ships out of the sky and whatnot. You can also unlock a nice array of ships including the clone transport and the Slave.

The main problem with this game is it’s too short, because just progressing through the story line will just take about maybe ten hours and with all the special, hidden secondary objectives, it might take fifteen hours.

The graphics for this game are surprisingly good and not much is random. The sound is pretty good but the constant sound of the blasters is enough to drive one insane. The music is the Star Wars norm so I guess it’s good. This game is a good difficulty level with it not too hard but not too easy.

This is a pretty good game if you like flying, Jedi powers, and Star Wars.

I give Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter a six out of ten.

Pokemon Pinball

Pinball time!

Pokemon Pinball is what started off all of the Pokemon spin-offs that have come and gone but never stayed long. This game is pretty much pinball meets Pokemon so you’ll spend the majority of your time trying to catch all one-hundred fifty-one (This is correct for when this game came out but not anymore) Pokemon by battling and training them by well… hitting a ball around.

There’s two different tables to play on but everyone I know who has every played this game always plays the blue table (It’s much easier…), but at least there’s another one to mix it up every once in a while. You travel through different parts of Kanto as you go through a pinball round and each contains it’s own unique Pokemon. There’s a few boss battles along the way ranging from a Meowth to a Mewtwo.

The graphics aren’t anything special so I’m not going to mention anymore about them. The sound is the norm for pinball games and the music is catchy but not annoying.

This is a decent game for younger kids if you haven’t upgraded to the DS yet.

I give Pokemon Pinball a four out of ten.

Battlefield 2: Modern Combat

Time for the modern battlefield.

 Battlefield 2: Modern Combat is somewhat similar to Battalion Wars I reviewed a little while ago except it’s more realistic, the story is longer, and it has a great multi-player. This game runs as a first-person shooter with some real-time strategy thrown into the story mode. Like all army games the story takes place during war, but not in the same wars that games like Medal of Honor and Call of Duty have SEVERELY overused. Instead, this game invents its own war. The war is that China gets a little warmongering and Mongolia is the closest thing at the time. As the game progresses you’ll play as the Mongols, the Americans and I think the Chinese (Can’t remember exactly), so that gives you several views of the war and how it impacts the countries.

The game play almost reminds me of Star Wars: Battlefront with the way you spawn onto the battlefield with a choice of certain weapons but it seems to only do that in multi-player. There’s quite a few of missions to go through with all kinds of units ranging from infantry to helicopters. The sound is nearly perfect and very fitting with almost no repetitive lines or sounds. The music is covered up throughout much of the game due to the gun-fire but when you do find a quiet hiding-hole, you’ll find that the music is almost soothing (That’s good for snipers). The story mode is very difficult and it will take a lot of time to get through but it’s so rewarding when you do.

The multi-player is great for the PS2 online because of it’s small amount of lag in forty people rooms, which is great compared to some games that lag in one-on-one rooms. And there’s a lot of online worlds, but everyone seems to end up playing the exact same two worlds.

This game is pretty good if you don’t plan on upgrading to the newer consoles any time soon, but if you’ve already upgraded, there’s better games to choose from.

I give Battlefield 2: Modern Combat a seven out of ten.

Bomberman Max Blue Hero

A man who likes to blow stuff up with bombs… hmm… that reminds me of someone…

 Today I’m reviewing Bomberman Max Blue Hero which also has a counter-part Red Hero which at the core the exact same games except that each has it’s own levels and collectible monsters. This game stays true to its Bomberman roots with the same view and idea except instead of destroying other people, you’re destroying a bunch of monsters on your way to saving the universe from “Brain”.

There’s plenty of levels and all of them are pretty much the same but still somewhat different. As you go through the game you’ll come across some little creatures that you can level up and battle almost Pokemon style if you and your friend have GameBoy Colors with working sensory thingys on top. Also, when you go through the worlds you’ll find special warps that can only be activated by a TV remote pointing at that sensor which unlocks certain games depending on which button you push (Push the big, red, shiny button?). And that sensor is also how the multi player takes place. The multi player consists of two things mixing your monsters and battling them, which I’ve only done once and can barely remember, but I do remember owning that guy…

The graphics are decent for the GBC but not great. The sound is nice but repetitive and the music is VERY repetitive at times. This game is very easy till you get to the last battle and then it is RIDICULOUSLY hard [Stabs Brain and his infinite forms].

This is very good game for younger kids but most hardcore gamers will probably hate it.

I give Bomberman Max Blue Champion a four out of ten.

Destroy All Humans 2

It’s human destroying time!

Destroy All Humans 2 is definitely a different kind of game from what I normally play. There’s really no story at the beginning of the game and it takes a while for it to actually develop into something that “might” be called a story. You play as a perverted alien named cryptosporidium in the 60’s (I remembered that name with without even thinking about it).

The game play is fairly repetitive because you are either killing, body snatching, or well… killing. There’s only eight weapons in the game and most of them are ridiculously powerful but at least they all aren’t the same. There’s also 4 weapons for your flying saucer but you’ll probably just end up using the basic laser beam for all your menial tasks. You’ll unlock a few abilities as you go along but most of them are worthless. There’s a ton of missions but most of them aren’t even entertaining. There aren’t that many enemies so you’ll probably spend most of time killing cops or Russian Mafia. There’s five expansive worlds ranging from Russia to America to the moon, but most of the world is just wasted.

The graphics aren’t very good for being a late PS2 game competing with stuff like MGS3. The sound can fry sometimes and make some really loud screeching noise for no reason, so the sound isn’t exactly good. The music is VERY repetitive, playing about four songs the entire game except for a few missions and boss battles. This game is very easy with just a few challenging missions here and there but nothing to hard. This game also includes a lot of crude and sexual comments through out the game, so this game is not for your ten-year-old.

Overall, this game is just a mindless, repetitive, and some-what humorous, kill-fest, but nothing is great about about it and a lot of stuff isn’t even good.

I give Destroy All Humans an four out of ten.

Kirby’s Star Stacker

Stacks of stars?

Kirby’s star stacker is a puzzle game for the Gameboy that is very similar to Tetris in a way. The whole point of this story-less game is to stack blocks that contain star blocks and little critters and try to get as many star block between matching creatures as possible to get more points and pile up tons of combos at once. There’s a few different modes including infinite level mode and puzzle mode, but they are the exact same premise. The music is catchy and I enjoyed it quite a bit and the sound is accurate for the game and very enjoyable even though it’s the same throughout the game. There’s no color in the game just black and white but that’s normal. The graphics are like those from Kirby’s Adventure for the NES (I might review that soon…), so they’re good for the GameBoy. This game isn’t very difficult but it is quite addicting and it will keep you on it for about a week at a time. Kirby’s Star Stacker is a very good puzzle game if you have a GB, GBC, or GBA.

I give Kirby’s Star Stacker for the GB a six out of ten.

Podcast.

I have just gotten a page up for my podcasts and currently it just includes a Age of Mythology review, but it should be expanding in the near future!

Battalion Wars

Wow, three in one day.

I’ve been keeping my eye on this game for about a year waiting for it to go on sale, so when it went on sale for $9.99; I had to get it. Battalion Wars is an RTS (Real Time Strategy) and third-person shooter mixed into one in a decent way. You still have the micro-management of an RTS but you also you get the shooter aspects of the TPS (Third-Person Shooter). The story is quite well planned and will keep you somewhat into whether you want to acknowledge the story or not. The storyline is that you are the Frontier, an American-like country, and you are at the brink of war with the Tundra, an Russia-like country, but don’t worry it’s not Medal of Honor. The graphics are very cute and fun with each and every unit completely unique from all the others. The characters are very original and entertaining and the cut-scenes are very clean (Art-wise) and awesome looking.The gameplay is quite fun and it always seem to keep throwing new things at you at every second. The sound is very unique and non-repetitive, but I had a hard time noticing the music during gameplay. The voices for the characters might not be original but they seem very innovative. The game can get very difficult in timed situations but other than that it’s very balanced. The few bad sides really bring this game down to an almost mediocre level. The first one is the story is WAY TO SHORT. I beat it in 10-12 hours (That’s painfully short for me, because I like to at least put in 20-25 hours).  The second really bad side is related to the story mode. Since the story is so short, they should’ve put in a multiplayer of some kind, but there’s NO multiplayer of any kind at all! If you ask me this game was probably a test by Nintendo to see what the market was wanting at the time. This game is great but it’s short-ness and lack of mulitplayer really hurts it, but it is a good game if you have a eight-year-old that wants to shoot stuff and all you have is gorey shooters.

Gameplay:4/10

Story:6/10

Music/Sound:8/10

Graphics:8/10

Difficulty:9/10

Overall:6.5/10

Metroid: Fusion

You guys are being spoiled today with the hand-helds.

This Metroid game has one of the best storylines out of all the Metroids including Metroid Prime 1 and 2. The story is so engrossing for a non-RPG handheld game. It will suck you in from point A with the mysterious X and keep you in till you fly off in victory. You are probably wondering why I’m talking so much about the story. It’s because the story was great and it FINALLY refreshed the Metroid series. The graphics are the best Metroid graphics short of MP1/2 and MP:Hunters which are 3D so that’s a duh… The sounds are really well placed and varied and The music is just plain awesome. This game might give a little difficulty the first time through but once you figure out where everything is it becomes more entertaining and less difficult (Yes, I’ve played through it several times and I’m still not bored of it). The enemies can be repetitive in some of the worlds but they are varied enough to not be overly-repetitive (Like Pac-Man). There’s a ton of power-ups from the old games but I don’t think there’s anything new in that department. This Metroid game is a MUST-have for Metroid fans and is a really good game for anyone else.

Gameplay:8/10

Story:9/10

Music/Sound:8/10

Graphics:5/10

Difficulty:9/10

Overall:8/10

Pac-Man: Special Color Edition

Wow, special “color” edition, this game must be old…

Here’s my first GameBoy game (Not GameBoy color). This review is going to be fairly short since the game itself is very short. This game has the normal Pac-Man with whatever the amount of levels it has in the arcade version. It also has a version exclusive Pac-Attack which is kinda like Tetris and Pac-Man combined. There’s no story here unless it’s about a gluttonous pizza head on a skittle-eating rampage. The graphics are just as arcadey as the arcade version so not much there. The sound is the same boring woppa-woppa sound from the arcades but the Pac-Attack has a very catchy tune. But still Pac-Man is too annoyingly hard to beat. This game is good if you’re still stuck in that 80’s time warp or if you found it for free laying around somewhere, but it’s not worth buying unless you’re a collector.

Gameplay:3/10

Story:0/10

Music/Sound:4/10

Graphics:1/10

Difficulty:5/10

Overall:2.5/10