Tiger Chainsaw

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune Review

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Naughty Dog had already made a name for itself in the video game world with beloved series like Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter. In 2007, Naughty Dog would find gold again with a new series on the PlayStation 3. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was launched in 2007, developed by Naughty Dog, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The game followed treasure hunter Nathan Drake as he seeks to find the elusive city of El Dorado. Do we find the gold in this Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune Review?

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune Plot:

Our hero of Uncharted is Nathan Drake, a treasure hunter, and adventurer who claims to be the descendent of famed world traveler Sir Francis Drake. Nathan is probably in his early 30s and has partnered up with his mentor Victor “Sully” Sullivan who has a knack for finding lost treasure. The game opens up with Nathan, and a tv documentary reporter named Elena on a boat as Nathan is diving in the ocean searching for remnants of Sir Francis Drake.

Drake finds a coffin and brings it up to the boat where he discovers a diary that details the location of El Dorado. When Drake gets aboard the boat he and Elena are attacked by modern-day pirates before Sully rescues them. Drake and Sully continue to follow the clues to El Dorado and discover that it’s not a city, but a golden statue likely worth millions. With Drake and Sully on a tropical island searching for clues, they run into mercenaries with who they have a history. These mercenaries named Roman and Navarro shoot Sully in the chest as Drake runs away. As he hides from the mercenaries Drake runs into Elena who had secretly followed them to the island. With Elena’s help, Drake escapes from the island.

As the pair head to another island to search for El Dorado, they are shot down and separated. Drake decides to explore the island while searching for Elena. He finds an ancient fortress currently occupied by mercenaries who are holding Elena captive. The pair escape the fort but find evidence that El Dorado is indeed on the island. They also find Sully who was saved from the bullet by a booklet in his pocket and is bargaining his life for information that he is falsely giving to the mercenaries. Drake and Elena rescue him before heading inland.

They discover a secret treasure vault that holds the body of Sir Francis Drake and a horde of mutated humans (think of the monsters from the movie “The Descent”) who start to attack them and the mercenaries on the island. Drake discovers that the statue of El Dorado turns people into these mutants and is a cursed treasure. Roman and Navarro are closing in on the statue of El Dorado but Roman opens it and the curse turns him into a mutant. Navarro still plans to take the statue and sell it as a biological weapon until Drake fights Navarro defeating him and sending the statue to the bottom of the ocean. Sully, Elena, and Drake are seen leaving the island with treasures in hand as the game ends.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune Gameplay:

My favorite element of any Uncharted game is the atmosphere and environment. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune kicks off the series in a beautiful fashion, especially for being one of the earliest games on the PS3. The islands you explore are full of detail whether it’s the lush plants, winding streams of water, or the cracked earth and rocks that look like they could come tumbling down any moment.

As for the gameplay, you’ll control Drake in a third-person view as you make your way through chapters. During almost every chapter you’ll have gunfights with pirates, mercenaries, or mutated humans. You’ll have your options of pistols, machine guns, shotguns, revolvers, and grenade pistols. Killing enemies will result in them dropping some ammo for you to pick up and you’ll need to constantly collect because you go through ammo quick with the number of bad guys that are after Drake.

One of my biggest frustrations in Uncharted is the realism that is presented in the game. Drake can perform some unbelievable feats like moving thousand-pound boulders or climbing up mountains with his fingertips. Now, I know it’s a video game but it’s just a little nitpick of mine. The other complaint I had I’m going to retract because I spoke to a friend about it and he educated me on why it appears that way. I’m talking about the sheer number of bullets it takes to kill Drake. When Drake is in the heat of war it seems like he can take six or seven bullets to the chest and keep on chugging along. He isn’t wearing body armor so what is keeping him alive?

Well, my friend explained to me that Drake is naturally very lucky. When you are in danger of dying, the screen starts to turn black and white signaling to you that you’ll need to find shelter for Drake to hide behind and recover. So how does Drake survive all these bullets? He doesn’t. He actually isn’t getting hit by the bullets, but the bullets are coming extremely close to hitting him. When the screen turns black and white, it’s signaling that Drake’s luck is about to run out and when he dies, it’s actually the first time a bullet hits him. This all makes perfect sense and I accept my friend’s theory on it. In fact, I like it!

When you aren’t killing, you’ll be searching for treasure and solving puzzles. It’s a good mix-up of gameplay and keeps the game fresh. There are small treasures that you can find that are hidden within the environment in bushes, rocks, or broken objects. When you pick up the treasure you’ll be able to investigate it further and there will be a little blurb about it. To progress through environments, Drake will have to solve puzzles or find a way to continue the path. There will be times when you’ll have to figure out how to move the boulder or swing a rope across a gap. Most puzzles you can figure out quickly and shouldn’t struggle with them.

I liked the cast of characters and thought they were believable for an adventure game. Drake doesn’t take himself or life too seriously and Elena while she may seem pushy is the cute girl next door. I thought for sure that Sully would betray Drake at some point during the game but I was wrong and he turns out to be a cool old dude.

Memories:
My friend who I worked with at the hospital was really into the Uncharted series when we worked together. We had a friendly rivalry and he always talked about how great the Uncharted series was and how it was the best ever. I on the other hand was a huge Metal Gear Solid fan and talked up the series as the best in video games. Eventually, we each played the other series and we were both happy that we did it. I enjoyed Uncharted but probably not as much as the average gamer. I’ve beaten it several times since it came out and it’s still good for a fun weekend but I wouldn’t claim it’s the best video game series ever.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune Review Score:

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune gets the series going in the right direction and begins the foundation for memorable characters. The combat introduced would get better as the series progressed but for an early PS3 release, it’s a solid game to experience.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune scores a 7.9 out of 10.

Do you remember when Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune first came out? What did you think of the story and cast of characters? Did you have any issues with the combat? Did you hunt treasure? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments!

Alleyway Review

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In 1989, Nintendo blew away the world by launching the Game Boy making car rides a hundred of times better for all travelers. The Game Boy launched with five games available for North Americans. One of those games was “Alleyway” a brick-breaking game where the player must paddle a ball across the screen to clear the wall of bricks. Developed by Nintendo, Alleyway would help launch the Game Boy to commercial success. How many walls were smashed during my Alleyway Review?

Alleyway Plot:

I’m not entirely sure but for some reason, Mario is piloting the paddle in Alleyway. I think it’s strange to have someone in the paddle as it is but Nintendo loves to stick Mario in every place they can, in fact, he’s probably somewhere in their ass right now. I wish there was some dope story to go along with why Mario is inside the paddle saving the world from ultimate doom by bouncing a ball into bricks but alas, I think it’s just a marketing stunt. As for Alleyway, there’s no story. You bounce a ball into bricks. Hooray.

Alleyway Gameplay:

Alleyway is very simple and I’m sure you’ve played variations of the games on your cell phone back in the mid-2000s. There will be a wall of bricks or different formations of bricks on top of the screen. The player is in charge of moving a paddle from left to right as a small ball bounces between the bricks and the bottom of the screen. If the paddle misses the ball, the player will lose a life and if you miss the ball enough it’s game over.

