Video Game Review #114: God of War

God of War

PlayStation 2

Back in 2005 I was dating a girl named Jessica. It was a good match at the time because we both shared a strong love for video games. As a result we always knew exactly what to get each other for birthday or Christmas gifts. That year I asked for God of War for Christmas. The game had been released way earlier in the year, but I had still yet to play it. All of the reviews said that it was a fantastic game. I even remember seeing a few perfect reviews out there. I figured hey why not give it a shot?

Despite all the rave reviews I still came in a little hesitant. At that time in my life I was a gamer who mainly stuck to franchises that I knew or was very familiar with. Sonic, Mario, Final Fantasy, etc. I was a boring fuck, I know. I didn't even know what kind of game it was or what it was about. But obviously I had asked for it so I was willing to give it a shot.

Right from the start I was blown away by God of War. The setting, the graphics, the cut scenes, the booming soundtrack, the in your face violence. The character of Kratos intrigued me too. Antiheroes are nothing new these days, but back then they were for the most part unheard of. A good guy who did bad things? Whaaat? I played God of War for hours on end, completely immersing myself in the game. I don't know how long it took me to beat the game. I am guessing less than a week, probably. But still it left a huge impression on me. I played this game several times. I went out and got a couple of the numbered sequels when they came out. I was a big fan.

Whenever the holiday season rolls around each year, I always get it in my head that I should play God of War again. I probably associate the game with this time of year in my head because I had initially gotten it as a Christmas present twelve years ago. The past few years I've passed on the opportunity to play the game. This year, however, the urge was too strong. I had to play it.

Even though the game is twelve years old I still think it has aged pretty well. Of course the graphics aren't as crisp as the graphics everyone is used to seeing by today's standards, but they are still pretty good. The animations are smooth. The levels are (for the most part) pretty varied and detailed. I have no complaints about the game's visual style.

The music still shines strong after all these years too. The booming, intense score lends itself well to this game. It really puts you into the mood to be a badass and kick some major butt. The game can be quiet and subdued when it needs to be as well. One of my favorite areas in the game is when you have to wander through a sandstorm with limited visibility. You instead have to rely on your ears, listening for the song of the sirens to guide you to your foes.

The overall presentation of the game is very well done. Graphics, music, the whole nine yards. God of War has a very cinematic feel to it that is still very exciting to this day. Cut scenes tell the story of the game as you play. At the beginning of the game you know very little. Just that you are a character named Kratos, a mercenary of sorts who is commanded by the gods. Your first mission is to destroy the evil Hydra that has been annihilating supply ships at sea.

After you destroy the Hydra, Kratos begs Athena to release him from the gods' control. He is informed that he has one last mission in store for him. The god of war Ares has attacked Athens. Since the gods can't attack directly attack each other, Athena tasks Kratos with the job of finding Pandora's Box. When opened, this box will give Kratos the power he needs to kill a god and take down Ares once and for all. Thus begins your real quest in this game.

Basic combat is pretty simple to get a grasp of. You mainly use four buttons. You can jump, grab, do a weak attack, or do a strong attack. Of course, different button combinations will produce different results. As the game progresses, you earn orbs that you can use to level your character up. This helps you learn new attack combinations to aid you on your journey.

Kratos also is gifted with magical powers from the gods as he progresses through the game. You can turn your enemies to stone, you can fire arrows from a magical bow to hit enemies from a long distance, you can evoke a magical electric attack which hits enemies in your immediate vicinity, and you can summon lost souls to swirl around the screen and do damage your enemies. As I played, I found the electrical attack to be the most effective.

You can also gain additional weapons as you play, but I found myself sticking to the original chains given to you at the beginning of the game. They are the most effective in my opinion.

Gameplay is mainly of the hack and slash variety. One of the big complaints I hear about the series is that it can be a little repetitive with all the button mashing. I didn't necessarily think so, but I could see why people might think that. God of War throws quick time action events in every so often to keep things fresh. Mainly these are triggered when an enemy is close to death. I didn't think any of them were too difficult, but it did make it hard to appreciate the gruesome animations as you killed your enemies when you are too busy looking for which button to hit next.

In addition to copious amounts of combat, the game throws puzzles at you too. Nothing too difficult to figure out. Collect the keys. Move this block over here. Turn these cranks to open up a new part of the stage. That type of thing. Don't expect to get stuck too often, if at all, when playing this game.

The game's settings are a high point. The ship at sea when you are battling the Hydra is a great set piece. So is Athens. So is the desert. So is Pandora's Temple. So is Hades. Especially Hades. All of the screaming bodies falling from the sky into the lake of fire around you is a nice touch. The game definitely creates an immersive atmosphere for you as you make your way through it.

God of War isn't too difficult, nor is it too long. There are a few tough battles towards the end of the game, but a little trial and error and a little patience will go a long way. The final battle with Ares, for example, made me want to chuck my controller through the wall. But once I discovered his pattern and figured out how to block his attacks, I quickly was able to take him down and complete the game.

This game is a ton of fun. Some people say it is too much of a button masher. Fine. Some hate the quick time events. Fine. Some say the puzzles are too easy. Fine. The game is what it is. It's an immersive, whirlwind journey filled with boat loads of violence, a great sweeping musical score, and a surprisingly effective story. It is not a perfect game, but it is one I enjoy a lot and like to come back to every few years or so.

Most people know that I have a really short attention span regarding video games, yet immediately after playing this I wanted to dive right into God of War II. That does not happen much. It speaks a true testament as to how much I really enjoyed this game. I would for sure recommend this series to anyone who has never played it before.

Overall:

A-

Video Game Review #113: Final Fantasy VI

Final Fantasy VI

Super Nintendo

This debate has been raging for a long, long time. What is better - Final Fantasy VI or Final Fantasy VII? Having never played Final Fantasy VI, my answer has always been VII by default. Not only do I consider that game the best RPG I have ever played, I also consider it to quite possibly be the best game I have ever played, period.

But still, I couldn't help but notice how many people would stand up for VI whenever the question of which game is better was raised. Just due to the simple fact that FFVI had such great support was enough to tell me that it was a game worth checking out. FFVII was the first Final Fantasy game I had ever played. I am willing to admit that nostalgia probably plays a huge factor in how I feel about the game. I was willing to put that nostalgia aside and come into FFVI with an open mind.

However, now that all is said and done and I have beaten VI, I can honestly say that I still prefer VII. Sorry, VI fanboys (and girls!).

A little history on my relationship with this game. Back when I was in 7th or 8th grade, I was the only kid in my class who had a Sega Genesis and not a Super Nintendo. I always had to sit there and listen to my classmates talk about how Final Fantasy III (which is what VI used to be known as in the United States before the other previous games were brought over from Japan) and how it was so amazing. It dominated many of the recess conversations. My classmates would draw game maps, compare notes on their progress, write out little question-and-answer trivia sheets for each other to fill out. Honestly, I felt really left out of the whole conversation. I started to resent Final Fantasy III even though I had never actually played it before.

Years and years passed. I got Final Fantasy VII for the PlayStation and fell in love with it. I would pick up several later sequels in the series as well. VIII, IX, X, XII, XIII, Tactics, nearly all of them except for the online only ones. I ended up getting a couple of collection discs which had some of the earlier Final Fantasy games on them too, but for whatever reason I never got around to playing them.

That changed in 2017.  Of course, I had been reading the online discussions for quite some time. FFVI vs FFVII. What was better? It was time I finally played VI and would be able to make that decision for myself.

The game's story line is pretty strong. Be warned, I am going to spoil things for you here. Thousands of years ago there was some kind of war between magic users and non magic users. In the present time, magic is generally thought of as something from the past which may or may not have actually been a real thing. But the evil Empire (why are Empires always so evil?) has started digging up and unearthing artifacts from the ancient war. They begin using these magical artifacts to strengthen their military might and take complete control of the planet.

When an Esper (an ancient magical being) is dug up out of the ice in a remote mining city named Narshe, the Empire sends in their magic using soldier Terra and a couple of cronies to storm Narshe and take control of the Esper and bring it into Imperial control. Things go wrong however, and Terra is injured in the attack. When she wakes up, she realizes that she had been brainwashed to blindly follow the Empire's orders. Now that she can think for herself, she uses her mysterious magical powers to fight back against the Empire.

As you play, you being to form a party that is intent on taking down the Empire and stopping their crusade of world domination. You travel the globe evading Imperial attacks, picking up party members sympathetic to your cause, and spreading dissent against the Empire everywhere you go. Eventually your group storms the Empire's science laboratory, and that is when the game drops some bombshells on you. The aforementioned ancient war was between humans and Espers. The Espers lived in their own dimension apart from humankind. However, humanity discovered a rift that acted as a bridge between the "real world" and the Esper dimension. Human beings have throughout history shown time and time again how big of assholes they are. Humans in the world of Final Fantasy VI are no exception. They storm the Esper world, slaughtering them for their magic powers and triggering a massive war in the process. Eventually the rift is sealed, but of course this doesn't last forever.

We also find out that Terra is half human and half Esper. This makes the quest personal for her and everyone on her side. The Empire is out to slaughter or enslave HER people, while using their powers to conquer the world at the same time.

There are many other twists and turns as far as the plot goes. I am not going to explain them all. But I would be remiss if I didn't tell you about Kefka. While you are playing the game it doesn't take you long to figure out that the real villain is not the Emperor himself, but Kefka - one of his top commanders. Kefka is a truly great Final Fantasy villain. He is completely evil and willing to do anything and everything to ensure his own personal victory. This is demonstrated pretty early in the game when he poisons the water supply of an entire town to kill its people to get them out of his way.

Kefka eventually overthrows the Emperor and takes control. In the game's biggest twist, Kefka wins one of the game's major battles and uses the power of the Esper world to become ridiculously powerful. He unleashes this power to cause massive devastation to the world. Oceans rise, continents collapse into the sea, earthquakes ravage the planet. Your party is tossed to all corners of the world. All of a sudden the game's world map looks nothing like it did before. You have to travel this new World of Ruin and reassemble your party. The devastation is felt everywhere. Monsters roam the map freely, entire cities are destroyed. Crops won't grow. The people you talk to are depressed and ready to give up on life. The entire composition of the game is changed in one fell stroke.

After reassembling your party, you must then storm Kefka's Tower and take him down once and for all. Defeating Kefka and destroying his magical pillars will banish magic from the world forever. But what will this mean for half-Esper Terra? I will let you play and find that out for yourself.

So yeah, the game's story line is pretty good.

How does the game play though? Again, pretty good. Combat is turn based, so if you have played Final Fantasy VII you know what to expect here. You attack, you use magic, you use items, you equip weapons and armor, you level up. The game has a big cast of characters, and each of these characters has their own unique special moves. I can't knock the game's combat at all. It is solid and easy to understand.

Often the game breaks up your party, which forces you to use nearly every character in the game. This is not like other Final Fantasy games where you can just use the same three or four people all game long and ignore everyone else in the game. All the characters are pretty well fleshed out too, each with their own back stories and personal struggles they are going through. I have to give the game kudos for keeping you interested in what is going on with everyone in your party.

The graphics of course aren't too impressive by today's standards. But for its time, I am sure FFVI looked sensational. Solid 2D sprite characters, great looking backgrounds and landscapes. Lots of bright colors and cartoon-ish environments that are very nice to look at. Again, not horribly impressive, but by no means ugly either.

To me the music outshines the graphics. There are a LOT of really memorable tunes here. This game has a sensational soundtrack. It is almost as good, if not better, than Final Fantasy VII's. In fact a lot of the tunes are very similar to VII's, and you can tell that that game used this game's musical score for inspiration. This is particularly impressive when you consider that this is a 16 bit game.

So we have established that I like the game's story. I like it's combat system and controls. I like the game's look and LOVE it's soundtrack. But what did I dislike about the game?

Unfortunately, there are many flaws that really irritated me while I played this. First of all, I often got lost while playing and would have no idea where I was supposed to go next. I'm sure they offered little hints during the game's story line text sequences, but for someone like me who spaces out a lot and has a hard time paying attention, I would miss out on these little clues. Then all of a sudden I'd be in control of my character in the middle of the world map with NO clue where I was supposed to head next. I'd talk to people around me and they would just comment on the weather or the war or something that was of no use to me. But where was I supposed to go? I thought this was just a "me" problem, but when I looked up the game on Google, apparently a lot of other people had this same problem too.

This problem is especially a big one once you make it to the World of Ruin portion of the game. You start out with one character and have to reassemble your party. But where do you start? The first few destinations are obvious, but once you get the airship and are free to explore the entire world map, things become much more challenging. What are you supposed to do, just visit every city in the game and hope you stumble across something helpful? I became tired with that quickly. I wanted to play the game and discover things on my own, but I ended up having to use a walkthrough from Gamefaqs to get me through the World of Ruin.

Things might not have even been that bad if the game's world map actually was in any way useful at all. All you have is a tiny little map in the corner of the screen that is very hard to see. Cities appear as tiny little dots on the map. But the cities aren't labeled. The game can tell you to visit Mobliz, but where the heck is Mobliz? You have to go from dot to dot hoping you stumble across the right city. It is very tedious and time consuming. It is even worse because once Kefka unleashes his power and creates the World of Ruin, many of the cities you visited earlier in the game appear in different locations.

So yes, lots of frustration to be found here. Not only does this make the game annoying to play, it completely interrupts the flow of the story and destroys and all momentum the game had been building up to that point. It seems like the entire World of Ruin portion of the game is just wandering around and hoping you luck into something useful. Honestly, it almost wrecked the game for me. I took a 2 or 3 week hiatus from the game in the middle of playing it because it had become such a chore to play.

Another annoyance: the game's encounter rate. It's a Final Fantasy game with random battles. I get it. I expect to get pulled into battle while exploring the world map and the game's dungeons. But the encounter rate seems absurdly high in this game. It seemed like there were times in the game where I couldn't take 2 steps without getting attacked. Win the battle, and I get attacked after another 3 steps. It is a big game with a lot to explore, a lot to see, and a lot of items to find. But getting attacked so many times made me want to rush through the game. It was very discouraging. There were portions of the game's dungeons that I wouldn't explore because I knew I'd get attacked too many times. Was it really worth it to go down this corridor and through a couple turns to get a chest when I knew I'd get attacked 7 times in the process? Nope. So I'd skip it and move on.

With all the random battles I had to endure, I expected to be properly leveled up enough to easily beat the game once I was ready to storm Kefka's Tower. Ummmmm..... no. The enemies there were insanely tough for my party to beat. I had to end up leaving and grinding for several hours just so I wouldn't get wiped out in one or two turns. Eventually I came back and made it through the Tower and on to Kefka himself, only to find that I STILL wasn't powerful enough to even challenge him at all. I had to leave the Tower and grind for several more hours before I could finally came back and eek out a win. In a game where I had to endure so many random battles I was not happy with having to grind so much. I LOATHE grinding in games and find it to be very, very boring. I'm all for a challenge, but it seemed like the game was unfairly hard at the end. I do have to say though, I felt extremely accomplished once I saw the white flash and heard that telltale lightning crack sound that indicated I had won the final battle. It was like an enormous weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

So all in all, the game was a very mixed bag for me. It did a lot of things right and was technically a very impressive game. Great story, great music, awesome characters and character development. But man did it become a drag to play after a while. I can truly say I did not have a whole lot of fun towards the end of this game. And that is the whole point of playing games, to have fun, is it not?

So no, I don't think this game is better than Final Fantasy VII. And quite frankly, I don't think it is even close. This game does enough things right for me to consider it a good RPG. And who knows maybe I will pick this up again at some point in the future, and knowing where to go and what to do, I will be able to overlook the game's flaws. But for now I consider this to be just a decent RPG, and that's it. After reading all the hype for years and years, I really wish I liked it more.

Overall:

B-

If you liked this review, please check out my reviews for the following games:

Shining Force

Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy IX

Final Fantasy X

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

Video Game Review #112: Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Sega Genesis

When I was a kid there was very little that was more exciting to me than the release of a new Sonic the Hedgehog game. I liked the original Sonic game, I LOVED its sequel Sonic 2, and I had very high hopes for the third game in the series. Leading up to its 1994 release date, I read all about it in the video game mags. While it looked like more of the same, the game did offer up a few new twists. You could control Tails like in Sonic 2, but this time around you could use him to fly Sonic around to otherwise unreachable areas. The bonus levels were revamped. There was a big hyped up skiing level (this turned out to be a bit of a disappointment). But most importantly the game would introduce a new villain named Knuckles. I had nothing against Doctor Robotnik, but the introduction of a new antagonist (and one that had a lot in common with the main character himself) was a much needed change to the series.

I got the game shortly after it hit the shelves. While at first the game blew me away with its colorful graphics, clever level design, and brand new bonus stages, I ended up feeling a little let down. First of all, I beat the game in one sitting. That's right, one sitting. It was no challenge to me at all. In addition, the hyped up skiing level turned out to be a major dud. You don't even control Sonic as he zooms down the slopes. You just watch as he goes down the slope collecting rings. Eventually he hits a wall and you fall out of the skis and back down to the ground. You CAN jump while skiing down the slope, but it serves no purpose at all other than to make you miss all the rings scattered down the snowy slope. Another thing I didn't like was that Knuckles ended up being a piss poor villain. You don't even fight him! He just shows up now and again to block your path and then disappear till he pops up to block your path again later on in the game. Rinse and repeat.

Don't get me wrong - I liked Sonic 3. It was a good game, but it was just too much of the same. I wanted MORE.

Over time my opinion has changed a bit. It really is a fun time, no matter which way you look at it. Sure, it doesn't offer much that the first two Sonic games don't offer already, but it is still an entertaining game to play. What jumps out at me right off the bat are the game's graphics. Sonic 1 and 2 were ahead of their time as far as graphics go, but I feel Sonic 3 puts them to shame. Everything looks so bright, so vibrant, so colorful and so ALIVE in this game. The animations are spot on too.

While the musical scores in the first two games are some of the best of the 16 bit Genesis era, I feel Sonic 3 comes up a bit short in this regard. Sure the game sounds great, I just prefer the music from the other games. I miss that classic Sonic theme song. Overall, however, the game still sounds very impressive. Combine the solid musical score and sound effects with the game's bright and cartoony look and feel, and you get one really solid immersive game. You can't argue that Sonic 3 is technically very impressive.

The game's level design also sets it apart. There are only two acts per stage, but those acts are pretty darn big. You can easily spend five or more minutes navigating each of them. Don't expect to fly through them in two or three minutes like in games past. There is not just one linear path to follow either. As is tradition with Sonic games, there are multiple paths you can take to get to the finish line. Sonic 3 feels bigger somehow. You can play through the game multiple times and take a different path each time, and it would almost be like you are playing through a different game. Almost.

Not only are the acts bigger than the acts in past Sonic games, you can really tell that the game makers at least tried to do something different with each act. For example, the first stage seems like your typical tropical island level. Then at the end of the first act Robotnik bombs the island and sets it aflame. For the second act, you are racing through a burning inferno. One of the stages has you navigating a brightly lit carnival zone. Halfway through the act, Knuckles kills the power and all of a sudden you are zipping through a dark, powerless maze of dead carnival machinery.

There are all kinds of other different wrinkles added to each stage as well. One stage allows you to ride on spinning tops that help you fly through the air and crash through walls. The same stage later has you racing against time as an earthquake threatens to destroy the ruins you are navigating through, crushing your character if you aren't fast enough to escape. There is the aforementioned skiing segment. The carnival act has these rotating poles that you must cling on to, ride upon, and then jump off to launch yourself to safety. There are also bumpers and springs aplenty that bounce you around all over the place. I could go on and on. But really, each stage gives you a LITTLE something different to break up the monotony. The game is still very similar to past Sonic games, but like I said at least they tried to make it different.

Other changes are minor but appreciated. Instead of just your typical shield which protects you from one hit, you can get three different types of shields in this game. The lightning shield, which draws rings in towards you. The water shield, which allows you to breathe underwater and also to bounce along the ground if you tap the jump button in mid air. And then there is the fire shield which protects you from fire attacks. If you tap the jump button in mid air, Sonic launches himself forward like a missile and takes out any enemies in front of him. If you hit the jump button in mid-air without a shield,  Sonic flashes for a split second and can't take any damage during that short time frame. This move is essential to beating the game's final boss.

There are also many changes to the game's bonus stages. If you hit a checkpoint with 50 rings, you can jump into a circle of stars that appears above your character. This drops you into a gumball/pinball hybrid type game where you bounce off of bumpers on the sides of the screen, attempting to jar special items loose from a gumball machine. This game can be kinda fun, but ultimately a little useless. In fact, I skip over the chance to play this minigame most of the time I trigger it.

Like Sonic 1 and 2, this game contains Chaos Emeralds. Also like in Sonic 1 and 2, these things are a pain to collect. Each act has several giant gold rings hidden in it. If you find these rings and jump inside them, you are transported to a behind-the-back minigame that has you racing across the surface of a giant orb, collecting blue spheres as you go. If you see a cluster of blue spheres, you can collect the ones on the perimeter to turn the rest into coins. If you collect the maximum number of coins available, you score a perfect and gain an extra continue. Collect all the blue spheres and you get a Chaos Emerald. This is easier said than done though. If you touch a red sphere, you are out of the game. The pace of the minigame picks up the longer you dilly-dally. It gets to the point where you are moving so fast it makes things very very hard to control. This minigame can get frustrating at times, but I still prefer it 10 times more than I do the minigames in Sonic 1 or 2. Collect all the Chaos Emeralds, and you can transform into Super Sonic: a gold, super fast, undamageable version of the hedgehog himself.

Other cosmetic changes include the option to save your game and pick it up from where you left off. The game really isn't that long, so this option is a little useless. But it is nice in the sense that if you collect all the Chaos Emeralds you can go back to the beginning and play again with all of them in your possession this time. This also comes in handy if you are playing Sonic 3 & Knuckles (which we will get into when I play and review Sonic & Knuckles) as that version of the game is pretty long and a lot more challenging.

You are given the option to play as the tradition Sonic and Tails duo or either character by himself. It was interesting playing as Tails and flying through the levels, getting things that are unattainable to you if you are just playing as Sonic. Really though, this option doesn't change the game a whole lot.

This game does have a 2 player mode. You can either play the story mode with one player controlling Sonic and one controlling Tails, or you can play the game's special Vs mode. I didn't play Vs mode on my last playthrough, but I remember I used to play it with my brother and step brothers all the time. Basically this is a split screen mode where you race through a series of brand new stages. The goal is to collect items and run through the stage faster than your opponent. It has been about 17 years since I've played 2-player mode, so my memory on how it works is a little hazy. I remember it being very simple, but fun at the same time.

Random Dan trivia: the last time I played 2 player mode was actually against my very first girlfriend back in late 2000/early 2001. I lost my virginity to this girl after playing this game, as a matter of fact. Before we broke up, I didn't think I needed my Genesis anymore and I knew she had a sad home life with nothing to do at her house, so I ended up giving her my system and my last handful of games so she had something to occupy her time at home. I ended up never seeing her again. So sweet but so naive on my part.

Back on topic: my review!

So while my initial thoughts on this game were disappointment due to its short length, my opinion has changed on Sonic 3 over the years. I consider it to be one of the best games of the series. Better than Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic 3D Blast easily. Better than Sonic 1 or 2? Iiiiiiiiii don't know. Those games had real sentimental value to me. So I'm gonna say no. But still, is it an upper echelon Sonic the Hedgehog game and a real treat to play? 100% yes.

Overall:

B+

If you liked this post, please check out the following game reviews:

Sonic The Hedgehog

Sonic The Hedgehog 2

Vectorman

X-Men

Super Mario Bros. 3

Video Game Review #111: Bug!

Bug!

Sega Saturn

Bug! holds the distinct honor of being the first Sega Saturn game I ever had the chance to play. Back in the mid 90s, renting video game systems was the way to go. The Saturn and the PlayStation had just hit the market and several people I knew had decided to rent the systems to see which one they wanted to purchase. My stepbrother had rented a PlayStation system along with the games Warhawk and Battle Arena Toshinden. I tried these games and was blown away by the power of the PlayStation. Yet for some reason I still had my mind set on buying a Saturn. What can I say, I was blindly loyal to Sega at the time. But I couldn't quite afford a system yet. So instead I rented a Saturn along with the games Bug! and Virtua Fighter. I figured this would tide me over for a few months until I had enough allowance money saved up to get a Saturn of my own.

That weekend I played the heck out of Bug! Virtua Fighter is a decent game of course, but fighting games were never my thing. Plus I had played it in the arcade before and knew what to expect from it. Bug! was more up my alley. It had all the characteristics of a 2D platform game (my favorite genre) but had found a way to bring things to the third dimension. I immediately became immersed in the game. I had never played anything like it before. It was challenging, it was creative, it was humorous, and it was gorgeous (for its time). I spent countless hours on Bug! but I never managed to beat the game. It was okay though. Like I said, I had already made up my mind that I was going to buy a Saturn over a PlayStation. I figured I could always come back to Bug! once I had a system of my own.

Eventually I did end up buying a Saturn but I never was able to find the game Bug! I rented its sequel, Bug Too, and beat that game. But for some reason the original title kept eluding me. It wasn't in the stores, it wasn't available to rent. I couldn't find it anywhere.

I must have purchased a Saturn back in '95 or '96. I would say a solid ten to fifteen years passed before I finally got my hands on a copy of Bug! I found it at some used video game resale store for dirt cheap. As soon as I saw it, it was a no-brainer that I was going to pick it up. I tried giving it a go, but I found the game to be too long and difficult for me. And by this time my Saturn's battery that allowed it to save games had died. If I wanted to beat the game I was going to have to dedicate my entire day to it because once I turned off my system all of my save files would go away.

Over the years I would randomly play Bug! in an attempt to beat it and close this particular chapter of my life. Every time, the same thing would happen. I would forget how long, time consuming, and challenging this game was. I would give it my 100% best but would always come up way short. It began to frustrate me to be quite frank with you.

When I first started reviewing games I knew that eventually I would have to come back and beat Bug! Well, in the last week of September 2017 that moment finally arrived. Or at least I thought it did. Can you imagine that the same thing happened to me that had happened the last several times I had played the game? I couldn't do it. I had set aside the whole day to play Bug! but still came up short. It was unreal. I let the game sit a week and came back with a vengeance. I couldn't let years pass where I would forget the stage layouts, the proper way to make difficult jumps, and all the locations of the secrets I had unearthed. I would remember everything I had learned from my first attempt and would incorporate it on my second. It was beat Bug! or bust time.

And guess what? I finally beat Bug! It was a long and stressful journey, but I prevailed. Considering that I first had played this game back in 1995 or 1996, it was an accomplishment over twenty years in the making.

Now that you know my story with the game, let me tell you a little bit about the title itself. This game is a platformer where you control a character named Bug! He is a big time movie start in the insect world. When his female companion is kidnapped, he must make a dangerous journey through several movie sets to track down the kidnapper and win back his lady once and for all. Simple premise, right?

The game plays like a normal 2D side-scroller with a twist. You run, you could jump, you could pick up items that would allow you to spit at or electrify your enemies. However the twist is what set the game apart. For one of the first times in a game I had ever played 3D aspects were introduced to the fray. Say for example you are walking left. You can see that the path you are on goes up, down, and to the left. Stand at the intersection and hold down to go down, up for up, or keep holding left to just keep on walking. Your movement is restricted to these paths, however. This isn't really a "true" 3D environment like you can find in games like Super Mario 64. But hey for its time it was revolutionary.

This simple game play mechanic really makes Bug! work. Each stage is enormous. There are so many branching paths to take, you can almost have a completely different experience each time you play the game. Each stage is like a giant maze you must work your way through. There are secrets, collectibles, and bonus stages to be found all over the place. Each movie themed act has four stages - three of them are standard "make it to the end of the stage" type stages, but the fourth one is always a boss fight. I believe there are six or seven giants acts in the game, each with four stages. Each stage can take up to a half hour to clear, especially if you are taking the time to explore everything. All three stages combined can easily take you an hour to two hours to complete. And then you have to beat the boss to move on.

With all these stages taking so long to complete, the game can feel REALLY long as you are playing it. Plus the game is challenging too. Imagine my reaction when I found out that when I died and had to use a continue I would start at the beginning of each act all over again, regardless of which stage I was on. Yeah. Even if you are really good at this game it can take hours to beat. If you aren't good, it could take you forever. I consider myself a relatively skilled gamer and even I had problems with this game.

What makes it so challenging? The jumps! The main character is for the most part easy to control, but things go sour once you get in the air. Bug! becomes much, much harder to control up there. Mis-jump and fall off the stage? You die. Fall in the water? You die. The game's collision control and depth perception, especially when moving up and down on the game's path is really terrible. And even when you are moving left to right a lot of the game's jumps can be agonizingly tough. Falling was my #1 cause of death in this game. It is "throw your controller through the TV" maddening at times. I had such a tough time with this game. Even the day I finally beat it I struggled massively. This is not a game for casuals.

All in all, I am not sure what I think about the game. The retro/nostalgic part of me wants to give it high marks for it being the first Saturn game I played and also for it being such a revolutionary title in the 3D platform genre. But another part of me had no fun with the game at all and found it to be a huge, frustrating chore. I do like a lot of things about the game. The graphics are charming, as are the music and sound effects. I like the noises, I like each stage's musical score. I even like your character's off the wall comments he makes whenever you kill or get hit by an enemy. My favorite, though, is when you collect a can of Bug Juice (health) and some unseen character shouts out "Buuugg Juiiiice!!!" at the top of his lungs. Plus you have to admire all the work that went into designing such massive, secret filled stages.

The game itself though is just too frustrating. And it is not charming/frustrating like Mega Man or Ninja Gaiden. It feels really unfair most of the time. Especially when you take into account the length of all the stages and how much backtracking you have to do when you use a continue. I would be lying if I said I was having fun by the time the last stage rolled around. I was OVER IT.

I think a middling grade works for a middling game. I appreciate what it did and I enjoy my fond memories of renting this game back in my teenage years. But I just find it too hard to enjoy playing in the present day. If a game isn't fun to play, then what's the point? Now that I have finally conquered my demons and beaten this game, I doubt I will ever come back to it again.

Overall:

C-

Video Game Review #110: Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus

PlayStation 2

I will come straight out and admit that for this review I played the HD version of Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racconus for the PS3. However, I am still going to count this as a PS2 game because most of my experiences with both this game and its sequels came on the PS2 rather than the PS3. Sure this HD version has fancier, sharper graphics, but everything else is exactly the same. It is still a PS2 game in my mind, and hence that shall be what I review it as. So there! I hope that's okay with you, pal!!

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Now that we've got that out of the way, let's begin.

If you are a fan of 3D platforming games, you probably had a great time back in the PlayStation 2 era. There was certainly a large selection of such games to choose from. Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, Psychonauts, Spyro, Rayman, the list went on and on. Most of these games spawned a large number of sequels or were themselves sequels as well. For 3D platform fanatics, it was a great time to be alive.

The Sly Cooper series was always one that stood out to me. My at-the-time girlfriend and I found the original Sly title at a Gamestop. It was new and expensive but we had seen the previews on G4 and thought that it looked super cool. We had some money to burn so we decided to give it a try. Turns out we both really liked the game. She even liked it a little bit more than I did. As a result, we ended up over the years getting all three Sly titles that came out for the PS2.

While the Sly sequels are more advanced than the original in terms of content, story line, and game play, I still have always preferred the first entry in the series. I find its simplicity charming. Plus, you aren't constantly getting bogged down with copious amounts of boring dialogue scenes in the original game. But I get ahead of myself. That is a criticism I have for the later games in the series, so I will wait until I play and review them to start ranting.

The game's main story line is nice and simple. Sly Cooper is a master thief descended from a long line of master thieves. For his birthday he is given access to the Thievius Raccoonus, a book written by his ancestors that contains all anyone needs to know about the thieving trade. Hints, tricks, special attack moves, thieving tactics. But before he can lay his hands on the book, he discovers that it has been stolen by the "Fiendish Five". This is a group of rival thieves that is jealous of Sly's success. They split the book into five equal parts before splitting up and going their separate ways. Playing as Sly, it is now up to you to track down the Fiendish Five and reclaim the Thievius Racoonus as your own.

Sly's graphics have always been a strong point even from its very first entry. This game, in addition to its eventual sequels, takes place in a fully 3D cell shaded world. Everything looks like a hand drawn cartoon rather than your typical video game graphic polygons. If you have ever played anything like The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker or Jet Set Radio, you know exactly what I am talking about with this looking like a cartoon. This HD version looks extremely sharp and crisp for the PS3 on my big TV. I am sure it was a little more muddied and not-as-nice looking on the PS2 when it first came out, but if so that would be expected.

The presentation of the game is very theatrical. Right from the get-go you feel like this is an interactive movie that you have been placed directly into. You take control of Sly Cooper in the middle of a safe robbing heist. Sly is supported remotely by his fellow thieves and partners in crime - Bentley and Murray. These two will help you by giving you tips and advice as you advance in the game. While you never directly control either character (although you get that chance in later entries to the series) they are involved in several mini games which help to break up the platforming monotony.

A few examples of these mini games involve racing levels, levels where you shoot enemies from a sniper scope, and an Asteroids-style computer hacking game. When you are not playing mini games, you are in control of Sly Cooper. Sly jumps, runs, sneaks, attacks, and grabs onto things. As you play the game you have the option of opening up safes which contain even more moves and actions for your character.

Combat is pretty straightforward. Sly swings his staff and does damage to his enemies. Earlier in the game most enemies just take one hit to kill. The deeper into the game you get, the more difficult they become. There is a stealth element to the game, as some enemies won't see your character if you keep out of their line of sight. This allows you to sneak up close to them, jump out, and eliminate them without letting them attack you or make a racket that acts as a signal that calls other enemies over to investigate. 

This game can be a bit challenging in spots as Sly can't take a whole lot of damage. Normally it only takes one hit to kill our beloved raccoon, but health upgrades can be found. These upgrades take the form of a silver horseshoe. Collect the horseshoe and you can be hit an extra ONE time in battle before dying. I know just one extra hit doesn't sound like a lot, but in this game it makes a big difference.

The format of the game plays out like other games we have seen before. There are five main stages in the game, each one housing a different piece of the Thievius Raccoonus. Each main stage acts as a central hub. It is up to you to beat all the levels located within the stage. Each level you complete gives you a key which you must use to unlock an area in the stage hub that allows you to move closer to the stage's boss character. Beat the stage boss and you clear the area and move on to the next one.

Clear all five stages and regain all the pieces to your missing book and you move on to the game's final area. I won't spoil anything but it shouldn't be a surprise to you at all if I told you there was a bigger and badder boss lurking in the Fiendish Five's shadows. 

This is a pretty fun game, I must admit. I like the level format of this game in comparison to later entries in the Sly series. There is a lot of jumping, fighting, evading enemies, and collecting items. This feels like a true and pure platform game at heart whereas later games in the series focus more on completing spy missions and watching story line sequences. This game is faster and it is more to the point. It's more Mario 64 while its sequels are more Beyond Good and Evil. 

My main complaint deals with the whole jumping and latching on to pipes and ledges system that is so important in this game. Most of the time I am okay, but every once in a while there will be some kind of collision problem and I fall to my death, even though I knew I should have nailed the jump and I was holding the circle button. It wasn't a huge problem, but it did happen from time to time. Also, the game is extremely short and can probably be beaten in one sitting if you are very dedicated. I beat it in about two or three, but my sittings were relatively short. Its fun while it lasts, but it doesn't last long.

So all in all I find this to be a good, entertaining game. It is creative, its fun. It looks good. It has a nice cast of characters. There are lots of mini games and diversions along the way that break up the platforming monotony. I don't think it is a fabulous game though by any stretch of the imagination. Once I beat the game there was really nothing that appealed to me about coming back. Sure I could try to find all the hidden bottles in the game, but there is really no point to that. I had a fun time while I was actually playing the game, but now that I am done with it I am done with it. 

Even the nostalgia factor of playing this game with my ex-girlfriend when it first came out isn't enough to make me give this game much more than a slightly above average score. Truth be told I am more of a Ratchet and Clank person. But even so, I can't deny that this is a fun game. Even if it is extremely short and doesn't keep you coming back for more. I like it. It's not my favorite 3D platformer ever, but I like it.

Overall:

B-

Video Game Review #109: The Incredible Crash Dummies

The Incredible Crash Dummies

Sega Genesis

One of the great things about reviewing games is that every once in a while someone takes notice and asks if I want to borrow one of their games to play and review. Which is exactly what happened with the Incredible Crash Dummies. I had never played this game as a kid. Heck, I didn't even know the Crash Dummies had a game. But a friend of mine at work told me that he had this game for the Genesis. While he still had some of his old games, he didn't have his Genesis console anymore. I gladly took it off his hands, temporarily at least, so that I could play it and review it for my blog.

I liked the Crash Dummies as a kid. I had some one of the action figures (I remember hitting a button on their chests to make their heads pop off). I had the car. I had the "Crash Center" which was like a control room with a wall that you could drive the car into. I remember the commercials. I vaguely remember a cartoon. I was not as big into the Crash Dummies as I was, say, the Ninja Turtles. In fact it wasn't even close. But I did find them amusing and I did like their toys. I have no idea what happened to those toys. A solid twenty plus years has passed since I last laid my eyes on them. Hopefully they went to someone who played with them and loved them as much as I did. Although I had really enjoyed all those toys, the Crash Dummies video game somehow escaped my attention.

Fast forward to the year 2017. My friend at work (his name is Jon, in case you are wondering) tells me about this Crash Dummies game. I immediately say yup, I want to borrow it. He brings it to me, I take it home. I try playing it a couple days later only to find that the game won't load. I just get a black screen when I attempt to turn the game on. I tried the ole Nintendo "blow in the cartridge" trick. Eventually I got the game to work, but it ended up freezing just a few minutes in. I tried it again with the same result. I threw another Genesis game in to see if it was the console that was malfunctioning or if it was the Crash Dummies cartridge itself. This game, however, (Batman Forever) worked fine. I played, beat, and reviewed Batman Forever. On a limb, I threw Crash Dummies back in to check one last time if it would work. And it did! I don't know what was happening and why it hadn't worked before, but now everything was A-OK.

As much as I didn't want to review two Genesis games in such close proximity to one another, I knew that it would only be polite if I played and reviewed Crash Dummies quickly so I could get it back to Jon. Plus, who knew if it was going to stop working again? Might as well play it while it was functioning properly. I finished up Gears of War, which I had started earlier in the week, and posted my review for that game. Now I could devote my full attention to Crash Dummies.

The story for the game is told through little subtitled scenes in between stages. In these scenes there is an evil robot out there that was built by the same old dude who created the Crash Dummies. This old dude is worried that the robot will find out just how powerful he is and clone himself and the technology used to build him to take over the world. Just when you are about to go take the robot out yourself, the old dude is kidnapped by the same evil robot he had just been talking about. Well, now you really have incentive to go wipe this thing out.

Like most titles in the Genesis library, this is a 2D side scrolling game. Nothing too fancy here. You start at the beginning of the level and must progress to the stage's end within the allotted time limit. In true Crash Dummies fashion, you lose limbs when you take damage. You start out as a full dummy, but each hit you take costs you one limb. The first two hits take out your legs. The next two take out your arms. When you are just a head on a torso, that means you are down to your last hit. Take any more damage and you die. The game starts you with five lives to work with. You can collect extra lives as you progress through the game, but there are no continues. Lose all your lives, and it is game over.

You can hurt your enemies by throwing wrenches at them. Most enemies just take one wrench, but the deeper into the game you go, the more difficult the enemies become. You can also hurt enemies by simply jumping on top of them. Some enemies will hurt you back in return, but I am glad that wrenches aren't your only means of defeating enemies. Because I found myself running out of ammo quite often. Power ups in the game are plentiful, however. Even though you burn through the wrenches pretty quickly, at least there is ammo all over the place. You take a lot of damage in this game, but at the same time it does offer you a lot of health items in return. You can also collect little yellow Crash Dummy circles which give you points.

Every once in a while the game will throw a bonus stage at you. In these stages, you are crash-testing a vehicle that you must drive into the wall at high speed. Hindering your progress are little barricades that you must avoid or they will slowly you down immensely. I never made it through a bonus stage flawlessly, so I don't know what the reward for it is. All I earned were points, which seemed useless to me because I don't believe the game ever gives out extra lives when you hit point milestones. So what is the purpose of having points to begin with? Eventually I just stopped trying with these stages. I'd put the controller down while I went to get a cup of coffee or something.

Graphically, the game looks really good. Especially for a Genesis title. The colors are bright, the characters are big and cartoony. The cut scenes with their horrible safety jokes are a little hokey looking, but I can't complain at all about the actual game's graphics. This is one of the better looking Genesis titles out there. I am going to guess that it must have come out towards the end of the system's life span. The music and sound effects, while not horrible, are nothing memorable either. I just finished the game a few hours ago and already I can't remember a single track from the game.

I thought Crash Dummies would be a breeze but it was actually a bit of a challenge. You take a lot of damage as you play the game. If you aren't cautious, you are going to be finding yourself getting hit and losing body parts left and right. Couple this with the fact that you have to start back at the beginning of the game every time you use up all your lives. It took me a LOT of trial and error to finally make it to the end and beat this game.

I appreciated the game's challenge as it kept me playing and coming back for more. The game isn't very long, so it needed to be difficult. If I would have played the game and beat it in one sitting, there would not have been any reason to come back. I would have given it a shit score for my review and moved on. But instead the game forced me to spend several hours with it. I became really good at the game the more I played, breezing through all the stages I thought were so difficult the first few times around. But then I'd make it to the challenging later levels, die, and have to start over again.

Eventually I finished the game. I felt a feeling of great accomplishment as it had taken me many many attempts to beat the game. It was no easy feat. What I had originally thought would be some cheap, easy, poorly made attempt to cash in on a hot 90's property actually turned out to be a pretty decent game. I know this is probably sacrilege to some, but I enjoyed it just as much as Aladdin, which gets rave reviews from pretty much everyone who played it. I didn't grow up with Aladdin as a kid. In fact, I didn't even play it until the age of 35, just like with the Incredible Crash Dummies. So I don't hold the same sentimental feelings for it that other people do. I had just as much fun with that game as I did with Crash Dummies. Sue me.

I am not naive enough to believe that this game is an all time classic, though. There is a reason I had never heard of the game until I was 35 years old, despite the fact that I was a huge Genesis freak as a kid. I am sure other people don't like this game. It has its flaws, true. But I had fun. I will probably give it back to my friend and never play it again, but I had a decent time.

Overall:

B-

If you liked this review, you might want to check out my reviews for:

Aladdin

Greendog: The Beached Surfer Dude!

Taz-Mania

Vectorman

Beethoven: The Ultimate Canine Caper

Video Game Review #108: Gears of War

Gears of War

Xbox 360

This is my first review of an Xbox 360 game.

I admit, I feel like I have crossed over to the dark side. I have been a loyal PlayStation user all the way back to the good ole days of the PS one. I have always ignored the Xbox systems, dismissing them as inferior product. I have only ever played a handful of original Xbox games. I never checked out the 360. Still, over the years I'd heard many good things about the Gears of War series. I always told myself that some day I would get a 360 for cheap after it became obsolete and then check these games out. In 2017 this opportunity finally opened up for me. I got a 360 plus all three Gears of War games for under two hundred dollars. This was a deal that could not be beat. It didn't keep me from feeling like a traitor, however. Like I was cheating on my significant other the PlayStation with another video game system.

I'd get over it, though.

I really wanted to like Gears of War, and my expectations were that the game would blow me away. I have to admit that the game did not leave a great first impression. I am not sure what I was expecting, but this wasn't it. I couldn't figure out what was going on with the game's story. There was a brief opening scene, but nothing that really explained what was presently going on with your characters. Also, I couldn't tell any of these characters apart. Even after beating the game, I honestly couldn't tell you who was who. They all seem like a bunch of generic meatheads with no real distinguishing traits. I found it hard to get into the game for this reason. They are all interchangeable, complete with similar looks, similar voices, and similar gruff personalities. Even though some end up dying along your journey, I found myself not caring because nothing really set anyone else apart from the pack. Certainly nothing impacted me enough to elicit any kind of emotional response from me.

I also felt as if the action moved a little too quickly to the point where you become desensitized to it. Right off the bat you are running and gunning for your life, which is cool I guess. But the game's over the top action sequences combined with its fast moving combat feels a little Michael Bay-esque to me. Explosions everywhere. People yelling and running and shooting. Mayhem, but really crisp and sharp looking mayhem. Also, the action never seems to stop. The whole game feels as if you are jumping right from one high-tension action zone to another.

One of my initial thoughts was that the game's combat system seemed very similar to some other games I have played. You draw your weapon with the left trigger, firing it with the right trigger. You move with the left analog stick, aim with the other. The over the shoulder perspective, combined with the game's sighting system when you draw your gun seemed very Resident Evil 4-like for me. The combat itself reminded me highly of the Uncharted series. The D-pad based weapon system is a dead-ringer for Uncharted's. You run, roll, and take cover like Uncharted. You can throw grenades like Uncharted. You take damage and recover from the damage (simply with time) just like Uncharted. Also like Uncharted: you collect lost dog tags rather than treasures pieces. Different items, but the way they work is exactly the same. The whole thing was too similar.

I had to Google when these two games first came out. Gears of War came out in late 2006, nearly a full year before the first Uncharted game hit the shelves. So it was Uncharted that ripped off Gears of War. I still don't know how I feel about this. I always thought Uncharted was one of a kind, and then I find out it ripped off soooo many things from a different game on a rival competitor's system. Hmmm....

Eventually I settled in and acclimated myself to the game's Michael Bay-like fast paced over the top styling and I started to have fun. I still didn't care much about the characters. The story line still didn't seem like much else other than simply running and gunning from point A to point B. But at least the combat was fun. I enjoyed the rush of battle. I liked experimenting with different techniques. Running in and blasting away versus taking cover and being cautious. I experimented with different weapons. I was never afraid to throw grenades.

For whatever reason, killing your enemies is extremely satisfying in this game. It is the best thing about the game to be honest with you. Whether your enemies drop to the ground, lose their heads, or simply explode into a mist of gore it is always a very satisfying feeling when you take one out. And the more clever of a way you find to do it, the better.

The game did challenge me on occasion, even with me playing on casual difficulty. You learn through a lot of trial and error. I died quite a few times, and it always made me come back smarter and angrier the next time. I took it as a personal challenge when I died, and I wouldn't want to stop playing until I could pass the area. It happened on more than one occasion as I played where I would survive a battle and tell myself I would stop playing at the next save point. Then something would happen and I'd tell myself "okay one more battle." And then that battle would turn into another, then another, then another... The game is not super hard by any means, but it is a challenge. That challenge definitely fueled me to keep on playing. Because the game's mediocre story line and characters certainly were not living up to their end of the bargain.

Graphically, the game looks fantastic. I admit that I live in the stone age and I don't have a PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or in fact any next generation system that has come out in the post PS3/360 era. So to me this game looks amazing. Great enemy designs, great backgrounds, great cinematics, great level layouts, great detail in the game's environment. Really. The amount of detail is truly astonishing. Areas look lived in and are filled with small personal touches. The closest thing I could compare it to is the Last of Us, which is remarkable when you consider that this game came out in 2006. It is eleven freaking years old. Jiminy Cricket. This really makes me feel old that I am playing a game that came out eleven years ago and to me it feels like it could have been a brand new game released today.

At first I had thought the game was going to be just a mindless shooter, but it turned out to be a little bit more than that. And by little bit I mean a little little bit. There are vehicle stages where you control the vehicle's main gun while a non playable character drives. But really all you are doing is still aiming and shooting and killing your enemies like you've been doing all along. There are breaks in the action from time to time where your characters simply walk and converse. Other areas make you use your head. In one stage, there are flying enemy swarms that hate the light, and will not attack you as long as you are in the light. So you have to keep out of the dark and shoot things to cause explosions which create light to allow you to move on. So not everything is one giant battle. There are lulls. But it doesn't really feel like there is much if any diversity to Gears of War's game play.

The game is very short. It took me 3 or 4 sessions to complete the campaign. Some sessions were an hour, some were longer. I don't know if the game gave me a tally of hours played at the end, but I would imagine it is somewhere in the ten hour range. It can probably be beaten even quicker too if you are not taking the time to explore every square inch of the game like I did. I still missed a crap ton of hidden dog tags, so I don't know how that's possible.

I feel as if this is a very well made game. There is no denying that it is fun to play. It got off to a slow start with me, but by the end it had won me over. Not to say it doesn't have its negatives. I still think the characters and the story line are rubbish. I think the overall story line of the game's universe has potential, but what we saw in the first game was very basic and forgettable. I have faith that it will get better in the sequels. Also, this is a game that is famous for its multiplayer. I have only played the single player campaign. So I don't have the full experience that someone who has been playing the game online from day one would have. I don't know if the servers are still up, but even if they are I don't think I'd want to play with anyone online.

While a good story line is important to me, it is not essential. If it is a fun game I can overlook a bad story line. And this is a fun game. It is not the greatest game I have ever played, but it is challenging and entertaining. It's a nice, fun game. That is really all I can say about it. Great graphics, but I think a great story line would have made it more memorable. That's the problem I am running into here. The game is nothing memorable. It is a short, amusing experience. But that's it. I expected more. Perhaps my expectations were too high. I do plan to someday play this game again and give it another shot. We'll see if my opinion changes. But for now, it gets a:

Overall:

C+

If you liked this review, feel free to check out:

Resident Evil 4

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Smash TV

Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus