Video Game Review #147: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Nintendo Wii

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword came out in late 2011. I remember being extremely excited to play this game, especially after I’d read all the glowing reviews it was getting. I was a huge Zelda fan to begin with, but when you threw in motion sword controls that reacted based on how you swung the Wii remote, it was AWN. I asked my girlfriend (who would later go on to become my wife) for this game as a Christmas gift. Like the good girlfriend that she was, she came through in the clutch and got this game for me. Not only was it super cool that I had gotten the game, but it also came with a bonus CD that had full orchestra versions of classic Zelda tracks on it. I remember the two of us driving out to my parents’ house on Christmas Day with the Zelda soundtrack booming in the car. It was like we were going on an adventure. I loved it!

The game, however, was a different story. The motion controls were cool, but that was the only cool thing about it. The whole game just seemed a bit tedious to me. The environments were bland. You revisited the same three stages over and over again throughout the course of the game. To me, there were no memorable or iconic moments to be seen here like there were in almost all of the previous Zelda games. In fact, the whole game itself was kind of a slog for me to play through. It wasn’t particularly fun and it began to feel like a chore after a while. I could not for the life of me figure out why the game had gotten such good reviews.

I ended up beating the game just for the sake of beating it. The disc went back in the case. The case went back on the shelf. I told myself that I would someday return to the game to see if my opinion had changed on it. About six or seven years passed before I finally picked it up again.

When I first started playing the game again, I found that my feelings had not changed. I quickly got bored with the game and after a couple of days of boredom I decided that I needed a break from the game to play something more fun. I put my playthrough on a temporary hold and switched over to the PS4 to play The Last of Us instead.

When I came back to Skyward Sword, I noticed that something had changed. Maybe it was just me forcing myself to power through the game, but I started playing it for hours on end and found myself actually enjoying the experience. No, it still wasn’t the best Zelda game, but I tried to put that out of my head. I tried to ignore what the other Zelda games had done and judge Skyward Sword on its own merits. That is when I started to realize that the game wasn’t really as bad as I had thought.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is canonically the first game in the Zelda series. Link and his people live in a floating city named Skyloft. The world below is shielded by a layer of clouds so thick that no one has seen the surface in ages. In fact, many people believe there is nothing below the clouds at all. That is, until prominent Skyloft citizen Zelda falls and disappears into the clouds below. A shimmering light shines into the sky, and a passage to the surface opens through the clouds. Being the brave adventurer that he is, Link hops aboard his big flying bird and goes down to investigate.

Down below, Link finds out he is the chosen hero, because of course he is. The villain of the game, Girahim, is attempting to free an ancient powerful demon from his long slumber. Once freed, the demon will destroy everything in its path. Zelda, an incarnation of the ancient Goddess of lore, is going around from temple to temple on the surface, doing her part to help keep the evil at bay. Girahim is attempting to stop her, but Link is there to fight Girahim while following Zelda’s trail in the hopes of catching up with her and aiding her on her quest.

You follow Zelda from temple to temple, navigating through each temple, solving puzzles, collecting keys, and fighting bosses. After you have completed the first three temples, things should become very familiar to fans of Zelda games in the past. You are sent out on multiple quests to track down the artifacts you need to win the game. First you have to go find secret mystical stones. Then you have to go learn songs from the game’s three dragons. Then you have to go collect something else. Then something else. Rinse and repeat - something we have seen in a countless number of Zelda games in the past. Don’t get me wrong, the formula works. This isn’t a bad thing. Not necessarily very original, but still fun. The thing I didn’t like is that the game recycles the same three environments (the forest, the volcano, and the desert) over and over and over and over and over again. You revisit them multiple times over the course of the game. Sure, you unlock new areas and new locations within each environment each time you visit, but things still feel super repetitive after a while. A little extra variety would have been nice.

When not exploring the three surface locations of the game, you will find yourself flying around on your red bird above the clouds. Skyloft and its surrounding floating islands act as the central hub village of the game. Here you can talk to people, take on tasks for them, and do things that advance the game’s storyline. You can also fly from island to island, exploring and seeing what kind of surprises each little area has in store for you. In The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, I absolutely loved sailing the sea and exploring all of the game’s islands for their secrets. For whatever reason, I never did here. I checked out maybe two or three islands, but that was it. Exploring just didn’t hold the same magic or appeal that exploring in Wind Waker did for me. Probably because each island I visited seemed to contain some random Skyloftian who wanted me to do something for them. Whereas in Wind Waker, you never knew what you were going to find. As a result the majority of my time above the clouds was spent simply going from point A to point B to advance the plot. I could have explored more, I just didn't find the exploration very interesting here.

A lot of reviews of this game praise its puzzles and its dungeons. They were serviceable, but I didn’t find any of them particularly fun or memorable. I didn’t dislike them, but again: nothing groundbreaking or iconic to be seen here like in previous Zelda games. OK, I told myself I was going to stop comparing this to past Zelda games, but here I continue to do it. I guess it is something that just simply can’t be helped! One thing the reviews were critical of was the motion controls, which I liked. Weird, huh? Everything about the game that they liked, I didn’t. The one thing they didn’t, I did. But I just thought the motion controls added some extra depth to combat situations. Plus it just felt cool swinging the Wii remote like a sword, and watching Link react appropriately onscreen. It made things awkward with my cat, though, because she kept trying to lay on my lap when I was playing this game.

Another thing I will acknowledge that I liked about the game is its story. It is average on the surface, but once you dig deeper, the events of this game explain a lot of Zelda lore. It explains the origin of the Master Sword. It explains the significance of the bird logo to be seen in future games. It also details the origins of Ganondorf as the main villain of the series. In fact, the game does a good job explaining why it is that Link, Zelda, and Ganon always seem to be at the center of attention each time there is a crisis in Hyrule. It explains why and how the destiny of these three characters is tied together. That is pretty cool in my books.

I just realized I have nearly made it to the end of the review without mentioning two of the game’s more memorable side characters. One, Groose, is memorable in a good way. He starts out as a bully, but has a nice redemption arc going on where he becomes one of the game’s heroes when all is said and done. The other one, Fi, is memorable in a bad way. She is like this game’s version of Navi. She pops up from time to time to give you advice and explain plot points to you. The only problem is she pops up TOO MUCH and it gets tiring after a while. She talks for a long time. She talks oh so slowly too. You can’t skip over the things she says either. I just wanted to kick her in the head after a while. Worst video game companion ever! Speaking of annoying things, I hate how when you pick up a dropped enemy collectible in the game, such as a jelly blob or a skull necklace, it always has to freeze the action, explain what the item is, pause the game, open your inventory, and deposit the item into your inventory before unpausing the game and letting you return to action. It makes me groan and not want to pick up items when I see them laying around. The game even does this if you pick something up in the middle of battle, too. It is so tedious and intrusive, it drives me absolutely nuts. Come on, guys! Who thought this was a good idea?