The goal of every level is to get the ball to smash every brick or if you prefer to call them blocks I’m okay with that too. Anyway, the ball will smash the block if it touches it and in this version, the ball only has to touch the brick once to make it disappear. You can slow down the paddle by pressing and holding down one of the buttons to give you a little bit more control but for the most part, I just kept the paddle at the normal speed. Each brick that is colored differently has a different point value that goes toward the high score in the top right-hand corner of the screen. White blocks are worth one point, gray blocks two, and black blocks are worth three. Each colored brick also makes a different sound when you hit them. If you can hit a bunch in a row they start to make a neat melody. You would think that you and your friends or siblings would be playing to see who could beat the high score but the problem is that there is no save feature for Alleyway. You aren’t able to save your game or the high score. If you are going to beat the game you have to do it in one sitting. I was able to beat the game in about two-three hours.

There are a total of 32 levels in Alleyway with the difficulty increasing in each stage although not by much. Every four levels are grouped together with how the bricks are formed. The first stage has a pattern of blocks on it without them moving or any unbreakable bricks mixed in. The second stage in the pattern will have the blocks scrolling on the screen making it a bit tougher to hit them and the third stage will have the blocks advancing toward you. If you don’t hit them it’s not a big deal as they will disappear, it’s not like Space Invaders where if they reach the bottom they will kill you. There’s a fourth stage which is a bonus level where the blocks will form a character from the Mario series like Mario, a Koopa, or Bowser. These bonus stages don’t offer any resistance but are timed. If you don’t get all the blocks before the timer runs out then your score will just tally the blocks you were able to hit.

Some different challenges present themselves during Alleyway. There will be unbreakable bricks that are in some levels so you’ll have to hit the ball around them if you want to complete the level. At some point during your playthrough on each level, the ball will speed up once and the paddle will shrink making it more difficult. To help combat the difficulty, you are awarded a bonus life for every thousand points you score.

Alleyway wasn’t difficult and you should be able to beat it if you have two or three hours to spare. It’s a great game to play in the car or the waiting room but unfortunately, as I mentioned, you can’t save your progress or your high score. For a launch title for the Game Boy, it’s a great option for casual gamers and probably was advertised to adults rather than kids.

Memories:
I had heard of Alleyway growing up but as a kid, it never interested me. I stayed clear of games like Alleyway, Tetris, and other puzzle games. Only in my older years, I’ve grown to enjoy them.

Alleyway Review Score:

Alleyway helped launch the Game Boy and offered more casual gamers an option and another puzzle game other than Tetris. The gameplay and graphics aren’t affected by time so it’s just as fun (or boring) to play today as it was thirty years ago. A much-needed save feature is missing but you’ll have fun playing against friends or siblings in the car as you pass the Game Boy back-and-forth.

Alleyway scores a 7.3 out of 10.

Do you remember when Alleyway first came out? Was it the first game you got with your Game Boy or did you get another game? Were you able to beat the game or did you get stuck on a certain level? Why is Mario in the paddle? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments!

Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego Review

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Educational games… can they be fun? That’s what developer Venture Technologies and publisher Parker Brothers hoped for when they ported “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” from the computer to the Sega Master System in 1988. The game would feature ten different capers to identify and over 90 international treasures that have been stolen from 30 different countries around the world. Did I find the mastermind and did I have fun while learning during my Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego review?

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego Plot:

There isn’t a huge plot to this game but you start as a rookie detective tasked with hunting down Carmen Sandiego and her gang. Each case becomes more difficult and after solving a few cases you’ll get a promotion and a new title. Think of the title as a new difficulty for the cases because they continue to grow more challenging. The last case will have you hunting down Carmen Sandiego herself and if you do that you are entered into the “Hall of Fame” for detectives.

Where is the World is Carmen Sandiego Gameplay:

When the game starts up it asks you to select your ranking. You can choose from five different titles that range in difficulty. You can start as a rookie and work your way up the ladder or you can go right to the most difficult section of the game. I started at the very beginning and ended up solving around 20-25 cases before beating the game.

Every case starts the same way. You’ll get a news flash on your typewriter notifying you that a treasure has been stolen from a certain country. It will give you the first clue of the caper revealing their gender. After the news flash, you travel to the scene of the crime and start your investigation. Your week starts at 0:700 on Monday and you have until 17:00 on Sunday to solve the case. If you don’t solve the case by then you fail and will have to redo a different case to try and advance.

When you start your investigation you’ll be outside of the airport. Each city has three different buildings to visit and interrogate the eye-witnesses. The buildings will be labeled, for example, “museum”, “warehouse” or “sports club”. When you speak to a person they will give you hints on where the caper went or what they look like. Sometimes people in the same city give you the same information or variations of the same clue. Here are some examples of what they will say:

“I saw the person you are looking for, they were on a train with a red, white, and green flag.”

“The person you are looking for was here, they changed their currency to yen. She was holding a tennis racket.”

“I heard he was checking out all the books he could find on Renaissance art. He was trying to conceal an ugly tattoo.”

These hints will give you clues on where they are going, and who they are. At the end of every city is a phone booth where you can call the Interpol and fill out the information on their criminal database to help ID the suspect. You can input gender, hobby, hair color, feature (like jewelry, tattoo, scar, etc…), and what they drive. When you have the information the Interpol will come up with the suspect and issue a warrant out for their arrest. You’ll have to track the criminal down to their hideout to properly arrest them.

When you get hints to the next location you head back to the airport and select the next destination. Usually, you’ll select from 3-4 cities around the world, one of them being the correct location. If you choose wrong, you’ll still fly to that country but lose valuable time. The people in these countries will tell you they haven’t seen anything suspicious which is the indicator that you’re in the wrong spot.

Each time you fly to a new city there will be a little blurb of information about it on the screen that discusses facts and features about the country which is where the learning comes in. I’m not going to lie, I learned some things playing this game for this review. Specifically, I learned new currencies and art styles in different countries.

When you are on the right trail of the suspect there will be henchmen that try and stop you by throwing a knife at you. You’ll need to dodge it by moving your detective up or down on the screen. If you get hit you’ll be injured and two hours of time pass. Aside from wrong flights, and getting injured, you’ll also have to account for sleeping which takes up about eight hours. Once you track down the criminal to their final hideout you will face them as they throw 3-4 knives at you. If you dodge them all the police will come and arrest the criminal ending the case. It gets hard by the time you are on the fourth or fifth ranking as the criminals throw more knives and mirror your movements on the screen. Carmen Sandiego threw like 10 knives and you have to constantly juke her out as she chucks knives at you, it takes some skill to survive her onslaught.

Some of the treasures that were stolen throughout my playthrough were a stamp collection, King Tut’s mask, a tusk necklace, a shrunken head, the abominable snowman, the Christ of Andes, Ivan the Terrible’s crown, Sibyl’s Secret, an Incan gold mask, the Rockettes, the Orozco mural and the Statue of Liberty torch. While you don’t see these treasures, they are fun to read about and made me research these items after playing. Which again, made me learn more which is the ultimate goal of this game.

