Diary of a Gamer: It's Halloween

It's Halloween and that means it's time for Jack-O-Lanterns and Scary Games in my book.

First off I would like to share my own Jack-O-Lantern. It's my first time making a game character in my pumpkin and I would say for my first try it's not bad at all. Take a look.



So if you are looking to scare yourself tonight and want something different then the horror movie marathon then why not have a horror game marathon. To me a game is even scarier then a movie and I do love my horror movies. With a game you go at your own pace and I feel because you are the one making the decisions, that you feel more like you are the character. That the killer isn't coming after the young starlet on the screen that you are screaming at your tv to not go in the basement, THE KILLER IS IN THE BASEMENT!, but instead you feel the killer is coming after you. So you are the one deciding should I go in there? Is there a monster in there.

But here are my top 5 scary videogames to play this halloween.

5. Haunting Ground PS2

Picking the 5th one was hard because I knew I had to cut it off somewhere, but what game would hold it's spot. I decided to go with this game because it's not played like most survival horror games, as you will see there are a couple on my list that go away from the norm of survival horror games in some way. Decide to mix up the list a bit. In this game the only defense you have is to hide. You must search a mansion to find a way, which is like many survival horror games, but in this one you have no weapons, however you will eventually get a helpful, friendly dog who helps you get items and fend off enemies.

4. Fatal Frame PS2

A classic survival game with a twist. Based off of a couple Japanese myths you go in search of your brother in a haunted mansion with a camera as your only weapon. These enemies are different from most as they can chase you threw walls and objects.

3. Eternal Darkness for Gamecube

If this game is a giant mind fuck, then I don't know what is. The game worlds and storyline is creepy on it's own, but this game has a few more unique tricks up it's sleeve. It breaks the forth wall really making you believe that you just might be going insane. When your characters sanity goes down effects start happening such as the volume lowering with a volume bar entering on screen.

2. Resident Evil PSX

You knew this had to be on my list somewhere. Zombies are just creepy on themselves, then mix in some abnormal monsters in an abandoned mansion with a double crossing boss. The have some cheap scares that will make you jump out of your seat and even though the dialog is a bit cheesy at times, the story will keep you intrigued.

1. Silent Hill PSX

Even though I talk about Resident Evil a lot when I talk about horror games, but Silent Hill was the scariest game I've ever played. The world surrounding you quickly changes from a eerie ash falling atmosphere to a completely degrading world from the aftermath of a fire. The creatures you come across do not attack you in horde, but show up randomly sometimes giving you a warning and sometimes not. The game really messes with your head as you search for your missing daughter.

Diary of a Gamer: New Segment

Not so new seeing how I have already had none game review posts, but this way I can group them together and perhaps have a reason to update more.

So it's the Xmas Season. Pretty sad seeing how Halloween hasn't even come yet, but that complaint comes every year when stores start selling Xmas stuff next to the Halloween costumes. But this time also means that there are a lot of new and exciting game releases. The best games usually do come out around this time. So are there games that I'm looking forward to? Hell ya! Does this mean more reviews? Let's hope so, but my addiction of gaming leaves me to buy more games than I can keep up with. Which leaves even less time for reviews. Hense where I hope this segment will come in to pick up the slack.

A big release that just came out was Uncharted 2 for the PS3. I am already plugging away the hours. I'm half way through the story mode and am very pleased with what has come so far. The cut scenes are beautiful, the storyline is interesting, and the gameplay is amazing. And with the online multiplayer mode there is so much to do. I recommend the game fully, but if you want to wait a review might be coming.

Another big game coming out, this time for the Wii, is the New Super Mario Bros. which will bring you back to the gold old days of 2D gaming. This one peaks my interesting and I probably will end up picking it up sooner or later. If only it had online multiplayer as well.

Other releases are Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days for the DS, and Activision and MTV Games have a bunch of new music games that have recently been released or are soon on there way. So this holiday season should be full of new and fun games for any gamer.

However there are more games on the horizon past the holiday season. Mario Galaxy 2 is coming out next year for the Wii, as well as Heavy Rain for the PS3 and Bayonetta for the PS3 and 360. And in the distant future Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep for the PSP and Final Fantasy XIII.

I'm most looking forward to the games for the PS3. I feel a lack of excitement for my Wii these days feeling like a lot of games aren't being designed with my type of games in mind. Though New Super Mario Bros. does look intriguing however I'm put off by the idea that the game can play itself when things get too tough for some to handle. Sure I don't have to use it, but it's the idea of what games are coming to these days.

Then there's Bayonetta, which looks like it could be fun, but the PS3 port hasn't been done well so far. Sure it's not released yet and Sega, who has already owned up for it's mistakes on the poor graphic quaility to the PS3 version, still has time to spruce it up to the 360 version's standards. The PS3 does have better graphic capability, it's time that multi-platform games use what the PS3 is capable of even if it's just to match the 360 version. If we are going to shell out $60 for a game we want the best it can be and not another Ghost Busters issue.

So if you are looking for a new game there are plenty of new releases and up and comings to pick up. Don't let all that holiday time go to waste!

Fatal Frame PS2 Review

So after a rant and a review on what makes a good survival horror game, I have found me one. All I had to do was search numerous Gamestops and reverse back a system. And it appears to be so good that it's still $40 used after 2 sequels, with a 4th in Japan, and for being a 7 year old game. Good thing I had coups.

Fatal Frame has all the elements of what makes a good survival horror game: monstrous foes, puzzles, creepy music and environments, and the fear of having a ghost pop out at you at any moment.

What makes this survival horror game different from it's competitors is the weapon system. Unlike having a gun and knife to fend off evil foes you use a camera to capture the ghosts energy. What makes that so interesting if the fact that it comes from reality or well what some people believe to be reality. The idea that a camera can capture your soul and allow you to see spirits is one deeply rooted in our history all over the world. It may not be your belief, but it's still neat idea for a game.

The first Fatal Frame is also based on a true story or well two. How many videogames out there can claim that? The idea that the game has basis in reality can make the reality of the gameplay more interesting and scary for some. Many people have in fact claimed that Fatal Frame is one of the scariest games out there. I won't deny that it's a scary game, but I believe that Silent Hill is the scariest shit out there. Now that really plays with your mind.

As for actual gameplay and story, I found it interesting and engaging. You first take the control of Mafuyu, a young man in search of his mentor who has gone missing inside of a haunted mansion. You don't control him for long. After finding a special camera know as Camera Obscura, and defeating your first ghost, he too goes missing. You then take control of Miku, Mafuyu's sister, as she goes on a hunt for him. She too finds the camera and searches deeper into the mansion for Mafuyu as she finds out the dark secrets that the mansion holds.

In this game you will not have hoards of ghosts attack you all at once, I think the most I had to fend off was 3 at a time, but that makes it scarier in my opinion. Not knowing when a ghost will appear and even have them move through walls is scary and adds a different bit of challenge to the game.

The controls are a bit clunky, think original Resident Evil as the control system is pretty much the same for walking and camera angles, and sometimes you will run into invisible objects. The system for walking up and down ladders is incredibly slow. You could get into some real trouble if you are heading down a ladder with a ghost chasing after you. What makes it worse is there is no button command to use a ladder, if you walk up close to it you just start climbing. Combine this with the changing camera angles for different areas and you could end up using the ladder 3 or 4 times in a row.

The game has two different endings, 3 if you have the xbox version. Both endings seem sad in their own way to me, but you will just have to play through to figure out what you think of them.

Fatal Frame gets a 4 out of 5 stars for unique weapons, scary situations, and a good storyline. I knocked off a point for clunky controls, but it's still manageable.

UNCHARTED: Drake's Fortune PS3 Review

With Uncharted 2 just around the corner, I finally decided to pick up a copy of the original and give it go. After playing, it got me wondering why I didn't pick up this title sooner. It has a nice mix of a third person shooter, an adventure game, and a puzzle game all rolled into one with a few other surprise elements.

You are Nathan Drake, who sets out to find a treasure with hints and a map from your ancestor on the same hunt. Throughout the game you get some help and help out a couple of AI characters. Luckily these AI characters can't die that way you don't have to worry about saving their ass every five minutes. However in the storyline you do seem to be saving their asses quite a bit. One is a old friend and con artist, while the other is a film journalist. When your friend gets into trouble you question his motives, while when the female AI character (aka the film journalist, who you just can't seem to get rid of) is in trouble you have to be the hero and save the damsel in distress even though she can handle herself most of the time. She does rescue you a few times so it helps balance out this injustice. But I mostly kid. The dynamic between these characters help build a strong story.

As for the gameplay, there really is a lot to it. You have a variety of weapons, however you can only carry three weapons at a time: one sidearm; one machine gun, shot gun or sniper rifle; and a set of grenades at a time. So rationing ammo and deciding what weapon will be needed to carry on with you to the next part becomes a bit harder. If you do run out of ammo or just want a different kind of action you can do melee moves and combo attacks.

The puzzles and some other aspects of the game are very reminiscent of Tomb Raider. If Nathan drake had a higher voice and large breasts I might actually think I was playing one. The puzzles have you move or drag objects around and he jumps and clings to cliffs in a very similar way. But even with the similarities UNCHARTED is it's own game. The targeting system and health system is different. You can choose to have a cursor appear and aim for the enemy you want and not to just the closest one. There is also no health packs in UNCHARTED. If you get low on health the screen colors dim until they become black and white and the only way to recover is to stay out of the line of fire for a short amount of time. The swimming system is also different. Nathan cannot swim under water like Laura can, which I actually prefer since I hate water levels.

But enough with comparing UNCHARTED to other games. It can stand alone as a very strong game with many twists in turns and with a sequel on the way I can see this series lasting a long time. So UNCHARTED: Drake's Fortune gets a 4 out of 5 stars from me.

Just a note for those of you picking UNCHARTED up after the PS3 update 3.0. Some people have reported the game freezing constantly forcing you to restart your system. There is now an optional update known as 3.1 that you can install that will fix this problem.

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box DS Review

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box is the second in a series of puzzle games and the latest one to come stateside. Like the first game, Diabolical Box follows Professor Layton and his apprentice Luke to solve a mystery by solving puzzles. It's a point and click adventure with an intriguing storyline that separates this game from other puzzle games putting it in a class of it's own. There are over 100 puzzles in the game ranging from fairly easy to quite difficult which will keep you entertained and puzzled for hours.

I'm gonna to spend a good chunk of this review discussing the puzzles because this game at it's core is a puzzle game. There are a variety of different puzzles ranging from guessing the right item from a number of clues to classic peg board puzzles to sliding puzzles. Some of the puzzles are unique to the other puzzles in the game, while others are just a harder version of a previous puzzle. A couple use outside elements taking you away from the screen. One of them uses a paper ticket that is found in the game's booklet which is instructed for your use in game. The last puzzle in the story uses a feature that none other in the game uses, leaving you to really think about what you have to do. That puzzle was my favorite because it really utilizes all the features that make the DS so unique.

If you get stumped on one of these puzzles you can get up to three hints which can be unlocked by using hint coins found throughout the game hidden in the background. Most of the coins are easy to find and hidden in the same types of places that they would be found in the first Professor Layton game. I was hoping for more of a challenge looking for these coins, but since they are used as a helping tool and not necessary to finish the game it wasn't a big deal. Plus it might be nice to not struggle over where to find one of these when you really need one to be finish a puzzle that you just can't seem to figure out. But then it becomes even more easier to find them when you finish the hamster side quest puzzle as he actually will point out their location to you.

Speaking of these side quests, there are a few for you to accomplish as you head through story mode. Three are of them to be exact. You will run into a chef on the train who will tell you about his pet hamster and how he needs some exercise for he fears that he is too unhealthy from living in a kitchen feeding off all the scraps. There are five levels and once he is fit and feeling good he will help you find those hint coins.

Another of these side quests involves a broken camera you receive. Again you will find pieces after solving puzzles and then you have to put all the pieces together to fix the camera. Once the camera is fixed more puzzles will be available to you.

The last side quest is played by mixing herbs together to make tea for the towns people. This side quest was the least fun. The towns people randomly appear to be sweating, indicating that they need tea. But if you serve them the wrong tea they don't seem to want another cup until some random time later. It's a bit frustrating to serve them the wrong tea just to go back later and find out you still don't have it right.

Other than the extensive amount of puzzles there is a story that ties them together nicely. Some puzzles are even tied into the story, so not to make them just a random element. The story to Diabolical Box was nice and full of mystery. You discover a little more and more of the giant puzzle as you move along like any good story, too bad you don't have to figure this one out on your own. It is all revealed through cutscenes, sometimes being backed up with a puzzle.

The cutscenes are nice with three different kinds that move the story along. The best is the actual moving pictures with voice acting. The style, even though not realistic is quite nicely drawn. The other two types is a still frame of the two characters currently talking with subtitles. Some of them are voice acted while others are not. It leaves you wondering why all aren't voice acted.

This game has a good replay value. Even after the story is finished there might still be puzzles to be solved since you don't need to solve them all to finish the story mode. There are also more puzzles to be downloaded through wi-fi just like the first. With so many puzzles and a cute artistic style this is truely one game on the DS to not pass up. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Inside Game Informer

Picking up my shiny new issue of Game Informer I headed right for the Dear GI section. I was a bit distracted talking to my brother, but then the world stopped as I honed onto the bold letters spelling out my name. I made it into Game Informer! Sure it's just the letters to the editor section, but to have an opinion published in a national magazine still feels pretty good. They did cut it down a bit, which was to be expected for space issues and they cleaned it up a bit. So here is a view of what showed up in the magazine.

In Issue 196, a reader called out Wii gamers by bringing up a few good games and asking why people weren't buying them. Here's my best answer: Just because you are a hardcore gamer doesn't mean that everyone likes the same type of hardcore games. I still enjoy my Wii and pick up a new game for it when it appeals to me, but for the types of games that I enjoy, being a multi-console gamer is the only way to go.

And just so you don't have to go back an entry, here is my full response that I sent into Game Informer.

Growing up with video games and owning consoles from Sony, Sega, and Nintendo had me in a bit of a quarrel as to what system to buy this generation. I ended up going with the Nintendo Wii back when it was still almost impossible to get one and the games were very much lacking. But it's innovated idea on gameplay and having a new Zelda game to boot had me wanting one. But after 2 years of owning one, I as a hardcore gamer who also likes "casual" games, was missing many of the hardcore games that were released for the PS3 and the 360. So I went out and bought a PS3 a few months ago. I now don't have the feeling of missing out on good hardcore games because they won't come to the Wii for one reason or another. That way I can still play games like Zelda and Mario Kart, but still not miss out on games like Resident Evil 5 and Prototype. In issue 196, Patrick brought up a few good games for hardcore gamers that came out for the Wii and asked why people weren't buying them. But just because you are a hardcore gamer doesn't mean that we all like the same type of hardcore games. I did, however, pick up Okami, but went with the ps2 version instead. Don't get me wrong I still enjoy my Wii and pick up a new game for it when it appeals to me, but overall Nintendo seems to have targeted the Wii more towards the "casual" gamer. For me being a multi-console gamer is the only way to go.

Here's some pics for those of you who don't get Game Informer. I got Cover 1 of 2, so if yours doesn't look like this then you probably got cover 2 for September 2009. (click on them to make them larger)

Fat Princess PS3 Review Download

Who says a game for 14.99 can't be fun? I'm not sure if that has ever really been said, but people seem to think that if something is cheap it's not good. This is not the case with Fat Princess, which is a downloadable game for the Playstation 3. You play as a villager in a kingdom where your princess and a neighboring princess are addicted to cake. In this game the cake is not a lie! There are different tasks ranging from a capture the flag type game to being the first team to kill a certain number of the opposing teams to claiming all the towers on the map for your team. In any of the game types you can be a range of characters. Trying on different hats give you different abilities such as throwing fire, building and repairing buildings, shooting arrows, healing party members and the likes. These differences gives you a bunch of different ways to play giving the game more replay value.

In Fat Princess there are two modes of gameplay: a single player story mode and an online vs. mode. The single player mode as a whole is short, however some of the levels can be quite long, which isn't necessarily a good thing. I was on one level for a few hours, gave up, came back to it for a couple more hours of gameplay before finishing it. With a level just being one simple task this can get boring if it runs on for too long.

The online mode is where this game really shines. If it wasn't for the trophies, yes I just might be a trophy whore, I'm not sure if I would have finished the single player mode so soon. But playing online with friends is quite fun. There can be up to 32 players total which each team consisting of 16 people. If you don't have that many the remaining characters are replaced with A.I. characters. For the most part they are pretty easy when you place yourself up against them especially with real people on your team.

There are a couple of things that need some improving in my opinion. As a girl gamer I am used to being gypped when it comes to games for the most part. It's a man's world even though girl gamers are out there and not the ones just interested in silly little girl games. What I'm referring to in Fat Princess is your character. You can design your own character to an extent. You can change hair style and color, as well as eye color and facial hair. You can choose between a girl or a boy, which basically changes the voice of your character. So all is not lost for girl gamers. But the girl hairstyle choices are so small that there will either be girls with pigtails or a boys haircut. So that does mean that girl characters can have beards as well. A boy character can also choose to model the pigtails. As you go along you do unlock more hairstyles and colors, so maybe there is another girly hairstyle I just haven't unlocked yet. But either way this isn't a huge issue for me and am happy to sport my purple pigtails with blue skin.

The one thing that I wish they worked on more was giving us more maps. With only about 5 different maps it can get a little boring. Maybe this would be a good use of downloadable content.

All in all I find Fat Princess a good game well worth it's price tag with good online gameplay and funny commentary that ads a little personality to the game. I would give this game a 3.5 out of 5.

A Topic Worth Writing In For

After subscribing to Game Informer for a few years now there hasn't been a topic I felt strong enough to voice my opinion on until now. Sadly it's not an article or a game feature, but someone instigating a debate on the Wii, it's hardcore games and the whiney SOB's that claim they are hardcore gamers. Hey! I'm a whiney SOB claiming to be a hardcore gamer, so I had to jump on my soapbox and write in. Here's how it went down.

Dear GI:

Hardcore Negligence

In the reader art section of issue 195, there was a picture of Jack from the under appreciated MadWorld. I'm one of the few who bought the game - it makes me wonder about gamers who cry on internet forums about Nintendo failing its hardcore audience on the Wii. I'm starting to think the opposite is true: the hardcore audience has failed Nintendo. Why didn't you buy MadWorld, House of the Dead, Okami and No more Heros? All of those titles should have sold more copies. If you call yourself hardcore, why aren't you buying the games made for you?

Patrick Borrelli
Via Email

Hardcore Wii owners, Patrick is calling you out. What do you have to say in your defense? Have hardcore gamers let Nintendo down? Drop us a line and share your thoughts.

My Response:

Growing up with video games and owning consoles from Sony, Sega, and Nintendo had me in a bit of a quarrel as to what system to buy this generation. I ended up going with the Nintendo Wii back when it was still almost impossible to get one and the games were very much lacking. But it's innovated idea on gameplay and having a new Zelda game to boot had me wanting one. But after 2 years of owning one, I as a hardcore gamer who also likes "casual" games, was missing many of the hardcore games that were released for the PS3 and the 360. So I went out and bought a PS3 a few months ago. I now don't have the feeling of missing out on good hardcore games because they won't come to the Wii for one reason or another. That way I can still play games like Zelda and Mario Kart, but still not miss out on games like Resident Evil 5 and Prototype. In issue 196, Patrick brought up a few good games for hardcore gamers that came out for the Wii and asked why people weren't buying them. But just because you are a hardcore gamer doesn't mean that we all like the same type of hardcore games. I did, however, pick up Okami, but went with the ps2 version instead. Don't get me wrong I still enjoy my Wii and pick up a new game for it when it appeals to me, but overall Nintendo seems to have targeted the Wii more towards the "casual" gamer. For me being a multi-console gamer is the only way to go.

Will I show up in a future issue of Game Informer? Only one way to find out. In the mean time I would like to continue this discussion here. Tell me your thoughts on Patrick's and my responses to this issue. What are your feelings on the Wii/Hardcore Gamer relationship? I love a good debate.

EDIT: I have added a poll listing hardcore games for the 3 major consoles with the appearance of the ps2 and the gamecube because the games where just to good to leave off and some are expecting sequels in the future. Also if I left out your favorite hardcore game I'm sorry. I have also only listed the latest in a series, not what I think is the best. I had to end the list somewhere. But since this is a poll about Nintendo leaving hardcore gamers out with their current console I thought that current games on current consoles should be looked at. Please take the poll seriously. I want to see hardcore gamers opinions on what good hardcore games are out there and what systems have the best hardcore games. This study will help with the discussion. Please feel free to choose more than one option since being a hardcore gamer means you play more than just 1 or 2 games.

The Survival Horror Horror

This is not so much of a review, but more of a look at a specific genre of games and how it's evolving. I'm sure by the title you already guessed I'm talking about the Survival Horror Genre. Alone in the Dark and Sweet Home are among the first survival horror games, but the term was coined with the first Resident Evil. Resident Evil: Director's Cut for the Playstation was my first survival horror game and the standard I hold all the rest to.

So after completing Resident Evil 5 for the second time, I've been looking for new survival horror games to fix my itch. This is where the inspiration for this blog is coming from. I did some searches on the top survival horror games out there looking for more to play. Resident Evil always made the list. After being one of the most recognized survival horror game, with over 20 games and 4 movies, how could it not be. However, with most of the lists Resident Evil 4 was the Resident Evil game pf choice or placed higher then others. For me Resident Evil 4 was one of my least favorites, not to say that I have played all of the titles. But out of the main series, I feel it is lacking, while everyone gives their praises. This is where I feel the definition of survival horror is being turned upside-down.

The definition of survival horror can be easily broken down to a game where you try to survive in a really horrific, unreal situation. So yes Resident Evil 4 can technically be considered. But it's also about the build up to fear, the puzzles over the shoot 'em up style, conserving your ammo, and juggling your items. This is opposed to a shooter style like the game F.E.A.R., which is a horror type of game, but not a survival type at all. I believe Resident Evil 4 started moving towards a shooter style and away from the survival horror theme.

This move greatly saddens me. Especially since Resident Evil is one of my favorite games and others like it. Something about scaring the shit out of me intrigues me, though sometimes I find them to scary to play. An amusing thought I'm sure for someone who claims to love the games so much. Playing through Resident Evil 5 has made me miss the old style even more. Sure the graphics are fantastic and I take full advantage of the HD capabilities. But where were all the puzzles? Sure there are a few. The puzzle where you have to turn the mirrors to make the ancient elevators work wasn't bad, but it also seemed very Tomb Raideresque. Where are the password puzzles? Where are the puzzles where you have to have the right color combination of fuses to unlock something? Where are the objects that you have to find in order to move on or gain a new items? No broken shotgun to replace the real one so you can do a bait and switch just like in Indiana Jones? And all the key cards are obtained by killing a mini boss type of enemy instead of finding it hidden among a pile of papers or such like things? This just goes to show you that the games are heading more brawn then brains. The puzzles brought so much more to the game then we must kill everything in the way to survive. It gave more dimensions to the games and more game time since some of those puzzles can be pretty tricky.

I do have to give RE5 props though for the co-op campaign. Very few games have this, especially online. And they do it very well. Co-op campaign is lacking from a lot of games these days. Most multiplayer games are again strategic shoot up the other team before they get you. The only other game that I can think of that has co-op campaign that I've played was Obscure: The Aftermath for Wii, which is another survival horror title. It didn't have online play, which is too bad, but it didn't do half bad. It wasn't the best game I've ever played, but it was a lot of fun to play with a friend. It also kept the puzzles and I must add overly cheesy lines like a lot of survival horror games have, including the first Resident Evil. However playing with the AI when you don't have a friend can be difficult like with any AI character.

I know everything needs to evolve otherwise we would become bored of having the same kind of game over and over again. But that is what the different genres are for. Hell that's even what the different series of Resident Evil is for. From the main series to the survivor series to the chronicle series and so on. But bring back all the puzzles and the thrills instead of the kills. Though I do have to say that there are some freaky parts in RE5. I'm glad the lickers made a couple quite freaky and challenging appearances.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Beta PS3

So I got my hands on an Uncharted 2: Among Theives Closed Beta Code. Now I don't know much about Uncharted seeing how I didn't play the first one, so storyline is lost on me. What I can report on is the gameplay. In the beta you can play multiplayer online with others who are in the beta. I luckily hooked up with someone I knew and was pleasently surprised that the mic worked on the beta. The gameplay mostly consisted of strategicly hiding behind boxes, couches and such and shooting hoards of soliders. You can also melee and kick and bunch the crap out of them. I noticed that if you decide to do hand to hand combat they go down faster then if you were to shoot the hell out of them. However if they have you in a strangle hold you are helpless to get out. Another player has to shoot them for the enemy to loosen their grip on your neck.

The health system is fairly simple. What is nice is that the color of the whole world around you fades until it goes into black and white. It's easier to tell when you are dying then keeping your eye on some sort of health bar. The color slowly becomes vibrant again as you stay out of the line of fire. If you get to badly hurt you will become paralized hoping that the other players can revive you before you completely die. So running out in the middle of the hoard is not a good idea. The player who will try to save your life will most likely die as well.

There are other actions. Once you clear out a hoard a red icon will appear. You have to find out where it is and set off an action. Usually moving an object so you can climb on it to gain access to another area. The Beta consisted of 3 or 4 areas, one with a mini boss, which your characters will comment on how you should kill him before he gets you, but really he was a piece of cake. The beta ends with another boss-like enemy jumping over a wall carrying a machine gun.

It was pretty fun, but something I will buy when the full version comes out. I'm still on the fence about it.

Resident Evil 5 PS3 Review

Resident Evil is one of those games that helped start the survival horror revolution. It also helped revive the popularity of zombies and giving them a new twist on a real world situation that could cause a person to become a zombie. I'm not saying that we have the bio technology to actually pull it off, but it's not far from the truth with bio terrorism. This storyline to these games helped the games' popularity. The puzzles and cheap frights also made it a game you loved to play. Who can forget the Licker dashing by the window just as you turn a corner in RE2?

But recent RE games have drifted a bit from it's predecessors. In RE4 they decided to take the gameplay into a different direction along with the storyline. Sure Umbrella has been taken down, but bio weapons still live on, all thanks to Umbrella. The game changed more into a 3rd person shooter then a survival horror with hoards of zombie like people charging at you. They have become faster and smarter as well. The debate is out on whether these are zombies or not. Sure you could use the definition of a zombie as one who has lost all their personality and only has one basic function rather then that of a reannimated corpse, but what fun is that?

Resident Evil 5 is more like 4 then any other, but it brings back a villain that I am most happy with. I'm sure you all have heard who it is by now, but I'll keep it hush hush in this review. The big major change in RE5 that hasn't been done before in any other in this series is that you can choose to play alone with the AI character or with a partner either online or right next to you. I have to say that I love and hate this feature. I hate it when you play alone because AI characters are never really that helpful. Sure they will save your life when you are dying and they somewhat help you take out the bad guys, but in Boss battles it leaves more to be desired. But what can you really expect from an AI player? However, playing with a friend is a lot of fun. You just want to make sure that you have some sort of verbal communication with your partner if you are playing online. The button commands are general commands, but in this game you will need to strategize a bit more then just telling someone to come here.

This new game play has also taken out some of the puzzles you have seen before and is more about shooting the bad guys, just like in RE4. I don't recall seeing any puzzles asking you to enter a key code where you must find the code first, or ones where you have to put objects in a certain place in a machine to activate it. I dearly miss all the puzzles and would trade them in for hoards of zombie like people any day. The game does keep some puzzles though. But these puzzles have become more Tomb Raideresque. My brother loves Tomb Raider games and while playing he made a comment on how close it was. Luckily there was no swimming underwater. I'm not a fan of water levels.

The controls are also different from past versions. For those of us who played the older Resident Evil games, we got used to what have been named as tank controls. There was a lot of complaints about the way you controlled your character. I know when I first started it took some getting used to. And in RE5 I had to get used to controls all over again. What was once the x button for reading info and gathering items is now square. You still hold down a button to aim your gun, but it is now L1 instead of R1. Then you have to press R1 instead of x to shoot. This does leave you with fumbling around with the controls for a bit.

I was pretty happy with the storyline though, which brings back old characters and more back story on Umbrella. There is also a few new Enemies and a new form on the virus. Of course the enemies turn on each other and seem a bit too eager themselves to become monsters. The story does lead itself to some crazy storylines, but what can you expect from a game about a virus that turns people into monsters. I of course don't want to give up to much on the story and ruin the surprise for those who want to be surprised.

With all the changes it is proving hard for me to give this game a rating. It was even hard for me to even decide if I wanted to pick this game up. I am a fan of the older games and have been playing them since Resident Evil: Directors Cut. So ya from the beginning. I loved the style and puzzles in the game. The storyline was one that grabbed my attention, even with the cheesy dialog. I must say that the dialog gets better as the games go on, but the storylines seem to get worse. When I got RE4 I was highly disappointed. The thing I think that grabbed my attention and my decision to get RE5 was the storyline. As I said the return of one of the characters was a good selling point for me. I was also intrigued by being able to play RE with a friend. So I decided to give this game a try. With a friend along I couldn't stop playing this game. It is a lot of fun and I am glad that I did pick it up. However it did still leave me longing for the old games.

So for those reasons I reluctently give this game a rating of 3.5 stars out of 5.

Super Mario Bros 3 Retro Review

Yes it's time for my first Retro Review. Super Mario Bros. 3 was released in 1990 in the U.S. for the Nintendo Entertainment system. Since then it has been released on several other consoles, the latest being on the Virtual Console for the Wii. Even without today's graphics, Super Mario Bros. 3 stands the test of time for one of the greatest platformers of all time. Or at leas that's what I think.

The game is a 1 to 2 player game, where you play as Mario and Luigi (second player being Luigi). There are 8 different worlds, which you view on a map like screen which Mario and Luigi use to travel from one level to the next, that hold many different levels that must be complete. You don't have to complete all the levels to move on. Some paths give you a choice to do one or the other.

Each map has a couple castles or more including the final castle. Defeating a castle, not counting the final castle, will crumble and a block will be unlocked on the map, allowing you to pass by the first few levels again without redoing them in the event that you die. Before entering the final castle of a world you talk to a subject of the King of the world. He tells you that the king has been transformed and you need to return his magic wand. You then enter the castle and travel to the end of the level to reach one of Bowser's children for a mini boss battle. I find them to be quite easy. Jumping on them three times kills them and if you do this fairly quickly you can defeat them without them barely moving. I find the level to get to the mini boss much harder to do then the acutal boss. If you do fail the first time a flying ship will move to another location on the map. This can become problematic if you didn't beat all the levels or if you died and some of the levels became unbeaten. So you may have to beat a few more levels before battling the final boss again. Once you defeat the final boss of the world the king recieves his magic wand and is back to his old self again. You also get a letter from peach which includes an item to help you on your way.

Each world has a different theme which can be a world filled most by water levels or my favorite, a world where everything is big. Mario stays the same size but blocks and enemies have grown about 4 times their normal size. Different themes allow different challenges in each world and help the game from becoming repetitive. Oh course each new world you come to will be more challenging then the last, as with the levels.

Also on the map are very short mini games. A mushroom shaped house leads you to a game which lets you choose from three chests. The chest you choose holds an item that then goes into your menu bar at the bottom as do the items you recieve in Peach's letters. These items can be used before entering a level. You press A and then select what you will want and Mario is transformed. It's very helpful indeed. Another mini game brings up a screen with three sliding parts. You press A three times to stop each of the scrolling parts. If they stop to form a complete item you get extra lives, depending on what the item is. A third mini game appears randomly after you complete a level. This mini game is a game of memory where you pick to cards and they stay up if they match. If you get it wrong twice you lose. But the board keeps whatever you have matched for next time the mini game comes up.

There are also new items that are introduced that it's predecessors did not have. P wings and a cloud are among the few that let you either skip a level or fly throughout the whole level. There are also three hidden flutes in the game that allow you to move to a whole new world. The flutes make it very easy to beat the game in no time, providing you can get past the last world quickly. With just two flutes and by defeating the first map you can get all the way to the last world, which is Bowser's fire like world.

This is a fun and challenging game for all ages which makes it the classic it is. If you have never played this game before and like platformers I highly recommend getting it.

Which is why I give Super Mario Bros. 3 a 4 out of 5 stars.

Game review: Chrono trigger (and remakes)

Okay, to start this review off I would like to state I am the new reviewer. Well anyway chrono trigger has had two remakes after the original launch, now this was a good move for square cause so few gamers have played the first game. Now this game is probably the only game I am going to say is a must play if you like rpgs. Okay so now one of the things that makes the game good is it came out on the snes however its graphics seemed years ahead of the snes's time. Another good thing is unlike most rpgs of this time period the plot is incredibly well written and has about 8 hours of gameplay through the first playthrough(if you play flawlessly and manage to get through without dieing or having to grinding), another interesting thing about this is it has multiple endings, about 6 or so on the original.Now one of th egames other amazing features was multicharacter combos, and because the max party was three characters and there was seven or so possible party members, now this was a really good feature because I was pulled into replaying the game after getting every ending to see every move(I still haven't seen every move yet). One other thing about this game is the fact it includes time travel to different eras, and the actions you do in the past can affect the future. For example in the past you can do a mission to plant a bunch of trees, and if you do in the present there will be a huge forest and a temple featuring the party member you sent to plant the trees.

Now to cover the remakes, the ps1 remake was a full priced game, however its new features were good enough for the full price, however it was also marketed with ff5. Now to cover the new features, there were some anime cutscenes, and they added a music database and a few other neat features. Now the anniversary collection(its ps1 release) was my first entry into crono trigger, and I remember when I rented the anniversary collection all I would do was play crono trigger and ignore ff5.(I never purchased the collection). Now the other remake was the ds one, this is worth the 50$ price, however if you own the previous versions of chrono trigger the new features aren't worth it. They kept the old ps1 features, added a nice new long quest, three dungeons you have to complete to get a new ending that feels in some missing info, they also added a horrid monster raising system which I hate cause it was pointless, and having your creature evolve was random chance, and its more likely for your creature to devolve. Now lets end chrono trigger ds on a good note, the interface is completely customizable and made for the touch screen

Review summary
Original chrono trigger: 5 out of 5, nice graphics, interesting plot, nice gameplay features

anniversay collection chrono trigger: 5 out of 5, nice new anime cutscenes, the two games are worth the 40$ price tag and it was still lesser known during this release.

Chrono trigger ds : 4 out of 5, not enough new features for a 5 out of 5, but I would have to say if you need to buy a chrono trigger game, buy this one.

Now thanks for listening to my first review

Signed charon Aka Ryley

Singstar Series Playstation Review

I was going to do a comparison on all the karaoke games out there to help people decide which one is right for them. As I started writing it I realized just how much information there is out there for these types of games, even though there is 4 main series out there. Plus there were karaoke games that didn’t appeal to me so I wouldn’t try them and be able to give you a full comparison and another one I only played at a friends and didn’t have enough information for me to compare it against the ones that I own. If you haven’t noticed in my past reviews, I like giving a detailed review to give you the best information possible. I do research on my games and play them most, if not all the way through. So under my own code of excellence that I strive for in my reviews, this comparison just wasn’t cutting it. So I decided to do a review on the Singstar series for the Playstation 3. From the choices of songs selections to the actual game play, this is my favorite of all the karaoke games out there.

There are many different Singstar title for you to choose from for the PS2 and a growing number for the PS3. The PS2 SingStars are more grouped into music genres with such titles as Singstar Pop, Singstar Rocks and Singstar Country. They also have titles by decades with Singstar '80's and Singstar 90's. The PS3 versions however take a little bit different approach by mixing their genres all into one disc with Singstar and Singstar Vol. 2. They also have released a Singstar ABBA and soon a Singstar Queen. Now if they only had Singstar Evanescence I would be all set.

The game basics is a karaoke game. When you choose a song the official video from the band plays with the actual track from the artist, unlike some karaoke games. The lyrics appear at the bottom and become highlighted over the word to sync with the song. It works just like any karaoke system would work in that matter. Which in practice mode is basically just karaoke with the video playing. It's also a good mode to just watch the music videos. In other modes: sing solo, duet, battle and pass the mic, are where the game part of Singstar comes out. These modes track you pitch as you sing through the song gaining you points as you hit the right ones. Easy gives you the widest area to get the pitch while hard gives you the least. At the end of the song you get rated by the number of points you rack up, giving them such names as hopeful, lead singer and singstar.

The online features of the game aren't bad, but could've been better. The PS2 Singstar doesn't have online options, no surprise there, but the PS3 titles do. If you select the online option it will give you a choice of going to their store, which currently has over 500 songs to download for $1.49 each. Which isn't a bad price for the offical music video that works in the game. If you go to itunes right now you can buy music videos for $1.49 or $1.99. The online store is also a great idea because some of the titles might have one or two songs that you actually want. So this way you can buy only the ones you want once you have bought a PS3 version. Not all the songs that are on the discs can be downloaded, so you might have to actually buy a disc if you can't live without a song.

Most of the songs that come on the disc and that are downloaded are edited to keep it's Teen rating. The song might replace the word with a more appropriate word, but that only happens if the real video is done that way. If the song just simply took out the word then it will be missing int he game as well. However the pitch bar is still present even with the word edited out. So you can still sing your songs uninterupted. But if you don't know the song very well you will have to fill in the pitch bar with whatever you can come up with. Which is another point about this game. Getting the right lyrics don't matter. Just the pitch.

Some songs however aren't edited. For example I Write Sins, Not Tragedies by Panic At The Disco. Normally when you see the video being played or hear the song on the radio, it cuts out the line "God Damn Door", and in the preview of this video on Singstar it does as well. But after downloading and playing the song, it does not. There was no warning when purchasing the actual track, however when going into the store it does give a disclaimer that song are not rated and that "Parental discretion is advised".

Another good thing about the online store is that you can also download songs from a bunch of different lanuages. All you do is set your settings to a different default lanuage and the store shows you all those songs. Trying doing 99 Red Balloons in German. However, depending on your region you have a slightly different songlist. Some songs cannot be bought if you live in the U.S. and some can't be bought in the U.K. I assume it has to do with liscening issues.

The other part of the online feature is creating a profile and uploading videos of yourself singing in the game using the Playstation Eye (a camera that can be bought seperatly for your playstation). This feature is something I never use, but I don't have a Playstation Eye. But for me without this feature, this game wouldn't get a lower score.

Then I was all ready to embarass myself by singing online with a random person to give you guys a complete review and realized that this feature doesn't exsist, which is a shame. I guess Singstar didn't feel the need to add this feature. Maybe because singing in a group is meant to be done when you are together. But this feature has been seen in a number of other karaoke games such as American Idol Encore 2 (multi console) and Lips (Xbox 360 exclusive). Now I don't have Singstar Vol. 2. So that might be an option.

One really good thing about the Singstar games is that if you aren't one of the lucky owners of a backwards compatible (b/c) PS3 you can still play PS2 titles using a disc swap system. Insert your PS3 version of singstar. Once you have gotten to the list of song choices press the select bottom and it will ask you to remove the current disc and put in a new Singstar title. This can be a ps2 version or another ps3 version. The tracks from the disc are now available to sing in the setting of the ps3 version. Although you can't play the songs on the previous disc, the downloaded songs still remain in your catalog. You can also do this if you have a ps2 version in your system (if you are using a ps2 or a b/c ps3), however you can only swap ps2 versions since it doesn't recognize the ps3 disc as a Singstar disc.

I would have to give the series a 4 out of 5 for music selection and using the real tracks and videos.

Jessie (aka Bloodyaftertaste)

Review Talk: MK Wii vs. LBP

So I was getting some slack on why I gave Mario Kart Wii a 4 and LittleBigPlanet (LBP) a 5 from a friend yesterday. They know I have loved Mario Kart games ever since Super Mario Kart and were wondering why I thought LBP was a better game, even though she pointed out that they weren't the same kind of game to compare.

My answer wasn't because I think the LBP is the better game out of the two. Both are great games in their own rights. But if you notice from my review on MK Wii there are some points that I thought Nintendo could have done better with the game. It is hard with a sequel because there is certain aspects that are expected to be brought through to the next installment and then aslo push the game farther by adding new elements. So my answer was that they could add an update to incorporate wii speak, continue with allowing two players to play Grand Prix, and keep the special item idea. Would these features have pushed my rating to a 5? I'm still not sure. It is still just a sequel after all, though wii speak would've really helped.

LBP is an innovative and new game out there. It's something different and exciting. And no one can deny all the awards it has won. I'm not saying that the game didn't have it's faults. Nothing is perfect. But it's just a breath of fresh air and a hell of a lot of fun to play.

Either way, if you have a wii and a ps3 then I recommend getting both since they are respectively some of the best games for their system.

Jessie (aka Bloodyaftertaste)

A New reVIEWer

I will be adding another reviewer here at Gamer 2 Gamer Reviews. I believe this addition will give a broader sense of the games out there and a lot more reviews to come. He's goes by Ferryman and I think he will make a great addition to Gamer 2 Gamer Reviews. He already has a couple of reviews in mind and you should see them up in the next few days if not sooner.

Mario Kart Wii Review

Mario Kart Wii (MK Wii) is the 4th installment of the series for home console systems. So far one version has been released per console starting with Super Nintendo. There have also been a couple versions for Nintendo's handhelds and in arcades, Technically making Mario Kart Wii the 8th installment. Nintendo has found a formula that works and ran with it.

If you are new to the series you may be wondering what all the hoopla is about. The fundamentals is basically a racing game at it's core, but Nintendo has worked in it's magic and made it a game that is fun for both children and adults. Starting off you get to choose a mode in the kind of gameplay you would like. There are choices for racing against other players whether they be friends, online or computer players; time trials which pits you against a clock; or a battle mode. Then you will choose from an array of Nintendo characters, with the list adding more and more as the series continues. The characters come in three sizes going on what you would expect from the previous games that they have been in. Small characters range from toad to baby mario, medium characters may be the title character Mario to the beloved Yoshi (as you can see I don't play favorites), to large characters such as Donkey Kong and Bowser. Each size setting has a different attribute to racing. What you can expect from a small character is someone who is fast, but literally a push over. A character that is larger then one of these tiny little guys can easily bump them off the track. While a large character is slower, but you won't see many characters diverting them from their course. This can only mean that a medium character is somewhere in between.

But what are characters without them being in their element. The racing tracks to select are in the Mario World set of themes. Some courses inspired from an actual game such as Super Mario Sunshine to ones that are inspired by the feel of the realm. Many characters have their own course named after them such as Peach Beach (a classic course from Mario Kart Double Dash that makes it in as a returning course on Mario Kart Wii). The courses have only gotten more intricate and as graphics quality increases the scenes become more beautiful. But what can you expect from starting off with a 16 bit systems. However the old courses are still fun to play even without awesome graphics.

The courses themselves can be played one at a time or in cups which is the main goal of the game. In Mario Kart Wii there are the four main cups: Mushroom, Flower, Star and Special which include 4 courses in each that all brand new. Then there are four other cups: Shell, Banana, Leaf and Lighting with retro tracks from Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart Double Dash, and Mario Kart DS. Each cup has courses harder then the last. Achieving a gold medal on a cup can unlock a new cup at the current difficulty or a new character or kart.

Another standard in the Mario Kart world are the difficulty levels. To stay with the racing theme easy has become 50cc, medium 100cc, and hard being 150cc. If you have mastered all three difficulties on all the cups you can unlock what is called mirror. By choosing this difficulty you can play all the courses as if you were looking into a mirror. So if you normally would turn left, in mirror mode you would turn right. But it's not just all about the turns, the words are all written backwards as well. The computer players are just as hard as if you were on 150cc if not harder making this a whole new challenge.

The one feature that has stayed through all the versions is the option of picking up a question mark box, even though the design has changed throughout the years, and gaining a random item to foil your friends and cpu players. In MK Wii we see a lot of classics such as the banana peel for slipping up a competitor, shells to throll at other players, and a mushroom for a quick boost.

If you are sick of racing for the day (it won't last too long though because this game is really that fun), then you can go into battle modes which pit you against other players in a couple of challenges. For MK Wii you have a choice of "Balloon Battle" or "Coin Runner". In Balloon Battle you start off with three balloons of either red or blue floating above your head. That means there are two teams a red and a blue which is determined before you get on a track. There are a few track choices to choose from that are just open ended areas not like what you race on. From there you get ? boxes and use the items against the other team. There is a time limit and whichever teams destroys the most balloons from the other team wins. What's cool about teams is that an object will be surrounded by a colored glow. If it's from your team it can't hurt you.

In Coin Runners your job as a team is to gather the most coins before the timer runs out. Coins will drop down and you simply run over them to gather them up. However, don't think that they are yours to keep. ? boxes are also present and if you get hit with an object you lose your coins, scattering them around you to be collected by anyone once again.

Though being a sequel a few times over, Nintendo has added some cool new features to the game while taking away a couple of good ideas.

One of my favorite features with MK Wii is the addition of bikes. When you first start off collecting trophies in certain difficulty levels you don't get much of a choice on whether you want a bike or kart. In 50cc you can only use karts, in 100cc it's just the bikes, and in 150cc you can chose between the two. One you have earned a gold trophy in all the cups under one difficulty you can have the option of using either. Now I just use the bikes all the time. It's very easy in this game to choose a favorite character and bike/kart and just use it all the time. I'm guilty of this one myself. But with so many choices of characters and karts and bikes you might not want to limit yourself.

Another feature that I love is the online gameplay. Mario Kart is always more fun with human characters in the mix. Playing with friends is great. There is so much satisfaction in the game when you are trying to knock a friend who is in first place with an unavoidable blue shell rather than a cpu player. A feature that would have been nice for online play is adding the wii speak microphone. The microphone wasn't around when MK Wii was first released, but that doesn't mean we can't see an update.

And let's not forget about the wii wheel. MK Wii uses the motion sensor in the wiimote and paired with the wii wheel lets you feel like you have a real sterring wheel to control in front of you. I personally like using this feature, but not everyone does. For those who would rather not can use the wiimote and nunchuck, which is nice since you only get one wii wheel in the package. But hey it's free.

No matter how fun it is there is still some features that I miss from older installments. In MK Wii up to four people can make a profile and gain their own trophies, which is nice, but I can't help but feeling by putting in this feature they took out another. No longer can you play Grand Prix (which is the mode that pits you against 11 cpu players and you race to be the first and unlock a new item) with another player. In older installments for console versions of the game you could have two players compete in Grand Prix to unlock prizes. This game is really best played with other people, I can't stress that enough.

Another feature they didn't continue with was a couple of things created for Mario Kart Double Dash. In this gamecube installement you could have two characters on your chart for solo or team playing. The character in the front drove and the one in back throw the items. This was very good for holding two objects at once. The other feature I miss is that each character had a special that they could only get from a ? box. For example Mario and Luigi throw fire balls, Yoshi and Birdo through eggs which on impact dropped 3 more random items onto the course, and Baby Mario and Baby Luigi had chain chomp which dragged them through the course at higher speeds, but for only a short time.

So is Mario Kart Wii worth it. I certainly think so for people who played and loved the past installments as well as people new to the series.

I give this game 4 out of 5 stars.

Lost In Blue Wii Review

With Nintendo's lack of releasing any really good games in the past few months aside from a couple, I was looking for a gem in the rough. I mean were are the Mario games? A new Zelda perhaps. I know these games take time, but I need something to feed my addiction. So I went to pick up "Lost In Blue". From what I saw it looked like it could be a fun game and for the $30 price tag I thought I would give it a shot.

After playing for only a few hours I don't feel like playing anymore. This may be an early trade in and a waste of my money. The beginning showed promise. You get lost on an island and have to build items and scavenge for food to survive. The first thing I noticed that there was too many cut scenes in the beginning. When I first get a game I want to play. A short cut scene is fine or you might be able to get away with a longer one if the graphics are good and/or you have a good storyline. The graphics here aren't anything special and the storyline is one that has been told a million times. Also a magor problem with watching the cut scenes is the dialog mixed in with the subtitles. There was a lot of subtitles and sometimes the characters would speak the lines. It was very annoying. What made it even more annoying was that the would only speak a short sentence out of the current subtitle on the screen.

The storyline is ok at best. As I mentioned it's been heard a million times before. The ship burns down and your character escapes on a life boat. But being curious like you are you go outside the life boat (this was one hi-tech life boat let me tell you) and fall off. You wash up onshore of a deserted island. You learn some of the basics on this island which is very small. You find no one and decide to make a makeshift raft out of a suitcase and some logs to sail to a nearby island. It doesn't take you very long to do so and you meet up with someone else from the boat. This person has now joined your party and you have to look after her as well.

After getting to this new island my character became sick after just one day. This disabled me from venturing too far and doing some of the mini games. A couple days later my party member became sick. I could not keep our hunger level above 20 out of 100 because they were too weak to stay out long enough to get sufficant amount of food and twigs to keep the fire going. Even in the beginning of the game it was hard for me too keep the hunger level up. They require a lot of food. To get the food you will either need to shake down trees, fish or dig it up. Fishing and digging become mini games. To fish you at least need a wood spear and later work your way up to a fishing pole and the likes. Using the wooden spear reminds me a lot of fishing in Amazon Trail if anyone remembers that game. Shadows of fish appear and you spear them. Once speared it shows you what you caught. Pretty much exactly like Amazon Trail, except the controls are much different. In Amazon Trail you just place your mouse over a moving fish and click your mouse at just the right moment. In Lost in Blue you cursor hovers around the middle with jerky movements and not a lot of control. It also times you just like Amazon Trail but you have a lot less time. But you can just go right back if you need more fish.

Digging in patches of dirt that is raised in a mound is also another mini game to gather food. You are also timed as you point your cursor around clicking the A button to dig around. You will find such items as different types of clams and worms. You will also find crabs and hermit crabs walking around for you to gather.

Once you have your food preparing it and cooking it brings you to another mini game. These mini games reminds me of Cooking Mama with cutting and flipping, but less fun since there is less variety. Does this game even have an origonal thought? From a boring overdone storyline, to mini games mimicaing other games before it, I don't think so.

The only thing that seems like a good idea is the animals each character has as a pet. Your character has a monkey and the other character has a dog. They help you out from time to time, but mainly they just add a cuteness factor to a cutesy cartoony style game.

Overall I give this game 2 out of 5 Stars for lack of origonality.

LittleBigPlanet PS3 Review

What is this? A PS3 review? That can only mean on thing... I got a PS3! Yep it's super exciting.

I've heard so many good thing about LittleBigPlanet (LBP) that it was one of the reasons that I got my PS3, not counting the fact that Nintendo is really starting to disappoint. You'll see in my next review. All of the hype around the game was not wrong and I was happy that this was the first game I picked up for the PS3.

My Sack Girl


In LittleBigPlanet you are a sack person which throughout the game you collect clothes and cloths to decorate your character which allows you to customize him or her. It is a platform type game where you side scroll through levels filled with puzzles. But instead of this game being totally flat like old platform games like Mario, there is three rows you can walk on giving you some depth which allows you to walk behind or in front of enemies and decorations. This adds some difficulty to puzzles. The graphics and sound for this game is also amazing. The colors and designs are beautiful and the music is fun and origonal to listen to. Most of the time I turn down the volume in games because I don't like the music, but I haven't done that with LBP

The Pod


The central place for your sack person is their very own "Pod" which allows you to go between different planets and options for you to choose from. The game also allows you to decorate this Pod with the stickers and items you collect throughout the game. From your Pod you will step up to your control panel which looks exactly like your PS3 controller. Here you can choose between three planets: Options and network planet, your Play planet and the My Moon planet. The Play planet is where the main gameplay is that has levels pre-built by the creators. These levels are huge and well designed. It doesn't take too much time to get through them as they progressively get harder. But it has more of a challenge collecting all the items so the levels have a replay value. Some levels require 2 to 4 players in small sections to complete a task to collect certain items. You don't need multiple people to finish the level though. So don't worry if it's just you playing. Other parts of levels have triggers releasing more collectables triggered by stickers that are collected later on in different levels forcing you to play that level again to collect those items. Since the levels are so huge and well designed it isn't a chore to go back through them to collect everything. If you collect 100% of the items you get more items and finsihing the game without losing a life also gives your more items. This part alone will have you playing for hours even if you play through all the levels.

In game action


User Created Level (My level in the works. Notice I can fly, well only in the create mode)


The My Moon planet is also a great planet to visit. It's the planet that allows you to create your own levels putting the items you've collected to use. You can also create your own items and make them collectables in your levels. This is the place to let your imagionation go. Once you have created your level you can play through it any time you want and even put it online to let others play through and rate. Which then brings you back to the Play planet where it lets you play other user created levels. Some of the levels are just as in depth as the ones that come with the game and add many more hours of gameplay. You can also rate these levels after playing them on a 5 star system and even add a word about them that are pre chosen that remind me of those refridgator magnets that you combine to make a crazy sentence. These comments have words like creepy, points fest, boring, difficult, etc that helps other players know about the level before even playing it. Anything goes with these levels. Some really good ones that I've played have themes like a dinosaur world to a haunted house and even a Mario themed level. If you really like a level you can even heart it to find it easily the next time.

A user created level played online with multiplayer


The multiplayer aspect of this game is amazing as well. Whether you are playing offline or online it adds more to an already fantastic game. The game is still played full screen, so it doesn't devide up your view. Like I mentioned above some puzzels can only be solved with muliple players which adds different puzzels to the mix. You can also add multiplayer puzzeles while creating your own level. Having more people can help you get past tricky parts if you can't do it yourself. If your character dies and the other person can get past that certain part and passes by a save point your character will show up at that saved point. Having more people can also add some comedic moments where you can slap another character across the screen or drag them around. A couple draw backs to multiple players is since it is a full screen for all players the camera follows around the person farthest along which can leave people behind. Most people I found are good about not leaving someone behind but there are the occasional people who just tread on forward even if your puzzel requires something a little farther back that they haven't realized yet. However most people don't stay confused long. All in all it's a good time. If you have a mic it will be easier to communicate with people making it easier to get across an idea of how to solve the puzzle since typing it out is somewhat of a hassel when you are trying to play.

There is also some downloadable content that includes new outfits for your sack person. Some are free and others cost a couple of bucks to download. I'd say the free ones are worth it if you have the space, but it's up to you if you want to shell out the extra cash for other costumes. It doesn't inhance gameplay it just gives your more options to customize your character. It would be cool down the line if they had more levels to download, but with user created levels that might not be nessicary where they are free and some just a good as the creators levels.



LBP gets 5 out of 5 stars from me being the first game that I reviewed to get a perfect score.

Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility Wii Review

If you loved all the rest, this is a must have. If you never have played before but like sim type games you should defiantly check it out. In this version you move to an island that was once thriving with life but is no more. Your job is to bring it back to the beauty it once held by saving the Harvest Goddess. You start off sailing to the island, but rocky waters cause you to pass out after answering a few questions from the captain containing your name and the likes. You awake in the inn meeting a cast of characters and the mayor who gives you a tour. There is a beginning tutorial on a local farm to help you learn the ropes and then you get to choose one of three locations to be your farm. Later in the game you can buy the other locations if you like plus a new one.

In this version you do not start off with any animals like past versions. Just a plot of land and some seeds from the farm you helped. A hint I can give is that one bag of seeds fills 6 spaces, something I didn’t know which cost me a bit more in seeds. Starting off you will farm the land and do part time jobsfor people. Meeting more and more people will help you along by giving you tools to help farm and gather items. As you go on you can buy upgrades to your home and buildings for the animals.

This version allows you to choose the gender of your character, which if I’m not mistaken is only the second game to do so, the other being Island of Happiness for the DS. By choosing your Gender it affects who you will marry. Obviously if you are a girl you marry a good choice of guys and if you are a boy you have a good choice of girls to marry. Sorry no same sex couples. IMPORTANT: you must be warned. I haven’t experienced this, but there is a glitch if you decided to court Calvin. After you get 5 stars with him there is a cut scene to be initiated on the 10^thfreezes your game. If you are a girl, don’t bring him up to that 5^th star. floor of the mines. It

But don’t forget to help the Goddess, which you have periodical dreams about. By helping her you get access to new places on the map. The map is huge this time which then brings in loading screens, which to say there is a lot. It slows down game play, but is the only drawback I’ve seen so far besides the glitch, which again I haven’t experienced. It is a hassle because whenever you journey to a new part of the map or go indoors it appears. You do this a lot. Also by helping the Goddess via her elves you unlock new people who come to visit the island. The Taylor being the first.

This game is full of game play and well worth the asking price. So far I’ve played for about 15 hours and am a third of my way through fall of the first year. Though some of that time is for the loading screens. Which you start off in spring and each season has 28 days. There is no limit of years to play, or none that I’ve heard of, so you can take it at your own pace.

So glitches and loading times aside I give this game 4 out of 5 Stars.

Animal Crossing: City Folk with Wii Speak Wii Review

The formula for this game is pretty much the same as the last two AC games. You start off moving to a town with no money. You do the odd tasks for Nook to pay off a very small portion of your debt and then you go onto the rest of the game. The purpose of the game...well to make money and friends. This version still has Nook's store, The Abel Sisters Clothing design store, the Museum which has the observatory and coffee shop just like the DS version, and the town hall. You sell and buy things at Nook's, buy and make clothes at the Abel Sisters, and give donations of fish, fossils, paintings or bugs to the museum. The town hall lets you pay off your loan to Nook for your house and all it's expansions, send mail to the animals in your town as well as your friends in your town and others, give donations to better the town, report any problems, etc. Most of these features can be found in one or both of the previous versions. This is the core part of the game because this is the stuff that you will be spending most of your time doing.

With the Wii version you also get the city. Going to the city is just a bus ride away and one of the loading screens which is pretty fast. It also has some familar faces. The only difference is now the are there everyday for you to vist instead of just certain days where they randomly decide to visit you. This includes Redd the black market dealer, Gracie who has her very own expensive shop called GracieGrace which she can only been seen on occasion, Katrina the fortune teller, and a couple others. New characters are Kick the shoe shinning skunk and a hair stylin' poodle.

Another important feature to talk about is the introduction of the Wii Speak Microphone. This is the first game that utalizes this feature. You use it when visiting a friend's town or when they visit yours. It's much easier then typing with the wiimote or typing with a keyboard which is sold seperatly. The microphone works well. You can talk to more than one person in the room. Though background noise can be heard whether it's a good thing or not. But the background noise is minimal and not really an issue. I think this is a great addition to the game and the system itself. I say it's about time that Nintendo started catching up with the other systems. Now if they could just make it work for Mario Kart.

Visiting friends towns can also add new gameplay that the creators might not have intended it too. Many people have created their own games to add more fun to this already addicting game. Games like Musuem Tag, Sardines, races and scavenger hunts. Also visiting friends towns can help with trading for things you are looking for and seeing what's for sale at their town's store.

The controls for this game work well. Depending on your preference you can use just the wiimote or the wiimote with the numchuck. The wiimote works by a lot of point and click controls for choosing which item to sell to Nook or give to Blathers (the owner of the museum). You can fish by clicking A or if you would rather use it more like a fishing pole you can swing it up and down to cast and pull your fish out. You walk by pressing down A and pointing you cursor in the director you want to go, or if you use the numchuck you can use the joystick to walk around. To get to other menus on screen you point your wiimote to the bottom of the screen and a menu bar comes up with your inventory, a list of fish and bugs you've caught, your clothing designs and more. You can also save anywhere in the game this time by clicking the save button when the menu comes up. That is a great improvement to the game.

And now for the verdict. This game is basically like an expanision without the expansion. Many of the old gameplay can be found here with only a few upgrades. Serious AC gamers will want to add this to their collection. It's still a fun and addicting game. This game can also work from causal gamers to the most avid gamers. But the person who will probably get the most use out of it is a first time user to Animal Crossing.

I give it 4 out of 5 Stars for it's addictiveness and the first game to use wii speak.


Some Screen Shots










And a video with K.K. Slider and the hidden Totaka's Song (Sorry for the poor video quality)


I also did a review for this game on amazon.com which can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3BWIWZAAI39QM/ref=cm_cr_dp_cmt?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B001HZNR7K&nodeID=468642#wasThisHelpful. This review was done days after getting the game.

Shaun White Snowboarding Wii Review

From one of the most hottest snowboarders today comes a game that I'm sure everyone has heard about. Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip (SWS). Shaun White was supposed to do for snowboarding games what Tony Hawk did for skateboarding games, but it fell short. This following review is for the Wii version of the game. Sadly I can't get my hands on a wii balance board, which might have knocked up the score of this game for my review for some originality and perhaps fun.

You start off with two characters: one with better jumping abilities and one who can ride faster then the rest. As you continue new riders tag along for the journey, all with their own specialty. During any event you can choose who you want to be your rider and another to be the cameraman. When you fill up the bar on the bottom right of your screen by doing tricks or collecting crowns you can use the camerman's special ability until the bar runs out. The mixing and matching of the characters adds a little interest in the way you play, however I was disappointed with the characters from the beginning. There is no customization at all. You can't change their clothes, build up their abilities, or even choose from regular or goofy style riding. The characters are what they are.

There aren't many tracks either. You get four per mountain with 5 mountains unless you got the target special edition. The tracks aren't very long either. With each track they give you challenges, up to four. You must complete the challenges to unlock more tracks on the mountain. When you first get to a mountain you have no choice what track or challenge you want to do, but the more you unlock the more choice you have. The challenges are what you would expect from a snowboarding game: racing, tricks and collecting trinkets, which happens to be trash. The races are too short. You also only race up to 2 other people or against the clock. All races are about 3 minutes or under. That just goes to show you how short the tracks are. For tricks there isn't much variety. You use just the wiimote to do the tricks. Just by tilting the wiimote you decide which way to turn or twist. The A and B buttons control the grabs. And that's pretty much it. When you do a course that requires tricks you either have to get a certain amount until you reach the end or in a certain time limit. For the trinket challanges you have to collect a certain number of soda cans that can be found on rails or at the top of jumps. Each track will have up to two challenges with two objectives in each challenge. With each mountain you travel too the amount you need to reach gets higher for both trick score and trinkets, and the races get a bit harder. But it's pretty much the same task over and over.

Another disappointing feature is the music. With these types of games music is a huge deal seeing how it not only ties into the game but the culture of these sports. The music does have a bit of variety ranging from Jefferson Airplane to Three Days Grace to Metro Station. You can shuffle through the songs by pressing the 1 button anywhere during the run just like you would use an iPod shuffle. Which if you haven't used a shuffle before I suggest not wasting your money on them. But only certain songs are played on certain tracks in this game. So even if you do find a few songs you like they aren't avaliable to listen to everywhere.

This game can also be played as a multi player, where you take the tracks in the single player game and compete either turn based or side by side in different challenges: racing and tricks. This adds to the game where you can push yourself against friends to add more to the competition mentality of the game.

The last thing i would like to mention about the game is that as you move on in the game completing challenges you get emails from characters, which is nothing special and I stopped reading them after the first couple. Also under the computer icon, where you find the emails, you can earn momentos, which are pictures of the game or drawings. You have to complete the extra challenge on each track, remember how I said there was too, to unlock these. They don't really add much to the game either.

Maybe I'm a bit cynical after playing SSX3, which is my favorite snowboarding game of all time. They set the bar high, which SWS couldn't even dream of reaching. They let you explore the mountain, had more tracks and they were a lot more interesting as well, the music list was huge and you could make your own playlist, plus they had character customizations. If I didn't have all that to compare SWS to I would still feel like this game was lacking. It's not one of the best games of all time. It was fun to play but there wasn't a lot of game time either. It's a good game to play on a weekend by yourself or with friends for a rental price, but it's not worth the $50 price tag.

All in all I give it 2 out of 5 Stars.

I struggled with whether to give it a 2 or 3. It does have some good playing time, but with all of what it's lacking and the price for what the game is i had to go with a 2. Now if you have the wii balance board maybe you could knock it up to a 3.