Despite my complaints, I did end up liking the game by the time I finished it. This is one of those games where I would keep telling myself "okay, just a little bit longer" but then continue to play for several more hours. This is a pretty decent game on its own merits, but I just can't help but feel that when compared to past 3D Zelda games everything about Skyward Sword screams average to me. Average puzzles, average dungeons, average music, average graphics (seriously, why is everything so bland here? I thought this was supposed to be a step above the GameCube and N64?), average everything. Well, except for the plot. True, an average Zelda game is still better than 50% of games out there, but I couldn’t help but feel that this game was a disappointment as a Zelda game. If I had to rank my favorite 3D Zeldas, this would definitely rank behind Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess. I have not played Breath of the Wild yet, but I can't imagine liking this game more than that one.

So I have a little bit of a dilemma here. Average Zelda game, but slightly above average NOT Zelda game. C is too low. C+ or B-? Hmmmm….

Gah! I just don’t have it in me to give this game a score in the C range. Despite its numerous flaws which I outlined in great detail above, I still had an overall enjoyable time with the game. It could have (and should have!) been much better. But if you take away the expectations that the name “The Legend of Zelda” immediately bring to mind when you start this up, it really is a solid title. Solid, but at the same time never extraordinary.

Overall:

B-

If you liked my Skyward Sword review, please check out a few other of my game reviews:

The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

Final Fantasy X

Sonic Colors

Super Paper Mario

Video Game Review #146: The Last of Us Remastered

The Last of Us Remastered

PlayStation 4

I first played the Last of Us back in September of 2013. The game had already been out for several months, and I was well aware of all of the rave reviews it had been getting. Best PS3 game! Game of the year! Best game of all time! I knew from the hype and the reviews that it would be something I would like, and I fully intended to check it out someday. But I had plenty of other stuff to play, plus my mind was occupied with my upcoming wedding. I was in no hurry to get The Last of Us just yet.

As fate would have it, I started talking to a guy at work named Jeff. We hit it off bonding over our love of video games. He told me he would loan me his physical copy of the Last of Us if I would let him log into my PS3 account so he could download Grand Theft Auto V. We had literally just met, and I wasn't sure if I could trust this guy. Was that kind of exchange even legal? I justified it in my mind: nothing could stop people from trading physical copies of games, so why would an electronic copy be any different? Plus, I liked this guy and wanted to be his friend. My instincts told me that he was alright.

So I went ahead with the exchange. Not only did I get to play an awesome game in the Last of Us, I met a great friend in the process. Jeff and I had a ton of fun hangout sessions where we would play retro video games together and geek out over Youtube videos. We even contemplated creating our own channel together. He would also go on to write several guest reviews for this blog before his untimely death in June of 2018. In a way, the Last of Us was the game that brought the two of us together, even though it was only for a small handful of years. I can't help but think of him whenever the Last of Us comes to mind.

Run, girl. Run.

I knew very little about the game as I came into it. I only knew the basic gist: that you played as an older man and that it was your goal to escort a young girl through an apocalyptic wasteland. That’s it. So the beginning of the game surprised me a bit. For those who have never played the game before, The Last of Us starts out with you in control of a young girl. Her dad is the protagonist of the game, Joel. Naturally, I assumed that this girl was the one he would be escorting across the country. Nope. A cutscene shows the girl giving Joel a watch for his birthday before bedtime. Even though the scene is not very long, it does a terrific job establishing the two as characters as well as giving us a quick glance into their relationship. An unspecified amount of time later, your character wakes up in the middle of the night. Something weird is going on. There are news reports all over the TV of something catastrophic going on. A building explodes in the distance as you look out the window. You explore the house, looking for your dad, but he is nowhere to be seen. Just when it starts to seem like he has left, he comes rushing in from the outside and locks the door behind him. People are going crazy and turning into zombies. Technically I guess they aren’t really ZOMBIES as we know them; they are human bodies taken over by spores and fungi. But whatever. If it looks, moves, and acts like a zombie: it’s a freaking zombie to me. You get in the car with Joel and take off, but quickly things go awry.

Long story short, you and Joel end up on foot, running desperately to safety from the zombies. A military man with a machine gun appears and guns a couple of them down. You get a brief glimpse of hope that he is there to rescue you, but within seconds he gets orders over the comm to leave no survivors. Joel realizes what is going on and grabs his daughter and jumps and rolls down a hill as the man opens fire. At the bottom, Joel realizes that his daughter has been fatally wounded by the gunman. Joel sobs and cradles his dead daughter in his arms as the screen cuts to black. Welcome to the Last of Us!

I must say that this was one of the most effective openings I have ever seen in a video game. It made me cry the first time I played through it, and I am pretty sure it did the second time too. In the span of only about 15 or 20 minutes, you really get to know Joel and his daughter and appreciate the bond between them. To have that bond suddenly ripped apart, thrown to the ground, and spat on is a tremendous punch in the gut. I remember the first time I played this game, it was so intense that I contemplated taking a break and coming back to play later. I didn’t though - I kept going! And I am glad I did.

The game jumps forward 20 years in time. Instead of holding your hand and explaining everything that has happened in that 20 years, the game leaves you to discover that stuff on your own by using context clues. There are only a few major cities left across the country – all of them gated off and under oppressive military control. There is a small group of rebels out there that refer to themselves as Fireflies. Whether or not this has anything to do with the TV show Firefly and its Browncoat rebels, I have no idea. But I like to think it does.

You are in control of a very jaded and grimy looking Joel. I think he is now a smuggler or something. I forget the exact details, but an arms agreement between Joel and a criminal faction goes awry. Joel’s partner in crime, a woman named Tess, is attacked and nearly killed. Joel and Tess set off for revenge. Little do they know, this kicks off the main quest of the game. In order to get their weapons back, Joel and Tess are forced to escort a young girl named Ellie to the Fireflies. Ellie is special because she has been bitten by one of the infected, yet has not died or turned into one of them. This is something that no one has ever seen before. It is possible that Ellie contains a cure to the mass infection in her blood. Joel and Tess take Ellie under their wings and set off through the decaying, overgrown ruins of the city to the Firefly base.

I am not going to recap everything that happens in the game, because then I am going to be typing for a long time. But let’s just say that the journey takes a lot of unexpected twists and turns. People die, detours are taken, new people are met, new destinations set before our characters. Some are the characters you encounter are nice, some are shit heads. Expect a lot of hard hitting and emotional moments. If you have ever seen the Walking Dead, you will see a lot of familiar themes pop up here. I think the game handles them better than the show, though!

Gameplay takes place from a behind-the-back 3D perspective. Uncharted was the obvious thing that came to mind when I started playing this. Makes sense, as both games were made by Naughty Dog. Resident Evil 4 could be another inspiration. You use the left shoulder button to draw your weapon, the right shoulder button to shoot. You run, you crouch, you can climb up on things. You have your typical first aid kits and healing items. You can’t just pause to reload your gun or use these items however; these things must be done in real time. This makes things a bit more intense if you are almost out of health and need to heal in the middle of a fight. Stealth plays a major factor in this game too. Not only is ammo sparsely located and easy to run out of, but if you rush into combat your enemies can kill you VERY quickly. You will spend a lot of time crouched and sneaking around. While crouching, you enter a focus mode that lets you “see” where your enemies are based on the sounds they are making. If you want to get good at this game, you definitely have to take advantage of this feature, because the game’s perspective doesn’t really allow you to see your surrounding territory all that well.

Throughout the course of the game you are going to be fighting both human and infected opponents. You must adapt your strategy depending on who you are fighting. Humans are faster and can fire weapons at you, however they are physically weaker and can be brought down relatively easily. It is normally encouraged to use stealth tactics to sneak up on them and take them out one by one before you have a whole group of them flooding your location. There are several types of infected opponents, however, and some of them are blind. This may seem easy at first- if they can’t see you they should be easy to beat or sneak by, right? Not necessarily. The blind ones are extremely powerful and will one hit kill your character. The only way to kill them is to sneak up behind them and stab them with a shiv. If you don’t have a shiv, you have to unload your gun into it as many times as you can and hope for the best. Trying to fight it with your fists is a lost cause. The good news about these things is that they are relatively slow and easy to escape from. They’ll even forget about you after a while once you’ve lost them. The not-blind creatures are a different type of challenge. They can see you and will take off chasing after you at a moment’s notice. They are fast too! The good news about them is that they are weaker than their blind comrades. They can’t one hit kill you. You don’t need a shiv to stealth kill them. You can even take them down in regular hand to hand combat. These are the main enemy types you will encounter throughout the game, but the game does throw a few “massive” infecteds at you from time to time. These things act as boss characters, in a way. They are big, powerful, and take a LOT of ammo to bring down. I never look forward to fighting these things.

Graphically, the game is gorgeous. The character models are great. The landscapes are sensational. What makes the game stand out, in my opinion anyway, is the level of detail put into its environments. It doesn’t matter if you are just walking through a kid’s playroom that has nothing in it as far as items or anything you need to advance the plot. The room feels like a small child spent several years of his or her life there. Pink walls, toys on the bed and on the floor. Hanging decorations. A dresser with photographs and books on it. There are personal touches everywhere you look. You only pass through the room for about 15 seconds, and it is such a small part of the game. But the amount of detail put into the room is staggering. Now imagine the entire GAME being like that. A countless number of rooms, a countless numbers of streets, sewer tunnels, crumbling buildings, subway stations, stores, etc, all meticulously detailed and covered with small personal touches. The makers of the game created an entire living and breathing apocalyptic world that feels strikingly real. I can’t even imagine how much time was put into this game simply creating its environments. Just looking at this from a purely technical aspect, The Last of Us is a marvel.

Voice acting is sensational too. And the music… don’t even get me started. It is absolute perfection. As impressive as the game is technically, it is really the bond between Joel and Ellie that keeps things going. Watching them grow together over the course of their journey is magical. They start out at odds and quickly get on each others’ nerves. Ellie even steps on Joel’s toes when she brings up his dead daughter. But by the end of their several month journey, the bond they form is unbreakable and they would do anything for one another. Even though you are playing through events that take place 20 years after the death of Joel’s daughter, you can tell that her death has left a lasting impression on him and has shaped him into the man he is today. It is interesting to watch the tough, battle hardened Joel let his defenses down around Ellie. If you take the emotional prologue of the game away and jump right into “present day” times, I think that relationship suffers and is not nearly as interesting as it turned out to be.

So The Last of Us has outstanding graphics, great music and sound effects, interesting characters, terrifically designed environments, a great combat system, an intriguing plot, and it really makes you care for its characters. It is no wonder that so many people consider this one of the best, if not THE best game ever made. It is hard to find flaws here. I can name a few though. First one is in the stealth system. Not necessarily how with you control, but with certain NPCs like Ellie that you travel with. If you run and hide behind a wall just before an enemy turns around and sees you, great. But Ellie often tails right behind you. A lot of times she will clearly be in the sight of an enemy, but they do not see her for some reason. As long as YOU are hidden, your companions are virtually invisible to the enemies. Ellie could breakdance in the middle of an otherwise empty hallway and the guard would go walking right by her, completely oblivious to her existence. If the game is looking to be as realistic as possible, the enemies should see her when she is running around and all hell should break loose. But that never happens. I get why they have it set up like this. It would suck to run and hide and do everything perfectly yourself, but then Ellie keeps getting spotted and busting your cover. That would be irritating as hell, especially if it kept happening over and over again. It is just a small complaint I have.

Another one is in the glitches. There weren’t many, but there were some. My most memorable glitch is when I somehow managed to phase through the side of a building while trying to shiv an infected enemy in the neck. I don’t know what happened, but Joel pulled it too close to the wall to stab it and bam all of a sudden I am free falling 20 stories to my death. Another nitpick has to do with enemy AI. Once you know how to manipulate these creatures, the game is cake. For example: the first time I played this game, I remember taking part in a brutal, grueling fight against three “massive” infected enemies and a horde of small, fast ones. It took me soooo many tries to make it through that area. But it was all good. It was fun. It was a challenge. I felt rewarded when I finally made it through. What happened this time around? I chucked a grenade into the center of the enemy formation. The sound attracted other enemies, who came running. I threw another grenade into the fray. Then another. Then a few Molotov cocktails. When the smoke settled I had cleared out the entire area without even breaking the slightest of sweats. I felt a bit disappointed that it was so easy, to be honest with you. I wanted that giant, epic, difficult showdown I’d experienced the first time I played the game. And I didn't get it.

So no, the game is not perfect. That is not going to stop me from saying it is top notch, however. This is a REALLY good game. The first 15 minutes are enough to suck you in entirely, and the game never really lets up after that. While playing this game, I had other titles I was working on as well. I have been getting into this habit lately of playing through multiple video games at the same time. Not with The Last of Us, however. Once I started playing this game, my focus was entirely on this game and this game alone until I was done with it. Even going back to when I first played it 5 years ago, I turned around and started up a second play through almost immediately after beating the game the first time. I NEVER do that. That just shows you how good this game is.

While I don’t necessarily buy into the “greatest game ever” hype, I can see why people put it in that category. Personally, I would still say Final Fantasy VII takes that spot. It would be interesting to see where the Last of Us stacks up. Maybe I will have to do a list or a ranking of my favorite games ever sometime soon. Hmmm…..

Before I conclude, I would like to add that my copy of the game came with free downloadable content. There is an entire chapter, about two or three hours long, called The Last of Us: Left Behind. The game switches back and forth between two different time periods: during the main game (while Ellie is trying to save an unconscious Joel from David's men) and before the start of the main game. The "present day" timeline is pretty straightforward. Ellie sneaks around the abandoned lake town and gathers supplies and fights enemies while trying to get Joel somewhere safe so she can nurse him back to health. This effectively fills in one of the main game's blank spots, from the point where Joel is knocked unconscious to the point he wakes up.

The past timeline is the one I found infinitely more interesting. It takes place three weeks before the events of the main game. Ellie is living a normal life in one of the military towns. Normal is relative, I guess. She is being trained to be a child soldier, after all. When one of Ellie's friends is about to leave on a secret Firefly mission, she invites Ellie out with her for a night on the town. The two friends sneak out of camp and to an abandoned shopping mall. They explore and marvel over all the relics from the past. Ellie has lived in a military camp her whole life and it is like walking into a different universe for her. You explore and check things out like a video game arcade, a carousel, and a Halloween costume store. Being The Last of Us, of course, things don't stay happy and chipper for long. The infected start to pour into the mall, making your return to camp a lot more complicated.

I don't want to spoil too much, but... if you were paying attention to some of the things Ellie was telling Joel in the first game, you will see those things happen here. You find out how she got bit. You find out what happens with her friend. Suffice it to say, some more manly tears were shed during my playthrough of this DLC.

All in all, I thought the DLC was excellent. I am glad it came with my version of the game, because honestly I probably would have never played it if I had to pay extra for it. But it would have been money well spent. It gives you a lot of much needed backstory about Ellie, in addition to being pretty action packed and fun too. The next time I play the Last of Us, I will have to play the main quest, stop at the part where Joel blacks out, play the DLC, then finish the rest of the main game.

If you have read this far it really should come as no surprise that I thought The Last of Us was an excellent game. I liked it the first time when I played it on the PS3. Playing it in HD on the PS4, plus with the free DLC, made the game even more fun. This is definitely a classic title, and I would recommend it to absolutely anyone and everyone who has not already played it. You are doing yourself a disservice by not checking it out.

Overall:

A+

If you liked my review of The Last of Us, please check out the following reviews:

Resident Evil

Resident Evil 4

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

The Walking Dead

For a complete index of all my past posts and game reviews, click

>HERE<

Video Game Review #145: The Lion King

The Lion King

Sega Genesis

My step brother rented The Lion King for the Sega Genesis back in 1994, shortly after the game came out. Despite having never seen the movie, I had great interest in the game. Why? Well, I mean, it was a video game and I liked video games. Duh! But I especially liked 2D side-scrollers based on movies. A lot of movie based games got critically panned, but for some reason I always enjoyed them and would check them out whenever they’d hit store shelves.

It was a Saturday and I only had half a day to play the game with him before I had to leave to go to my mom’s house. Despite the fact that we played this game for hours and hours on end, we were never able to make it past the second stage. Thinking back to that day, the only thing I can remember is a puzzle involving monkeys that would fling you around the stage. Some of the monkeys you could roar at. This would make them change the direction in which they’d toss your character. Despite trying virtually every combination in the book, we could never figure this puzzle out. Not only that, but even simply getting to the monkey puzzle was incredibly tough, too. And this was coming from someone who was good at video games. The Lion King was freaking hard! As much as my 12 or 13 year old self wanted to stick around and continue to work on making it through the stage, I had to leave. This may sound silly, but I never forgot that day. If and when I ever got the chance, I vowed to return to The Lion King someday and vanquish those gaming demons.

Fast forward to, geez, 20 some years later. I have already mentioned my cousin Ryan and his box of Sega Genesis games many, many times throughout the lifespan of this blog. Well, guess what? I am going to do it again. A few years ago he loaned me a box of Genesis games to review for this blog. The Lion King is one of the games that was in the box. It took me a while to get around to playing it, as I had higher gaming priorities. Plus, I am not gonna lie: the challenge of the game was a bit intimidating to me. I knew I would get around to the Lion King eventually, but I was definitely in no rush to do so.

Years passed with this box of games in my possession until finally, the right time came to play it. I don’t know what changed to signify that it was the right time to play. But something clicked in my head. I was ready to take on this challenge. It was now or never.

The first thing I noticed upon starting up the game was of course its presentation. I mean, the game looks really good! The colors are vibrant and bright. The characters and animations are well drawn. Each stage is bursting with life and personality. This is one of the best looking Genesis games you will ever see. The music is fantastic too. The songs are all rehashed versions of songs you hear in the film, minus the vocals of course. But everything is pretty much instantly recognizable from its film counterpart. My favorite track is for the first level of the whole game. I’d suggest giving it a listen when you are done reading this review. Or heck, start it up now and listen while you read along. It really gets you into the mood to play The Lion King. When you couple the game’s outstanding music with its eye popping visuals, you get one really immersive and impressive sensory experience.

As impressive as the visual and audio quality of the game was, would it actually be any fun to play? I went back and forth on this multiple times, but the more I played, the more the game began to grow on me. I may not have thought this way in the beginning, but my answer now is a firm and resounding yes!

Right off the bat, the game is a challenge. The first level is pretty easy. I passed it with no trouble. But the second level... man. The second level. It is not often that I need to access an online guide for help with a 2D sidescrolling game. Especially on just the second level of the game! These kinds of games I have always been naturally good at. But I just had to with The Lion King. It was that hard. Even with a guide, I still struggled. My first few attempts at this game, I burned through all my continues before finally making it through to the third stage. And even then, I only made it with one remaining life and no continues. Two minutes later, I died on stage three, and had to start the whole game from the beginning again.

The game's controls are pretty basic, especially considering that this was made for the Sega Genesis. Controlling Simba as a cub, the only two attack moves you have are jumping and roaring. To kill your enemies, you have to jump on them. Easy enough. Your roar move is not very effective, as Simba is still young and does not have an intimidating roar. As an attack, I only used it to roar at porcupines, as the roar would flip them over and expose their vulnerable belly for you to jump on. Other than using it to change the position of the monkeys on stage two, I didn't see much other use for the roar at all.

The game loosely follows the plot of the movie, so as you play Simba gets older and larger in appearance. I believe that for the first six stages of the game you play as young Simba, and for the remaining four stages you play as adult Simba. Adult Simba is much more dangerous than his young counterpart. He can swipe enemies with his paw, as well as pounce on them and maul them to death. He is also stronger, and can jump higher and longer distances. His roar is fully developed now, but unless was doing something wrong as I played I didn't see much use to even use the roar at all. I wish I had the chance to control older Simba for a few more stages, but alas - the story of the game did not allow for more of them.

Level progression is fairly linear. You start at point A and have to make it to point B to finish the level. Normal enemies include insects, spiders, monkeys, hyenas, vultures, bats, frogs, and other jungle dangers you may encounter. Simply jump on them as young Simba to kill them, or use your claw or pounce attack to kill them as adult Simba. The design of the levels loosely follows the plot of the movie. The first stage has you making your way up to the top of Pride Rock, where at the end you find Mufasa and he tells you that everything you see is yours. The second level has you jumping across giraffes, riding on the back of an ostrich, swinging from hippopotamus tails (damn these things. WHY WON'T YOU GRAB ON???), and getting flung around by monkeys, all set to the tune of "I Just Can't Wait To Be King." This is the aforementioned uber-challenging level that I mentioned earlier. The third level has you moving on to the Elephant Graveyard. The next level is the stampede. So on and so forth. Like I said, it loosely follows the plot of the movie. So if you have seen the movie before, you should be able to tell what kind of stages this game is going to have.

There are random boss battles scattered throughout the game. The most memorable battle in my mind is against a giant ape that throws fruit at you. You have to dodge his attacks and wait for him to stand up, then you can jump on him. He follows a very reliable pattern and is easy to kill once you get the pattern down. But man, I will not lie. That fight took me a LOT of attempts and cost me quite a few lives and continues. It is a toughie, for sure. The other boss fights are not as memorable. You fight a solo hyena in one level. Obviously Scar is going to be the big bad at the end. If there are any other boss fights, they aren't coming to mind. Is that it? Just three boss battles?

Each level contains hidden bugs you can collect. They do things like increase your roar meter (yes, there is a meter for that), increase your health, or can grant you access to a special stage at the end of each level. In these special stages, you must control Timon or Pumbaa and collect bugs. The more bugs you collect, the more extra lives or continues you can score. Trust me, it is important that play these special stages and do well on them. You will need every extra life or continue you can get!

While the game is mainly a 2D platformer, there is one very unique stage in the game: the stampede stage. Rather than controlling Simba from the normal 2D perspective, things shift to a full frontal escape scene where Simba is running directly towards the camera. You have to run back and forth, avoiding getting trampled by stampeding animals. As if this is not hard enough, rocks come at you from off camera with only a second or two worth of notice. Trying to avoid the stampeding animals AND these rocks is no easy feat. I am pretty good at the stage now due to pattern recognition, but again - I struggled a lot with this when I first played it. This stage is another life/continue eating machine. Despite being challenging, it is still a really fun stage, however. And it is a nice break from the normal side scrolling gameplay. A lot of people refer to this as a "classic" stage from the 16-bit era, and I can not say I disagree with that.

It took me an entire weekend to beat The Lion King. All I can say is kudos to the makers of the game for challenging someone like me, who considers himself pretty darn good at these kinds of games. This game is famous for its difficulty, and for good reason. You have to pay attention and learn from your mistakes as you play. You can't just expect to pick this game up and beat it on your first attempt. It doesn't work that way. It is tough, but it does not feel unfairly challenging at the same time. Every time I died, I knew it was my fault and that I needed to do better the next time around. The only time I thought I ever suffered a cheap death was during the second stage. The ostrich double jump is tough to pull off the first few times you give it a shot. I was like COME ON!! WHAT IS KILLING ME?? Turns out that not only do you have to ensure that Simba survives the double jump, but the ostrich does too. Once I figured that out, I was good to go. The other time I felt I died unfairly during this stage was the part when you have to swing from hippo tail to hippo tail as you move over the water. My jumps were aligned perfectly, but for some reason Simba wouldn't grab on and would fall to his death. I know how to do it now, but I'll be damned if I didn't burn through more continues than I can count just on this one seemingly simple part.

Not only is The Lion King hard enough as it is, but I think there is something wrong with the copy of the game that was in my cousin's box. Often as I played, the game would randomly restart to the title screen for no apparent reason at all. There was no option to continue; I would have to start the whole game over from the beginning again. There was never any warning that it was going to happen either. It would just happen. Sometimes it would be on the first stage. Sometimes on stage seven. One time it even happened during the final fight with Scar at the very end of the game. I had him on the ropes and all I had to do was toss him over the edge of the cliff. I was PISSED@@@!@!@!!!!! By this time I had already sunk hours and hours of my day into the game. I had played off and on for three days straight. I did not feel guilty using a cheat code to skip to the last stage and beat it from there. No siree!

While I hate the fact that I had to use a code to beat the game, I didn't consider this my fault at all. The randomly restarting to the title screen was an obstacle that everyone else who had to play through this game did not have to overcome. I was at the very end of the game, about 20 seconds away from beating it when it restart. What was to stop it from happening again and wasting even more of my time? So I consider my completion of The Lion King to be completely valid. I will fight you if you say it is not!

Restarting issue aside, I had a surprisingly fun time with The Lion King. Yes, the game is challenging, but that is part of its charm. Through simple trial and error, you learn from your mistakes and slowly do better each time you play it. This isn't a game you can beat in one sitting, like many movie based 2D games that came out in the 90s. There is a lot of depth to this game. It is really rewarding when you struggle through a level, but finally manage to make it through after several attempts. Not only does the game manage to be fun and challenging at the same time, its production levels are high too. Music, sound effects, graphics, everything is top of the line. One of the best looking and sounding Genesis games I have ever played. This is a very well made game.

Everyone may rant and rave about Aladdin being the definitive movie based game for the Sega Genesis, but I think The Lion King is better. It is by no means the perfect 2D platformer, but it is very good. If you are a fan of the genre, this is a must-play.

Overall:

A-

If you liked my review of The Lion King, please check out some of these other reviews:

Aladdin

Demolition Man

Dynamite Headdy

Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition

Taz-Mania

Video Game Review #144: Sonic Mania Plus

Sonic Mania Plus

PlayStation 4

It was 1994 and we were just a few weeks away from Christmas. I was out with my family at a tree lot, where everyone was looking to find that perfect Christmas tree to bring home. Trees, however, were the last thing on my mind. All I could think about was how I wanted to go home and play my Sega Genesis. I had just rented Sonic & Knuckles earlier in the day, and I had only made it through one stage before being FORCED to leave the house to go shopping: in the snow, in the cold, with my brother and all my annoying step brothers in tow. As far as I was concerned, we couldn’t get home soon enough.

Needless to say, I did eventually find my way back home. I played the hell out of Sonic & Knuckles that weekend, completing all of the many different variations of the game. While overall I enjoyed the game, I couldn’t help but notice how not much had changed between this game and Sonic 3. In fact, not much had changed between Sonic 3 and Sonic 2. Or even between Sonic 2 and Sonic 1! Sure there were some small cosmetic and gameplay tweaks along the way, but overall the core Sonic formula had remained the same over the course of four games. The series was starting to feel just a bit repetitive to me. I was ready for it to undergo a major change. I got my wish. Little did I know, that Sonic & Knuckles would be the last true Sonic platformer I would see in a LONG time.

I would say that this was both a blessing and a curse, but given the quality of most Sonic titles since Sonic & Knuckles came out in 1994, I will say that it is more of a curse. It wasn’t long before I was hoping and praying for a return to the classic Sonic formula, the same one that I had taken for granted after Sonic & Knuckles hit store shelves. After over 20 years of suffering through mediocre to miserable Sonic titles, my wish finally came true. When I caught wind of Sonic Mania back in 2017, I got super excited.  A classic Sonic title made with the technology of today, with the graphics and gameplay of yesterday? Yes please!

As excited as I was for the game, I didn’t get around to playing it in 2017. In fact, I kind of forgot about it. It wasn’t until I saw news of Sonic Mania Plus that the game officially found its way onto my MUST PLAY radar. Its release date was July 17th, which just so happened to be my birthday. It was like it was meant to be. So I got it. 24 years after Sonic & Knuckles hit store shelves, and my 12 year old self stupidly wanted the series to change its formula, I was finally getting my hands on a classic Sonic title once again.

My initial impression of the game was that it was all kinds of awesome. Call it fan service if you want, but I was giddy with excitement at the chance to play not only remixed versions of some of my favorite Sonic stages, but new ones as well. As soon as I started playing this game, I felt like that excited little Sonic loving kid all over again. “OMG, THERE IS SONIC RIDING ON THE PLANE WITH TAILS! OMG THE MUSIC! IT IS JUST LIKE SONIC 3!! WHOAH THIS IS NEW! OMG GREEN HILL ZONE! GAAAH THIS MUSIC IS MY FAVORITE! LOOK AT THE GRAPHICS, IT LOOKS JUST LIKE A GENESIS GAME, BUT BETTER!! SAME SOUND EFFECTS! COLLECTING RINGS, JUMPING, GETTING HIT AND LOSING ALL YOUR RINGS: IT STILL SOUNDS EXACTLY THE SAME!! THIS BRINGS BACK SO MANY MEMORIES!! THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!!”

I knew Sonic games were short, and I didn’t want to beat the whole thing in one night. I wanted to take my time and savor the game. So I spread out my initial playthrough over the course of three days. When I did beat the game, I turned around and played it on “Encore Mode” and beat the whole thing in one day. Now a few days have passed and I have had some time to reflect on the game. Was it worth the long wait?

Yes…. and no. I will start with the positives. I mean, it is a freaking Sonic game! It was a blast to come back and play new content using the old classic formula once again. The graphics, while very similar to the 16-bit Genesis games, are slightly better than they were in the past. More colorful, more detailed, better character models, better animation. The music is just as good as ever. Not only do a lot of classic musical tracks return here, but the game features all new musical tracks as well. Sonic Mania Plus also throws in a few remixed versions of some of my favorite songs. I’d have to say Act-II of the Oil Ocean Zone is probably my favorite remixed track in the whole game. A few other remixed tracks I don’t care for. Green Hill Zone is one of them. It is not that I don’t care for them, it is just that I prefer the original versions more.

Basic gameplay remains the same. Sonic controls just as he did in the old Genesis games. So does Tails. So does Knuckles. This game adds the ability to play as two new characters as well. You can select some yellow creature that looks a bit like Super Sonic, but controls like Mario with the cape in Super Mario World. The other character is some red and black thing that that looks like Knuckles, but can ground pound and repel spike attacks. I liked the addition of these characters, but when I started up my playthrough it was the tried and true Sonic and Tails combo or bust for me. Other than the addition of these characters, not much has changed from the 16-bit days. There are a few small gameplay tweaks here and there, but nothing that immediately comes to my mind.

Level layout: still the same. Beat Act I of a zone, and face off against a mini boss at the end of it. Then you go on to Act II, where you fight Robotnik at the end. Zones seem a little bit longer this time around. The earlier ones are pretty easy, but the deeper you get into the game, the longer they take. It isn’t unusual for an Act to take seven or eight minutes to complete, especially when you are like me and like to take your time and explore. I even ran out of  time TWICE in one of the last zones in the game, which never happens to me in a Sonic game. I won’t complain though. The more there is to see and explore, the merrier I am.

The game is filled with all kinds of Easter Eggs and nods to past Sonic titles. I wish the showdown was a little more difficult, but for one of the boss battles you take on Dr. Robotnik in a battle of good ole’ Mean Bean machine. Other classic boss characters return, albeit under very different circumstances. Remember the final battle with Robotnik in Sonic 2? Well, the machine from that fight is back in Sonic Mania Plus, and you have to fight him at the end of the very first stage! Metal Sonic makes an appearance as well. Other boss characters are very similar to characters you have fought in Sonic games past, but with slight differences. Clearly the makers of this game are paying homage to the original quadrilogy of Sonic games, but without directly recycling old material at the same time.

Bonus stages require 25 rings to activate after you run through a checkpoint. Just jump through the circle of stars above you and you will find yourself playing through all the old Blue Sphere stages from Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. Beat the stage and you collect a gold or silver medallion, which you can use for unlocking hidden stuff. It was fun to revisit some of these old stages, but uhhh more on that later. As is tradition with Sonic games, you can collect Chaos Emeralds as you make your way through the game. They are completely optional and not necessary to collect to beat the game. Which is good, because I found them to be particularly hard to get my hands on! Special stages are discovered in a similar fashion to how they are found in both Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. There are giant gold rings hidden in each stage, and you have to jump into them to activate the special stage. In the special stage, you take control of Sonic from a behind the back perspective. In each of the seven stages you have to chase down a machine carrying a Chaos Emerald. The closest thing I can compare these stages to is Sonic R for the Saturn. Collect blue spheres to increase your speed, and rings to give you more time on the clock. If you can't catch the Chaos Emerald-wielding machine by the time the clock runs out, you fail! These stages are extremely hard and I only managed to collect two Chaos Emeralds by the time I finished with the game. Is there is one weakness in my Sonic playing repertoire, it is that I have always been bad at collecting Chaos Emeralds, and I see that nothing has changed here in Sonic Mania.

All in all, if you discount the bonus and special stages, the game takes about three hours to complete. Add in the bonus and special stages, and it is probably closer to four or five. Herein lies my problem with the game: there are too damn many bonus stages! The Special stages where you collect Chaos Emeralds: those are fine. But the damn blue sphere bonus stages.... ugh! First of all, they are 100% recycled from Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. Nothing new to see here! My main problem with them, however, is that there are too damn many of then. Each Act of each zone probably has at least, AT LEAST four or five checkpoints in it. Consider that each Act probably takes about five minutes to complete (not a truly accurate number, just my ballpark estimate). If you are hitting five checkpoints in that time span, that means chances are you are going to trigger at least four of them to activate a bonus stage. So in five minutes of in-game action, you are getting pulled into a bonus stage roughly every minute and a half. Of course, these stages are 100% optional and do not need to be completed. But being the completionist that I am, I couldn't just ignore them in good conscience. I had to play them. There are so many bonus stages in this game (because there are so many checkpoints) that I found them interrupting the flow of the main game itself. It felt like I was spending more time collecting blue spheres than I was playing the main game. I'd play until I hit a checkpoint, jump in to the circle of stars, and off to the bonus stage I would go. Win or lose, I would come out of the bonus stage and continue playing. One or two minutes later, I was back playing the bonus stage again. I'd finish up and continue playing. Thirty seconds later, I hit another checkpoint and activate another bonus stage. On and on it went. It was majorly interrupting my enjoyment of the campaign and disrupting the overall flow of the game in general.

When you finish single player mode, you activate Encore mode. This is a remixed version of the original game. There is a slight difference in level layouts and colors in the background of each zone. The main difference is that you are forced to switch back and forth between all five of the game's playable characters. Rather than collecting lives, you simply have these other characters as backups. So let's say have a full complement of characters in your inventory. You are playing as Sonic and you die. Rather than lose a life, you switch over to the next character in your lineup. If all of your characters die, it is game over for you. At least I assume it is game over, I never actually lost everyone all at one time, although I did come close once. If you lose a character, you can get them back by either finding a character monitor and smashing it, or by restocking in the game's pinball bonus stages. Yes, the bonus stages in encore mode are different from the bonus stages in the regular campaign. Rather than playing the recycled blue sphere stages all over again, you shoot Sonic around in a pinball machine where you can collect rings, shields, and bring back dead characters. If your inventory is in good shape, there is really no reason to visit these pinball stages. Plus, you need 50 rings to unlock these stages rather than 25. They are a lot less frequent in appearance than the blue sphere stages too, so they do not interrupt the game's flow as much.

I found playing Encore Mode much more enjoyable than playing the original campaign. I like how you are forced to use each character, and I liked using their different strengths to explore the game's stages. The bonus stages are far less intrusive, and it allowed me to just sit back and play this game the way it was meant to be played. I really got a kick out of Encore Mode, and most of my future playthroughs are probably going to be done in this mode. I do still have to return to the original mode and collect all the Chaos Emeralds and finish up the blue sphere stages I couldn't complete the first time around. Bleh. I am not looking forward to that, but I am a completionist and I will not be able to rest easy as far as this game is concerned until I have unlocked everything there is to unlock.

If you are a big time Sonic fan like me who grew up playing the original games for the Sega Genesis, you are going to want to play this game. It captures the spirit of the original games perfectly. 24 years after Sonic & Knuckles first hit store shelves, those games finally have a worthy successor. It makes me wonder why they haven't just been making Sonic games like this for years and years now. If you are new to the series, you may not enjoy it as much as it won't carry any sentimental value for you. I would still like to think you'd consider it a good game, though.

While this is certainly a good game, at least in my books, I couldn't help but feel a little bit let down by it. I still think all the old Sega Genesis games are better. Most likely that is because I have nostalgic feelings for them as I grew up playing them. But I feel as if this game doesn't quite capture the same magic that those games did. It rides their coattails too much, relying on your nostalgia for past games to try and make you fall in love with this one. I like this game, I really do. But I feel as if it had been its own, brand new Sonic game made in the style of the old ones it would have been much better.

I have heard this game referred to as "one of the best platformers of this generation." While I agree that yeah it is a really fun game, I don't know if I would go that far. Heck, I had a better time with Rayman Legends (which I just beat and reviewed a month or two ago) than I did this game, and I have no sentimental feelings attached to the Rayman series whatsoever. That doesn't mean I am shitting on this game, by any means, it just means that I have played better games in the genre, and recently too! That said, I will not discourage you from getting Sonic Mania Plus, especially if you and the Sonic series go way back together. You are going to like it. Will you love it as much as you did the old games for the Sega Genesis? Only you can answer that. But me: I did not.

Overall:

B+

If you liked my review of Sonic Mania Plus, please check out some of my other reviews:

Sonic The Hedgehog

Sonic The Hedgehog 2

Sonic The Hedgehog 3

Sonic Colors

Rayman Legends

PS: if they made a Sonic Mania 2 following the same formula as the original, I would like to see the following zones make a return: Spring Yard Zone, Casino Night Zone, Emerald Hill Zone, Metropolis Zone, Carnival Night Zone, Mushroom Hill Zone, and the Sky Sanctuary Zone. What zones would you like to see remixes of?

Video Game Review #143: Metal Gear Solid

Metal Gear Solid

PlayStation

About three years ago I decided to start playing all the Metal Gear Solid games in order again. Not necessarily chronological order, but the order in which I am familiar with the games. Rather than play Metal Gear Solid for the original PlayStation, however, I decided to skip over it and play its remake -  Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes for the GameCube instead. That version features updated graphics, new cutscenes, and gameplay tweaks that make it feel a lot more like Sons of Liberty than it does the original title.

After I finished Twin Snakes, I moved on to the aforementioned Sons of Liberty a little over a year later. Yeah, I play through game series very slowly. You don't have to tell me. That was late 2016. It is now mid 2018. For whatever reason, after finishing Sons of Liberty I never moved on to Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. When I realized how long it had been since I'd played a game in the series, I made up my mind that I needed to play a Metal Gear game ASAP. But rather than continue on and play part three, I really wanted to go back and play the old PS1 version of the original game. Twin Snakes just didn't cut it for me, and nostalgia was calling me back to play the game again, this time the version I knew and loved.

I got this game back in 1998 when it first hit store shelves. The hype for the game was through the roof, and I knew that I needed to get in on the action. I got the game, and almost instantly I fell in love with it. I loved the story, I loved the characters, I loved the music, I loved the graphics, I loved the game play. It was as close to a perfect game as you could have gotten for me. I played through it a countless number of times.

Life moves on, however. Soon Metal Gear Solid was collecting dust on my shelves as I moved on to bigger (but not necessarily better) things. I have played it randomly a small handful of times since we moved into the 2000s, but if you count Twin Snakes as its own separate entity (which I am doing for this review), it has probably been a good ten years since I'd played the original title. That changed in July of 2018: 20 years after the game's initial release. Did it withstand the test of time?

Before I move on, I feel I need to give a basic recap of the game's storyline. Metal Gear Solid is a VERY story driven title, so understanding its plot will most likely be an essential element to your enjoyment of the game.

The protagonist of Metal Gear Solid is a genetically engineered super soldier named Solid Snake. He previously appeared in a couple of old NES entries to the Metal Gear series. The game references these past adventures quite often, but it is completely not necessary to have played them in order to enjoy this game. Snake has been sent to infiltrate a nuclear weapons disposal facility known as Shadow Moses Island. Unbeknownst to the general public, Shadow Moses is more than just a disposal facility. It is the development site of a new version of Metal Gear - a highly sophisticated battle tank that can deliver a stealth nuclear strike to any location on the map.

Terrorists have overrun this facility and are threatening the outside world with nuclear strikes. If their demands are not met, they will use Metal Gear to throw the world into turmoil. Snake's job is to stop these terrorists at all costs. He is sent in with nothing more than his body and his wits to get the job done. Thus, the game begins. Mind you, this is my extremely bare-bones version of the game's set up. I have barely even scratched the surface of some of the crazy shit you are going to see here. Expect lots of twists, turns, cover-ups, double crosses, and general WTF moments as you play on.

If you don't care about the storyline and just want to play to run around and blow shit up, this isn't the game for you. Like I said, the storyline of Metal Gear Solid takes front and center stage. You are going to have to sit through some long cutscenes and CODEC conversations. The CODEC is kind of like a remote radio link to other characters in the game. You consult with home base through your CODEC frequently, and some of these conversations can be quite lengthy. See the screenshot I posted just above this paragraph? You are going to be looking at screens like that quite often.

So that is the story. Does the game hold up after nearly 20 years? Having played this game many, many times before, I was not put off by its outdated graphics. Heck, I personally think the game still looks great. Yeah, things can get a bit blocky and pixelated at times. The characters' faces lack detail and expression. The game's environments can also look a bit messy if you look too closely at things. But you know what? I don't care. This game came out in 1998. It looked AMAZING for its time. I am still able to look at it now like I did back then. I think it looks great. Not perfect, but great nonetheless.

One of the reasons I am able to so easily overlook Metal Gear Solid's graphical flaws is because of the environment that the game creates. This is a very immersive game. The island of Shadow Moses is one of those locations that, similar to the setting of Rapture in BioShock, almost seems like a character in and of itself. Everywhere you turn, you see something iconic. Perhaps this is a result of me playing this game WAY too many times in the past, but I just love the setting. Whether you are sneaking around through dark warehouses, rummaging through offices and science labs, or crunching around outside in the snow, the game really makes you feel like part of the action.

Not only are the environments of the game both diverse and visually appealing, the music and sound effects blend in with them perfectly as well. It is very easy to just completely get lost in the game. Shadow Moses feels like a place that could actually exist somewhere. It is dark and gritty when it needs to be, high tech and polished when it needs to be as well. Even though it is an outlandish game, there is a certain amount of realism here that speaks to me. Compare the looks of this game to its GameCube remake Twin Snakes, and you maybe can see what I mean. Everything looks so sharp and polished in that game, that it doesn't feel as genuine as it does here when things are dark and gritty. Even though the remake technically (I guess) looks better, it doesn't carry with it the same level of authenticity that this game does.

The gameplay has a few flaws, but for the most part everything handles fine. Point Snake where you need him to go, and hold the D-pad in that direction. You can crawl, you can crouch, you can shimmy against walls, you can enter first person mode to check out your surroundings. The L shoulder button brings up your support items, such as health rations or night vision goggles. The R shoulder button brings up your weapons. Combat is my biggest issue. You can't enter first person mode to shoot, nor does your gun lock on to your enemies. So to kill them you just have to point your body in their general direction and hit the fire button, hoping that you are lined up well enough to kill them. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. Combat is not really the main focus of the game, so I guess the overall questionable combat mechanics can be forgiven.

I say that combat is not the focus of the game because if you are spending too much time trying to fight your way through hordes of enemies, you are doing things wrong. You need to sneak through the game's areas without being seen in order to be successful. Normally I like a good fight in a video game; it is a nice way to blow off some steam. But I have to admit there is something exhilarating about sneaking past a series of foes undetected to make it to your goal. What happens if you get spotted? You have to either exit the area or hide until the enemies give up looking for you. Rarely does trying to fight your way out of a situation ever work out.

Unless, I should say, you are fighting one of the game's many bosses. This game is famous for its wild, diverse boss battles. Memorable bosses include Vulcan Raven, Revolver Ocelot, Sniper Wolf, Liquid Snake (the helicopter battle is my favorite Liquid fight), Grey Fox, and of course: Psycho Mantis. The Psycho Mantis battle has earned legendary status among hardcore gamers. He pulls out all kinds of fun tricks. If you have a vibrating controller, you put it down on a flat surface and he makes it vibrate - giving you the illusion that he is moving your controller across the surface. He also reads your memory card for Konami games. If you have played certain games, he will comment on them for you. Kind of cool. He can read your mind, which allows him to dodge all of your attacks. It took me a while to figure this out, but the only way to beat him is to unplug your controller and put it into controller port 2. Thus, you dodge his mind control and even the playing field during the battle.

You can probably tell from my comments so far that I really like the game. That is not to say it is without flaws. Mainly: the backtracking! This game makes you backtrack quite often. The first time you have to go back almost all the way to the beginning of the game to pick up a sniper rifle that you need for a boss battle. Okay, sure, whatever. But then not too later on the game picks you up and deposits you back toward the beginning of the game AGAIN after you get captured. You have to escape a pretty intense torture scene by jamming the circle button (you can't use auto fire... or they'll know!) over and over again. Then you have to escape your cell. Then you have to get your equipment back. Then you have to head out back to where you originally got captured, halfway across the freaking game map. You aren't done backtracking though. Towards the end of the game, you have a key that you need to both heat up and cool off to make it change shape. Which means, guess what, you have to backtrack from the key reader to the hot section of the map, heat up the key by standing around for a few minutes with the key out, wait for it to heat up, then head back to the key reader and use the key in its new condition. Then you have to do the same thing for its frozen form. Sheesh!

All the backtracking was not enough to ruin the game for me, however. I still had a really fun time with this title, MUCH more fun than I had with Twin Snakes. In fact, playing this only made me hungry for more Metal Gear. Don't be surprised to see me playing Snake Eater anytime soon.

All in all, this is a great game. Not just great, fantastic! It blew me away as a 16 year old kid back in 1998, and although it doesn't necessarily blow me away now, I still think it is super fun to play. People will criticize this game and say that it is more watching than playing. I see their point, but it is not quite true. In fact, I was surprised by how little watching there actually was compared to what I was preparing myself for in my head. If you want a game that is more watching than playing, look no further than Metal Gear Solid 4, which I am sure I will get to eventually. Yes there is a lot of watching in this game, but it is not anything I consider excessive.

While I normally reserve perfect scores for games that I consider pretty much flawless, I am going to bend the rules a bit here. No, Metal Gear Solid is not flawless. The graphics can be a bit messy by today's standards. The plot occasionally dips into the realm of the nonsensical. The backtracking is truly the low point of the game. BUT! The game is a blast to play. The story, while a little zany at parts, I consider to be gripping. The boss battles are great. The support characters are great. The atmosphere this game creates is truly immersive. I completely lost myself in this game both as a kid and as an adult. Plus it has the whole nostalgia factor thing going for it. This game helped me through one of the tougher times of my life as a teen and it holds a pretty big place in my heart, along with a couple of other games that came out in the same general time frame like FF7, Xenogears, and Ocarina of Time. Metal Gear Solid is a special game to me, and for that it earns a well-deserved A+.

Overall:

A+

If you liked my review of Metal Gear Solid, check out my reviews of the following games:

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Beyond Good and Evil HD

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

Tomb Raider 3