Tales of the Abyss

Console: Nintendo 3DS

Genre: RPG

Release Date: February 14, 2012

Date Reviewed: February 10, 2013

Gameplay:

Tales of the Abyss is a port from the PS2 version. I am very glad they ported it to the 3DS. I played it on the PS2 but it was so long ago and I was so young that I really didn't remember it to well. When I picked it up I knew I was in for a treat. Tales of the Abyss is an open world RPG title for the 3DS. If you have played any of the Tales games in the past then you will know the combat system is basically the same style. The combat system is not turned based but when you get into a battle screen it's a real time hack and slash RPG. You gain experience, level up, get to equipment. The same with any other RPG game. What Tales does very well is the use of strategy. You can control any of your 6 party members during battle. You can level up their skills, pick how they fight whether you want them to focus on healing or spell-casting or even focus on spell-casting until your TP (mana) hits 25%. This brings the combat to life more and great a challenge and avoids the repetitiveness. So overall combat is great!

Fast action combat!

The visuals are great. The 3D in the game doesn't really do anything unfortunately. The cut scenes are well and have also been upgraded to a more sharper picture. The story line is very well done and will get anyone absorbed to it. There are a lot of twists and “WTF” moments in the game which makes it a lot more fun and interesting. The main character of the game is really annoying at the beginning of the game. He's a very spoilt brat who always gets his way. Later on it gets much better and a lot more bearable. The game offers about 20+ hours of game play if you do not rush through it. Another issue I had with the game is when your exploring and walking around the world map it really zoomed out and at some points on the map the frame rates drop drastically making it hard to avoid some enemies. Overall I found Tales of the Abyss to be a very enjoyable game. If you have not ever played Tales of the Abyss I recommend picking it up for the 3DS. If you have played it on the PS2 version or are a tales fan I also recommend picking this up. They did a good job with the port.

Graphics:

The only two problems I have with the visuals in the game are the random frame drops in certain areas of the world map and there is no 3D in the game. You turn it on and it looks the exact same. This is very unfortunate because I think for the cutscenes the visuals will look so much more better. The port from the PS2 to the 3DS was a good port overall. No dumbed down graphics or quality overall. The game plays the same as the PS2 version and is a very enjoyable experience. I recommend not rushing through the cut scenes and skipping them just to beat the game faster. Take your time and watch the cut scenes they are very well done, well animated and will absorb you as you unfold this epic story. The battle scenes are fast paced, look very well and has no frame drops that I have noticed.

Beautiful cut scenes.

One of my favorite things to do during the battle encounters are using every party members special attack when they are available. They look so cool, bright, flashy and colorful. I also really liked the look of all of the spells visuals and skills. They all looked unique and suits the name of the skills. Overall Tales of the Abyss is a beautiful and colorful game for the 3DS.

Audio:

The soundtrack for Tales of the Abyss is fantastic. The battle music makes it like your endanger and need to kick some butt. The boss battle music makes the boss look more powerful and gets your adrenaline pumping. The music in each of the towns and the overworld map is soothing. Each town has their own unique soundtrack to them. They all sound great and very pleasing to the ears. Overall sound is top notch as well as the music.

Conclusion:

Tales of the Abyss is a splendid game. Yes, there are some small problems with the game but they aren't game breaking or will cause you to pull out your hair. It's very beautiful, very fun, interactive, has a great story and an awesome soundtrack. This port was very well done and hope to see other Tales games get ported to the 3DS in the future. There is a lack of 3D effects within the game and thought that the cut scenes would have looked a lot better and have a bigger effect on the story if the 3D was enabled for them. If you are a tales fan, RPG fan, or looking for a good game that will last awhile then I recommend you go pick this up. You will not be disappointed.

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New Super Mario Bros. 2

Console: Nintendo 3DS

Genre: Platformer

Release Date: August 19, 2012

Date Reviewed: Feb. 1st, 2013

Gameplay:

New Super Mario Bros 2 is the second game for New Super Mario Bros. The original game debuted on the Nintendo DS hand helds. This one however is now on the Nintendo 3DS. The original NSMB was a huge hit on the DS because it was Mario, but Mario remade. It's basically Super Mario Bros. Remade onto the hand held systems. Everyone loved it. Now we have NSMB Wii and NSMB WiiU. The game play is your basic Mario plat former. You go through worlds, each world has a castle with a boss and when you beat the boss you move onto the next world. Not really much to explain more about the game play. However I had a few issues with it. Now it is a fun game don't get me wrong. But this game is missing a lot. The point in this game is to collect as many coins as possible. This is a nice new twist on a Super Mario game. They also introduced a coin rush mode into the game where you play a few levels that have a lot of coins to collect and a short time limit. The other nice thing about this one is it has DLC. The DLC content are new coin rush maps, one they included for free. When you get your one million coin goal all that happens is you get a new background on the game menu, that's it. Not really much of an award.

The Tanooki Suit is back!

The issues I have with this game is it is so plain. The backgrounds, the level designs, and the overall game play lasts only a couple of hours. Sure if your a perfectionist like me then you want to try and unlock all the levels and the star coins. But while your playing through the worlds or even navigating each world to your next level it's just so plain compared to NSMB for the Wii or even the WiiU. The environment in the Wii and WiiU titles are fun, interactive, and adds some life to the game. Compared to the first one on the DS, they really didn't change anything at all besides collecting coins. This I found was very disappointing. It's like they didn't care all to much about this game because they wanted to boost sales on the 3DS system because it is a Mario game. Maria game = sells a lot of consoles.

However when you complete the game you unlock Star world. I like the levels in Star World but when you beat the game and didn't really focus on collecting the star coins it's frustrating to try and go through these levels because it costs a butt load of star coins just to even go to the first level in star world. I do like how they added that feature to the game though. They do have a co op mode within the game as well where you can a friend can connect locally and play the game together collecting your coins or just plain and simple beating the game. I am happy they are sticking with the co op route of things even on the DS systems. Overall the game play is fun, just a bit upsetting with the lack of effort put into this game and the boring environments. I would recommend picking up Paper Mario Sticker Star before this game.

Graphics:

The 3DS uses the graphics very well in this game. The textures are crisp and it looks really good. The only problem which was mentioned up above is the plain environments and bad level designs. Almost all of the levels had a plain background and was really fast and easy to run through. Not a whole look of level creativeness in this version of the game at all. The animations on all of the enemies are great. Like in the first one the enemies dance to the beat of the music as they are walking. I still think it's funny when they hop around or swing their arms to the music.

Co op Style!

Audio:

The soundtrack is basically the same one used in the DS title. Most of the levels have a good soundtrack and goes well with the game but it is all just from the original game. All of the audio in the game is what you'd expect from any Mario plat former game.

Conclusion:

Overall the game is fun, just upsetting on the level design and environments. I mean go watch a video on NSMB for WiiU and compare it to the 3DS version. I wish I was playing the WiiU version is all I am saying. I do like the co op mode in the game and how you can also play as luigi. I also enjoyed the Coin Rush mode which you unlock after the first world is beaten. They have also included a free DLC coin rush map pack for free for a limited time to celebrate the anniversary of Mario. This map pack is known as the “classic map pack” because you play re designed levels from the original Mario games. They are also fun. If you are debating between NSMB or Paper Mario Sticker Star I recommend you pick up Sticker Star before this game.

Paper Mario Sticker Star (3DS)

Console: Nintendo 3DS

Genre: Adventure RPG

Release Date: November 11, 2012

Date Reviewed: January 30, 2013

Gameplay:

Paper Mario Sticker Star is for the 3DS system. Paper Mario Sticker Star is not like the original Paper Mario for the N64 or the Wii versions. This version of Paper Mario is a new and fresh approach to the series. I personally loved the original for the N64 because of the RPG style. With Sticker Star there is still the RPG battle system but it's not nearly the same. With Sticker Star you actually go around peeling, buying, and finding stickers, You use these stickers as your battle commands. You have your basic stickers like the shoe (jump), and your hammer. But there are also a lot of different variations of these stickers like the fire hammer which does damage to all enemies. These stickers can also be powered up or you can even find them. These are known as shiny stickers or even flashy stickers which are much more powerful version of other stickers. There are a total of six worlds and each world has it's own different theme and style like with most mario games. Sticker Star does stay to it's routes by adding a lot of humour within the game. There were several times in the game where I had a good laugh.

So of coarse your roll is to save Princess Peach from Bowser once again. Basically what happens (without giving away spoilers) is everyone is at the sticker festival. While everyone is paying attention to Mario and Peach talking about the royal stickers Bowser sneaks in and steals one of the royal stickers. These royal stickers have great power within them and Bowser uses it to capture Peach and wipe the floor with Mario. Of coarse it is up to you to recover the seven missing royal stickers and rescue Peach.

The Battle System

With Sticker Star I found there was a lot more puzzle work to do than any other Paper Mario. What I mean by that is you have to do a lot of back tracking to other levels to progress. I did enjoy this aspect of the game but some of the times you have no clue where to go or what to do next. There were to much hidden paths to find to advance to the next level. I did enjoy that there was lots to do. If not rushed it is a 12 hour+ game. No replay value but it is longer than most recent Mario games out currently. The exploration is a huge part of the game which makes it even more enjoyable. Most of the bosses are challenging but have the option to make it easier if you know what stickers to use. I do wished they kept how the original one was. You get into a battle, earn XP, gain levels, etc... I am very happy that they added something new to the series but I missed the original game play style.

Sticker Star does stay true to the series of being a fun 2D style game with 3D environments and objects. These objects can be turned into super stickers which can deal a lot of damage or be a good support tool. Some of these include a fan or a vacuum or even a baseball bat. Each has it's own unique purpose. Overall the game play is as fun as it's always been and if your a Paper Mario fan I would check this game out you will have some fun. It is probably the worst one out of the three but still a lot of fun.

Graphics:

Paper Mario Sticker Star has your same 2D graphics as any other Paper Mario game in the past. You play as Mario who is made of paper and talk with NPC's who are also made of paper. Almost everything in the game is made of paper. You play as 2D but the environments are 3D. The game is very colourful and has a lot of variety. Each world you enter is a completely different environment. A little feature that I found really neat was whenever you got a shiny or flashy sticker and moved your 3DS around the stickers will shine as you move it around.

Water coming out of a cardboard bowser mouth?

Paper Mario Sticker Star also has a lot of great battle animations. The animations on the enemies and environment are very well done. They really did stay to the name of “Paper” Mario.

Audio:

The sound track for the game is what you would expect from any Mario game in the series. So catchy and soothing for the most part. When you go underground they did re use the classic soundtrack from Super Mario Bros. The audio is what you would expect from any Mario game. Never bad, always good, and always catchy. It seems to relate to the game very well.

Conclusion:

Overall Paper Mario Sticker Star is a very fun and enjoyable game. There are some things that do affect the overall score. Some of the younger audiences may find this game confusing at some parts and well get lost and will not be able to figure out where to go next. Most of the time they do not tell you where you need to go, it's basically go and figure it out for yourself. There were a couple of times I needed a small walk through to figure out where I needed to go next. I also believe they really didn't need to add the RPG battle system in this version of the game. Yes, battling with the stickers is a cool and new concept but when you win a battle it doesn't really feel like you've accomplished anything from doing it. Yes, you may earn coins or health when you defeat them but I missed when you gained experience, levelled up Mario, use badges, etc... That was very fun to me. Overall Sticker Star is a fun and enjoyable game but if your looking for the “old” Paper Mario this is not it. But try it anyways, you may have a good time as I did with it.

Pokemon Black and White 2 (DSi)

Console: Nintendo DSi, Nintendo 3DS

Genre:  Adventure RPG

Release Date: October 7, 2012

Reviewed: November 1, 2012

Gameplay:

Pokemon Black and White 2 is basically the same as all previous pokemon games for the handheld systems. You collect your 8 badges, fight the elite four, the end. But with Black and White 2 they have added so much more to that concept.

Yes, the point of the game is still the same as it always has been but with BW2 they make it so much more dynamic. The game overall will take you over 30 hours to beat if you do not rush the game and explore the new and improved Unova region. The story in BW2 is very well done. It makes you feel so involved with what is going on in the game and has some really epic and memorable moments. 

So you start in Aspertia City which is a new city added to the game. There are a bunch of new locations added to the Unova region. For the first time in Pokemon history you start in a big city not a town. You still get the same starters from the original BW games but you don't get it from Professor Juniper in this game. BW2 takes place two years after the events of BW. As mentioned the Unova region changes significantly. New locations are accessible in the southwest and northwest of the region. There are a few locations that are not accessible anymore such as the challenger's cave. There are new gyms and new gym leaders. The Unova pokedex is expanded to include Pokemon foreign to the region. The player is able to choose to play as the boy Nate, or the girl Rosa, as they travel across the region against their rival, Hugh. There are several changes to the game which makes it feel like a new adventure, not just a sequel to BW. You start off with new characters, the HP and EXP bar for pokemon has been redesigned and looks much better. New location have been added to the game such as Aspertia City, Virbank City, Floccesy Town, Lentimas Town, and Humilau City. Some of the new characters include Hugh, Colress, Roxie, Marlon and Benga. Older characters like Cheren, Bianca, Elesa, Ghetsis and Iris all receive redesigns. All Unova gyms have redesigns. There have been several changes made to existing locations, such as Driftveil City and Nimbasa City. Every trainer has their own fully animated sprite. They are much smoother. Several attacks have received new battle animations. The C-Gear has been redesigned. The Unova Pokedex has been expanded tremendously to accommodate older Pokemon. All returning gym leaders and champions receive new sprites. Route 4 has changed and also differs between BW2. Victory Road has been changed as well. The Cold Storage is now gone and has been replaced with the Pokemon Tournament. These are just some of the new features and changes to the game.

Unova has been expanded!

One of my most favorite features with the new pokedex is the habitat list. What that does is if your on route 4 for example and you are wondering what pokemon you can get from that area, just simply turn on your habitat mode for route 4 and it will show you all of the pokemom on the route. I found this feature extremely handy. A lot of pokemon are now catchable in BW2. One example of this would be Eevee. You are now able to catch them in the wild grass, and as much as you want! BW2 seems like a very polished game compared to BW. They expanded the world tremendously, they made the story more interactive and interesting. The new gym leaders are all extremely fun and all of the gyms are redesigned with new puzzles to get to the gym leaders. Another great feature that was added to BW2 was Join Avenue. Basically it's a little place that you can recruit NPC's to open their own shops to buy rare items. Now when you first get an NPC to join with their shops they start out at rank 1 and sell not so useful stuff. When you recommend and NPC to one of the stores it will gain popularity and when it does your shops will be upgraded once you hit the popularity target. When that happens they will start to sell better and more rare items for you. Overall I was extremely impressed with BW2 and yes it is a direct sequel to the originals. I feel that they are completetly new games and a whole new experience. Worth every penny.

So much more to explore.

Graphics:

The graphics in BW2 have also been improved. One of the biggest improvement to it are the sprite animations for the pokemon, trainers, gym leaders and moves. All have received a graphical update as well as more frames so that the animations are much smoother looking. Each trainer now has their very own sprite animation as well as all of the pokemon in the game. The game runs a lot smoother than BW ever did. The battles are extremely smooth and run quickly. The movement in the environment is smoother as well. The environment received an upgrade as well. When you are battling a pokemon the grass around the pokemon also moves with the air during the battle. A lot of the pokemon moves have also received an overhaul. The pokemon moves has also received an update. The moves all look smoother and better. Overall I was extremely impressed with the overall quality of the game.

Great moment.

Audio:

I have always enjoyed the audio in all of the pokemon games especially in BW2. Most of the Black and White music has been slightly remixed, in addition to the Gym Leader and Champion music from Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh. The remixes are very well done. My favorite music within BW2 is when you fight one of the three legendaries reaming around. All of the audio in BW2 has also received a slight upgrade in quality. Overall same great audio that we have all loved with some new ones!

Conclusion:

I really enjoyed BW2. IGN gave it a 9.6. A pokemon game hasn't hit that high in score for awhile now. You can tell Gamefreak put a lot more time and effort into the sequel and it's paid off. The new storyline will keep you interested and wanting to learn more about it. The expanded pokedex is great giving you the ability to find older pokemon as soon as you begin your adventures. The habitat list is a fantastic addition and hope to see it in future pokemon games as well. The animations have vastly improved as well as the moves. Unova is much bigger and has a lot to explore. The play time is over 30 hours if not rushed. When you beat the elite 4 for the first time there is so much more to do in the game. I recommend pokemon fans, and RPG fans to go pick up this game. You will not be dissapointed I promise.

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Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Console: Xbox 360, PS3, PC

Genre: Open World RPG

Release Date:  February 07, 2012

Reviewed: March 11, 2012

Gameplay:

Kingdoms of Amalur (KoA) is an open world RPG developed by Big Huge Games and published by EA Games. In KoA you start off by creating your character how you want it and you start off dead. Yes, in the game you are dead but luckily the "Well of Souls" revives you from the dead. The story is crafted by R.A Salvatore, Todd McFarlane, and Ken Rolsten. You may ask that one of these names sounds familiar? Well Todd McFarlane is the creator of Spawn and R.A Salvatore is New York Times best selling author. Ken Rolston created the story for Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. The story is so in depth and is huge. Reckoning is only the sliver of the story. The game starts off you waking up from on top of a pile of corpses because you were brought back to life from the Well of Souls that the dwarves created. You start the game by escaping from an unknown place and a long the way you meet up with some pretty important characters while escaping. KoA has a ton of customizable options within the game. You choose how you want to play, what type of fighter you want to be and whether you want to be evil or good. There are class combinations such as rogue/mage or mage/warrior, anything you want. The game has tons of weapons, armour, skills and professions to customize how you want to play. The main story itself has about 25+ hours of game play but if your the type of person who likes to do all the quests and complete everything the game has to offer then your looking at 100+ hours of game play.

The controls are really easy to learn from using spells or quickly using items. You can map items onto a quick selection option where say you want to assign a potion that increases your armour value then map it for quick use. Spells and skills are used by assigning them to four different spots. You activate these by holding down the "R" button and using X, A ,Y, B. You can also control the camera using the right analog stick or clicking it to make the camera center on your character. The game runs very smoothly and the things you can do are endless. One thing I liked about the characters you create is the option to carry and secondary weapon with you. For example if you were a pure sorcery character you might want to have a staff as your main weapons and chakrams as a secondary. So your attacking with your staff with the "X" button and you decide to switch and up to use your chakrams. You do this by pressing the "Y" button. 

Character Customize Screen....lots to choose from!

KoA has a professions where you can create potions, gems to socket your armour or weapons, blacksmithing and others. You go around the massive world and discover reagents which are used to create certain items. If your a fan of blacksmithing then you may want to put your skill points into it so you can make better armour and salvage from higher quality weapons and armour. When you salvage unwanted weapons and armour you receive materials for blacksmithing. Potions are a bit different. You go around the world and pick herbs which you use to create tons of different types of potions and elixirs. If your more of a rogue then you can also put points in stealth, lockpicking, and detect hidden. Everytime you can a level in KoA you get one skill point to put towards any skill such as blacksmithing, lockpicking, stealth, etc.... Once you choose where you want to put your point you then get 3 class points where you decide what type of character you want to be whether you want to play a rogue, warrior or mage. The last thing you do is decide your "destiny". These are determined by cards and you use these cards to decide what type of class you want to be. For example if you are a pure might character, the more points you put into might you can go up the tier for might fate cards. Tier one for might you will be known as a brawler and will get specials like increased damage and increased block. 

Choose your destiny!

So you've decided what type of character you want to play. What do you do from here besides the main story? Well if you want to see what KoA offers go to the hundreds of side quests in the game. Go do faction quests to become a better thief or mage. The things you can do in KoA is endless. Go do some dungeons, go explore the massive world, go craft something. One thing I really enjoyed about this is the random loot system. Most people didn't enjoy it but I thought it was a great addition. When your looting a chest or a corpse you always get completely random loot. As in you fight a monster and lets say you die right after you looted him. Say he only dropped you 120 gold. Well the next time you kill him he may drop you some armor instead. It's always random. Only downfall to this system is when you unlock a really hard chest or dispell an advanced chest the loot can be as bad as 100 gold or you may get an epic item.

So from the hundreds and hundreds of quests to the huge exploration of the world all the way to professions and completely customizing your character there are a ton of things to do in KoA. 

Graphics:

Another great part of this game besides the gameplay are the wonderful graphics within the world of KoA. The entire world is colorful and vibrant. The wilderness and environment are always changing as your exploring the world and the different zones on the map are all different in terms of the environment. The animations are well done. The spell effects, enchant glows, etc... are all colorful and life like. The water effects are very well done and interact with it's surroundings and environment. As your walking you can't help but wander off in a different direction just to explore the area and see what it has to offer. The bosses are huge and all look outstanding. 

The environment.

Audio:

The music in KoA is very soothing while walking through the different zones and suit the environments extremely well. Then there is audio during boss fights, cinematics and combat that all suit them very well. When your engaging a huge boss the music really gets the adrenaline flowing. The voice acting in the game when interacting with other characters in KoA are all voice acted very well and adds to the feeling of great story telling. The sounds while walking around like the water or birds add to the game that much more. Overall it is very enjoying, relaxing and helps make KoA that much better of an experience.

Conclusion:

I highly recommend this game. This could easily be the years best RPG of 2012. If your a fan of RPGS, Skyrim, story telling, action you will highly enjoy this game hands down. Even if your not a fan of the genre there is bound to be something in the game to suit your needs. From the great combat system, the levelling system, customizing options, and the environments, this is a must buy game. If your still unsure be sure to rent it first. Go out and pick a copy of KoA up, you will not be dissapointed.

Family Guy Online Beta Review

Reviewed on: Feb. 22, 2012

Gameplay:
Family Guy Online has been advertised for some time now. They have recently started doing small sessions for a closed beta. I was lucky enough to get into one of those betas. Family Guy Online is an online game that you play in your web browser. You start off by creating your character. As of right now there are 4 different character types to choose from. They are Stewie, Lois, Peter, and Chris. There is also another character slot that is blanked out and by looking at the portrait it is Bryan. I assume when the game is out of beta you will be able to create a Bryan type character. Now each character type has it's own speciality for example Stewie is able to deal massive amounts of damage because that is one of his skills. When you decide to choose what character you want to be you are now able to fully customize the character of your choice. Whether is be shirts, eyes, mouths, or your nose and you customize everything. There aren't a ton of customizable items as of yet but it is enough for now. When you are finished are are brought into the game. You start off in front of the Griffin's house on spooner street. Your first quests begins with Peter Griffon where he asks you to talk to Chris Griffon on why he does not want to go to school. From here on out you start to do quests to earn money, experience, and vanity items.

Character Screen

As your questing you will find random items laying around that may or may not look familiar. For example you will find a tennis ball. When you click it the ball gets added to Bryan's collection. So you can collect important items from the Family Guy universe and add them to each characters collection. The town of Quahog is pretty big. You start off in the urban area aka. spooner street. When you have done all the quests or enough quests you are able to move on to other parts of the town to explore. Overall the map is a pretty decent size to walk around and explore. In Family Guy Online you are also able to interact with many other people in the game as well. In the beta the chat was not working so hopefully that will be fixed when the game is released. Despite all of the bugs in the game (see down below) Family Guy Online is a decent experience. Not great but alright.

Bugs:
There are several bugs in the game that I noticed while playing. For one some of the audio likes to overlap other audio within the game. The quest where you go into the other universes through Stewie are all bugged. When I did this quest I was stuck in the Asian Griffon family house. There was no way out and no NPC's to interact. Another big one is the constant lag. Some parts were alright but every minute or less there was lots of log and lots of loading. There was another bug where if you clicked on a emoticon or quest item it would not activate or respond. This bug happened to me a lot. Yes, there are a lot of bugs in the game but this is why they do beta tests to find all of them and fix them for the release.

Customize your character! (Not my character)

Conclusion:
Family Guy Online is a game where you play for 30 mins - an hour at a time before getting bored of it. It is meant for casual players. You can tell just by playing it. I did however find it neat that I was able to explore and experience Quahog virtually. I love the show and there are a lot of little easter eggs through quests that fans of the series will pick up right away. The game is still in rough shape and still in the beta process. They are doing multiple beta tests to work out all of the bugs so it will be fresh on launch day. Overall it was a nice experience and looking forward to getting into the next beta test.

**Note**
This review will be constantly updated as further beta tests are implemented. This is not the full review just my thoughts on the beta as of now.

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Mario Kart 7 (3DS)

Console: Nintendo 3DS

Genre: Racing
Release Date: December 4, 2011
Reviewed: Feb. 2/12

Gameplay:

Mario Kart 7 is the seventh instalment in the Mario Kart series. This time it is coming to the handheld, the Nintendo 3DS. May I add that it is a fantastic addition to the series. Mario Kart 7 plays like all other Mario Kart games ever released. There are a couple of new additions to the game like parachutes or para sales. These are only activated when driving over a rainbow colored (<----Canadian) boost arrows. When driven over you sore in the air and your parachute is activated and you take the race into the skies for a few seconds anyway. There are other great features added to the game to keep the interest level high. You can use the built in gyro controls within the 3DS system to steer in Mario Kart 7. While your racing in some of the courses you will notice that there are coins scattered everywhere throughout the entire track. You can only get 10 coins per track but these coins to provide a use for the game. When a certain amount of coins are collected you unlock extra vehicle parts to customize your kart. Each unlockable part provides some sort of stat to your vehicle such as speed, handling, weight or even drifting. There are some pretty awesome unlockables like the mushroom wheels. That is not all you can unlock though. In addition to unlocking vehicle parts you can also unlock additional characters, up to eight to be exact. Some of these characters include Metal Mario, and Wario. The other characters are up to you to find out ;). As usual there are 16 new maps added to the game and 16 old maps from previous mario kart games added to the game as well. I was pretty happy to be able to race on Koopa Beach again. With the old maps added they didn't just port over the old maps over they actually added boosts or updated some of there areas on the map. They even added some shortcuts. 

Once you have received all of the trophies in the game and unlocked all of the characters they brought the famous and flawless multiplayer back. With this multiplayer they added features like creating or joining community groups and racing with people in the group. Overall the online experience in Mario Kart 7 is as fun as it's always been with the previous Mario Kart games. There are only a couple of things that annoy me in Mario Kart 7. When your racing on 150cc or Mirror Mode the computers are constantly using Blue Shells which just urks you especially when your right in front of the finish like and you lose due to the shell. Another thing is the shortcut people like to take when your racing with them online in the map Maka Wuhu. You can take a shortcut on this map which skips over half of the course. One other thing is the overall music quality in the game isn't all that impressive compared to the other Mario Kart games. One of the maps "Neo Bowser City" takes a msuci from past games and combines them into one.

Graphics:

The graphics in Mario Kart 7 are great. The game really uses the power of the 3DS to make the game lively and colorful. The graphics are roughly the same as compared to the Wii version but much better than the DS version by far. Of coarse you have your occasional 2D background environments but most of it is all in 3D and looks fantastic. The 3D is something I would not recommend. With the 3D you will be moving your head a lot with the game due to the racing, especially if your using the gyro controls. It will end up giving you a huge headache and hurting your eyes. It's nice to have on once in awhile just to see the 3D but it is not recommended that you keep it on for long especially when your racing. Overall the graphics are great.

Audio:

The Audio in Mario Kart 7 overall is well done. There are some courses where the music just makes no sense and drives you crazy because of the annoyance but overall the music experience is pretty good. One level I mentions above earlier "Neo Bowser City" takes some music from previous games like "Toad's Turnpike" from the N64 version and combines them into one for "Neo Bowser City". The other maps are retro maps so they have the original music from the previous Mario Kart Games. Overall excellent audio.

Conclusion:

Mario Kart 7 is a fantastic addition to the Mario Kart series. As always there is lots to do. Mario Kart 7 will keep you occupied with it's time trials and multiplayer for awhile. I highly recommend this game to anyone, especially the Mario Kart fans. Other then some small minor issues like the shortcut glitch in Maku Wuhu or the endless blue shells of death it is a great experience for anyone. The 3D is not recommended for this game while racing but it is nice to turn on once in awhile to just look at the 3D. 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Multiplayer (Part 1 of 2)

I will be breaking Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 into two separate
reviews. The first part will be the multiplayer aspect of the game.
The second part will be the campaign and spec ops portion of the game.
The multiplayer portion of this review will just be on big review. The
second part will be my original review style where I break it down into
other parts (gameplay, graphics, audio). Lets get started!

MW3 Multiplayer Review (part 1 of 2)
Since multiplayer is the most important part of the game for all of
you gamers I decided to do this part first. So MW3 has improved on the
multiplayer once again. I will begin with the positives and then move
on to the problems and negatives.

First off the multiplayer is as good as ever. There are tons of things
to be unlocked. There is a huge roster of guns to be unlocked by
ranking up. There are new and additional titles, emblems and
camouflages. If you are an elite member or and elite founder you
unlock a winter camo and new titles and emblems for your playercard.
There are 16 maps that shipped with the game with map packs soon to be
added. If your an elite premium member you get monthly DLC for free.

So essentially the multiplayer is the same. You rank up and as you
rank up you unlock guns, perks and equipment. The max rank for MW3 is
80 which is pretty high up there and can take some time. As I am
typing this review I am currently first prestige rank 19. You have
your basic gun classes and they are the Assault Rifles, Sub machine
Guns, Light Machine Guns, Sniper Rifles, and shotguns. I would like to
note that shotguns are now used as primary weapons. MW2 had them as
secondary weapons. A cool feature that was added to the multiplayer
portion would be the ability to level up your guns. The more you use
the guns the more attachments and camos you unlock for them. The max
level for primary guns is level 31. At level 31 you will have unlocked
everything for that gun including the gold camouflage which looks much
better in Modern Warfare 3 than Modern Warfare 2. Another feature
added are strike packages. This is also a great addition. The strike
packages changes up your play style. For example if you want to play
the regular MW style of multiplayer you would pick the Assault strike
package. This is your standard killstreak rewards. You kill 3 in a row
you get UAV. You die you lose your kill streaks. The other package is
the support package. This package is really neat because you get
points towards your killstreaks by killing enemies as well as doing
objectives like capturing a flag in domination. When you die your
points towards your killstreaks do not reset. The support package
offers different types of streaks which will support your team. For
example you get an advanced UAV which you cannot get by using a
assault strike package. The last one is the specialist strike package.
This can make you a god in multiplayer if used right. Basically your
kills do not go towards killstreaks but they go to perks. So if you
get three kills you will get an additional perk to help you out so
instead of three you will have four. These perks are customizable. You
can choose any order you want your perks to appear.

Overall the maps are pretty good. There is a huge variety of maps for
multiplayer. The maps are much smaller then the maps from MW2. This
can be a problem for campers, there are a lot of campers in
multiplayer but it is due to the game just being released so people
are not as familiar with the maps yet. There is a lack of sniping maps
for all of you snipers out there. I am sure some will be added with
the map packs. Some maps are a lot darker and very hard to see some
areas and can be sucky because that's where people camp the most.
Another negative thing about the maps is there is way to much stuff.
The open areas don't really feel as open anymore because there is
always stuff in the area to hide behind and pick people off.

There are new modes added to the multiplayer. These new modes include
Team Defender and Kill Confirmed. These very fun game modes and highly
recommended. Kill confirmed forces people to come out of hiding. With
Kill Confirmed the objective of the game is to kill your enemies. When
you kill your enemies they drop dog tags which count for one point
towards your team. First team to collect 65 dog tags wins the round.
The cool thing about this is if one of your team mates dies they will
drop their dog tag. If you don't want the enemy to get that point you
can run over the dog tag and deny their kill. Team Defender is exactly
like Team Deathmatch with a little twist. So regular kills don't
reward your team as much for points. In Team Deathmatch you get 100
points per kill for your team. You get about half in Team Defender.
The main objective in the game mode is to hold on to the flag as long
as you can. If your team is holding on to the flag and you kill an
enemy you get a bonus towards your experience and towards the team
score. So if you hold on to the flag most of the match then you are
sure to win. Both modes are tons of fun, go try it out!

Now the negatives. The main issue I have with the multiplayer in MW3
are the re spawn points. The maps are small so in game modes like
Domination the re spawning is terrible. At points I re spawned right in
front of the enemy. Another time I re spawned in front of three
enemies. This is extremely irritating. Another problem is the cheap
weapons every tends to use. For example the Type 95 can kill someone
with one single burst fire. Another cheap weapon is the UMP45 which is
by far the most over used weapon in the game. This gun has insane
accuracy and really high damage. Another problem is the shotguns. The
shotguns were awesome weapons in MW2 and Black Ops. The shotguns in
MW3 need a major buff up. Using the model 1887 that gun was a one shot
kill in MW2. In MW3 you get 3 hit markers before the guy dies even up
close! One other annoyance is the Light Machine Guns. These are a huge
disappointment. These guns are so underpowered that literally nobody
uses them.

MW3 was just released so there is still lots of time for them to fix
some issues with the multiplayer. Almost every game at launch has
issues and usually they get fixed. What they recently said in one of
their interviews is that they added a new system to the multiplayer
where they can tweak things on the fly instead of waiting three months
to produce a patch. They already had a small patch where they
apparently increased the power off shotguns.

Overall the multiplayer is as fun as ever. I know a lot of people are
upset with the multiplayer due to the problems. This game just came
out, give it a chance before quitting and bashing it. They need time
to fix the problems. Be patient. I highly recommend people pick this
game up. The multiplayer is fantastic! Enjoy!

Ninety-Nine Nights 2

Console: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Genre: Action/Role-Playing
Release Date: June 29, 2010
Reviewed: November 15, 2011

Gameplay:
N3 2 is a hack and slash game full of action. This game in a way is
like Dynasty Warriors....but worse. The first one I enjoyed but this
one I recommend be avoided. First off with N3 2 you are going through
story mode doing different missions. If you know what Dynasty Warriors
is then there really is no need of an explanation for this game, but
for those of you who don't know what it is I shall explain. N3 2 is
basically a run in and kill game. You face massive armies and to get
to the next zone to complete your mission you need to kill the entire
army. Now these armies and idiots. The enemies stand around while your
destroying them. The odd enemy will come in and attempt to swing at
you to hurt you. As you progress through the game you unlock new
spells for your character. Some of these spells are actually very cool
and can help out a lot. Some of these spells are completely useless
and shouldn't even be in the game.

A lot of the enemies are extremely easy while a lot of them are
extremely annoying. The fly enemies that shoot ice and fireballs at
you are by far the most annoying. Half the time you aren't even able
to complete the mission without dying from them several times.                                                   Every time they hit you with their attacks you get stunned for a few
seconds and knocked down, even if you are in a middle of a huge combo.
No, as soon as you get hit you drop to the ground and are stunned.
Another annoying enemy are the different types of berserkers. Now the
first ones are easy and can easily be avoided but when there are 3+
white ones and you have to kill them to progress.....it's impossible.
Every hit is about 1/4 of your health and it knocks you down and stuns
you. Extremely annoying.

The missions are all the same thing over and over and over again. You
run, kill hundreds of enemies, get mad because of the BS enemies,
reach end of mission, done. There is nothing added to the missions
like obstacles or nothing. Same thing every time.

Graphics:
The graphics are anything new or great. The graphics are a bit
outdated and some of the animations look cheesy and lame. One thing I
can say about this is that the animations for some of the spells look
awesome. Looks like they will do some damage to your enemies. Overall
nothing new, nothing great.

Audio:
The audio is also outdated. The music can be decent at some points.
The voice acting isn't all that great and the overall sound quality
isn't great as well.

Conclusion:
Overall this game isn't the great. If you want to try it then please
rent it. Other wise avoid it entirely. The first one was much better.
Short review but you can't really say to much for a game this bad.

Dragonball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi

Console: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Genre: Action/Fighting
Release Date: October 25, 2011
Reviewed: November 15, 2011

Gameplay:
Dragonball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi is a great addition to the DBZ video
game series especially for hardcore DBZ fans like myself. The fighting
style is completely new and revamped. Instead of health bars you now
have health numbers. You basically start at 50,000 health and it goes
down as your wailing on one another. The fight style is almost similar
to Burst Limit or Street Fighter if you will. The only difference is
you fly in the air. There are two fighting modes during the fights.
First one is "Blast Phase" which means you are in a phase where you
are able to perform ki blasts which are a lot more powerful than the
previous games. The second is "Combat Phase" which mean everything you
get close enough to your enemy a small cut scene will appear where you
both block each others kicks and begin the phase where you use melee
combat instead of your ki blasts. The combat overall if very well done
and is fun. They added a rock paper scissors element to it where say
if you perform a combo your opponent has a chance to counter that
attack based on which action you choose. If you counter then you punch
him out of the way and it cancels the combo. If you fail then prepare
to get your face bashed in.

During the fighting you can charge your ki like in the other DBZ
fighting games. But ki is used differently in Ultimate Tenkaichi. Your
ki is now used to acquire abilities to counter your opponents super
and normal attacks. While your charging your ki there are three icons
where your ki bar is. As the ki bar gets higher those icons light up.
They are, guard, evade, or counter. So if your opponent used
Kamehameha then you enter a small phase where you can choose how to
defend yourself against the attack depending on how much ki you have
charged up. So if you have it to the point where you have enough ki to
use the counter ability then you shoot another blast against the
Kamehameha and mash one of the buttons to over power your opponent. If
you succeed your blast will hit the enemy. If you fail then the
Kamehameha will hurt. The other ones are obvious where you can guard
to reduce the damage or evade to, well, evade the attack. If you max
out your ki bar you have an option to use that ki to get a boost in
attack. When it's full you use the up arrow on the D pad and you
unleash your ki. While your ki is unleashed your attack improves and
you are able to do additional combos. The only downside is when your
in this state your ki will slowly diminish.

Destruction in the game has been improved. So when you unleash a
special attack your will blow a hole in the ground....a big one. When
you shoot a Kamehameha you will see the path it followed in the ground
to hit your opponent. If you use multiple blasts say with Gohan you
will see the mini craters in the ground. If you use to spirit
bomb.....say good by to half the planet. Big crater! Now although the
destruction is cool. It can get lame, boring and repetitive really
fast. Every time you use a special attack there is always a mini
cut scene of the enemy looking shocked and hurt and a big hole of
nothing where they are flying. This happens every time! Gets annoying.
But overall a nice touch.

Another feature they added are the big boss battles. One for example
would be when you fight Vegeta in his ape form. These are actually
pretty fun because you have to actually pull of certain techniques to
beat these big bosses. You also need to damage certain parts of their
bodies in each phase. If you do enough damage you enter a sequence
mode to avoid the big hits and finish them off. Another nice touch to
the game.

One other feature worth mentioning is the hero mode. In hero mode you
go on a little adventure with your created character. Now at first
when you create your character there are not a lot of options at all.
You have to unlock other costumes and features for your character as
your playing hero mode. You unlock things like hair styles, costumes,
logos, and voices. The further you progress into hero mode the more
goodies you unlock to use. Hero mode is a nice addition as well. You
go train and level your character up to make hm stronger. You need to
train because some of the key battles in hero mode are tough. If you
have very little health you will die fast. During hero mode you will
unlock sparring partners. When you unlock them you can face them a
certain amount of times and you unlock additional items to make your
character stronger. It is also how you unlock capsules to increase the
stats of the other characters like "health +1". Overall it is a pretty
fun feature but can be grindy and boring at times.

There of coarse are some bad things about this DBZ game. Yes, fighting
can get really repeatitive due to using the same combo over...and
over....and over again. The rock paper scissors feature can get very
frustrating especially if you lose alot. If you lose you get bashed
into an endless combo which hurts. Hero mode can be grindy and slow
paced. Big boss battles can also be frustrating if you missing an
action or trying to dodge the big fist coming for your face. If you
get hit....it really hurts.

Graphics:
The graphics in DBZ: Ultimate Tenkaichi are gorgeous. A huge
improvement to the last DBZ fighting game. They made all of the
environments big, colorful and full of life. They made each charcter
look two times better and their animations very smooth and great to
look at. The graphics, effects, and animations on the super attacks
like the kamehameha look amazing. It actually looks like it will do
damage and create a giant crater in the ground. When you unleash your
special attack a mini cutscene will appear showing your character
launch it from their hands. When it happens your jaw drops for a
second staring at how big the blast is. The you realise....."this is
going to hurt".

As mentioned above the destruction has been improved and the details
are great. When you create a huge crater you can see the electricity
from the blast surrounding the gian hole in the ground. The more you
damage the fighting area the more hectic it looks. If you damage it
enough the sky turns red/dark and looks like an epic battle took place
there.

Overall the graphics are very nice. It was nice to see them improve it
so much from the last game. Didn't think it would happen or it was
possible but they did it. Kudos to them.

Audio:
So I personally love the audio in DBZ: Ultimate Tenkaichi. It has
great music and great sound. When your blasting or punching someone it
sounds great and goes with the animation. Now the voice acting overall
is really great. It almost had all of the original voice actors from
the show and previous games....except a few like Gohan. Some of these
new voices are terrible. Gohan sounds like a woman smoking to much
cigarettes. Terrible and apauling some of these voices are.

Overall it has a good variety of music and sounds. Voice acting is
great...except for the few like gohan.

Conclusion:
Dragonball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi is a great addition to the over the
top fighting series. They took the risk in doing something new and a
bit different. It for the most part worked. There are some flaws with
it that can be annoying and frustrating. These can be easily ignored
or over looked. The graphics got a huge improvement and everything
looks great. The audio is great as well except for some of the voice
actors. If your an over the top fighting fan or a DBZ fan in general
you will enjoy this game. Rent it first before buying. I personally
loved this game. Overall it is a good game, not amazing but good.
Enjoy!