Final Fantasy II Review

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The original Final Fantasy was a success on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990. As it turns out there was nothing “final” about these fantasies as Square continued to produce them. Final Fantasy II was released in Japan in 1988 but would not see a release in the U.S. until Final Fantasy Origins for the PlayStation in 2003. My review of Final Fantasy II comes from the PlayStation Portable version which was developed by Tose and published by Squaresoft in 2007. The second installment of this role-playing fantasy saw immense improvements in the characters and plot. How does it compare to the original Final Fantasy?

Final Fantasy II Plot:

I can’t tell you how refreshing it was to immerse myself into the plot and characters of Final Fantasy II after finishing the original game. My main complaint with the first Final Fantasy was that while the plot was decent, there were no character arcs or development. You played the game with four mysterious and nameless warriors who had no origin stories or personalities. They were interchangeable and forgettable.

Final Fantasy II gives the player an amazing story of greed, power, betrayal, and heartbreaking sacrifices. I loved it! This was an incredible RPG experience to play through and watch the story unfold.

It begins with four friends escaping their hometown after the empire has sent soldiers in to destroy it. These friends escape the town but are caught by a patrol unit outside the city and are quickly defeated in battle. Three of them wake up in an underground resistance center where they are nursed back to health, while one of the four has gone missing.

The main characters are “Firion” a white-haired young man, “Maria” a nimble girl with dark blue hair, and “Guy”, a silent hulking muscle man. A fourth character named Leon, who is the brother of Maria has gone missing and with his whereabouts and status unknown. Our heroes wake up in the town of Fynn, home to Princess Hilda and Prince Gordon. They’re in the middle of a resistance against the Emperor who is power-hungry and invading all towns.

Firion, Maria, and Guy join the rebels and begin their quest of taking back the land from the Emperor. They are first tasked with finding a solution to the poor equipment the rebels have. Mythril Armor is rumored to be the best possible defense around, but they need a source of Mythril for the local blacksmith to craft with. Our heroes are sent to the caves where Mythril is located only to run into one of the Emperor’s best generals. With the help from Josef, a local hero to a neighboring town they defeat the general and secure the Mythril. Unfortunately, it comes at a cost as Josef holds back a massive boulder from crushing them before it ultimately crushes him to death. Tragic, but it wouldn’t be the last sacrifice.

The rebellion receives word that the Empire is constructing a massive ship capable of destroying cities in a matter of seconds (not the Death Star), but a ship called the “Dreadnaught”. It’s being constructed a few towns away from Fynn, so our heroes travel in hopes of destroying it before it can take off. When they arrive, they realize they are too late. The Dreadnaught takes off and begins its rampage. Cities and citizens are blown up from the massive guns on the ship before it lands to refuel near the mountains. Worse yet, is that the Dreadnaught captured Princess Hilda from Fynn!

Our heroes rush off to find the docked ship and infiltrate it with a mega-weapon called “Sunfire” that can destroy the engines of the Dreadnaught. Hilda is rescued from the ship before Firion, and his companions throw the Sunfire into the engines destroying the ship. Before escaping from the ship, Maria hears a familiar voice in dark knight armor, but it’s too late to investigate who it was.

Things seem bleak as the King of Fynn passes away (he was old anyway), but in his final wish, he asks Firion to travel to Deist to recruit the Dragoons to fight for the rebellion. They travel to the land of Dragoons and discover that all the wyverns have been killed due to a poison that the Empire leaked into the lands. There’s one wyvern egg left so Firion places it in the birthing spring hoping that the egg will hatch someday. When they return to Fynn they realize Hilda has once again been kidnapped by the Emperor who has taken her to a colosseum to award her to the winning gladiator. The heroes travel to the colosseum where they win the tournament and rescue Hilda.

Firion and his pals meet up with a pirate named Leila who tries to swindle them but is defeated. She offers her ship to help sail them around the land in search of the most powerful magic tomb in existence. This magic tome called “Ultima Tome” was sealed away. Before the king died, he requested that Firion find it. To help Firion on his quest, Minwu, the king’s mage helps track down the location of the tome. Firion meets Minwu at the seal, and Minwu uses all of his mana to unlock the seal killing himself in the process. Another hero’s life is given to the cause!

As they arrive back in Fynn, more destruction has occurred, and more is on the way. A massive tornado created by the Emperor is making its way toward Fynn destroying every town. The wyvern egg has hatched and commanded by the last Dragoon who joins Firion, the four of them fly toward the cyclone. They make their way through the castle and kill the Emperor causing the cyclone to disperse before destroying Fynn.

Our heroes celebrate back in Fynn before a soldier bursts into the castle and inform them that a dark knight has taken up the throne and plans on resuming the plans of destroying Fynn. Firion, Maria, and Guy head to the castle and confront the dark knight who reveals himself to be Leon! Shock! (Not really)

Just before Leon and Firion start to battle, a portal from Hell opens up as the Emperor transports himself to the throne! He’s back from the dead after fighting his way through Hell! (Epic) As the Emperor erects a new castle from Hell, the wyvern swoops in and saves Firion, Maria, Guy, and Leon.

Leon admits to wanting to rule the land but decides to help them out in defeating the Emperor once and for all. The four of them infiltrate the new palace and make their way to the Emperor. They defeat the final form of the Emperor destroying his soul and body. Everyone celebrates as Fynn and the surrounding towns are finally safe. Firion confronts Leon, and the two agree that they can’t be friends as too much has happened. They swear to meet again (maybe in battle, maybe as comrades, who knows!?) as Leon walks out of the castle as the credits start to roll.

This story was refreshing to play through, and I loved all the sacrifices that the characters made. Many characters died in this epic tale, and it was touching to watch them make the ultimate sacrifice in the name of a greater good. Not only do you get to know the three main characters throughout the quest, but there are a few characters who join you making the world feel bigger. It was a great addition to an already wonderful story.

Final Fantasy II Gameplay:

At first, I didn’t know what to think of the leveling up system in Final Fantasy II. It had changed drastically from the first game, which was unexpected. Instead of characters having set specialties or weapons, you can customize each character and build their powers however you see fit. Firion doesn’t have to wield a sword. He can become an expert with a bow, or ax, or spear, or knife. Maria doesn’t have to be a healing mage. She can become an ax wielder who casts dark magic. I didn’t know if the system would be too advanced for me coming off the first Final Fantasy, but the longer that I played, the more I loved it.

If you want to become the ultimate traveling party all it takes is some serious hours of grinding. Each of your members can learn magic, so if you decide to teach them all spells, they can all level up to become insane mages. If magic doesn’t tickle your fancy, you can train them in different weapons. Bows, swords, knives, spears, axes, staffs, shields, and fists are all options. In the end, I had Maria as an expert in bows, dark magic, and healing. Guy was an expert in axes, spears, and moderate in dark magic, and healing. Firion was an expert in swords, shields, dark magic, and healing. Maria had the least amount of health, but it seemed like she wasn’t targeted much whereas Guy had a massive health bar but was constantly beat on.

Admittedly, I used a guide as a walkthrough to complete the game quicker. I just don’t have time to figure out where to go next, but Final Fantasy II was easier to decipher where the next quest was as opposed to the first game. I mainly used the guide during the dungeons, which littered the game. Death didn’t greet me much. The game over screen only appeared on my PSP a few times, and it was when enemies got lucky. The final fight against the emperor is a joke if you equip the Blood Sword. He has 10,000 HP, but each hit you do with the sword does at least 1,000 damage. If you use magic to boost your offensive stats, you can take the Emperor down in about three turns. Sure, that wasn’t a tough final boss, but if you don’t use the Blood Sword I’m sure it would take a little more effort.