Memories:
I played this game a bunch when I was a kid but I didn’t get very far because there was a lot of reading involved and more importantly you had to have a knowledge of the world. That’s a bit difficult when you are six. I had a friend in middle school who used to be pretty cool and would occasionally come over on the weekend but to put it nicely he was not into school or very book smart. The reason why I bring him up is that one weekend we randomly started playing Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego and he loved it. It had him hooked.

We played it in my dad’s bedroom and he got so into it that he grabbed the globe we had in our house and was mapping out locations on where the thief could be. He was reading the manual, looking at country flags, and doing his best to solve the clues to figure out our next destination. Remember, this was before wifi so we had to solve the clues as sixth-graders by looking at the globe and manual. We did pretty decently for how young we were and earned a few promotions. I think it was the most learning he ever did in his life and he had a ton of fun doing it.

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego Review Score:

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego makes players combine critical thinking skills with upper middle school world context, and quick reflexes to make a great educational game disguised as fun.

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego scores a 7.7 out of 10.

What would you write in your Where in the World if Carmen Sandiego Review? Do you remember when Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego first came out? What age was you when you played it? Were you able to solve the cases and climb the career ladder? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments!

Borderlands 3 Review

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Developer Gearbox Software and publisher 2K Games released Borderlands 3 in 2019 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. After Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel saw less than favorable reviews from gamers, would the series get back on track and reach the peak of the series as it did with Borderlands 2, or would the developers fail to produce a game that the fanbase craved? Does the franchise deserve to be put in a vault after this Borderlands 3 review?

Borderlands 3 Plot:

Something that I’ve realized while reviewing the Borderlands series is that the story kinda sucks. The first game has a mysterious vault and while Handsome Jack is a great villain, the rest of the plot is…well it’s kind of stupid! It’s the gameplay and the characters that make the series fun but with the release of Borderlands 3, was the magic taken away? Short answer, yes.

Let’s take a look at the plot for Borderlands 3 and the characters.

The game takes place seven years after Borderlands 2 and the death of Handsome Jack. Previously discovered in the series, there are multiple vaults that are across the galaxy. These vaults hold incredible alien technology and valuables which is why the planet of Pandora was looted throughout the first two games. There’s one vault that is supposedly better than the rest and of course, that vault is called “The Great Vault”. This vault is so great that it has garnered the attention of super-evil twins consisting of Troy and Tyreen who make up the Calypso twins. Here’s the first fault in Borderlands 3, these twins are lame. They remind me of a whiny Anakin Skywalker or emo teens who are pissed at the world because they aren’t popular. Troy is the weaker of the twins and latches onto his sister for power which further makes their relationship weirder. The Calypso twins now run all the bandits, psychos, and midgets WHOOPS, I meant “tinks”. Gearbox has deemed the term “midget” offensive and replaced it with the term “tink” which sounds even more offensive. Again, this is an issue where Borderlands clearly caves to the PC culture that has invaded every media outlet. I loved Borderlands and Borderlands 2 for their humor and depiction of characters. Borderlands 3 is censoring its previous humor by calling the beloved midget fighters, “tinks”. The Calypso twins need to be stopped so four new vault hunters are recruited to help the resistance.

None of these characters grabbed ahold of me or my wife. Instead of being excited to play a character, we each reluctantly chose one. In Borderlands I played Roland, a bad-ass soldier, and my wife played Brick, who frankly is as dumb as a bag of bricks but he’s a big brute. In the second game, I picked Axton who could control drones and my wife played Salvador who was a gun fanatic. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is where the series went downhill and it was here where the characters felt forced and we became less excited to play as them. I played Wilhelm who uses technology in battle and my wife picked Nisha. Borderlands 3 features an all-star PC cast of characters. I picked to play “Zane” some weird Irish-sounding guy, and my wife picked Moze, a small girl that can jump into a mech suit. One of the characters was a robot named “FL4K” that is non-binary. I don’t even understand how a robot can be non-binary but this was the type of setting that you need to get used to if you are going to play through Borderlands 3.

Anyway, something I liked about Borderlands 3 was the continuation of previous characters from the franchise. The series has always done a great job of including former characters and Lilith is the leader of the resistance that you join. You’ll also see Brick, Rhys, and of course fan-favorite Claptrap. Lilith instructs you to help recover the vault map that was lost a few years back. This map will show the various vaults across the Borderlands galaxy and give them an idea of what the Calypso twins are planning. Surprise, surprise, the twins steal the map and take off for the first vault which is located on the planet Promethea.

Long story short, the twins will use you every time it’s convenient as you do their dirty work only for them to drop in and steal or kill someone in your party. The main goal throughout the entire game is to unlock the great vault by collecting keys for it. Near the end, you meet Typhon who is the father of the twins, but he turns out to be a good guy and goes on to star as “Ed” in the reality television show “90-Day Fiance”. Typhon admits that he tried to protect the twins but they rebelled against him. Typhon helps you collect the keys and open up the great vault before he is killed by Tyreen. The final showdown is Tyreen combining with the vault monster after you defeat her, Lilith sacrifices herself to save the entire planet against Elpis which is a moon that is pulling Pandora apart. One last complaint and this isn’t just a Borderlands complaint, but an overall new video game complaint. When the heck is video games going to feature girls that don’t have buzzed heads or the side-shaved looked? You can’t play a game anymore with a female character looking feminine or God forbid attractive. Moxxi is the only one that comes to mind, and Lilith still keeps her short but stylish hair from the first game but nearly every female you meet looks like they asked their barber to give them the little boy haircut or just shave their head. I don’t mind some females looking different but the entire galaxy looks like they watched some “Down with the Man” propaganda video. Borderlands definitely caved to “PC Culture” but at least it doesn’t shove it down your throat as Wolfenstein II did.

Borderlands 3 Gameplay:

Don’t fix the gameplay if it’s not broken. Thankfully, Borderlands 3 remains faithful to the gameplay of the series giving you tons and tons of guns to choose from. You’ll spend plenty of time carefully selecting your cache of weapons as you prepare for missions or bosses. It’s so much fun to test them out as every gun is unique carrying different types of bullets, effects, or hidden powers. Some guns may look ordinary but don’t judge a gun until you’ve used it in battle.

It was fun to travel across the galaxy and visit different planets other than Pandora. Each planet or area has tons to explore and so many missions and side-missions to help power up yourself as you progress through the main story. What sucks is the terrible LAG. It might take twenty seconds to pull up your menu if you are playing co-op. Seriously, I’d set my controller down and scratch my ass as I waited for the menu to come up.

Boss fights are obvious as all the telltale signs are there. There are the ammo and health vending machines, a save machine, and then a drop to a lower area where the boss is waiting for you. When you see the formula it’s easy to prepare yourself for the encounter. My wife and I didn’t have much difficulty fighting bosses and we were able to beat the finale on either our first or second try. It was a long battle but thankfully we make a pretty good team in video games and in real life.

Memories:

My wife and I were pretty excited to play Borderlands 3 after being disappointed in The Pre-Sequel. We were turned off by a lot of the narrative of the characters but still had plenty of fun exploring. During this time, I built a punk/emo playlist that I’d put on during our playtime of Borderlands 3. We’d listen to it for a few hours as we blasted our way through the galaxy in search of vault keys. It was great, and I’ll remember that fondly. What bands were on our playlist? Glad you asked! It featured Blink 182, Green Day, The Offspring, Panic at the Disco! My Chemical Romance, The Used, The Dangerous Summer, Fall Out Boy, Armor For Sleep, Motion City Soundtrack, Bowling For Soup, Yellowcard, Brand New, Taking Back Sunday, MXPX, AFI, and so many other great bands!

Borderlands 3 Review Score:

Borderlands 3 is fun for the gameplay, so play it for that and not the story or characters. After the first two games in the series, it’s disappointing that Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and Borderlands 3 have changed their tune. It’s a huge game in that you can spend lots of time exploring and finding the perfect gun, but lame characters will have you rolling your eyes through the entire plot.

Borderlands 3 scores a 5.4 out of 10.

Do you remember when Borderlands 3 first came out? What character did you choose? Did you have any difficulty with bosses? Did you roll your eyes at the plot and characters as we did? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments!

Star Wars: Battlefront Review

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Imagine taking the most iconic battles from the beloved Star Wars franchise and letting players experience them for themselves? Seems like a genius idea that would have been repeated numerous times. Well, it never happened in video games until 2004, when Pandemic Studios developed Star Wars: Battlefront which was published by LucasArts for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. How would everyone’s favorite galaxy far, far away play in massive battles?

Star Wars Battefront Plot:

There’s not much of a plot to Star Wars: Battlefront for the single-player campaign. Instead, you will relive some of the most famous battles from the first five films. (Episode III had not been released yet) That means large battles like the Naboo grassy fields, Geonosis’ red sand, Hoth’s icy grounds, and Endor’s large forests are all on full display as you battle your way across the maps.

Star Wars Battlefront Gameplay:

Star Wars: Battlefront offers players a few different modes. If you’d like to play a single-player mode you have three different options. The historical campaign will put you in the shoes of soldiers fighting at the forefront of the Clone Wars and Galactic Civil War. You’ll fight battles as the Republic, the CIS, the Empire, and the Rebels. In the historical campaign you don’t choose who you fight for but instead are assigned which army you are fighting in.

Each army has five different soldiers you can choose from depending on your style of play. My favorite soldier was the basic “gunner” who has a repeating blaster rifle and is good in any fight. You can also select soldiers that are snipers, bazookas, mechanics, and heavy hitters like the super battle droids or Wookies. It’s fun to try them all out but I stuck with the basic soldier and mixed in a few times when I was a sniper. Each soldier class has its pros and cons. As you progress through the timeline of the historical campaigns, you’ll be treated to movie footage from the Star Wars series with shots from the battles you are about to enter. There are a few battles that aren’t in the movies that you still participate in which is fine by me.

So how do you win these battles? There are two different ways to claim victory in Star Wars: Battlefront. The first is defeating every soldier in the opposing army. Usually, each army will start with between 150-250 soldiers and if you deplete their army down to zero, you win the battle. The second way to win a battle is by capturing all of the bases on the map. Each army starts with two or three bases on the map where their soldiers respawn. You can take over a base by clearing out any enemies and standing around the marker for about 15-20 seconds and continuing to defend it. You can capture it and turn it into your own base! If you capture all bases on the map then you claim victory even if your army is losing in the soldier count.

Every battle is exactly the same as far as goals. The gameplay will never change and so it can get very repetitive. The maps change, but the goal remains, capture the bases or clear out the soldiers. It may sound boring on paper but it is a very fun task and the developers came up with a few ways of trying to keep the battles fresh for different maps. Obviously, the environment changes as battling on Hoth is not the same as battling on Tatooine. There are some third-party support or enemies that you’ll face depending on what army you are in. You’ll see Jawas, Sand-People, Ewoks, and those stupid winged geonosians. Some maps also come with vehicles and ships that you can fly! You’ll be able to take control of X-Wings, Y-Bombers, Tie-Fighters, Tie-Bombers, a few different tanks, AT-ATs, and plenty of other star crafts that you see throughout the movies. This is all really cool but man, they control like shit. Stay away from the ships that fly as you’ll be shot dead within ten seconds and the controls seem rough. You will be so tempted to jump in those ships and fly but believe me it’s a death sentence. If you really want to pilot something stick to vehicles that stay on the ground.

There are two other modes for single-player that include galactic conquest in which you try and take over the galaxy planet by planet. Each planet has two battles and if you win both you control the planet and obtain a bonus. It’s a good mix-up from the historical campaigns that offer a slightly different feel. The final mode in single-player is instant action where you can make your own battle schedule and pick the era and maps you play. It’s a great way to waste an entire day if you want to just sink into a Star Wars day. There’s an option for multiplayer where you can play against a friend or with them in co-op. It’s a lot of fun to do either.

The more you play Star Wars: Battlefront the more unlockables you can obtain. You can unlock storyboards, drawings, and costume designs from the movies and view them in the special features. It’s a cool little nugget if you are a big Star Wars geek. The game also gives plenty of fan service with the music and sound effects. All of your favorite tunes from the series play depending on what planet you are on and every laser or creature sounds just like it did in the movies. It was a treat to walk through the Endor forest and listen to the birds chirp or hear the speeders zoom by.

Memories:
Oh man, I love Star Wars, well I used to. The new movies are so terrible and the characters suck so bad. But I adore the original three movies and even the prequels are better than the new movies which are saying something. Anyway, as a kid, I always dreamed of living those battles on Hoth or Endor and I finally was able to do it when my dad bought me Star Wars: Battlefront. I loved it a ton and played hours of it. I think I was a little disappointed in the lack of story in the single-player but the battles are very fun even if they get repetitive. I have another friend who is even a bigger Star Wars fan than I am and he played it just as much. I visited him a few weeks ago and we busted out this game and played it for a few hours. It was so much fun and made me nostalgic to play it again myself which I did for this review!

Star Wars Battlefront Review Score:

Star Wars: Battlefront is a wonderful idea that grants every kid’s dream and puts them into the shoes of the soldiers on the front line in Star Wars. The gameplay can be repetitive and has no real plot, but the game is a dream come true for Star Wars fans in 2004. There’s tons of fun to be had with or without your friends.

Star Wars: Battlefront scores an 8.7 out of 10.

Do you remember when Star Wars: Battlefront first came out? What was your favorite battle? What was your favorite map? What soldier class did you choose? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments!

Mega Man 5 Review

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Dr. Wily plans world domination, Mega Man battles his robots and saves the day. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Now that you are caught up from the first four Mega Man games and have discovered Capcom’s secret formula we can move on to my next review which is Mega Man 5. Released in 1992 by Capcom for the Nintendo, Mega Man 5 saw a familiar evil scientist seek total chaos. Does Mega Man save the day again in this Mega Man 5 review?

Mega Man 5 Plot:

By now you have realized that Dr. Wily is the evil scientist behind all of the schemes in taking over the world with robots. It hasn’t even been TWO MONTHS since the events of Mega Man 4 and Dr. Wily is back at it! This man never learns and Mega Man never finishes him off when he has the chance. This time, Dr. Wily has at least tried to disguise his plans. Let’s take a look at the first four plots in the series:

Mega Man: Dr. Light and Dr. Wily work together to bring the creation of humanoid robots. Dr. Wily grows jealous of Dr. Light and reprograms six robots to take over the world. Dr. Light reprograms his “helper” robot into a war machine named Mega Man who stops Dr. Wily.

Mega Man 2: Taking place one year after the first Mega Man, Dr. Wily decides to create his own army of robot masters to take over the world. Mega Man swoops in and saves the day.

Mega Man 3: Dr. Wily claims to have changed his ways and is now working with Dr. Light again on a peace-keeping robot named “Gamma”. Eight robot masters suddenly turn evil and run away with the power crystals that were going to be used to power Gamma. Mega Man is called into action and defeats the robot masters and destroys Gamma. Dr. Wily was behind the whole plot and faces Mega Man once again only to be defeated.

Mega Man 4: Taking place a year after the events of Mega Man 3, an evil scientist named Dr. Cossack builds eight robots and tries to take over the world. After further investigation from Mega Man, it is revealed that Dr. Cossack was forced to build them as Dr. Wily held his daughter captive. Mega Man rushes in and saves Dr. Cossack and his daughter from Dr. Wily while defeating the mad scientist again.

Okay, now that you are caught up on the stupid ways Dr. Wily has tried to take over the world, let’s get to Mega Man 5’s plot. Taking place only two months after the fourth game, Dr. Light has been kidnapped. It appears that Proto Man is behind the crime. Proto Man has been seen throughout the series as a mysterious figure who occasionally spars and helps Mega Man. After Mega Man fights through another eight robot masters and busts into Proto Man’s secret base, he discovers that Proto Man was an imposter as the real Proto Man comes to the rescue of Mega Man. After they defeat the imposter, Mega Man moves to the real secret lair and defeats Dr. Wily again who was behind the plot all along.

Mega Man 5 Gameplay:

Like the rest of the Mega Man games, you’ll be able to choose your path in defeating the eight robot masters. Each robot has a weakness to a specific weapon that you can obtain while defeating them so there’s a strategy on what order you face them. You’ll be able to slide and charge your Mega Buster which were new features in previous games. I don’t believe Mega Man 5 adds any new gameplay abilities but if you know of something I’m forgetting be sure to let me know in an angry comment on this Mega Man 5 review.

Something that has always improved with each Mega Man game and something that I’ve commented on each time is the backgrounds and environments of the levels. It seems like each game puts more detail and elements into the game so it’s nice to see some type of improvement with such repetitive games in a repetitive series. On Gravity Man’s stage, there were reverse gravity sections that I really dug, and of course, there were a few times when Mega Man had to wade through water that either pushed or pulled him, that aspect has been a staple in the game for a few stages now. I think the toughest stage in my Mega Man 5 review was Gyro Man’s stage because there were some spiked ceilings and numerous times I jumped too high and if you touch the spikes it’s instant death for Mega Man. If I had to pick a favorite stage it would be Crystal Man’s stage where you make your way through mounds of crystal meth. Okay, maybe it’s not crystal meth but the crystals in the stage were pretty enough.

Here are the eight robot masters from Mega Man 5 and their official bios.

When I battled Dr. Wily in my Mega Man 5 review I believe it was the easiest fight in the series so far for a final boss. His first form has an easy target in the middle that is just begging to be blown away by the Mega Buster. He then has a stage where he shoots a circular wave of orbs around him and disappears before reappearing somewhere else on the screen. He’s pretty easy to avoid and you can take him down with the Mega Buster or Gyro Man’s weapon which can shoot up.

I understand that Capcom had a formula that worked, but jeez these games are so predictable now. We all know who is behind the “mysterious” eight robot masters that are trying to take over the world. Maybe it’s a joke, I don’t know but I’ll set myself on fire if there’s ever a Mega Man game where Dr. Wily isn’t the mastermind behind world domination.

Memories:
Just like the first four games, I played Mega Man 5 with my coworker when I worked at a hospital in college. We had tons of fun and it distracted us from work a little too much.

Mega Man 5 Review Score:

Mega Man 5 doesn’t add anything to the series so as long as you enjoyed the first four games, you’ll like the fifth just don’t expect any surprises. It’s a Mega Man game through and through.

Mega Man 5 scores a 7.3 out of 10.

What would you write in your Mega Man 5 review? Do you remember when Mega Man 5 first came out? Were you blown away by the shocking plot twist that Dr. Wily was behind it all? How do you feel about the real Proto Man? What was your favorite robot master from this game? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments!

Spider-Man Review

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Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man swung onto the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and Sega Dreamcast in 2000. Developed by Neversoft and published by Activision, Spider-Man was a huge leap or swing forward in the superhero genre for video games. Spider-Man features a great cast of villains, super moves, and tons of content that any fan of the webhead would love. Let’s get swinging in this Spider-Man review!

Spider-Man Plot:

Spider-Man is already well-established as a superhero in this game. He’s married to Mary-Jane and is a seasoned veteran fighting crime. While at a tech conference, Peter Parker is photographing the event that is being hosted by a reformed Dr. Oct when a Spider-Man lookalike breaks into the event and robs the conference of the tech.

Confused by what he just witnessed, Peter runs away and changes into his Spider-Man outfit to seek out the truth. He swings his way through New York as he discovers a massive bomb in a company building. He frees the hostages and saves the building from exploding but is no closer to figuring out who the imposter Spider-Man is. He meets up with Black Cat and Dare Devil who question what is going on. Spider-Man then gets an alert that Jonah Jameson is under attack from the Scorpion and needs to be rescued. Spider-Man saves Jameson only to be accused of the robbery of the tech conference as Jameson sets the police on him.

After evading the police, Black Cat meets up with Spider-Man and informs him that Rhino is destroying the city and needs to be stopped. I forgot to mention in this Spider-Man review that the bottom of the city has been compromised by a deadly green gas so you don’t actually see the streets. It’s another problem that needs to be solved!

Anyway, Spider-Man fights Rhino and defeats him but the trouble doesn’t stop as Black Cat was injured in the fight and abducted by men in an ambulance. It’s revealed that Venom has kidnapped Mary-Jane and taken her into the sewers. Spider-Man chases down Venom and rushes through the sewers finding Mary-Jane dangling from a chain. He fights Venom and convinces Vemon that he isn’t the bad Spider-Man who stole the tech from the conference. Venom believes him and teams up with Spider-Man to find the real villain.

They head to the Daily Bugle to search for info when Venom feels the presence of Carnage and leaves Spider-Man to fight him. Spider-Man makes his way through numerous fights with slime monsters before finding the liar of Mysterio who was the imposter Spider-Man. Defeating Mysterio leads to Spider-Man to break the case open with the plan of poisoning the city with gas as Mysterio tells him where he can find his boss.

Spider-Man enters a warehouse that leads to a huge underwater lair where he discovers the real culprit behind the chaos. Dr. Oct was the real mastermind and had teamed up with Carnage. Venom jumps in as he and Carnage fight offscreen as Spider-Man defeats Dr. Oct. Venom isn’t able to defeat Carnage so of course, Spider-Man finishes the job. The fun isn’t over yet as Carnage combines with Dr. Oct to form a super freak villain and chases Spider-Man through an exploding lair only to be blown away in the end.

The final credits show Spider-Man and friends playing cards as Rhino, Scorpion, Mysterio, Dr. Oct, and a thug sitting in a jail cell together.

Spider-Man Gameplay:

You have this Spider-Man to thank if you loved Marvel’s Spider-Man for the PS4. These were the building blocks on how to properly make a Spider-Man game with the swinging through the city, combat powers, and extra content. Swinging feels great and is easy to control although sometimes the camera is your worst enemy. Spider-Man has four unique attacks that can help defeat enemies. My favorite during my Spider-Man review was shooting the web balls, but you can also create a web dome to protect yourself or spike your hands with webbing for extra attacks.

The game has tons of fanservice for Spider-Man fans. There’s a great theme song that plays during the menu and you even have a character database where Stan Lee voices the bios. There are also training games, comic book collectibles to find throughout levels, and my favorite thing to unlock, costumes! Some costumes come with extra bonuses like unlimited web or being invisible.

Boss fights and the majority of the game is on the easier side. I played on the “normal” setting for my Spider-Man review but if I died it was because I missed a jump or fell, not because of the combat. There’s a handful of enemies you’ll fight like cops, thugs, lizard men, pink slimes, and others that make up the common enemies. Boss fights were my favorite and each one was unique. The first level didn’t have a boss but required you to use your brain. The bomb was going off in two minutes and you needed to figure out how to save the building. You can open up a giant safe and throw the bomb in there and shut the door to rescue the building. Scorpion’s fight is in close quarters and you need to throw furniture at him to deal massive damage. Rhino is a charger so you need to set yourself up in front of dangerous things like electric generators and explosive barrels to beat him. Venom, you fight hand-to-hand but he presses levers that fill up the chamber where Mary-Jane is in. Mysterio is a huge boss that uses illusions to kill you, it was very well done and fun to face. The last two bosses Dr. Oct and Carnage require Spider-Man to hit switches to power down Dr. Oct and shove Carnage into a sonic wave to damage him. Each fight during my Spider-Man review was fun and each one came with different strategies even though they were fairly easy. The final sequence is escaping the exploding lair, it’s about a three-minute sequence and I remember it kicking my ass as a kid but I beat it on my first try. Don’t get me wrong, this part is a little difficult.

Levels are split into little sections that require one to five minutes of gameplay before you get a checkpoint. There are no lives, but you can continue the game as much as you want. If you die, don’t worry the most you’ll be set back is two or three minutes. The gameplay difficulty kicked up around the fourth level (there are six total) and I found myself running around enemies during my Spider-Man review instead of fighting them head-on. You don’t earn any bonuses from beating them so if I could avoid them, I did. There was an electric tunnel that kicked my ass for about twenty minutes as I kept dying but eventually, I found out how to navigate through it properly.

Memories:
I first played this game on a demo disc when I was a kid and eventually, my dad bought it for me. I loved this game and thought it was great with all the collectibles and extras in the game. I couldn’t remember if I beat it or not as a kid but after seeing the ending, I definitely beat it. I wasn’t aware though of how short the game is clocking in around five hours. This game will always hold a special place in my heart as it takes me back to my time as a child. I vividly remember bringing it to my mom’s apartment on the weekends and playing it there too.

Spider-Man Review Score:

This is an excellent game on the PlayStation and truly a stepping stone to set up Marvel’s Spider-Man on the PS4. The web-slinging, superpowers, and boss fights all exceed expectations as your search for secrets in the levels. The game is a bit short but with all the bonus suits you’ll want to replay Spider-Man over and over.

Spider-Man scores a 9.2 out of 10.

What would you write for your Spider-Man review? Do you remember when Spider-Man first came out? Who was your favorite boss to fight? Which suit was your favorite to use? What did you think of the powers that Spider-Man had? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments!

Golden Sun Review

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One of the most celebrated role-playing games on the Game Boy Advance launched in November of 2001 in North America. Golden Sun was developed by Camelot Software Planning and published by Nintendo. The celebrated series kicked off on the Game Boy Advance but what makes this game such a big deal and do I agree with all the praise? Select Yes/No to continue reading this Golden Sun review.

Golden Sun Plot:

To get a grasp of the story, you first need to understand the setting of Golden Sun. The world in which you live was previously controlled by four elements. Fire, Earth, Wind, and Water but are named Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury in Golden Sun. Long ago, people controlled these elements through alchemy but it was deemed too dangerous as it caused massive destruction and chaos in the world. With the elements unpredictable, they were sealed away in the form of four stones that were placed on top of a mountain and protected in various ways.

Golden Sun takes place in a fantasy world called “Weyard” where there’s no electricity or machines. Think middle-ages but not as dark. Anyway, the main character is named Isaac. He lives in the town of Vale at the base of the mountain that protects the four elements. One day, two evil humans try and break into the mountain to steal the four elemental stones and set off the traps. A massive storm occurs and a huge boulder comes crashing down the mountain and wrecks Vale. A boy named Felix nearly drowns but is rescued by Saturos and Menardi who are the two evil beings that tried to get the stones. The three of them disappear.

Fast-forward three years later and Isaac, and his friends Jenna and Garet travel atop the mountain to conduct some research. When they reach the secret temple and enter it, they discover that the temple is being raided again by Saturos and Menardi. The two of them now accompanied by Felix steal three of the stones and kidnap Jenna in the process leaving Isaac and Garet for dead.

Isaac and Garet set off on a huge quest to rescue Jenna and take back the elemental stones before Saturos and Menardi destroy the world. With the stones missing, some people in Weyard experience powers being able to shift elements. These people are called “adepts” who are essentially magic-users. They meet an adept named Ivan who is searching for his master who was robbed of his powerful staff. Ivan joins Isaac and Garet in the search for the elemental stones in hopes of running into the thieves that stole his master’s staff. As the trio begins to search around Weyard for clues on where Saturos and Menardi could be they run into Mia, another adept who later joins the group.

They meet Saturos and Menardi at a lighthouse who are trying to activate the lighthouse with one of the stones. If the four lighthouses are restored then alchemy can again be used leading to massive chaos. Anyway, Isaac and co. battles Saturous but fail to stop him and he gets away.

During the game there are a few other quests that occur like battling in a coliseum, returning a town that has turned into tree-people to normal, and healing an ancient man. You’ll need to do these quests if you want to level up. The game ends abruptly after defeating Saturos and Menardi a second time after they have combined to form a huge monster. Despite Felix being free of their grasp, he continues to evade Isaac and Garet. Meanwhile, Jenna is still missing. The final scenes are Isaac, Garet, Mia, and Ivan entering a ship and sailing across the ocean to search for Jenna.

Golden Sun Gameplay:

The world of Golden Sun is very colorful and bright. It looks great on the Game Boy Advance and each town feels unique with NPCs and building designs. Weyard is a large world to explore but my gosh, they didn’t include a map! It wasn’t an issue in my Golden Sun review until I reached the second continent because I needed to make my way back to certain towns and it was a bit confusing. I wish they would include a map you can pull up to see where you were but I had to use an online map. I feel like RPGs like Golden Sun make the game ten times harder without including a damn map.

I love stories, they are my favorite part of video games, and naturally, RPGs have terrific stories. Unfortunately, Golden Sun’s story wasn’t all that great. It falls into the familiar trope of “power crystals” or “elemental stones” that control the world. It’s been done a million times and I was disappointed during my Golden Sun review to learn that this was the main plot of the game.

Another thing I love in RPGs is the character interactions and relationships between the main characters. Again, unfortunately, there isn’t any of that in Golden Sun. Rarely do the characters speak to each other and it only occurs during cut scenes. There are no casual conversations or relationship-building. It’s just the plot and very much to the point. It made the characters less likable and seemed like strangers to me. There is this insistence on having Isaac answer “Yes/No” in some conversations that add nothing to the story. I don’t have specific examples but you have to select yes or no for almost every cutscene but the conversation is like this:

“Hey Isaac, do you agree that monsters are bad and we should fight them?”

“Yes/No”

“Isaac, the cave is crumbling and everyone is dying. Should we make a run for it?”

“Yes/No”

“Isaac the sky is falling and I need help wiping my ass. Will you help?”

“Yes/No”

Okay, maybe the last one didn’t occur but it sure felt like it with all the dumb questions they have you answer.

There were some very lengthy dialogue scenes that grew tiresome after a few minutes at the beginning of my Golden Sun review that I pushed through. The conversations would revolve around a problem but the solution was right in front of their face but it’d take ten minutes of talking to get to it. Thankfully, they didn’t become a trend with most conversations lasting a minute or two.

The best thing about Golden Sun was the combat. It looked great on the Game Boy Advance and there are plenty of strategies that go into the fights. At the end of the game, I had reached level 30 with all the level-grinding I had done. I didn’t mind fights because they didn’t last long and once you get the hang of it, it becomes quite fun. You can attack with your sword, use psyenergy (magic) or summon a djinn. A Djinn is a little magical creature that causes your stats to shift along with your magic. There are eight of them in each category of an element. The more you have the more powerful your summons become. Once you summon them they will cause massive damage but will need to recharge after using them. The animation of the summons are sweet and I enjoyed watching them during my Golden Sun review. If you have Djinns in battle your base health actually drops a ton so it’s a fine line to walk. If you want a ton of health you shouldn’t use any Djinns but if you want to deal massive damage and hope that does the trick then you might get lucky summoning them. It was fun searching the world and collecting the djinns even if I didn’t use any during the final battle.

Speaking of the final battle, I had no idea I was at the end of the game because it ends so abruptly. The final battle has you fighting Saturos and Menardi together. I beat them but then they transformed into a monster. This wouldn’t be an issue except they give you no time to recover so whatever health your characters were at when the first fight ends is their starting health when the second battle begins. Thankfully, I beat the second form on my first try during my Golden Sun review.

Golden Sun’s ending sets up for the second game but man, there’s no closure for the first game. It’s simply okay we beat them, now we are jumping on this ship to find Jenna. Then the game ends! I think Golden Sun is a fun RPG but it won’t capture your imagination with the story or suck you in with the character relationships.

Memories:
I heard nothing but great things about Golden Sun so I had to experience it for myself. It took me almost two weeks to beat it but I’m thankful I played it. I’ll be playing the second game sometime, but not in the near future.

Golden Sun Review Score:

Golden Sun is a beautiful RPG on the Game Boy Advance that has addicting combat mechanics and unique summons. It’s held back by the familiar trope of “world destruction power crystals” and a cast of characters who feel cold to each other with no relationship building.

Golden Sun scores an 8.1 out of 10.

What would you write in your Golden Sun Review? Do you remember when Golden Sun first came out? Did you find all the djinns? Did you have any issues finding your way around Weyard? Were you surprised by the sudden ending of the game? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments!

Final Fight 3 Review

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Mike Haggar wasn’t finished in the streets fighting crime as Mayor of Metro City so, in 1996, Capcom released Final Fight 3 for the Super Nintendo. Final Fight 3 comes with four playable characters and a new gang to beat up. Would the third installment of the series honor the previous games or would this truly be the “Final Fight”? Read my Final Fight 3 review to find out!

Final Fight 3 Plot:

Our favorite crime-fighting mayor, Mike Haggar has finally wiped out the Mad Gear gang after rallying against them during the first two Final Fights. The streets were clean for a while but the stragglers and street fighters formed a new gang called the “Skull Cross”. Such a sinister-sounding gang!

The Skull Cross gang begins to riot in the streets turning over police cars and burning buildings. Mayor Mike Haggar is sitting in his office when all of a sudden the door bursts open and Detective Lucia comes in and asks for his help against the Skull Cross. Haggar joins Lucia and his old pal Guy from the first game tags along too. The quartet is complete when Dean teams up with them. Dean’s family is a victim of the violence from the Skull Cross as they murdered his entire family! Now the four of them set off to once and for all clean the streets of crime in the final fight!

Final Fight 3 Gameplay:

Looking at Haggar, he looked ROIDED out of his mind during my Final Fight 3 review. He is juicing more than A-Rod was during his career. It looks crazy but that’s not the biggest change to Haggar’s appearance. He now has a super long ponytail that looks a bit ridiculous. Maybe he had it in the second Final Fight but I certainly don’t remember that. In the first two Final Fights, I played as Haggar so I continued the trend and picked the mayor. He controlled better than in the second game but not as well as in the first game. He had a move that cleared the area around him as he spun around with his fists. This was helpful but I rarely needed to use it. Again, the most enemies you’ll face on the screen are three at a time.

After beating level one, there was a cut scene that I appreciated during my Final Fight 3 review. I’m always down for better presentations in games or anything that adds to the story. It didn’t happen after every level but there were a few. Final Fight 3 felt the shortest of the series and that didn’t bode well since the entire game felt cheap and a money-grab for a beat ’em up with the title “Final Fight” in it. The reason I say it felt like a money grab is because the fighters you face don’t bring anything new to the formula. This felt like a step backward and some of them look less detailed than previous games like the big giants named Andore who are obvious rip-offs of Andre the Giant.

Enemy movements looked awkward as they walked a very straight line throughout the screen and were easily avoidable. You’ll face typical fighters that are familiar opponents. You have the fat guys named “Arby and “Fat Jack” who get in a football stance before charging at you. You’ll have grenade tossers named “Fritz” and even a few female fighters return from the original. The new fighters are small long-haired guys who look like they ran away from the circus. I wish they would have put new fighters into the game instead of keeping the typical rotation. I’ll give an example of the lack of detail in some characters. In stage one, you fight a boss named “Dave” who is dressed as a cop but just a few stages later you’ll fight a boss named “Drake” who is a sailor but looks exactly like Dave. Same skin tone, same body, same head. How boring and cheap!

The original Final Fight was beatable but tough. The second Final Fight was difficult but the third was the easiest. I didn’t have any trouble making my way through the main meat of the game during my Final Fight 3 review. The bosses were tough, don’t get me wrong but I felt like the fight to get to them was mainly a cakewalk. As you make your way through the levels you’ll notice details like windows breaking, switches on the wall falling off, and lights shattering. I liked that detail and wish they would have put more effort into the overall detail of the game. The final boss fight was the best part of the game. The leader of the Skull Cross gang jumps from a helicopter and you fight him on the roof before throwing him into an electric box electrocuting him to death.

One thing I just read about the game is that the path to the final boss and ending change depending on the character you select. That’s pretty cool and I’ll give them credit by adding replayability to the game. I wonder what the other endings are?

Like the other games, you’ll have the chance at picking up weapons to use against enemies but I found that my fists worked better in my Final Fight 3 review as it’s a pain to bend over and grab the weapons. There are health boosts like chocolate and chicken if you’re running low on health but you’ll need to look for them in barrels. The mini-games return but they were my least favorite. One has you running to the end of a section and jumping over barrels and another has you smashing a bulldozer before it pushes you off a dock.

Memories:
This was my first time playing Final Fight 3 but I was a bit disappointed in the way the series ends on the Super Nintendo.

Final Fight 3 Review Score:

Final Fight 3 was the last Final Fight on the Super Nintendo but the series ends on a sour note. I felt the game wasn’t an improvement from either of the first two games with the enemies feeling repetitive and some of the bosses being reskinned. Final Fight 3 feels like a lazy attempt at a cash grab from Capcom.

Final Fight 3 scores a 6.6 out of 10.

What would you write in your Final Fight 3 review? Do you remember when Final Fight 3 first came out? Which fighter did you choose? Did you get the same ending as me and did you know the game came with different endings? Did you feel like this game was a cash grab or am I wrong about it? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments!

The Sims Review

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Simulators seem so common now but back in 2000, Maxis and Electronic Arts released the life simulator “The Sims” for PC and Mac. The Sims blew away gamers with its addicting style of gameplay simulating everyday life like jobs, relationships, and even chores. The series was a spiritual successor to the popular series “SimCity” in which players simulate building a city but The Sims outperformed its predecessor and is still going strong over twenty years after the first game. Let’s take a look at the original life-simulator that engrossed players with its simple and casual style of gaming. I’ll try not to burn down the house in The Sims review.

The Sims Plot:

The Sims is so unique in that every player will experience a different life when playing through the game. There are no goals, objections, or rules to follow when playing. If you want to be a slob and eat every five minutes, live in your underwear, and go broke, that’s your choice. If you want to start a career, work your way to the top, and become a millionaire, that’s all up to you. You can live nearly any life you want to have which makes the game so addicting to players. You’ll be able to do pretty much whatever you like which makes the story yours to shape.

The Sims Gameplay:

Customization is such a big part of The Sims that it’s the first thing I’m going to start with. First, you’ll need to build your sim. You can choose to play as a man or woman and customize them with their appearance starting with their hair and head. You can choose an outfit that ranges from classy, sexy, trashy, athletic, and many more. Once you are happy with your sim your next task is to select their traits. You’ll have points to distribute to shape how they behave like how clean, playful, nice, active, and other traits that the sims use to interact with each other. You can even add a bio to them if you please.

Once you’ve created a Sim, you can decide whether you want to make a family or live the single life. Next, you’ll need to purchase a property and start building a house. Building houses and buying furniture are one of my favorite things to do in the game. Everything is so detailed as you purchase things from windows, floor tiles, wall paint, lights, and even plants. When the house is built you’ll need to fill up the house with furniture and other necessities. The Sims make it all very easy on the buyer with categories like plumbing, electronics, chairs, etc. Starting out you’ll be purchasing crappy items like small beds, black and white TVs, and uncomfortable chairs. You don’t need to upgrade if you don’t want to but once you start earning money you can pause the game whenever you like and buy a better bed, chair, TV, or splurge and buy a butler robot!

As you play the game your sim will need to do certain tasks to stay happy. There’s a diamond above their head that indicates how happy they are with bright green being the happiest and dark red being the most depressed. There are a few factors that change your mood. Your sim will need good hygiene so they’ll need to shower daily. Their bladders will get full so even things like going to the bathroom are a requirement. If you neglect this your sim can piss themself in an embarrassing fit! Fun fact, my wife was rewarded for not wetting the bed until she was like 17 as her parents took her to Toys R Us and let her pick out a toy each night she didn’t wet the bed.

Anyway, getting back to what your sim needs…they will need social interaction! Build friendships with other sims who come and visit your house. Have your sim talk to them, or dance with them. You can do so many things from hugging, telling jokes, kissing, playing basketball, and even fucking! Although that’s censored. You perverts hoping to see the Sims bang will be out of luck. You can even buy a vibrating heart-shaped bed if your sims are super kinky. Other things that your sim will need to keep satisfied are their hunger, energy, fun, comfort, and even “room” which improves with the decor in your house.

Your sim can pick a career but you’ll start at the bottom. There are about ten careers to choose from like being a movie star, scientist, detective, sports star, and others. The jobs you start with are terrible but you can work your way up the career ladder by accomplishing goals like making your body stronger, improving your cooking, or charisma. When your job improves you’ll get more money and usually have better shifts but it’s hard to maintain. Each job advancement takes a lot of work and sometimes you’ll lose friends or lovers over it which can result in demotions. Speaking of lovers, you can even get married! You can have kids and you can even die! Your sim can drown or die in a house fire. The amount of situations and details that Maxis put into this game is crazy.

The Sims was so popular that expansions started being developed almost as soon as the game was released. This was the original DLC! You can buy expansions that provide more options in the love department, providing pets, going on vacations, and new places to explore downtown. Here’s a list of the expansions:

Livin’ Large
House Party
Hot Date
Vacation
Unleashed
Superstar
Makin’ Magic

The Sims is a near-perfect game that demands nothing of the player. In fact, if you don’t control your sim they will live their life on their own and you can just watch like God. I would kick myself if I didn’t mention the music either, it’s so catchy and well put together. It stirs exactly the right emotions when building a house, or picking out furniture.

Memories:
I’m not sure the first time I played The Sims, but I remember I bought it as a kid and had my dad install it on the computer. I played this game so much, it was amazing to see what I could do with the Sims. Sometimes my friends would come over and they’d get addicted to playing it too. My favorite thing to do was input the cheat that gives you tons of money. I’d blow it on all the crazy things you can buy and just throw massive parties. Truly, the Sims is a unique experience for everyone that plays it. Now my wife plays it at least once a year.

The Sims Review Score:

The Sims was groundbreaking in the simulating casual gamer genre. You won’t find a better life simulator as you truly play as God as you watch your sim live their life with a bit of help from you, or if your evil heart chooses you can ruin their life. It’s all up to you.

The Sims scores a 9.5 out of 10.

What would you write in your Sims review? Do you remember when The Sims first came out? How did you play? Did you make your sim like you or were they a fictional character? How did you live and what career did you choose? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments!