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!

Four Swords Adventure Anniversary Edition

I would like to add one thing before going on with the review. Just wanted to let everyone know that this game is FREE. If you own a DSi or 3DS then you can download this game from the Nintendo Eshop for free. This game is offered free to the fans as an anniversary gift. As you all may know that this is Zelda's 25th anniversary, therefore, you receive a free game for being a loyal fan.

Gameplay:
This game is not the same game as the original Four Swords Adventure. This game was remade by Nintendo as an anniversary gift to all the Zelda fans. The gameplay is generally the same as in the original game. What I love most about this is the wireless capability. Remember with the original game you needed to play co-op with a bunch of link cables? Well now it's wireless; makes it a lot more fun. Lets start with the general gameplay then we will move onto the multiplayer portion.

Singleplayer:
If you play on singleplayer mode then you will control yourself as well as a secondary link. It plays as any typical Zelda game where you explore dungeons and defeat the boss at the end. With a secondary link you use him to help get through different puzzles that require two people to do it with. Instead of the secondary person you have a second link to control. You can throw him across obstacles and when you need him to hit a switch then you simply press the "L" or "R" buttons to control him. The point in this game is you need to save Princess Zelda once again from the evil Vaati, like in the original. You go through multiple dungeons to unlock keys to open the way to Vaati's castle to save the princess.

As your battling your way to get these keys you are exploring dungeons trying to grab as much rupees as you can. If you acquire a certain amount of rupees then you will unlock something (not going to tell you, will ruin the fun in it). Even when you beat the game you unlock something pretty cool! What I love about the campaign is once you beat Vaati you will unlock the "Forest of Memories". This is a fantastic edition to the game to celebrate the anniversary. The "Forest of Memories" has three levels to it just like all the previous dungeons you went through. What great about this one is you play through levels from the past games. The first one you play is the outside of Hyrule Castle from "A link to the Past" Zelda game. After you beat it you finish it off by going into the castle. The last level is the level from the very first Zelda game ever to come out. After you beat the forest, you unlock one final area.....all I'll say is that it's tough! Bring a friend, in fact bring three.

Multiplayer:
Multiplayer is the exact same thing as the single player. In multiplayer you and a friend, or friends (you can have up to four people play) go through the campaign and you all need to work together to solve a bunch of puzzles to get through the campaign. You and your friends go through and you all compete for rupees. If you end up getting the most rupees you win a medallion and if you get five medallions you unlock something for yourself. I find this game is much more fun with other people. You get angry and most of the time your laughing so hard.

Free gift for Zelda fans!

Graphics:
The graphics in this game are the exact same as the original, but a little bit more updated. The art is well done as well as the environments within the game. Nothing to special about the graphics, just like the original 2D version. Still very nice and crisp animations and graphics.

Have fun with friends!

Audio:
The audio in the game is outstanding. The reason being is because of the fact that every single Zelda song is in the game. From the classical levels all the way to the newer ones. In some way they use all of the music from the previous games. It makes the experience that much more enjoyable for you and your friends, especially if your a fan of the franchise. The audio for everything is nice and crisp, from swinging your sword to throwing your friend around, which is a blast by the way!

Conclusion:
Four Swords Adventure is an outstanding and an addicting game. If your a fan of great cooperative experiences or are a fan of the franchise then I promise you will NOT be dissapointed playing this game. For a free game, it is  very well done. Thank you Nintendo for giving your fans a fantastic game. Why not get this game? It's free!

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Battlefield 3 Beta Multiplayer Review

I myself am not a big fan of Battlefield but I know it is a big game and very hyped up so I am going to do a small review on the multiplayer beta. Remember each section is ONLY regarding the multiplayer beta.

Gameplay:
I am actually impressed with what they allow you to do with the beta. Only one map and one mode is available for the beta but you are able to test and take advantage of all of the unlockable content from ranking up and completing challenges. I personally think they should allow a second map to test out the vehicles as well. They may add it at the end of the beta but I have heard nothing as of yet. So Battlefield 3 is running on a completely new engine as most of you have my noticed. The game is extremely realistic as your running, jumping and even killing enemies. We will talk more about that in the graphics department.
BF3 multiplayer plays the same way as most online FPS's do now. Which is ranking up, and unlocking new items, perks, attachments, etc... What I like about BF3 is that the more you use a specific class the better equipment you will unlock for it. For example, if you only use the assault class and nothing else, you will notice as you kill enemies or accomplish certain challenges with that class you will notice a small experience bar going up with that class. Everytime the experience bar makes it to the end you will unlock something for the class wether is be an ACOG scope or a bipod attachment.

While you are playing you will earn basic experience by killing enemies. You will get 100 per kill. Just like Call of Duty if you do a unique kill or save a team mate or anything along those lines you will be awarded with bonus experience. When you do something say like get 5 headshots in a row you will unlock a ribbon which can be worth 200, 500 or more depending on what challenge you do. Everytime you capture and objective, in the case, defend or destroy the targeted objectives you will also receive experience for that as well.

Anytime you get your experience bar all the way up you will increase your rank. Currently I am ranked 16. The higher your rank the cooler your unlockables will be. Whenever you rank up, the odd rank, you will receive a new gun or new piece of equipment for you to use and customize with your favorite class. Everytime you receive a rank up it will take a little bit more experience everytime you want to go for the next rank.

The mode you are able to play on is called rush. Basically what you do if you defend two objective from being blown up by the enemy team. Each time the two objectives get blown up you get to progress to another area of the map to defend more objectives. As the enemy team your goal is to blow up the objectives to win. With this type of game mode you need a lot of communication. It even helps if your playing with friends. One other thing I would like to mention gameplay wise is the two new features they added. The first one is squads. You can choose to make your own squad with friends or you can opt in to automatically be assigned to a squad. This works well via communication as well as an added option. Say if your entire squad dies except for you. If you can stay out of harms way for a certain amount of time you squad will actually respawn where you are standing. One other feature is the battle log feature. Just like Call of Duty Elite you can track your games, stats, and see recent matches and things your friends have done. Pretty neat.

One more thing about the gameplay is the cons. I understand that this is still in early beta and that is the point of betas is to test out the game and find any bugs or errors. This is my personal list of a few. So generally it is a decent game online, not a personal favorite but it isn't to bad. Some of the bugs I have found is a graphical bug where the screen will randomly flicker while you are turning around or running. Another one that really annoys me is the odd time when you are aiming down your sights, let go of the trigger and try to re aim again, you are unable to do so for a little bit and it sucks while you are in the middle of a fire fight.

Rating: 8/10

Graphics:
So as stated above the graphics to this game are beautiful. They look very realistic and the environments are very well done. What I love most about this is if you throw and grenade or use an explosive near a tree, the tree will actually fall over. Almost everything is destructable in the game so if someone is hiding behind something just blow it up and you will get them. The running and walking animations are top notch. It looks very realistic how an actual person runs and walks. The animations are very well done. The only main issue is that the beta has a few graphical errors which I am sure they will fix up for the release.

Rating: 9/10

Audio:
This is one of my favorite things in BF3. The sounds are so realistic and sound amazing. When you fire a gun it sounds like a gun! When you blow something up, oh yeah, it sounds like an explosive. The running and walking sounds are well done. Even when your running on grass, dirt, water or stone it all sounds realistic. Everything you do in the game as a realistic sound. Overall very impressive.

Rating: 9.5/10

Conclusion:
So as you all know I am not a big Battlefield fan but fair is fair. A lot of people are and this is a really big and hyped game. So I tested the beta and these are my thoughts on the game. Overall the multiplayer from what I have played is pretty impressive. They did a great job of adding in new features and a new engine to the game. Other than a few errors, bugs, and gameplay issues, it is really a great multiplayer experience. I do say this, it is a lot more fun with friends. So make a squad and go have some fun!

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

BF3 beta review coming really soon!

Hey so I just finished up my BF3 review and it should be up today or tomorrow  Stay tuned!

Star Fox 64 3D Review

Here is another remake of an amazing classic put onto the 3DS system.

Gameplay:
Star Fox 64 3D plays exactly the same as the original for the N64. What I love about this is it is like OoT for the 3DS. What I mean by that is they actually updated the graphics and added new features to the game to keep it refreshing. Now they story overall is very very short. I mean in roughly an hour you can beat the entire story. That is the only issue I really have with it but I will focus on the cons in a bit. Lets talk about the Pro's. Star Fox 64 3D is a great addition to the 3DS system and another great remake. Embark on your journey to destroy Andross, the evil mad scientist. In Story mode you navigate through the different planets or missions and progress through the story. What I like about this is when you beat a mission you don't have to go on a straight path onto the next planet. They added it so when you beat a mission you can go ahead and do an alternate mission instead and progress the other way. Another thing I have always enjoyed about this game is the alternate routed you can unlock in mission. The first mission (Corneria) is a prime example. If you save falco and then fly through the hoops in the water and if you go through all of them Falco will compliment you on your flying and then tell you to follow him. You follow and space ship and go through an alternate route through a waterfall. When you beat the boss in the alternate route you actually unlock the other missions and gives you the opportunity to fight Star Wolf again and go to Venom 2 where you fight a harder version of Andross. The story is the same, missions are the same.

They did add other modes to the games. They added a score attack mode where you pick a mission to go through and it's basically trying to see if you can beat your scores. By score I mean how much enemies you can kill. If you kill a certain amount of enemies you earn medal. Bronze, Silver and Gold.

Another mode is the Battle mode. This mode you can face CPU's or some friend in a battle. There are different modes within battle mode such and score attack, and survival. The only issue I have here is that you can only face friends via DS download play, no online play at all. So battle mode is only fun if you want a small challenge and kill some CPU's.

One thing I should mention in the campaign is that there are two modes to choose from. The modes are Nintendo 3DS mode or Nintendo 64 mode. The Nintendo 3DS mode is a mode that uses the Gyro feature in the 3DS. Which means when you tilt your 3DS you ship will turn that way. You use the gyro and the stick to control your ship. The Nintendo 64 mode is based off of the original gameplay. Standard stick and button gameplay like in the original.

Rating: 8.5/10

Graphics:
Yes, the graphics are and have been improved in Star Fox 64 3D. They updated all of the graphics for the 3DS and it is a very nice update. The environment, characters, effects, ships, etc... is all updated and looks a lot better than the original version and makes the gameplay a little bit more fun to play.

The 3D is also well done. The only issue is if you play on the Nintendo 64 mode and you try to view it in 3D you will be moving your head a lot to see the 3 D effect. If you play with the gyro controls then your head will already be moving with the ship so it keeps the 3D effect. 3D looks great overall and really works for the type of game.

Rating: 9/10

Audio:
Well not much to say about here because the audio is the same as in the original. The music is the same and all of the sound effects are the same as well. They did however update all of the audio to make it sound a lot more crisp and clear. With the graphical update also came with and audio update. The voice acting is terrible (like in the original) and the dialogue still sucks. Also Slippy is as annoying as ever.

Rating: 8.5/10

Conclusion:
Star Fox 64 3D is a wonderful remake for the Nintendo 3DS. I have so happy that you can experience this game again like you did in your childhood. Although a great remake, it also has some flaws. For example the gameplay is way to short, as in 45 minutes then you beat it. The extra modes really do not make up for the short gameplay because your constantly re doing all of the missions which can get pretty boring really fast. If your a Star Fox fan then you will enjoy this game.

Overall Rating: 8.5/10