The graphics and FMV scenes that were added to the PSP version are gorgeous. The cut scenes are more frequent than they were in FF1 and add an extra element when it comes to storytelling. Watching the Dreadnaught take-off was mesmerizing.

Memories:
I remember seeing the cover of Final Fantasy Origins for the PS1 growing up. One of my friends had it, and it featured Firion holding the sword. I thought he looked goofy, but it stuck with me. After all these years, I finally discovered who he was. In a heated eBay bid, I won Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy IV, and Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. I was so stoked, and so far, after playing I and II it was all worth it.

Final Fantasy II Review Score:

The PSP version of Final Fantasy II is essential and a must-play for RPG lovers who missed out on it during the PS1 years. There’s a massive shift in story-telling, character arcs, and customization from the first game that would shift the entire series into stardom. It’s an incredible story of power and sacrifice, and Final Fantasy II surpasses everything the original laid out. If you have a PSP, this is a must-own title.

Final Fantasy II scores a 9.4 out of 10.

Do you remember when Final Fantasy II first came out? Did you play it on the PS1, or did you snag it later on the PSP? Who was your favorite character from the story? Which quest gave you the most difficulty? Where does this entry rank in the series? Let me know your memories and thoughts I’d love to read the comments.

Sunset Overdrive Review

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Insomniac Games is one of the premier developers for PlayStation having created numerous critically acclaimed series like Marvel’s Spider-Man, Resistance, Spyro The Dragon, and Ratchet & Clank. All are fantastic series for Sony consoles. But before Sony officially put a ring on Insomniac, the game developer created Sunset Overdrive in 2014 for the Xbox One. The exclusive game was published by Microsoft Studios and gave Xbox players a taste of the magic that Insomniac creates. Set in a post-apocalyptic world filled with F-bombs, and an amazing soundtrack, Sunset Overdrive gave the Xbox One an exclusive must-own game.

Sunset Overdrive Plot:

You play as a nameless character customized by you. This character is a janitor at a concert venue who rather predictably, hates their life. At this concert, a new energy drink is introduced to the crowd from mega-corporation FizzCo. This drink called “Overdrive” begins to mutate all drinkers into fleshy blobs who attack the city. Within 24 hours, the city is quarantined and the apocalypse is underway.

A few weeks later after hiding out in your apartment surviving off beer, the mutants break-in. You’re rescued by an old man named Walter who invites you to help him escape Sunset City. Together, you build a propeller glider hybrid craft. As you and Walter head toward the skyline, he notices birds being zapped by an invisible wall. He shoves you from the craft right before it the walls. Walter unfortunately is killed in the crash, leaving you back to square one.

The remainder of the game is spent doing quests and favors for different tribes around Sunset City. There are the super-rich lazy Millenials who live off their parents’ wealth. A boy-scout-like troop who are samurai. A bunch of nerds who are real-life role-players, and a bunch of Latina undead face-painted girls who nurse children back to health. The player continues to work with these tribes to achieve his dream of leaving Sunset City. They discover that they can use a trash boat that leaves the city to sneak out. With the boat filled with trash, Fizzco doesn’t see it as a threat. The player escapes but as he is leaving toward the sea, receives a phone call from his friends who are being attacked by Fizzco. He decides to turn around and help them out.

He rallies the tribes together and does a full assault on Fizzco Headquarters. As the tribes attack the headquarters, the player launches a huge bottle of Overdrive into the building. The building awakens and starts rampaging throughout the city. Yes, you read that correctly. After destroying the building that was controlled by the FizzCo mascot, the player reunites with all the tribes and parties the night away.

Sunset Overdrive Gameplay:

Sunset Overdrive is a mix of Infamous, Borderlands, and Doom. The humor is spot-on and it’s been one of the few games that have been released post-2010 to make me laugh. Everything from the characters and quests makes fun of real video game tropes. It’s all self-deprecating humor, and it’s perfect.

The outlay of the city reminded me of Infamous as you grinded along smooth surfaces and rails. You’ll climb up towering buildings or slide across parks as you complete your quests. During battles, the action never stops. In high-octane shootouts, you must always keep moving and in Sunset Overdrive that means bouncing. You are rewarded for your style of gameplay if you keep moving. If you run around and shoot enemies, you’ll likely be killed or attacked more. Sliding on rails or jumping on bouncy objects, you’ll earn bonuses when killing enemies. When you earn more style points you can use it on upgrading your character with perks called “amps”. These amps can do things like creating twisters when you melee or cause explosions when you bounce on the ground. The more you play, the more the game adapts to your style.

Weapons are a huge element of the game and it’s fun to purchase new ones. Everything in Sunset Overdrive is ridiculous and over-the-top including the respawn animations. Dying was fun when you would see different revivals. Weapons were just as cool as you found which ones worked best for you. You don’t have typical guns that shoot bullets. Instead, you’ll have roman candles or a teddy-bear bazooka. It all fits perfectly into the humorous theme of the game.

Perhaps, the best part of Sunset Overdrive is the amazing soundtrack. It’s all punk music. It reminds me of the 70s and 80s early punk bands and it fits perfectly into the game. Games today are forced to use stupid music in the soundtracks or trailers. Rap and pop oversaturate every game today, so to hear a game with punk roots sounded great. It’s the best soundtrack and humor in a game in possibly a decade.

Sunset Overdrive is fantastic, but I felt it was a little short. I beat the game in just a few days of briefly playing it. Boss fights were interesting and slightly challenging but I defeated each boss in one or two tries. The one thing I didn’t care for was the constant moving. If you aren’t jumping or grinding all over, you are susceptible to dying. I wish some battles slowed down so I could enjoy more of the moment. Everything felt like it was fast-forward.

Memories:
I had heard of Sunset Overdrive throughout the years but never bothered playing it as I didn’t have an Xbox One until my brother-in-law bought it for my wife. I picked up Sunset Overdrive at a used video game store for $5. It was one of the games that flew under the radar, one that I always heard about but never knew of anyone playing it. I popped it in one weekend and loved every second of it.

Sunset Overdrive Review Score:

Some games you can tell right away have the small details down. Sunset Overdrive is a game full of work done by people who love what they do. The soundtrack, humor, writing, and overall theme were tremendous. It’s a must-own for the Xbox One. Sunset Overdrive gives the Xbox one an exclusive that it desperately sought not named Halo. It’s too bad that it’s a brief game but when playing it, you’ll love it.

Sunset Overdrive scores a 9.2 out of 10.

What are your thoughts on Sunset Overdrive? How crazy did you customize your character? What did you think of the humor and what was your favorite weapon? Do you want to see a sequel?

Syphon Filter 3 Review

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After the success of Syphon Filter (1999) and Syphon Filter 2 (2000), video game developers were quick to cash in on the action franchise. In 2001, Bend Studios and Sony Computer Entertainment of America teamed up to release Syphon Filter 3 for the PlayStation. The series would return star agent Gabe Logan but would be a drop off in quality gameplay and plot. Gone was Eidec Studio and 989 Studios who developed and produced the first two games. How much would the third game fall from the graces of the franchise?

Syphon Filter 3 Plot:

Syphon Filter doesn’t revolve around a complicated plot. The series is based on the premise of a man-made virus that is extremely deadly. If any country or agency got its hands on the virus, it could kill millions at a time. What is confusing in Syphon Filter is the typically double and triple agents within all the agencies along with the politics of the game. The first two games in the series focused on keeping the virus out of the hands of terrorists and rogue agents. In the third, the plot barely advances. Instead, the game explores character origins in a bunch of flashback missions.

One thing I’m constantly learning in reviewing PS1 games that have sequels is that companies are greedy. They don’t care about the quality of the games if they can make money off them. Looking back at Driver 2, Medal of Honor Underground, and other sequels, they just don’t come close to the quality of the originals. With Syphon Filter 2, I believe it held the same quality as the first but when the third game came, it lacked the magic of the first two.

The writers of Syphon Filter 3 were different than the first two. With only a year between releases, they probably didn’t know how to push the plot forward. Instead, they created character origins with Gabe Logan, Lian Xing, and Teresa Lipin. The missions you play are all flashbacks besides the final two.

Syphon Filter 3 begins as the Secretary of State is interviewing Gabe, Lian, and a man named Lawrence about their past affairs and the assassination of a Chinese high-ranking official. Gabe retells the tales of how they all met which is where the missions come into play. You’ll go as far back as the 80s as each agent discusses their past. The big twist is that Teresa who was an integral part of the series (and was killed) faked her death to hunt down more corrupt agents and officials.

She bursts into Congress to reveal herself and testify that Gabe, Lian, and Lawrence are not the terrorists behind the Syphon Filter. Mara Aramov is a Russian terrorist who has been at the center of the first two Syphon Filter games. She returns as the lead instigator and near the end of the game bursts into Congress and shoots up the place. Before she kills the Secretary of State, it’s revealed that he was part of the plot to unleash Syphon Filter.

Gabe then chases Mara into the subway system where he tracks her down and shoots her. The credits roll as Teresa, Lian, and Lawrence are kicking back on a beach smashing tropical drinks. It’s revealed that despite Mara being arrested she has somehow escaped. (Go figure) and post-credits a submarine is lifting a box of Syphon Filter vials at the bottom of the ocean as Mara laughs.

Syphon Filter 3 Gameplay:

The plot of Syphon Filter 3 suffered from the inability to push the series forward. Gameplay was also toned down from the previous two games. Levels in the first two games felt huge and explorative. In the third game, the missions felt condensed and linear. I think the difficulty is also ratcheted up. Bring your “A” game because, within the first ten seconds of the first mission, a reign of sniper fire is all over you. It took me about ten tries just to get past the first few minutes of the first level. Yikes! There were no warm-ups, this was meant for veteran Syphon Filter players. Good thing I’m one of them.

As always, the king is the air taser weapon. Seriously, if I make a list of the top 10 most deadly weapons in video games I’m putting that as number one. Whenever I played as Gabe, I kept it equipped and skipped all the high-tech machine guns. If you wanted to beat the missions, the air taser was your best friend paired with auto-aiming.

I don’t know if I expected the cutscenes to improve but they almost look a little worse. Voice acting and FMV have never been a strong suit with Syphon Filter but maybe because a new developer oversaw the game, the scenes got worse. They were also very boring as more than half of them was just Gabe testifying in congress.

Missions were difficult and using your map was a must. I don’t know what was wrong but Syphon Filter 3 was an extremely dark game. Not in the sense of tones, but the actual gameplay. I couldn’t see diddle. I played on my 75-inch 4K tv so perhaps that was the issue but man, sometimes I went minutes not knowing what the heck I was doing just running through the dark. It was very frustrating but I can’t tell if it was the game or my TV.

My frustrations came to a boil with an escort mission. I know, we all love those. You are in a Middle-Eastern desert protecting a cargo truck with another soldier. As you progress through the mission there are various enemies and obstacles in the way. You must keep both the truck and your partner alive. Near the end, there’s this valley where you are ambushed by tons of enemies. I was low on ammo and my partner kept dying every two seconds. It was difficult and I restarted from that checkpoint 20 times before giving up for the night. Eventually, I restarted the entire mission so I could be better prepared for that section. After a dozen more tries I beat that segment.

Another mission has you in the mountains with a bunch of gun nuts. One of the mission objectives is to stop the birth of a premature baby! Now that’s hilarious. It was strange to watch Teresa apply a first-aid kit on the vagina of the pregnant woman. What a sight! There were no bosses in Syphon Filter 3 except for Mara who was a joke. She doesn’t shoot at you and just holds a hostage. You need to climb to the subway roof and shoot through the metal to defeat her. The end was certainly a letdown and with the way the game ends, it was all for nothing. Literally, nothing in this game pushed the plot forward. Syphon Filter 3 could have never happened and the next game (I haven’t played it yet) could slide right into the series.

Memories:
I picked up Syphon Filter 3 in a little game store in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This store is a hidden gem and it’s inside the owner’s house. He has a collection of rare games but they are market price. I found Syphon Filter 3 there for $5 so I purchased it after beating the first two games.

Syphon Filter 3 Review Score:

Syphon Filter 3 sadly fits the trend of less than stellar sequels to great PS1 games. The second game avoided that trend, but I knew it was coming. The terrible plot and stale gameplay doomed Syphon Filter along with a new developer and publisher. If this was the first game in the serious it would have scored higher but after two solid games, Syphon Filter 3 is nothing but a disappointment.

Syphon Filter 3 scores a 6.5 out of 10.

What are your thoughts on Syphon Filter 3? Do you remember when it first came out? What do you think of the series overall? Would you like to see it come back? Who is your favorite character and what memories do you have playing it? I love to read them, so let me know!

ABC Monday Night Football Review

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Are you ready to play with the Miami Sharks instead of the Miami Dolphins? Are you ready for players to look six inches tall instead of six feet? Are you ready to watch fans shake their heads in disappointment over and over? ARE YOU READY FOR ABC MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL?

In 1993, Data East developed and published “ABC Monday Night Football” for the Super Nintendo. The football simulation couldn’t secure the rights to the NFLPA or logos for real professional football teams. Would the gameplay make up for it?

ABC Monday Night Football Plot:

It’s Monday Night, sometime between September and December. You’ve had a shitty weekend filled with homework or home projects like raking the leaves or shoveling the driveway. Your boss just kicked your ass all over work on Monday for not having the data reports ready or the hot substitute teacher who wore tight blouses with cleavage is being charged by police for sleeping with a student, and that student wasn’t you!

All you want to do is sit back and wash away your sorrows with 3 hours of some football.

The satellite goes out! Shit! Now, what can you do? You fire up your Super Nintendo and pop in ABC Monday Night Football! If you can’t watch it, you’re going to play it!

ABC Monday Night Football Gameplay:

How does the marketing team at Data East get this game out to the masses? Opening up the manual the advertising gimmicks are… sadly lacking.

“Take the toss with one of your favorite teams from all 28 pro clubs”

This is false. I can’t select the New England Patriots because there is no New England Patriots in this game. Sure, there is a team from New England, but they aren’t the Patriots. Already, this game is off to a lying start on trying to pump up the gamers who unfortunately received this.

“Launch the offense from an arsenal of real pro football plays. Try to execute a pass play, but you better watch it, or you might get sacked. Attack the goal with awesome close-up power players, or send a wide receiver long and throw a bomb with no time left.”

Wow, I can’t wait to do mundane things that every single other football game for the past 10 years offers. You mean I can select a pass play or hand it off to a running back? So realistic!

I tried out a season in ABC Monday Night Football. Picking through the teams gave me a chuckle as Data East didn’t secure the rights to the NFL but did their best to pass the teams in the game as the real deal. All the color schemes are similar and each city has a football team, but not the real deal. The developers knew this and gave an option to rename the teams. Good call, but they still aren’t the same thing. That’s okay, I can get by with arcade-style football even if I’m not playing as my favorite players or team.

Unfortunately, there’s not much arcade fun to be had. The plays unfold at a snail’s pace as the players run with bricks in their shoes. You’ll see a hole open up as your linemen block but it takes five seconds just to run out of the backfield. You can see the tackle coming from a mile away, but you don’t have any buttons to shake the defender. There’s a juke button that I found useless, and the “sprint” button felt like it sped the game up from 0 to 1.

Players look like they are six inches tall on a massive field. Almost every play will show a short animation clip of the crowd. 99 percent of the time they were booing me or shaking their heads. I don’t blame them, because my team sucked. In the first game, I fought in a 7-0 loss. Passing was near impossible to figure out. My receivers would be open but my QB would throw it 20 feet over their head or 20 feet in front of them. I was skipping the ball to the receivers just like Cam Newton does! Maybe, this game is realistic?

There’s a hilarious opening to the game with animations of football players getting creamed or scoring touchdowns, complete with grunting sound effects. Data East tried their best to include these animations into the game. Sometimes, it worked but I grew tired of the same ones over and over. I thought it was a nice touch when the refs came out and measured the first down. That’s a small detail I can appreciate.

Getting a first down is easier said than done. I didn’t complete a pass until game two. For some reason, my QB was firing rockets right into the hands of my receivers which was a welcomed change from the first game. When you do earn a first down, it’s not easy. Getting tackled will push you back two or three yards. If you cross the first down marker by two or three yards you still may not get it depending on how far back the defender tackles you. That’s bullshit. Whenever anyone was close to my ball carrier I just dove to avoid being shoved back a few yards. This was a safe practice that made first downs easier to come by.

Memories:
I have some fond memories of watching Monday Night Football growing up. When I was in middle school I got in trouble once and my dad banned me from watching it for a month. I was able to avoid this punishment by watching the game on mute so my dad didn’t know what I was watching. He probably knew what I was watching, but didn’t care. Him threatening me with no Monday Night Football was enough for me to stop being a problem child, at least for a few weeks.

As for the Super Nintendo version of ABC Monday Night Football, I don’t recall ever playing it as a kid. Good, I may have hated football then.

ABC Monday Night Football Review Score:

The bottom line is this game lacks the arcade fun of Tecmo Bowl and the realism of Madden or 2K. You have to hit on one or the other to be a successful football game. ABC Monday Night Football’s pass misses the mark by quite a bit.

ABC Monday Night Football a 4.1 out of 10.

Do you remember when ABC Monday Night Football first came out? What was your favorite fake team to play as? Did you play multiplayer with your friends? Were you able to pass the ball or did you suffer from poor QB play as I did? Let me know your memories and thoughts I’d love to read the comments.

Quartet Review

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The Sega Master System had some strange games when it was released in 1986 in North America. A few arcade ports made some noise, but one that flew under the radar was Quartet. Developed and produced by Sega, Quartet puts the player in control of Mary on her quest to find a dead body. The action-platformer follows a successful formula of defeating bosses, and finding keys to exit the level. Would this game be worth playing?

Quartet Plot:

“If you hate aliens, you’ll love Quartet! You see, space colony Number Nine is being threatened by an invasion of the most dangerous kind. Alien attack. And the place is crawling with them.

These vicious, vile parasites have even managed to confiscate the casket of the late, great Queen Cynthia.

It’s your job to exterminate these treacherous creatures. To return the casket to it’s (their poor grammar, not mine) hallowed tomb. And save the colony from certain collapse.

You’ll have special equipment to help you along the way. Like a supersonic jet engine, a special bomb, missiles, and a magic key.

But time is running out. So don’t just stand there thinking about it. Get on it.
And get rid of this gruesome group. For good!”

Just to be clear, you are on a mission to recover a dead body of a queen. Why this is so important, I’m not sure? Does this body hold the key to unlocking your civilization? Is there some type of hidden treasure stuffed in the casket or do you just not want aliens defiling the body of your queen? Sounds like a suicide mission, just to rescue someone that is already dead.

Opening up the manual sheds some light on the situation, but not much.

"It's thousands of years into the future. And by now mankind has established space colonies throughout the galaxy.
Most of them are peaceful, productive places to live. Most of the time. But once every few centuries or so, something somewhere goes amiss. 
This time it happened on the beautiful Colony Number Nine, renowned for the contributions of its late, great ruler, Queen Cynthia. 
What's happened? The colony has been invaded by a group of awesome ALIENS of the nastiest kind. Despite state-of-the-technology protection, the ALIENS have entered Queen Cynthia's tomb, confiscated her casket, and are about to destroy the rest of the colony. 
There's very little time left. 
But there's still a lot of hope. Hope placed in the spiritual powers of the famous MARY and her partner, EDGAR.
Together only they can wipe out the ALIENS. And purge the colony of their vicious evil. For good."

Okay, so we still don’t know what makes the casket so important. For our sake, let’s say there are important ancient codes that will launch weapons of mass destruction and wipe out the galaxy if the aliens get ahold of them. There, I made the mission much more important in just a few words.

Quartet Gameplay:

Yikes, the cover of Quartet is impossible to look past. Sega Master System Games are infamous for their atrocious covers but Quartet is up there for the worst. Some SMS covers have a charm to them like Pro Wrestling, but Quartet just screams unprofessionalism.

Despite the pointless mission and terrible box art, the gameplay to Quartet is fun! You’ll take control of Mary in this action-platformer as she searches through six facilities to find the Queen’s casket. When you start the game up you are treated with a weird menu as it transitions up and down with the title.

Quartet plays much better than it looks on the outside. Enemies and environments are brightly colored as the aliens spawn throughout the stage. I was pleasantly surprised at how immersive the levels were with details despite how short they were. The game in total can be beaten in less than 15 minutes. Each level requires you to find the end boss, who holds the magical key to unlocking the exit door. Search for the boss, defeat him, collect the key, and exit the level.

There are six stages in Quartet, each with unique enemies and bosses. Mary can take multiple hits. She can probably take five hits before turning into dust which makes this game forgiving. To find the boss, it’s crucial to first find your jet pack. The jet pack makes transversing the level ten times easier as you hoover around instead of jumping from platform to platform.

Bosses are challenging enough. Some have patterns some don’t. Fire eagles, jumping lizards, and a dragon that acts like a wacky inflatable arm man that spits fire make up a few of the bosses that you’ll be challenged by. Once defeated, the bosses will drop keys that you’ll take to the exit. It’s simple, but fun.

After beating the last stage, you are treated to a cut scene of finding the Queen’s casket which looks like it’s a giant slime box. Spoiler, the Queen is naked and she looked STACKED if you get my drift. Nice, I suppose I’d rescue her too now. It’s such a goofy ending but I’m glad they included the cut scene to reward the player for their successful mission.

Memories:
I discovered this game by watching one of Mike Matei’s streams of the Sega Master System. I had never heard of it before and I feel like I have a good grasp of the Master System library so I was intrigued. It looked like a type of game I’d enjoy.

It was a short experience, but one that I’m happy to have played. As a kid, I would have liked this game. It’s not overly difficult but there were a few times when facing the bosses that I repeatedly died until I got lucky or found the pattern.

Quartet Review Score:

This short game is a fun experience. There aren’t too many issues with the gameplay as it’s fair and at times challenging, but it’s brief. The plot is goofy, and there’s a weird cut scene at the end but Quartet is a solid experience for Sega Master System owners.

Quartet scores a 7.4 out of 10.

Do you remember when Quartet first came out? Was this a hidden gem on the Sega Master System? Which boss was the most challenging? Did you ever see the Queen’s body at the end? What other games are similar to this? Let me know your memories and thoughts I’d love to read the comments.

Lost Planet 2 Review

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After the moderate success of Lost Planet: Extreme Condition in 2006 for the Xbox 360. Capcom followed it up with a sequel. Lost Planet 2 was released in 2010 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Developed and published by Capcom, Lost Planet 2 completely erased the plot and characters of the first game and reset the gameplay into a much more focused multiplayer co-op experience. Would the changes pay off, or was Capcom silly to make the changes?

Lost Planet 2 Plot:

WHERE THE HELL IS BRUCE?

Seriously. This was the first thought that came into my head when I started playing Lost Planet 2. You begin in a group of mercenaries that are about to ravage a mining facility that’s controlled by snow pirates. I’m already ahead of myself in the story, but I was thinking that this mission would somehow lead to Bruce and his friends. The more I played Lost Planet 2, the more I realized that this entire story was just a compilation of intertwining stories that wound together every fabric of the planet except for Bruce! I was disappointed, to say the least because I genuinely liked the plot of the first game. I was instantly intrigued by Bruce, his father, and his band of pirates who were fighting for their survival. In the final moments of the previous game, Bruce lost his memory and slowly began regaining it as the snow melted on the frozen planet. It set up perfectly for a sequel to continue Bruce’s path in whatever direction Capcom wanted, but they completely axed him from the story!

We are treated to various short missions that lead up to a major event at the end of Lost Planet 2. The game breaks up the story into six episodes. In the first, you are mercenaries that are sent to destroy a snow pirate mining facility. If you aren’t familiar with the setting of Lost Planet, here’s a brief rundown. The planet is called E.D.N. III and has a similar weather pattern to Hoth from Star Wars. Giant bug-like monsters called Akrid infest the planet while sustaining their life with a type of thermal energy that is extremely valuable.

NEVEC is a mega-corporation that once tried to colonize the planet over 150 years ago after Earth became inhabitable. After most of NEVEC was annihilated by the Akrids, the planet becomes abandoned except for a few NEVEC soldiers who remained on the planet and became snow pirates. Lost Planet 2 combines stories from both the viewpoint of NEVEC and snow pirates and puts you in the shoes of these regular soldiers. Anyway, back to the first episode. You along with other mercenaries storm a mining facility and defeat snow pirates. There are pockets of the planet that have started to unthaw and become tropical jungles due to the technology that Bruce helped launch in the first game. It turns out that you and the mercenaries were set up by central command to fight a giant Akrid classified as a Category G Akrid.

In episode II, you are put into a group of NEVEC soldiers tasked with wiping out a rebel city and capturing a mega weapon in the form of a railgun. After securing the city, an Akrid from space that has the ability to regrow limbs appears and attacks your group. The railgun escapes on train tracks as you are left to defeat the space Akrid on your own.

Moving to episode III, you are now snow pirates who have been living in a desert. You and your pals are returning to your settlement until you are attacked by other pirates. These pirates are the same ones that escaped from the city with the railgun in the previous episode. After defeating them, you take control of the railgun and fight off yet another giant Akrid.

NEVEC begins to split into factions in episode IV. There are soldiers on the planet who are being sacrificed in suicide missions all for the prized possession of thermal energy. Central command finds a giant source of thermal energy in an orb and direct soldiers to go after it. The plan is to have the soldiers harvest it but in the aftermath of the thermal energy harvest, a new ice age will be triggered. This puts you into the shoes of NEVEC soldiers who have defected and plan to storm the NEVEC base in order to stop central command from destroying the planet.

In episode V, you take control of sand pirates. These guys are very “cholo” complete with terrible Mexican accents, and stupid traits. I’m not one to be sensitive about race or characters, I’m just saying these guys were complete idiots. They reminded me a lot of “psychos” from Borderlands with their armor and lack of smarts. It wasn’t fun to play as them as they continued to banter back in forth in terrible accents. Again, I’m not politically correct at all, these guys were just an attempt at inserting humor into the game that missed. They felt very out of place. Anyway, with them, you highjack a huge NEVEC airship and take control of a railgun onboard.

The final episode of Lost Planet 2 has the player take control of the NEVEC defects as they invade central command in space. They highjack a laser weapon from the space station capable of causing mass destruction when fired onto the planet. They plan to kill the Akrid known as “Over-G” which is causing all the chaos on the planet. The soldiers descend onto the planet with robotic suits and with the help of snow pirates fight their way to the core of the Akrid. They tag the GPS onto the Akrid and the laser fires onto it killing it.

Lost Planet 2 ends with the mercenaries and pirates together as off in the distance they can spot a few Akrid flying around. A helicopter takes the soldiers away and the credits roll. WHERE IS BRUCE?!

Lost Planet 2 Gameplay:

The plot was changed dramatically in Lost Planet 2, but the gameplay didn’t see as drastic changes. No longer will you have to watch your thermal energy count down as you make your way through the level. It still plays a role, as it acts as your health bar and source of power. Collecting it after defeating enemies is key but I only died two or three times during my playthrough.

Lost Planet 2 wasn’t particularly challenging. I loved the short missions and checkpoints. There were about five-to-six missions in each episode with each mission lasting 5 to 10 minutes. It’s perfect for someone with a short attention span or if you mindlessly want to blast some Akrid or soldiers for a half-hour before moving on to obligations. Speaking of the Akrid, there are about ten different kinds you’ll face in your missions ranging from human-sized Akrids to thousand-foot ones. The big boss fights are fun but not as challenging as the first game. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to secure missile launchers or Gatlin guns. There will be VS suits scattered about too and because of this, I didn’t feel a sense of accomplishment when defeating the bosses. It felt too easy.

The big shift in gameplay was the huge focus on co-op. You can team up locally with up to three friends or you can host a game with an online lobby. I didn’t do any of this as I don’t have friends so I teamed up with A.I. and formed a team of four. These soldiers work great together and defeat enemies with or without you. This was a great example of useful A.I. as opposed to other games that give you helpless soldiers who just get in your way. I didn’t feel like I was doing all the work. They too, killed just as many Akrid as I did.

Lost Planet 2 was relatively short, I was able to beat it in about six hours. The entire game felt more like a DLC pack with the random missions as opposed to a full game in a series. I wasn’t able to connect with any of the characters like I did in the first game and because of this, I wasn’t bummed when it was over.

Memories:
I beat Lost Planet 2 in just a few days playing about two hours at a time. My Xbox One was hooked up to my bedroom television, so I was under the covers in the dead of winter while I plugged Akrids full of bullets.

Lost Planet 2 Review Score:

Capcom had a “hidden gem” with the original Lost Planet. I loved the corny characters and was invested in Bruce and his pals. Lost Planet 2 loses all of the charms of the first game and gives you what feels like a compilation of DLC side missions while making no mention of whatever happened to Bruce. There’s fun to be had in the brief run of the game, but this feels like a budget game rather than a triple AAA sequel.

Lost Planet 2 scores a 6.9 out of 10.

Do you remember when Lost Planet 2 first came out? WHERE IS BRUCE? What did you think of the change of gameplay and story? Did you play it with your buddies? Which game did you like better the first or the second? Let me know your memories and thoughts I’d love to read the comments.

Bigfoot: King of Crush Review

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A good monster truck game is as elusive as the real Bigfoot.

The monster truck, Bigfoot, was indeed the king of monster trucks in the 80s and 90s when the sport was taking off. The iconic blue car crusher is arguably the most famous monster truck. I loved it as a kid and admittedly as an adult. I watched Bigfoot crush millions of cars and win numerous championships, so when my wife randomly texted me that she was at Goodwill and saw a monster truck game for the Nintendo Wii, I knew I had to have it. Bigfoot: King of Crush is the latest game in my search for the greatest monster truck game. Developed by IndiePub, and published by Zoo Games in 2011 for the Wii, the game has gone under the radar for every publication. I had to play it to see if this was truly fit for the title that features Big Foot.

Bigfoot King of Crush Plot:

There’s no story for this game. Just crush cars and win races.

Bigfoot King of Crush Gameplay:

The bar is set extremely low for monster trucks game. If you’ve been following along in my quest to find the greatest monster truck game you’ll remember that I’ve reviewed Monster Jam: Maximum Destruction for the PlayStation 2 (5.2/10), and Monster Truck Rally (3.5/10) for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Both failed miserably in gaining an ounce of respect.

With the license to the most famous monster truck in the world, I would expect Bigfoot: King of Crush to include some footage of the fan-favorite. Loading up the game results in no such luck. There’s no awesome video of Bigfoot crushing cars or ramping dirt mounds, just a boring menu. Even when you “beat’ the game which I did, there’s no reward video of Bigfoot highlights.

At the main menu, you’ll see an option for instant racing, multiplayer, championship, and option. I played through the entire championship but that’s not saying much as I beat the game in about four hours. Go ahead and toss out your Wii Steering Wheel. It’s useless and makes steering ten times harder than it needs to be. I don’t like the Wii Wheel anyway, but don’t bother trying to get a grip on it. After a few races, I adjusted to the steering and was able to start making my way through the championship gauntlet.

My favorite version of Bigfoot was Bigfoot 4 seen above racing in the late 80s and early 90s.

There are four circuits to compete in with the only difference being the racing segment. These courses are nothing special, but it’s okay for the game. A snow race, a beach race, a city race, and a mountain race. At first, I thought it was bogus that there was no difficulty option to select but found out that it’s not too difficult once you memorize the course. If I didn’t win in the first race, I won on the second or third.

You need to come in at least third place for each event on a circuit to unlock the next. There are about eight events to compete in for each circuit, that’s not an exact amount as I took bad notes, but that’s my guess from memory. Aside from a few different racing events, there’s a sprint challenge, weight-pull, and trick challenge. None of these require skill to win. I was excited when reading the back of the case because this is the type of event that I want in a monster truck game. An authentic simulation of monster trucks is all I want, but instead, I got more crappy arcade mini-games.

I want realism in my monster truck game. Mounting weapons on my truck or jumping thousands of feet in the air doesn’t do it for me. I can find those types of thrills in just about any car combat or racing game. When I finished all four circuits, I received a message that said “Congratulations! You are a Bigfoot megastar! You have finished every event in first place!”

That’s it, the big payoff for beating the game.

Wondering what trucks you can race with? They certainly put the trademark to good use giving you about eight versions of Bigfoot to race with. I always selected the classic 35th-anniversary edition from the 80s because that’s the truck I watched on all my VHS tapes. Admittedly, it was cool to race as the Bigfoot that I loved so dearly, but that joy vanished after the gameplay started. You can race as two versions of SnakeBite which was another version of the Bigfoot truck just with a different shell on him.

Immediately, after starting a race for the first time the game lost all of its audio and experienced extreme slow down. Not a good sign when I first started playing it. Thankfully, it didn’t happen again but beware there are bugs in it. When it’s not bugging out, the gameplay is mundane. They try and make the racing fun by having parts of the truck fly off when you crash, and it’s somewhat realistic with the fiberglass fittings that go on these trucks, but for 2011, the graphics look like it could be from 2002. This game was probably meant for gamers on a budget, and it certainly shows.

Memories:
I love Bigfoot and respect everything that the brand stands for. It doesn’t participate in Monster Jam. I miss the old events of drag racing over cars and short sprints with weight pulling events. Those are long gone except for small shows and fairs which Bigfoot still races. Everything is stunts, stunts, and stunts! That’s boring to me.

When I saw this game, I knew it was low budget but still had hoped with the description of the events on the back of the case. I settled in for a mediocre four-hour experience at best. Fun fact, it was the first Wii game I played after my wife got me a Wii for Christmas along with a ton of games for it.

Bigfoot King of Crush Review Score:

Bigfoot: King of Crush doesn’t do much for even the biggest fan of Bigfoot. There was a lot of potential wasted after securing the right to the truck. They have solid events, but they are too arcade-like to qualify for a real monster truck game. Alas, my search for the greatest monster truck game must go on.

Bigfoot: King of Crush scores a 5.4 out of 10.

Do you remember when Bigfoot: King of Crush first came out? Are you a fan of Bigfoot? If so, do you still watch monster truck racing? What’s the best monster truck game out there? Do all games that publisher Zoo Games produce suck? Let me know your memories and thoughts I’d love to read the comments.

Final Fantasy Review

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Originally released in 1990 in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Final Fantasy was anything but “final”. Square developed the game while Nintendo published the fantasy epic-adventure RPG that began the hit series. Since its release on the NES, Final Fantasy has been rereleased or remastered 19 times. The version I played for this review was for the PSP that was released in 2007 that featured high-resolution 2D graphics and some small FMV scenes. How does the first Final Fantasy holds up today, and do I find it among the best RPGs ever made?

Final Fantasy Plot:

Final Fantasy is renowned for its immersive story and characters, but unlike the rest of the series, the first Final Fantasy doesn’t develop character arcs or relationships.

“The world lies shrouded in darkness,
The winds die…
The seas rage…
The earth decays…
But the people believe in prophecy, patiently waiting for its fulfillment.
‘When darkness veils the world, four Warriors of Light shall come.’
After a long journey, four young warriors did at least appear…
… and in the hand, each was holding a crystal.”

One of the things that bother me about Final Fantasy is these mystery warriors. They just show up as the prophecy says, and there’s no explanation as to who they are, why they showed up, why they have the crystals and why they are willing to fight and possibly give up their lives to save this land. WHO ARE THESE GOOD SAMARITANS?

Aside from not revealing a single shred of a biography of these heroes, Final Fantasy does have a solid plot. Like the prophecy says, the land begins to decay along with other elements raging on and destroying the Earth. These four mystery warriors walk into a city named Coneria where the princess has been abducted. They learn that Garland, a once-renowned noble knight has become evil and captured Princess Sara taking her away to an abandoned fortress. The warriors rescue Sara and the King of Coneria agrees to build a bridge so they have access to the rest of the world.

Thus begins the quest of restoring the elemental orbs across the land. Each orb is guarded by an elemental fiend that the warriors must defeat to restore the power of the orb and calm that element. With the orbs restored, a portal opens up in a temple that transports the warriors 2000 years into the past. It turns out that the four fiends that had guarded the orbs opened the portal and sent Garland back in time to create a time loop. The Warriors then take on Garland once more who has transformed into a huge demon god. With Garland defeated, the Warriors return to the present day but with the future changed back to normal, no one will ever know of their good deeds or epic quest to restore the land. Alas, they remain a bunch of no-names.

Final Fantasy Gameplay:

I played Final Fantasy on my PSP and absolutely loved it. When the menu loads and you hear that beautiful tune it will give you goosebumps. The graphics looked so sharp and making it a portable experience meant I could play it wherever I wanted instead of logging tons of hours in front of my TV. Final Fantasy is your typical JRPG where you will fight monsters in turn-based combat where each enemy has strengths and weaknesses. It’s up to you to find out what works best on the enemies and continue to level up before moving on to more dangerous dungeons and areas. You’re able to use both weapons and magic to defeat enemies, and there are tons of stats and elemental effects on battles.

I’ll give any gamer credit who beat Final Fantasy without a guide. These RPGs from the 80s and early 90s are so tough to figure out where to go next or where to search that I used a guide right from the beginning. I have too many games to play to waste 40 hours exploring the land and figuring out what to do next. Sorry if that’s making it too easy, but it needed to happen. I didn’t look up how to defeat enemies or bosses, but I used the guide as a map to see where I needed to go. That’s part of the charm or annoyance to these early RPGs depending on your viewpoint.

About halfway through the game, your warriors will evolve into more advanced beings of themselves. It was cool to see actual progress in the level grinding but be prepared to spend a few hours killing the same enemy over and over. Dungeons can be confusing, so get a map if you want to figure out where to go next.

At the beginning of the game, you can choose which types of warriors you want in your journey. I selected the Knight, Red Mage, Black Mage, and Master who is like a Black Belt fighter. I heard that the ninja was pretty useless, and the white mage is only good for healing. With the Red Mage being able to heal, I had my bases covered.

Final Fantasy was challenging during a few phases of the game, but nothing a little grinding didn’t fix. The toughest boss by far was the final form of Garland, as it should be. There’s a strategy that goes into beating him, so even if you are highly leveled you’ll have to cast the right magic to beat him. As I mentioned earlier, navigating the land can be tricky, and the objective for you is not always clear, so follow a guide or face hours of figuring out what to do next. Final Fantasy, besides being credited to turning the RPG genre into a popular money-maker in the West was also credited as the first RPG to feature both your team and the enemies on the screen in an overhead battle sequence.

Memories:
I tried to play Final Fantasy a few times on an emulator which was the NES version when I was younger but never had the patience to complete the game. I got the PSP Final Fantasy version in a hot eBay bidding war that came bundled with the rest of the Final Fantasies on the PSP. I was winning the bid until a minute left, but I kept upping the bid anyway because I knew shit was about to get wild. I think I had the winning bid at $88, but I only won by a few pennies. It was exciting and a rush! I had the foresight to bid ridiculously high at the end to outbid any jumps by $10 which happened.

My bedtime routine began with watching the anime Zillion and playing Final Fantasy in my bed for an hour or two. I loved it. Grinding is way easier when you can watch a show while you’re doing it, and I think winning the game in a bid made me really want to push through and complete the first game for the first time. Garland was the only boss that gave me a true challenge but after finding his weakness I was able to beat him and pop my Final Fantasy I cherry.

Final Fantasy Review Score:

Final Fantasy sets the stage for the epic series, but it is a little rough around the edges. There’s no hint of who the warriors are which really bothered me. Overall, it’s a solid experience, but not one that is required to enjoy the rest of the games. Playing it on the PSP is highly recommended to ease the burden of grinding, and the HD graphics look amazing. It’s a solid game, but likely one of the lower scores in the series.

Final Fantasy scores a 7.1 out of 10.

Do you remember when Final Fantasy first came out? Were you a kid and played it on your NES or did you pick it up later in life like me? What classes did you pick, and were you able to beat the game and Garland? Which is your favorite game in the series? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments.

Death Stranding Review

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Free from Konami and free to be as weird or elaborate in his creative ways, Hideo Kojima and his company Kojima Productions developed Death Standing while Sony Interactive Entertainment published the work in 2019 for the PlayStation 4. Commonly referred to as a “walking simulator” Death Stranding was the first released video game since Hideo Kojima left the world of Metal Gear behind. Would this game be a massive hit or flop?

Death Stranding Plot:

My man Kojima is generally regarded as a creative genius for his work in the Metal Gear Solid series. I agree, and that series holds high regard not only from me but from everyone in the community. It’s rare that almost everyone can agree on a franchise, but Metal Gear Solid is a phenomenal series that made Kojima famous. Now, in the rearview mirror, Kojima set his sights on a new experience for video gamers. He unveiled Death Stranding in a bizarre trailer that left everyone with more questions than answers. In classic Kojima fashion, Death Stranding would be intertwined with heavy elements, mysterious characters, and an overall in-depth sometimes confusing plot.

Let’s dig in, shall we?

Set in the not too distant future, America is finished, well the America that we know. States no longer exist, instead replaced by small communities, cities, and hermits. The large communities and states that we once knew have been destroyed after “Beached Things” commonly referred to as “BTs” began invading the land of the living. BTs are extensions from the afterlife, invisible to most but felt by all. When BTs congregate, they cause rainstorms called “Time falls” where the rain ages anything it touches dramatically, including plants, animals, and humans. Get caught unprotected in a time fall, and you will age a few decades, if not die.

BTs also can cause massive explosions called voidouts that have destroyed most of the population in the world. When someone dies, they can turn into a BT if not incinerated properly. Humans still live on, and these humans need supplies to keep surviving. The creation of “porters” who are essentially high-end mailmen have started delivering packages and important items to people across the land. Porters need protection from BTs so they are connected to fetuses who have been removed from their dead mother’s wombs. The fetuses have a connection to both death and the living world, so they can sense the BTs and help point them out to porters through a highly advanced robotic extension. Starting to get crazy, right?

Meet Sam Porter Bridges, a freelance porter who doesn’t care much for people or America. He is a “repatriate” who can be killed in the “real world” and find his way back to his body using someone else’s beach to revive himself. A beach is considered the gateway to and from the afterlife, just a little FYI. He starts to work with Bridges, a huge corporation focused on rebuilding America by connecting the remaining cities to the UCA network where information can be shared. Sam develops a bond with his bridge baby, who saved him from a few BTs. The BB “bridge baby” was supposed to be decommissioned from service and incinerated, but Sam decides against it and makes the BB that he names Lou his personal BB.

Sam continues connecting cities across America with the end goal of reaching the West Coast to rescue Amelie, who is the President’s daughter and being held captive by a terrorist organization. The President had cancer, but her dying wish was to have Sam rescue Amelie. During this journey of connecting cities, Sam meets several strange characters who all seem shady and have agendas of their own. Slowly, Sam begins to trust them as they work together to connect more cities.

The final chapter of the game reveals a lot of heavy elements and confusing info so let me just dump some of it on you. The president was Sam’s adoptive mother named Bridget, but Bridget and Amelie are the same person. Amelie only exists in the gateway of the afterlife and can appear in holograms. Bridget was the body to Amelie, but because she lived in the real world, her body aged. Eventually, Bridget started telling people that Amelie was her daughter. Sam was originally a bridge baby, and his father Clifford Unger tried to rescue him from the labs before being killed. Sam too, was also killed but he was revived on the beach by Amelie and sent back to the real world and raised by Bridget. That’s also why he is the only person that can find Amelie’s beach and why he has such a strong power as a repatriate.

Amelie is revealed to be an EE, which stands for extinction entity. These EEs bring about a mass extension to Earth throughout time, and so far there have been five extensions. Sam’s team convinces him to go to Amelie’s beach and stop her from causing a mass extension, which triggered the BTs. He is successful in his attempt to sway her mind Earth is saved. Back in the real world, Lou dies, and Sam takes one last order to incinerate the body. He breaks open the glass container and tries to revive Lou in a desperate attempt. The premature baby comes back to life, and in the end, it’s revealed that Lou stands for Louise.

I skipped over some plot details, but this should at least give you the gist of what happened in Death Stranding. To fully discuss or write up the plot to any Hideo Kojima game would take hours, and it’s already confusing as it is.

Death Stranding Gameplay:

I can sum up Death Stranding very simply. It’s an extremely interesting story filled with mysterious characters who keep your attention, but the gameplay is simply not fun. Video games are all about fun, and to me, Death Stranding missed the mark on the fun factor. Essentially, as Sam, you take on an order and deliver packages to a remote location in the area. You’ll walk the majority of the deliveries, which can take anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes. During your walk, you’ll face environmental obstacles like rivers or mountains while avoiding Mules (a terrorist organization set on stealing cargo) and BTs.

The game gets better the longer you play, but the first few missions you feel helpless when facing BTs. Eventually, you’ll be able to create weapons to help combat them like guns, grenades, and decoys, but even facing BTs in combat it’s more of sneaking around going undetected while throwing the occasional piss or shit grenade. Literally, they made grenades out of Sam’s shit or piss from the toilet because whatever is in his body the BTs don’t like.

There’s a nice hub for you to rest, and I enjoyed the routine of showering, using the bathroom, and chugging a Monster Energy Drink before setting off on my next run. I played the game on normal but only failed one or two times. The best sequences from Death Stranding were the war zones that happen when Sam gets sucked into a supercell to face off with Clifford Unger who is searching for a BB. You’ll land in warzones like World War I, World War II, and Vietnam, and all the sequences are detailed with gore, soldiers dying, and explosions. It makes for great chaos, and I wish there was more of that action in Death Stranding than the slow-paced deliveries.

Again, the story and characters are fantastic, but the gameplay just didn’t do it for me. I’m the biggest fan of Hideo Kojima, but I need to be unbias in my review. He’s a creative genius, but I think Death Stranding would have served better as a television show. The final act of the game is a weird sequence of boss battles, credits, cutscenes, and explanations of what you just did. It took way too long. I thought I was going to beat the game on a Friday after taking down what I thought was the final boss, but it turns out I still had close to eight hours of gameplay/credits left.

I think Kojima Productions did a great job implementing their style of gameplay. Let’s be clear on that, the game is great for gamers who prefer the mundane routine of the same task, and there’s plenty of ways to plot your delivery or useful devices to use, but I just personally didn’t care for that. You may love this game, and that’s fine if that’s your style. I think it was a game that was better served as another creative element like a TV show.

Memories:
Watching the trailer when it was released I was so excited for the mystery that was Death Stranding. When the game was released I remembered people and reviewers being a bit confused about it, but I wanted to give it a shot myself. I’m glad I did, I think it’s a great story. It took me a few days to get into the game, but once I got my deliveries down I chugged through the game. Hideo Kojima is still my boy, even if this game didn’t do it for me.

Death Stranding Review Score:

A brilliant story filled with mysterious characters is run down by boring gameplay and repetitive delivery quests. It’s a style that I don’t care for, but that’s not to say that the user experience won’t change for you. I enjoyed learning everything about the well-written characters but the slow-paced nature of the game and feeling of loneliness stopped me from truly enjoying Death Stranding.

Death Stranding scores a 7.2 out of 10.

Do you remember when Death Stranding first came out? What did you think of Kojima’s first game post-Konami? Did the plot confuse you? What did you think of the characters? Did you have a favorite delivery? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All Review

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After the success of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Capcom developed and produced a sequel titled “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All” in 2002 for the Game Boy Advance. Initially released for the Game Boy Advance in Japan, the second game in the title Ace Attorney series was ported to America in 2007 for the Nintendo DS. Again, you follow protagonist Phoenix Wright in his quest to defend his clients in ridiculous court cases. My wife played the Nintendo Switch HD version so the gameplay critique will mostly come from her in this review.

Phoenix Wright: Justice For All Plot

The story arc spans four separate trials as Phoenix Wright returns to the courtroom. In the first episode, Phoenix becomes the target of an attack where he is hit in the head causing him to lose his memory after he is diagnosed with amnesia. His first client is Maggey Byrde, a police officer who has been charged with murdering her boyfriend. Wright discovers that the real killer is a con artist named Richard Wellington, who is also the man behind the attack on Phoenix.

In the second case, things get a little supernatural. A surgeon who has a history of malpractice requests the help of Maya Fey, Phoenix’s old assistant who has become a spirit medium. During the channeling of the spirits, Maya kills him after a spirit possesses her. In an elaborate plan that involves Maya’s aunt, who is jealous of Maya’s skills an eventual seat to the town’s channeler, an ex-nurse named Mimi Miney confesses to the murder. I know, I’m confused just writing that, and my wife was left confused by that episode too.

The third case takes Phoenix to the circus. There’s a magician named Maximillion who has been accused of killing his boss Russell Berry. Phoenix comes to the rescue and uncovers the plot where Max, another circus performer meant to kill Russell’s daughter instead.

For the final act in the game, Maya is kidnapped and taken as a hostage until Phoenix proves that an actor named Matt Engarde is innocent who has been accused of killing his rival in acting. Miles Edgeworth, a friendly rival to Phoenix shows up in the final act after being presumed dead by suicide. Miles was a big part of the first game, so my wife was excited to see him back. Phoenix and Miles team up to keep the trial going until they can save Maya and get an acquittal. They are successful, and Maya is released before Miles tells him that he spent the last year searching for the true meaning of his life as a prosecutor.

Phoenix Wright Justice For All Gameplay:

Justice For All plays a lot like the first game in the series in which the user is given the task of defending a client who is accused of murder. The fun begins when Phoenix is able to interview witnesses, search for clues, and explore crime scenes to put together the truth (unless his client is guilty)! Capcom did throw in a new feature to the second entry, and that was the ability to unlock the interviewee’s psychological secrets. You would have to present evidence to get the interview subjects to unlock the secrets by proving that they are lying.

Like the first game, the characters are fantastic. Their personalities and traits are humorous, entertaining, and fun to peel back as you dig into the case. Most characters are over-the-top, which adds to the fun. My wife said that the difficulty of the second game was an increase from the first. Naturally, the cases get harder but if you didn’t play the first game, you might have more trouble uncovering the cases. It’s a bit more advanced, and there’s more to do when solving the case.

Once you have enough evidence, you’ll present it in court, which is a very lengthy process. Typically, the court takes recess two or three times before the case concludes, and the jury reaches a verdict. After the final case, my wife got impatient after the credits went for like 45 minutes with the characters talking afterward. I had to explain to her that that’s just what Japanese games/anime do E.I. explains everything in a wrap-up. She still was annoyed.

Memories:
My wife beat the first Phoenix Wright and then needed a mental break from being an attorney. She picked the HD trilogy back up for the Switch a few months later, and it took her a solid month to play through the second game. When she beat the second game she thought she had beaten the entire trilogy, haha turns out she still has another game left. Her favorite case was the circus case because she liked how the lion sneezed and accidentally ate the guy. I don’t know what to tell you, she’s weird.

Phoenix Wright Justice For All Review Score

Phoenix Wright: Justice For All picks up where the first game stops and adds a few more features to the fun of solving court cases and defending ridiculous characters in ridiculous situations. It’s a bit more difficult than the first game but still has the same humor and characters that made the first Phoenix Wright a hit. The animations of the characters and mental breakdowns are good for a laugh, but it’s a challenging game that requires cognitive thinking skills. You should pick up the HD trilogy if you haven’t, it’s a must for lovers of crime or interactive graphic games. My wife didn’t care too much for the supernatural aspect of some of the cases but this game still rates very highly to her.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All scores an 8 out of 10.

Do you remember when Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All first came out? Were you able to solve all the cases? Who was your favorite character from the series? What case was the hardest to solve? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments.