One of the best Sonic games ever. Remade!

I’ve always been a pretty big Nintendrone, and I know that the picture to the left has probably just lost me a lot of potential readers, especially after that whole “Sonic Team hates Sonic” stuff.

But, have I told you to get a bad game yet?

Anyway…

Sonic Adventure 2 Battle/Adventure DX

These games were originally on the Dreamcast… That beautiful failure. Even though it was the easiest thing to pirate games on, it had some of the best games I’ve seen in a long, long time. The Sonic Adventure games were  certainly one of those golden games. In the first, you play as Sonic, Tails,  Knuckles, Big the cat, Amy Rose and E-102 Gamma. In the second, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge and Eggman. The gameplay for Sonic and Knuckles is the same style as the first, Shadow and Rouge borrow Sonic and Knuckle’s gameplay, respectivly. Eggman and Tails are in walking mechs, a little different than how Tails played in the last game. Anyway, in Adventure DX, the story is Sonic and friends have to stop Eggman from raising Chaos to his perfect form with the Chaos Emeralds, and in Adventure 2 Battle, they have to stop Eggman from blowing up the world with the cannon aboard the ARK space station. If you like Sonic at all, if you like fast paced games at all then pick these babies up. The gameplay is solid and the final bosses will blow your mind from the awesome they create. Live and Learn, baby.
(continue reading…)

I was never really into the shooter scene until recently. I’ve taken notice to the fair number of them coming out of the last two or three years. Yeah, there are a lot of shooters before now, but it just feels like we’re overwhelmed with them, huh? No worries, I’ll give you the low-down on what to get from now and then.

Duke Nukem 3D

If you’ve ever played a Duke Nukem game, you’d know why I’m recommending it. The games are pretty damn good. You play as the lovable Duke, who returns from fighting aliens to find his lovable planet turned into a not so lovable wasteland. You gotta shoot the aliens up, saves the babes, watch the porn, drink the brews. The game has an amazing sense of humor, quoting movies like Dirty Harry and Duke’s phrases. If anything, pick this one up for the laughs. It’s originally on the PC where it has a ton of expansions, and it was on the PS1, N64 and a few other consoles under different names.
(continue reading…)

My entire life I’ve played at least one RPG among my conglomerate. Everyone’s played one once, I’m sure. It’s hard to say you’re a gamer without trying one of at least every kind of game in my opinion. I’ve played quite a few in my time, and I’m gonna tell you one thing right now. Most of them are damn good.

Diablo(2)

These games redefined RPG for a lot of people. Diablo has been a staple for any real RPG player since the original. The first one was made on the PC, and ported to the Playstation by EA. I like the PC version better, but both are good. In Diablo, you pick a class and are thrown into a world where demons are messing shit up and you are the only one (wo)man enough to kick their sorry asses. The interface is probably why this game is such a winner.

See that monster? Click it. Oh, you hit it!

You’re a mage, you say? Well, right click it!

Oh, it burst into flames and died! Awright!

Of course, as you play it, the game gets harder, the enemies come at you more, you find unique and boss monsters and you get better equipment. Thank god this game has online play, because with friends (Or total strangers), the game only gets more exciting. It’s even got a decent story, to boot! Can’t wait for Diablo 3!

Matt Uelmen is one of the best composers I have ever EVER heard. EVER.

(continue reading…)

DO NOT LET DR. MARIO TOUCH YOU HE IS NOT A REAL DOCTOR

There’s one thing I’ve always noticed about kids today: They play so much crap. That’s not to say every new game that comes out is crap, either. I just lost a week to the Capital Wasteland of Fallout 3 (Along with a few days of pure awesome after I found the Experimental MIRV), and am totally happy with it, but, I also rediscovered my NES in the basement. Here are a few must play games for that lovable box.

First up: Dr. Mario.

I dunno about you, but I love puzzle games. A simple game like Tetris or Bejeweled can suck me in for hours and often makes me miss appointments, work, etc… And Dr. Mario is certainly one of those time obliterators. Dr. Mario’s objective is simple: There are viruses in the bottle, use the pills that are given to you to line up color and eliminate the viruses.  Sounds easy, right? Well, it is… For a while. Like Tetris, as the levels pass, it gets faster. There are more viruses, too. If you like puzzle games, this is something to pick up. It even came back in many reincarnations!

(continue reading…)

In all honesty, this game is awesome.

The entire game itself is amazing. The graphics are good, the gameplay is good, and the story isn’t a pile of fermenting garbage.

In Dead Space, you play as an engineer named Isaac Clarkes who comes aboard a ship called the “Ishimura” while responding to a distress call. Seems like your average Sci-fi shooter…

Then the lights go out.

If this game doesn’t scare you at some point you either:

A. Are lying

B. Are lying
(continue reading…)

Let me start out by saying Bioware is good at what they do: Making RPGs.This game is no exception.

Sonic Chronicles is a fairly decent game with some oddities. My real complaint was the kiddy sound effects. Every time something goes down in battle you get a cartoonish “boink” sound. Not something to go on about, but it is mildly annoying. My real thought on this game is that it should have been on PSP. The story is your normal Sonic mess-up: Knuckles gets kidnapped and Sonic and company need to rescue him.

I gotta stop here: How the devil does Knuckles get kidnapped all the time? Isn’t he a badass warrior type? I mean, yeah he can be overpowered like any person, but he’s one of the strongest guys in the Sonic Universe. Then all of the sudden BAM someone bigger and badder than Knuckles comes around. That’s one of Sonic’s biggest flaws right now: New characters. They should have stopped when all they had was Sonic, Amy, Tails, Knuckles and Robotnik. That was perfect. Anything more was really ruining it. In Adventure and Adventure 2, they did okay with having Chaos, Tikal, Rouge and Shadow, but only because they fit. Shadow dying after SA2, while sad, was necessary. Then Sonic Heroes came along and not only brought Shadow and Rouge back, but introduced another new character as well. One thing that Heroes did do right was bring back Team Chaotix. That was a good move, but enough about that.

Sonic Chronicles does a good job at what it’s core gameplay is, it’s a solid RPG. A nice challenge at the start and a slope the entire game. It can get frustrating at points, but nothing a little grind won’t cure. The story, as said before, is honestly mediocre. The overworld is navigated entirely with the stylus, which is okay for the most part. The buttons are hardly used, I fail to remember using them at all. The actual battles are solid turn-based combat. Attacks are in order of who is fastest in both parties and the stop screen displays the order and number of times your team has a move. Special attacks are executed by cues for sussessful taps on one circle, a single timed tap on once circle, or a slider ala EBA. The enemies you fight have a ton of HP, and the robots are often a menace to fight since some of them have auto repair, so even if you kill them they just come right back. That can get frustrating after a while since different robots have different weaknesses.

The equipment system is in two parts: You have your basic equipment, gloves, shirts, shoes and the like and then you have Chao. The Chao are found in eggs all over the game and when you wait long enough, the eggs hatch. You can have every character “equip” one Chao that will give it boosts, elements or effects in battle. Finding out what enemies have what weakness is really hit and miss: Not all of the robots are weak to one thing, not all the animals are weak to another, but once you know, it’s not hard to exploit it. I have one final issue with the game: When you die, you are asked if you want to retry the battle for X number of rings. Doing so will put you back at the start of the fight at full health and everything… But you will have none of the items you may have used. Now, it does give you the option of going back to your last save point, but what if that was hours back? Other than that, the combat is solid.

All in all, I honestly wish I hadn’t spent my money on it since I was trying to play other things at the time, but I am very glad I played it. All in all, I think I would give it a 7.9 out of 10. Pretty good, pick it up if your bored, otherwise, just borrow it/rent it.

~Jumpluff~