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.

A New Veiw

I started this review blog on another blog site. Not to name names, but some of the features were a bit disappointing. Plus a couple of friends have blogs here so I decided to have this is two locations instead of the one. At least for now.

New to Gamer 2 Gamer reviews? Then you might want to know just what the hell this is. I'm not a professional writer, I just love games. Games of any genre or console. I wanted to share what I think of games and hope that it will help people on their game purchases. I have bought a lot of games that I wish I never did and even with stores buying back I still lost money that should never have been spent. I don't want this to happen to anyone else. I know there are a lot of reputable sites and magazines that give you a review from people who love games, so why is my opinion more important then people who get paid to do what they love? Truth be told it's not. My opinion isn't more important then anyone else's. This is just a place to give people a chance to hear a different opinion. I want to start out by just sharing with my friends who love games what are some good choices out there. One day I hope for this to grow. But for now I'm just doing what I love: Video Games.