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Kyoshi Frost Wolf

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  1. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    *Disclaimer: While this blog is me stating why I think you should not buy this game, it is your money so feel free to do whatever. I can't stop you.   So Call of Duty WWII has been revealed to the public to apparent positive reception in initial impressions. The like to dislike ratio in the trailer is actually positive, which compared to last year's Infinite Warfare, that means something, I guess.   The thing is, I am not impressed. While the trailer to me was simply okay, nothing mind blowing, the actual game itself is something I highly recommend that any of you considering purchasing it to not do so, especially not just based on the trailer. A picture only says a few words and the underlying problems are far worse than any scenery change could solve.   First off and this is a bit more of a nitpick but I do want to point it out: The name. For years, people have been clamoring to 'go back to WW2!' and so Activision does. How do they make sure everyone knows that it is back to that? Why, by literally calling the game 'WWII'. Creative subtitle, no thought put into it, just putting WWII to make sure the market knows exactly what it is. This would be like if Uncharted 2 Among Thieves was instead called 'Uncharted 2 Drake Jumps and Shoots'. This extreme blandness and being so on the nose about it is a clear indicator that Activision is just going for a 'market', not a good product. Even Battlefield 1's name is less generic.   Secondly, also over the past few years, everyone has been saying 'go back to the roots of the franchise!' Will that actually fix anything though? Also, by 'roots of the franchise', what do they mean? It is now being used as a clear selling point of this new game, so a clear definition would be nice. Oh, do they mean WW2 because that is where the franchise started? Because if we look back at the old games, like Call of Duty 2 for example, I don't remember that game having idiotic killstreaks, a $50 season pass, expensive supply drops and terrible cosmetic DLC out the ass, nor do I remember a tacked on zombies mode. So to go back to the roots, would be get rid of all of this and we know Activision and even some fans wouldn't want that. Greed goes a long way. Or do they mean 'foot on the ground' gameplay finally? Well, didn't Modern Warfare Remastered do that? Speaking of that...   Third, Modern Warfare Remastered. It went 'back to the roots', right? It had the standard COD gameplay, which is apparently all anyone wants, so it should be the perfect game, right? The thing is, it was TRASH. Seriously, MWR is one of the worst multiplayer experiences that I have ever played and the campaign was just average to me. The balance in the multi was out the window, supply drops were at the forefront (which WERE NOT IN THE ORIGINAL GAME), quickscoping was basically encouraged and the maps were horrendous. So simply going back to the 'roots' of this franchise won't actually fix anything.   Fourth and this might be the biggest one, GREED. Seriously. Everyone has been going on and on, bitching and moaning about 'the futuristic settings' and 'mecha soldiers' of the past few games and they have been pleading for something more standard. The thing is, the 'setting' is not the damn problem with this series. The problems are far worse than that, yet they apparently are never seen by the COD faithful. Activision's GREED is the disease corroding the franchise. We get a new game every damn year, with each game having a $50 season pass, supply drops microtransactions where the game is fine tuned to make you buy, P2P servers with server problems like crazy, unbalanced weapons because no care was put into it, half second kill times, overpowered killstreaks, terrible maps, these are all things that have been killing this series for years now, and a simple change of scenery will not do a damn thing. I have seeing comments like 'YAY! WW2! Finally I am excited for a COD game!' Why? It will be the same problem-riddled experience, just in WW2. I have also seen comments like 'I hope there will not be supply drops.'. Wake up. There WILL be supply drops. There will be countless amounts of pointless DLC. There will be greed throughout this game. Activision is the overseer of these games, they decide what goes where. The developers, Sledghehammer Games in this case, are simply puppets that Activision pulls all the strings on. They have no real say-so on what goes where, Activision is the one that has the ultimate power here and they WILL make sure there are micro-transactions and horrible practices. Each game in the series for the past several years has suffered from this. A scenery change will not prevent this and people need to realize this now. Oh yeah, people...   Fifth, THE CONSUMER. This is both a reason not to buy this game and also another reason why this series is so f*cked up now. Activision is clearly a massive part of the problem, but it is the gaming community that is the second largest issue. This shit keeps happening because people are buying it, every single year. They buy it, then complain about how terrible it is afterwards only to buy the next one. They also buy the map packs each year and the supply drops, showing Activision that people are dumb enough to fall for it all, so they will keep doing it. Vote with your damn wallet and the series might improve. Or not, nobody actually listens to that idea.   Like I said at the start, I cannot stop you from buying the game, so by all means if you really want to, then go for it, but I urge you to at least WAIT a bit and try not to pre-order just because of the 2 minute trailer that barely tells us anything. Wait until you know more, though in the end the game will end up like all of the others in the series, an absolute mess driven by greed, not passion. And if this game sells well, or even if it doesn't somehow, Activision will be sure to exploit WW2 for a few years at least. This is obvious. I can see all of this from 1,000 miles away yet the COD fanbase sees nothing. 
  2. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    Want just a quick summary? Head to the Final Verdict for that and my rating!
    The Eye of Judgment: Legends
    Platform: PSP (Available on PS Store for the Vita)
    Genre: Collectible card battle game
    Publisher/Developer: SCE/Japan Studio
    ESRB: E10+

    The original Eye of Judgment game on the PS3 was what I would consider an experiment gone wrong. It tried to combine a collectible card game WITH a video game as its battlefield. This sounds like a great idea on paper, but it turned out to be an overly-expensive mess that was difficult to set up and was incredibly easy to cheat thanks images online that can be printed. Later, developer Japan Studio tried to revive this idea with the digital only PSP release Eye of Judgment Legends. While it is an improvement upon its predecessor in many ways, it still shows glaring issues within the card game itself and fails to truly stand with its competition.
     
    As mentioned before, EOJ is a collectible card battle game. Instead of buying real booster packs like the original, this time all of the cards are in the game and can be bought individually with the gold that is earned in game. With these you can make decks with a selection of themes and elements, which play a strategic role. The gameplay overall works like this: There is a 3x3 grid and the first play to control 5 of the 9 spaces wins the match. The way you do this is by summoning creatures to these squares. Each square has an element That does not change game to game and you can use these to help further your board control, as well as spells that can 'flip' these spaces to different elements. The concept of winning here is entirely board control. each turn, the current player gets 2 mana and can save these points up and they are used to pretty much use anything, from spells, to creatures, etc. There is a story mode here (unlike the original), standard battles, and standard multiplayer, though I never played the multiplayer portion.
     

     
    One of the best aspect of Legends is the card shop and deck building itself. While unlocking certain cards can be slow, earning gold is simple and the ability to buy cards directly rather than in random chance boosters greatly speeds up the process of building a deck that suits you. Plus as you progress through the story, you unlock additional cards in the shop, though some of these are kinda hard to tell exactly how they unlock or when. The deck building and card shop aspect is by far the best part to the game. It definitely beats buying real boosters like the original game. Another great thing that is obvious is the lack of real cards. Thanks to this you no longer have to fumble with the PS Eye camera which was very finicky with light. Being able to pick and play feels far more natural for this type of game and that works here.
     
    Another aspect I actually liked was the presentation. While it is not perfect, the game does a pretty good job at displaying information to you though accessing certain commands is a pain, such as ending your turn early. For a PSP game, it manages to look the part of the original game, though without the animations of battle, but this is good as it speeds things a long. This game has a good sense of pick up and play if you have decks made, if you happen to like the battle system itself.
     

     
    Speaking of the battle system, this is where Legends starts to crumble. While the overall presentation is nice and there is some strategy involved, the overall gameplay of The Eye of Judgement is fairly flawed for a card game. The overall goal is immensely simplistic and there are not too many ways you can alter the flow of battle, so the luck of the draw is very strong here. Since the goal is only for board control, the whole game feels far too restricted in its design and it can be frustrating when the AI gets that lucky creature early on, which it will do that often. This also goes with deck building. While deck building is fun in the process, knowing if you have a decent deck is very difficult and more often than not, it took constant tuning to finally make some of the decks even remotely playable in a competitive standpoint.
     
    Also because of this board control focus, going second has no real benefit unlike other card games. Since you get 2 mana at the beginning of your turn. your opponent will most likely get a creature out on their first turn. Of course it will not be a very powerful creature, but in a game where the point of winning is board control, it can quickly throw things off, especially since there is no accurate way of knowing who will go first. Another huge aspect I found to be very frustrating, are the opponents in the campaign. While I am glad that there is a campaign here, it is designed very sloppily. Not only does the AI feature some very brutal decks, the real problem is with the special abilities that each one has. Each opponent in the campaign has a passive ability that triggers upon certain conditions. You, the player, have no such thing. This was a terrible decision as it makes most of these campaign fights beyond the first one very unfair and frustrating and luck plays a massive role in winning these and at times you are forced to make and use a very specific deck type to defeat some of these broken AI. The abilities should not have been a part of the game or at least you should have a choice in one as well.
     

     
    One last thing I will say, the term 'pay-to-win' is a popular term in these types of card games, where the more rare and expensive cards can break the game. This game is no different, as the AI in the campaign has specific Ultra Rare cards that once summoned they can potentially break the entire match. This is a problem when the Ultra's that the AI use are not obtainable by any normal means and that system I still don't understand. This weird AI pay to win nonsense combined with the AI abilities makes the campaign far more frustrating than fun most of the time.
     
    Final Verdict:
     
    Thank you for reading this week's Turbo Review! I hope you all have had a good holiday.
     
    If you enjoyed this review, if you want, you can follow the Turbo Reviews blog itself for notifications on every new review!
     

     
    It is hard to believe we are at 20 reviews...Never thought I would have this many.
     
    Until next time,
     
    Turbo out!
  3. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    Well, that's it. 3 and a half years. It has been a long time, but I am not doing this anymore. Being on a forum where nothing I say matters. Where any slight mistakes you make are held to you in the highest regard. Doesn't matter what good you do, the moment you do anything wrong, people will forget. People will not care. So I have stopped caring. I have donated over $100 to this forum in the past. I have made signatures for everyone to use. I have made banners. I have tried to be a welcoming person. I have tried to be a friend. I have tried, so much. Yet, once you make a mistake, nobody will care. The moment you fuck up, every bit of good you ever do will be thrown out the window. Remember that, life is just like that I have noticed. I thought this place would be different, but I see that once again, I am wrong.
     
    So, there you go. I am fucking done.
  4. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    Want just a quick summary? Check out the Final Verdict for that and my rating!
    Stubbs the Zombie
    Platform: Xbox, PC
    Genre: Third Person Action/Shooter
    Publisher/Developer: Aspyr/Wideload

    Stubbs the Zombie was a very neat release from 2005. In a world populated by zombie media, movies, games, etc, Stubbs came along and through a wrench in the zombie game formula by adding comedy, a neat setting, and instead of killing the zombies, you ARE the zombie.
     
    You play as Stubbs, formerly known as Edward Stubbs, an entrepreneur from the early 1900's who unfortunately met his fate in a rather...precarious situation. He rises from his grave during 1950's America in a city built for the future. It has floating cars, robots, lasers, all of that cool future tech that we still don't have most of today! Well, it's all about to be ruined.
     

     
    Stubbs's adventure leads him through several parts of the city as he goes to exact his revenge. The game runs on the same engine that Halo 2 was built upon and it shows. You control Stubbs in a third person perspective, beating up cops, and other baddies with basic Melee attacks to start with. Once you kill an enemy with Stubbs, they will shortly rise as a zombie companion that will fight by your side! When they kill others, they too create more zombies for your horde. Granted these zombies are much dumber than Stubbs and don't have the staying power he does, but they pack a punch in numbers. Like zombies! Another big aspect is brain eating, which can be done once an enemy is stunned or if attack from the air or from behind. Eating brains refills your health, your power ups that you get, and is a quick way of dealing with enemies. Not all enemies are susceptible to this though so think wisely.
     
    Throughout the game, you get several 'power ups' that help you dispatch your enemies and these add variety to the gameplay. You get things like a flatulence blast which stuns enemies allowing for quick brain eating, a gut grenade, and even
    removing your hand to mind control different enemies, allowing you to use their firearm as a weapon! These are recharged as you eat brains and they add a good amount of variety to the game's combat since the standard Melee attacks would get old quick.
     

     
    The controls are fairly straight forward. You control Stubbs with the left stick, camera with the right, and all of the other buttons perform your different actions. Since it runs on the Halo engine, it actually feels a lot like that in control, well, except for the zombie part. This carries into controlling the different vehicles you can use throughout the game, which further adds to combat variety. Despite being a zombie, Stubbs does manage to control well except in jumping, which sometimes can feel floaty and imprecise.
     
    The story is very cliche intentionally with a ton of random humor thrown into the dialogue and the world. The humor here is actually really effective which is hard to achieve in a video game and it will have you laughing at several points. The humor involving the futuristic aspects of the city are also well done.
     
    The game also features a co op mode where you play through the story with another person, who plays as a zombie that looks eerily similar to Stubbs but is a different entrepreneur entirely. While this mode is basic, I actually found it quite fun as it basically doubles the carnage you can cause. Granted it definitely makes the game easier but that's what the harder difficulties are for.
     
    Another great aspect that was unexpected for me was the wonderful soundtrack. It features many wonderful songs that belong in the timeframe that the game takes place, with classic songs and remixed versions of those songs. Yeah, the soundtrack surprised me greatly and it was one of the best for that year.
     
    My only real complaint other than some of the simplistic aspects of the combat is the length of the game itself. The game is rather short and can be beaten in only a few or even a couple of
    sittings. This may put off some and it depends on how much you enjoy the game itself. I found it fun and unique enough to look past it but others might not be able to.
     
     
     
    Thank you for reading this week's Turbo Review!
     
    Until next time,
     
    Turbo out!
  5. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    Want to see just a quick summary? Check out the Final Verdict for that and my rating!
    Killer Instinct
    Platform: SNES, Arcade(Not in this review)
    Genre: Fighting
    Publisher/Developer: Rareware
    *This is a review for Killer Instinct on the Super Nintendo, not the arcade version or the new Xbox One reboot

    Killer Instinct is another wonderful game from my childhood. With the new Killer Instinct reboot on the Xbox One and season 2 for that game on the way, I feel it is necessary to go down memory lane with the Super Nintendo version of the original Killer Instinct.
     
    Killer Instinct is a 2D fighter that takes inspiration from the more popular fighting games of the time, Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. The gameplay is a bit stiff like MK and the graphical style is like MK's, though sprites and pre-rendered backgrounds are used here. The fighting moves themselves are more like a Street Fighter game. You have the basic move motions and even Jago, the obligatory Ninja, is very inspired by Ryu/Ken. The game uses a light/medium/heavy attack system and there are no throws in this one. Blocking is done by holding back. While these work fine, the thing that makes this game unique and fun though, is the combo system.
     

    "Whoa! Look at those graphics! I'd like to get my hands on that game!"
     
    The combo system is like using a special move, but chaining them together. So with Jago for instance, you can do a wind kick, which will then give you the opportunity to chain more moves after the wind kick is done. This allows you to pummel your opponent with very satisfying combos that really separate KI from other fighters at the time. Combos can also be broken by the one on the receiving end if they input a certain command at the right time. Learning each character and seeing their combos makes the game incredibly replayable, even with the lack of modes. Another huge thing about this game are the match finishers, which are the Fatality-like Ultimates and the ever so popular Ultra Combos. The Ultra's are one of the most satisfying parts of the game and each character has a different one. This was easily one of the most satisfying ways to defeat your opponent in any game at the time.
     
    As I just said, the game does lack in modes. You get a standard arcade mode, vs mode for multiplayer battles, a tournament mode and a practice mode. These are pretty much standard and they all work very well, though maybe one or two new modes would have been nice too. These probably would not have fit on the SNES cart so it isn't a huge deal.
     

    "SHORYUKEN!! Wait..."
     
    The graphics for the time are absolutely superb for the SNES. The 3D rendering of the stages and sprites looks great for a 16-bit system and in my opinion it looks better than any other fighter on the system and other than some very minor slowdown that can happen, the game runs smoothly as well. This is definitely a good technical showcase for the Super Nintendo. They may not look as good as the very technically impressive Arcade version, but for the system it is on, Rare did a fantastic job.
     
    Another great aspect about this version is the difficulty balance. In the options menu, you can select from 5 stars of difficulty. The higher the star number, the harder the game. This definitely sets the game apart from the arcade version as here the game feels far more balanced and player friendly, whereas the arcade version features insanely cheesy difficulty and cheating AI in order to drain you of quarters. This home port does not suffer from this and it makes the game a lot more enjoyable. Many think that this game was a butchered port from its arcade counterpart, yet this is the version I always enjoy more.
     
    One last thing, the characters here are quite varied and play differently. Each one is pretty much an early 90's dream. We have the obligatory Ninja, an icy T-1000-like alien, a boxer, a friggin Raptor, and more. A lot of the cast feels like stereotypes, but they work fine given the time.
     
    Final Verdict:
     
    Thank you for reading this week's Turbo Review! Been reviewing quite a few Awesome games lately. Sharing good games is, well, good.
     
    Until next week,
     
    Turbo out!
  6. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    Want just a quick summary? Check out the Final Verdict for that and my rating!
    Animal Crossing
    Platofrm: Nintendo Gamecube
    Genre: Life Simulation
    Publisher/Developer: Nintendo

    For many, video games are a great escape. There are many times where life really isn't fun and we just want to play a game to escape from that reality for a short time. Now what about a game that loosely simulates life and goes in real time? That could never work! Well, Nintendo made it work and it was awesome.
    Animal Crossing has such a deceptively simple premise of gameplay. You start out on a train and after having a nice little conversation with a purple cat (Happens all the time on train rides). Upon having this conversation you arrive in the village that you will call your new home. It is randomly generated for starters and that is a good sign. You are greeted by a raccoon named Tom Nook who kinda sneakily sells you a a house. He is the shop owner in town and he has a way with words for sure. After this, he tells you that you owe him a bunch of money, called Bells in this world, but he is lenient and will let you pay it off on your own time, whenever you please, though the first initial payment is used for the tutorial of sorts.

    Even when nothing really happens at night, it was always so peaceful
    After this, you are free to do as you wish! First off, Animal Crossing runs on real time. Using the clock in your Nintendo Gamecube, assuming you have it set correctly, the game actually goes by your clock and calendar, with of course day and night cycles, events that pertain to such and the seasons even change! This feature alone set it apart from pretty much any other game at the time and it still is the best of that kind. When you are not playing, events will happen even when you are not there! This makes you want to check in every day to see what is new and whats happened.
    In the game, you will be chatting with your animal neighbors, who are also randomly generated at the start, doing many simple activities such as fishing, bug catching, planting trees and flowers, picking fruit, and so much more. Even in its simplicity, there is a surprising amount of things to do and to collect. You can customize your home with furniture that you buy from that Tom Nook fellow and as you do these activities, as well as helping fellow citizens of the town (which you name the town by the way), you will get the Bells that you need overtime. Again, for such a simple idea, the game gives you the drive to keep doing these things, as they are fun and watching your house grow and seeing the town change overtime is quite addicting. There is just so much to do! My description does not and cannot do it justice, there is that much content. You can even make custom designs for outfits and more at the Able Sisters! Even just getting new mail or digging something up yields wonder and excitement, which is pretty crazy for something that would otherwise be mundane.

    Speaking of mundane...
    The graphics and sounds really help this game further. The game has a very relaxing atmosphere and it helps make this game be a wonderful escape, even though it itself is kinda like a life simulator. The graphics are very simplistic but they are have a definite charm. They aren't graphically intensive at all but this game was a port of an N64 game in Japan, so really not much can be complained about. the music here is absolutely delightful. Every hour of the day has its own unique, each just as wonderful as the one before it. This game has one of my favorite video game soundtracks by far. Hearing these tunes while walking around in the snow in the Winter time is pure bliss. The other sounds of the game are great in their simplicity as well. The sound of the snow beneath your feet in Winter, the cute chattering of the world's inhabitants, so many things in this game are done so simply yet so effectively. As a side note, I think this game has the best visual and sound styles out of all of the Animal Crossing games.
    One other thing I need to mention is that you can have up to four players in one village, though there is no simultaneous multiplayer here. You can also travel to the villages of others but you need their memory card to do so. For such an early game in the Gamecube's life, this was a really nice feature, even with its limitations. Oh, and this game knows when you quit the game or reset the system without saving. It doesn't like that, but I will let you find out how it expresses this.

    Catching bugs for money, worth it
    My only complaint about the game might be the fact that on some days, there just is not much to do. Some days you may hop on to only check in for about 5-10 minutes and you could be done for the day. I remember doing this myself plenty of times. Once night settles in, the stores are closed and at that point there is not much you can do at all. There is no way to accommodate the shops times for your own schedule, which this was solved in the latest entry on 3DS. This makes nighttime kinda boring and empty, kinda like real life in a way. Really, this isn't so much a flaw but more like a victim of the game's own design. Some day's are just completely boring, much like real life.
    Final Verdict:
    Thank you for reading this week's Turbo Review! Anything you want to add? Have you played the game? What are your thoughts?
    Be sure to follow this blog if you enjoyed this review and want to be when a new review is posted.
     

     
    Until next time,
     
    Turbo out!
  7. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    Pokemon Yellow



    Platform: Gameboy, 3DS via Virtual Console



    Genre: RPG



    Publisher/Developer: Nintendo/ GameFreak



    ESRB: E



    Price: $10 USD






    Pokemon is a phenomenon in gaming today. It has grown into a gargantuan franchise selling millions up on millions of copies with each release and it has grown a fanbase that is so dedicated to their love for this series and rightfully so. Pokemon is a series that feels timeless even with some flaws. This started with Pokemon Red and Blue and later, these games were updated a bit with Pokemon Yellow; Pikachu Edition.


     

    Pokemon, overall, is a pretty simple concept that many of you may know by now. You play as a character that you can name yourself, going on an adventure to catch Pokemon, train them, defeat trainers and gym leaders, in hopes that you can become the Pokemon master. It is a simple concept that still works even to this day.






    The overall gameplay is straight forward. You move around, encountering random battles depending on where you are moving. These random battles are Pokemon that you can fight, defeating them nets whatever Pokemon that was used in that battle experience points to level up and become stronger. You can also, of course, catch these Pokemon to add to your team, you can name all of them to your liking as well. You will also be running into other trainers, who are nameless in this early iterations, besides their generic titles. Defeating them nets you money and these are usually required to defeat to progress in many areas.






    What makes this gameplay work so incredibly well is the ease of access yet possible depth. Catching Pokemon, leveling them up, it is a rather simple affair. Players of most ages will be able to grasp the concept right away and going through with no strategy can still work, but there is also many possibilities to be strategic. Using the right moves, knowing the stats of your Pokemon, know what could be weak or strong against certain Pokemon and their stats, it actually is really fun to see your Pokemon wipe the floor thanks to you knowing what kind of stats to expect and proper move allocation. While the newer games fair far better in this aspect, it is still in these early titles and it is still a treat.






    The graphics are also wonderful, especially for an 8-bit handheld system of that age. The game has a simplistic overworld style that is basic but charming beyond belief for me. The in battle sprites look fantastic on most of the trainers and Pokemon, far improved from the Red and Blue versions. The sprites here are the first time we have seen many Pokemon be show accurate. Some sprites are still a bit odd (Onix looks weird to me honestly) and the sprites from behind on your side don't look anywhere near as good, but this is an 8-bit handheld system. The sound and music are also wonderful, with many catchy tunes and sound effects that are minimalistic but work so very well here.






    Another awesome aspect that you can do in these games, is multipalyer. Connecting to another playing via a link cable on Gameboy or wirelessly with the 3DS, connecting with friends and trading, battling, is another huge aspect to this series. It is fun to take your assembled team and using the aforementioned strategies for a huge battle. It can be intense and something I highly recommend trying out.


     

    Really, I cannot think of too many flaws that this game has, despite some obvious shortcomings. This game, like the entire series, can be relatively easy in retrospect. Endlessly grinding can make battles be super easy if you put the time necessary to do it, but this is a thing with nearly every RPG of this caliber. Losing all of your Pokemon in a battle has you being put at the nearest Pokemon center so there really is no error for losing here, other than having to walk back. Some other minor things include inventory space being incredibly limited, with plot crucial items taking up spaces. Also, the story here is pretty much nonexistent, though story has never been a series strong point, either in the games or the show. Your rival is also the most generic thing ever, but these things still don't detract from the overall playing experience.


     

    Final Verdict:






     

    Thank you for reading my 30th Turbo Review! ^____^ Can't believe I even have this many.


  8. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    Want just a quick summary? Go to the Final Verdict for that and my rating!
    Mario Party
    Platform: Nintendo 64
    Genre: Party Game
    Publisher/Developer: Nintendo/Hudsonsoft

    Mario Party was a strange yet interesting release when it launched. A board game stringed together by a bunch of mini-games starring Mario characters? That actually sounds awesome! Well, it is actually kinda cool. Now it has become a franchise with over 10 games in the series. Let's see how the first outing fares!
     
    In Mario Party, you go through differently themed 'boards', compete against others in mini-games, and collect coins and stars to become the next Superstar! Apparently becoming the Superstar is the main point of the story.
     

    Each board has its own theme and are also based on the different characters
     
    The main place to do this is in the standard Adventure mode, where you pick your stage, turns, characters and so on. This is the standard go to mode for the goal of Superstardom. You can pick from 6 characters in the Mario universe, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, DK, and Wario, which some oddly enough have their Japan only voices used here. Compared to the newer games, it is a small roster but it was awesome for the time. This mode overall is pretty fun to me, though a couple more stages would have been nice. looking back there wasn't that many overall. You also run into different obstacles on the board depending on its theme, Bowser and a Boo are always on these boards. Bowser exists to make your life miserable and Boo is there to be your personal thief, stealing coins and maybe even stars for you. The overall variety of the boards themselves is good.
     
    Beyond the standard Adventure, you have a Quest mode, where you go through set locations, completing Mini-games along a path with a limited number of lives, which coins from the games give. Surprisingly, this mode is pretty well done as it takes you to many locations and has a good variety of the games, which gradually get pretty hard. I'd say this mode is just as good as the Adventure mode and actually better if you are a solo player.
     
    Beyond this, there is a shop to buy things with your earned coins, a Mini-game hut to buy mini-games and play any of them as you like, an options area, and..thats kinda it. The game does seem like it has a lack of content but overall the replaybility can make up for that, mainly due to multiplayer.
     

    Bowser exists to do one thing: Make you all miserable
     
    The mini-games themselves are the meat of Mario Party and they range from fun to meh to ugh. There are games for tracing objects, shaping a Bowser face to match the center, Shy-Guy says and many more. Even if some of the games are hit or miss, there definitely is a good variety here that cannot be overlooked. There are 4-player games, 2vs2 games, 1 Player only, and 3vs1 games that further add to the variety, though there are not near as many games for the last three, the 4 player games received the most attention for obvious reasons.
     
    Speaking of 4 players, this game can be played with up to 3 other players and multiplayer is where the game really begins to shine. It is clear that this was intended. Playing alone is nowhere near as fun as playing with others though this game has a history of creating bitterness between players at times, it can definitely do that. The game just needed a couple more modes centered around the Party aspect and more games for the other categories, such as 2vs2 and so on.
     

    Face Lift was always one of my favorite mini-games
     
    The graphics and sound get the job done. The graphics themselves don't have the same shine as say Super Mario 64 but they aren't bad at all. The sound fares a bit better though with very catchy melodies in the games and for the worlds, though no real classic Mario tunes are present for some reason, except for when getting a 1-UP.
     
    Final Verdict:
     
    Thank you for reading this week's Turbo Review!
     
    Until next time,
     
    Turbo out!
     
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  10. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    Want just a quick summary? Head to the Final Verdict for that and my rating!



    Super Mario 64 DS



    Platform: Nintendo DS



    Genre: 3D Platformer



    Publisher/Developer: Nintendo






    Super Mario 64. A game that is legendary in the world of gaming for revolutionizing 3D games as whole. This game has an immense legacy and is cemented into the minds of many gamers. Then, nearly 10 years later, in 2005, Nintendo decided to remake the classic title for their new Nintendo DS system. What?! I was definitely surprised by this but I picked it up immediately. How well did that go?


     

    Super Mario 64 DS, is, of course, a remake of the original game on the 64. You run, jump, collect coins and stars to fight Bowser among other bosses to ultimately save Princess Peach and her castle. You all probably know this by now and for the most part, that is unchanged here, though there are many new additions that make this feel like a remake rather than a port.






    First off, the controls. Arguably the most important part to any platformer. The controls are not exactly how they were on the 64, potentially to the dismay of some fans. Instead of adjusting your movement speed with precise tilts of an analog stick, here, you have to use the D-pad and without the precise controls, how can you control your speed? Well, here is what they did: When you move normally, you just walk or jog, to run in a full sprint, you must hold down the Y button, sort of like the original Mario titles. At first, this does feel awkward and it takes some time to get accustomed to such a drastic change and at times, it can be really finicky and cumbersome. Once you get used to it, it does indeed work fairly well, but even then, it still feels like the accuracy from the 64 original was lost in transition to the D-pad. It just is not as smooth.






    One thing that does make a better transition though, are the graphics. The graphics here have been given somewhat of an overhaul. The graphical look of the original is intact, but it has been cleaned up quite a bit here. The textures now look more solid and less grainy and many enemies and characters have been completely redone and no longer have a jagged or blocky look to them, It makes the entire game look far more clean and appealing as a result and it is incredibly well done in that aspect and I commend Nintendo for pulling this off. The game looks really good for a handheld system at the time and it blew me away. Even all of the characters that you play as look wonderful. Speaking of...






    Another huge addition to this release are the new characters. Instead of just playing as Mario, you now can play as Yoshi, Luigi and Wario as well! You don't even start as Mario but rather Yoshi, you rescue Mario a bit later, as well as the other characters. These characters have their own special abilities and certain stars have to be obtained with these characters because of their abilities. This addition is something I really like, though there are some problems. While there are Caps lying around that will let you become a character of the hat that is there, having to switch characters to get certain stars can be a bit annoying. Also, some characters are just not as useful as Mario. Mario is the only one that can properly wall jump and that is one of the most useful abilities in the game. Without it, the other characters are not as agile. Luigi can float in the air for a bit, but that is just not too useful. On top of that, the ability caps are now replaced by Flowers. These flowers contain certain abilities for each character, such as the invisibility for Luigi or the Metal power for Wario, instead of Mario being able to do all of the abilities himself. This to me just seems unnecessary as it now adds another whole step to getting stars that we could normally get in the original game. Overall though, I do like the addition of the characters as they add even more variety to the overall gameplay.


     

    On top of all of this, there are now 40 additional stars to collect and now mini-games to play, which you acquire these buy collecting keys that the rabbits have. The rabbits are back and instead now hold keys which give you these mini-games, each character has a specific overall theme. These games make use of the touch screen fairly well and are a lovely addition. It just adds more and more content to this great package.


     


    Final Verdict:






     

    Thank you for reading! ^___^ This is a very fun release and it is a game I have recently started playing again.


  11. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    Want just a quick summary? Head to the final verdict for that and my rating!
    Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
    Platform: Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3, PC
    Genre: First Person Shooter
    Publisher/Developer: Activision/Sledgehammer Games

    Call of Duty is a massively popular franchise that is the subject of extreme hype and criticism. With each new installment offering little that differs it from the previous entry, this immense powerhouse has seen a decline in both sales and ratings. Now, Sledgehammer Games aims to bring the series back to its beloved form with a 3 year dev cycle, new gameplay and story, and more. This in turn results in probably the freshest take on the series in years, but it still has design choices that perplexes me even now.
     
    As the title implies, this latest entry has Call of Duty taking place in the future, more specifically mostly 2059. Soldiers are no longer just soldiers, but now super soldiers thanks to the new Exosuit technology and now advancements are being made everywhere. While Black Ops 2 dabbled with a near future concept, AW takes the time further and manages to look and feel the part, for the most part.
     

    A shot of the Bal 27 in its overpowered glory.
     
    The devs have stated that a new vision and focus for the campaign was a very large aspect for AW. They wanted to revive the campaigns and make them feel like they are actually worth playing for once, as past COD games have failed to really have any impact within their campaigns. AW manages to rise above the games of the last few years in this way, but sadly, not by much.
     
    The campaign has you playing as a soldier in the future who is sent with his best friend to North Korea to destroy a vital airship that they wield. After which, you go through a predictable romp of shooting things, completing mostly linear objectives, and shotting more things. What sets this campaign apart though are the new technologies at your disposal. You can now double jump, there are exo abilities such as a shield you can deploy, the two categories of grenades are now all on two different grenades that you cycle through, and more. These actually made the campaign far more enjoyable to play in my opinion and you have a lot more choices for combat. When a grenade flys your way, instead of being mostly powerless, you can now dodge away from it. These new gameplay elements might be small, but when combined they make a campaign that is worth playing through at least for the gameplay, even if the story does not live up to it, even with Kevin Spacey, who is excellent here. The story is predictable and pretty shallow towards the end. Some concept of choice would have done wonders for the story, but no innovations were made here. One pretty neat aspect of the campaign are the challenges. As you play and take out enemies, you will be working towards kill challenges that when hit, reward you with upgrade points that allow you to upgrade your exo. This again is small, but for me it was a nice addition. The length overall is 6-7 hours and while that is still a bit short compared to other campaigns, it does outclass the length of past games in this series. Overall the campaign is a lot better than past games of this series, so kudos for that, but the story really is a letdown.
     

    Kevin Spacey AKA the only great character in the campaign
     
    Another mode that is introduced is the Exo Survival mode. In this mode, you and up to 3 others have to survive waves upon waves of enemies, earning points, upgrades for your weapons, and your exo. You also choose one of 3 classes that can only use specific weapons and exo abilities. Honestly, there is not much else to say about this mode. It is pretty straight forward and sadly is not tied to your multiplayer rank at all. It does have its own unlockables but they are limited. I found this mode fun to play for a short while but only with a friend. It is a mode that just does not have enough variety or replyability. It is not bad by any means and it can be enjoyable for sure, but it is nowhere near what it could have been.
     

    The graphics are a step up for this series, but still lags behinds its competition
     
    Now, onto an aspect that seems to be the biggest selling point for this series, the multiplayer. At first glance, the multiplayer feels very much like Call of Duty, it has that distinct fast paced feel. However, thanks to the new gameplay additions, AW has the most verticality than any other entry and that does set this game apart in that aspect. Thanks to the double jump and the dodging and dashing, you have more control over your character and his movements, though the basic movement still feels the same. It is easy to tell that this is running on the same tired engine that this series has been using for many years. Beyond this, there are more new things to be found, some of which are better than others. This game introduces a few new modes and returns many favorites, such as TDM, CTF, Domination, and more. The new modes, Momentum, Uplink, and others are a mixed bag. Uplink is a surprsingly intense mode that is quite fun and a great match for the the new gameplay mechanics. Then ones like Momentum, it is not as fun. There definitely could have been more new modes to match the new gameplay so that is a slight disappointment. Other modes like Kill Confirmed are definitely more fun thanks to the gameplay additions.
     
    Beyond the modes, some other new additions are the Supply Drops, which is the new loot system. This also ties into the new customization system which lets you 'customize' your own soldier. Through the Supply Drops, you will gain new clothing, weapons, and even things like Double XP. The way these are earned is through timed play, I noticed I earned them mostly after I was killed after a certain point, which this is a great idea. Even if you get duplicates of items, you can redeem them for extra XP if that item has a rarity of some kind. Overall this new loot system is a great new addition to the series, even if it inconsistent at times.
     
    The character customization itself is passable for sure once you start collecting items from the Supply Drops, of which there are a lot of, but still it might be hard to make your soldier look exactly how you want. I myself was able to get a good loadout overall, but others might find it more difficult. It is a system that is a massive improvement over Ghost's pathetic excuse for customization and while it isn't completely to its potential, it is a good step in the right direction. As a side note, you can still do local multiplayer with bots as well as system link play if you are interested in that as well. The create a class system is also very customizable to fit your needs with the Pick 13 system. This is a slightly updated version of Black Ops 2's Pick 10.
     
    Now, onto what I thought went wrong with the multiplayer. For one, there is a definite shortage of weapons here. While there are some neat weapons that feel good to use, there is a smaller amount of weapons here than the past games, easily smaller than any of the more recent games. This is kinda alleviated with the weapon variants, of which there are 10 for every weapon, but you still need to get these mostly from the supply drops. More weapon variety would have been nice, especially due to the weapon balancing.
     

     
    The balancing is the next issue. While I do feel this is one of the more balanced entries, there are a few weapons that really break the experience at times, mainly the Bal 27 assault rifle. Not only is this weapon very powerful and basically broken, it is actually the VERY FIRST assault rifle in the entire game that you can use. How Sledgehammer completely missed this is totally beyond me but it is a thing that has frustrated me and others. If this weapon was earned much later then I could understand it, but instead it is a problem that should have been fixed easily, but wasn't.
     
    Speaking of shortages, there are others in the multiplayer. There is an obvious lack of playercards and camos here. Given the 3 year dev cycle, you would think that these things would be pushed even further and made better, but instead there are less of these than Black Ops 2 at launch. These things might not seem important to some and fair enough, but for me, they can help the player further personalize their gameplay experience and for multiplayer, I always see that as a good thing but they instead give us the bare minimum with that. One positive here is that the Emblem Creator is back after its omission from Ghosts (Thanks again IW) and it works quite well, which this does help ease the other obvious lack of work.
     
    One last thing I will mention, the graphics and sound are definitely the best this series has ever had, on the next gen consoles and PC at least. While this is true, it still holds nothing against games like Battlefield 4 in terms of sheer detail. While Sledgehammer was definitely able to set a new benchmark for the series, they still trudged behind the competition. This could be a result of the engine, but it is still a factor.
     

     
    Final Verdict:
     
    Thank you for reading this week's Turbo Review! If you enjoyed this review, feel free to follow the Turbo Reviews blog for notifications on every new review!
     

     
    Until next week, Turbo out!
     
    And for those that buy the Call of Duty games for the Zombies mode present in the Treyarch games, it has been confirmed that a zombies mode is coming to Advanced Warfare, which sounds like a neato idea, but apparently it is going to be in the Season Pass. Sorry Activision, I am still not paying another $50 for that.
     
    *There has been a patch recently to the game that has updated some small things and apparently balanced some weapons. If this patch changes my opinion on anything I will update the review, but so far it doesn't seem like much has changed.
     
    For the record, this game barely escaped my 'Meh' rating. You may have noticed a new addition to this review, my new 'How do they compare' rating where I compare the rating for the just reviewed game with a past game of the series to see how it would compare to the rating I did it or would have given it. Let me know what you think of that below.
  12. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    Want just a quick summary? Head to the Final Verdict for that and my rating!

    Rampage 2: Universal Tour
    Platform: N64, PS1
    Genre: Beat em' Up
    Publisher/Developer: Midway/Avalanche Software
    ESRB: T

    The original Rampage in the arcades was a peculiar game. It was all about annihilating everything in your path as giant mutants in order to get a high score. This kind of setting is reminiscent of the Godzilla franchise. Rampage World Tour vastly improved everything about the game and due to its popularity, a sequel was made in the form of Rampage 2: Universal Tour, a game that takes us to the stars and...well, boredom.
    Rampage 2 is of course the sequel to Rampage World Tour. The concept is basically exactly the same, you cause chaos, destruction, and mayhem throughout many cities across the world. The gameplay here is the same in almost all areas as the first game. The only major addition to this game is that you now also go to places beyond Earth and into space, but the concept stays the same there. Destroy buildings and move on. When you destroy all of the buildings in a city, you move on to the next one. It is a very simple concept that is very easy to get into, but it suffers from extreme repetition very quickly.

    Much like the gameplay, the graphics and sound are essentially the same as the first game with only minor additions. The only other major addition to this sequel are the 3 new characters; A Rhino, a Lobster, and a Mouse. The 3 original characters are unlockable in which you have to save them. The main issue that Rampage suffers from is repetition as I mentioned earlier. The game has a simple goal, destroy everything, but there is no real reward for doing so. There is no real feeling of progression in anything in the game and no stats or additions to your monsters, which would have worked wonders for the game's longevity.

    The best aspect to the game and probably what would make me still play it is the 3 player mode. The game allows for up to 3 players to cause carnage and mayhem or even fight each other randomly. You then can compete to who can cause the most destruction as it is tallied at the end of each city. The game is still very mindless in this mode but it at least feels more fun in its mindlessness with others.

    Final Verdict:
    Thank you for reading this week's Turbo Review!
    Until next time,
    Turbo out!
  13. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    I feel like starting a new blog series, one where I discuss games that I personally find to be very overrated. I will start that now!

    Telltale's The Walking Dead was released to extremely high critical acclaim back in 2012. It one several awards, including the prestigious Game of the Year award. Even I enjoyed it back then and I cried at the ending of season 1. Looking back, however, when I think of this entire series in retrospect, I feel a much different tone towards it. That being that the series is actually pretty bad and incredibly overrated.
    Let me explain. The Walking Dead has a decent premise, but one that isn't wholly unique. You control a single character, go through events, make decisions that 'alter' the story and that is basically it. Simple enough. Sound familiar? Yeah, Heavy Rain did this first. And while Heavy Rain has a lot of problems, I feel it did its concept far better than TWD did.
    While the writing itself isn't great (Many characters are one note) and the game engine has all sorts of issues despite this barely being a game at all, I will go ahead and delve into the game's most massive problem and why I don't like Telltale games at all anymore. Spoilers ahead from here, so you are warned.
    Your choices don't matter.
    They simply don't. YES, they can make other characters treat you differently in a moment-to-moment basis, as well as making your character into more of an asshole or a nice guy, but none of this does what the game advertises at the start of every episode: Alter the story. Every major decision you make will always be thrown out the window in one form or another.
    Take this for example: When you are on Hershel's farm near the beginning of episode 1 of the entire series, you are given the first major choice in the entire game: Do you save Duck, who is the son of Kenny or do you save Shawn, the son of Hershel? Oh shit! The stakes are high! How can I possibly make such a hugely polarizing decision-OH WAIT, it doesn't matter who you pick, because Shawn ALWAYS dies no matter what. The only difference is that if you 'save' Shawn, Hershel shows some respect to you and Kenny is angry with you. Awesome. So I got the respect of a character I will never see again and now the character I will be stuck with for most of the time hates me. Why was I even given a choice?! Keep in mind that if you don't do everything good for Kenny, then he will hate you. Yay, awesome. I love the illusion of choice. /s
    Here is another example: Near the end of episode 1 in season 1, you come to yet another choice of 'saving' someone. This time though, it actually isn't flat out lying to you! If you save one person, the other one does die. Okay, you have my attention. I look forward to developing a deeper friendship with this important character that I personally decided to save-OOOOOOOH WAIT AGAIN! It doesn't matter who you save. In episode 3, no matter what you do, the character you saved is shot and killed by another character. There is no choice, no decision to be made, they are simply killed off without a moment's notice regardless of what you do. I know that the argument could be made that this matches the overall theme of the Walking Dead, you never know who could die, but considering this is a game that straight up thrusts in your face 'Your choices alter the story', it comes across as moronic and cheap.
    To top all of this off, at the end of season 1, Lee, the character you play as and have made all of these oh so important decisions with, dies. Yes, he dies. This actually is a very emotional moment that I do give some credit for, but after I wipe the tears away and think about it, I realize, this invalidates EVERYTHING in season 1. The only things that carry over are how some characters talk about you in season 2, that's it. You play as a totally different character in season 2 and season 2 suffers from the EXACT same problems as season 1. Hell, you can actually get multiple endings in season 2, which is so surprising to me, but then season 3 jumps in time by like 5 years so once again, everything is invalidated. There are many other examples of characters that you can either let live or die, but it doesn't matter because they die anyways eventually no matter what.
    The Walking Dead by Telltale is already barely a video game as it is. The stakes are never really high, it is extremely linear and there isn't much to do except go through the motions to get the story. So when Telltale constantly advertises that your choices truly alter how the story plays out and it actually doesn't, at all, I find that incredibly insulting. Once you take that away, you are left with a bare minimum 'video game'. Even Heavy Rain has 16 different endings you can get! 16!!! And this 'game', you basically only get 1, except in season 2, where you can get like, 5, but all of them are invalidated anyways. This same problem plagues every single Telltale title too, so there is no escaping it. If they want to make a story like this, then make it into an animated Netflix series or something, not this cookie-cutter point and click game with fake choices.
    That is why I think The Walking Dead by Telltale is overrated. It didn't deserve to win Game of the Year for 2012, especially when it is barely a game to begin with.
  14. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    Baboom. The new commission that I have been hinting at is now complete. The artist did an amazing job, completely nailing the kind of vibe I was going for, a vibe that is happy and playful, something that some of my past Kyoshi pieces of art haven't embraced. I don't know if they want me to mention them by name or linking to them, they didn't mention that so I will not do so right now, but I am very grateful for people like them. They allow someone like me to have this kind of expression through art despite me having no skill like this. This commission is a statement of self acceptance, a showing of me not being afraid of embracing myself and who I am.
    Of course, this commission will result in some questions I'm sure and I will fully answer any questions. I will go ahead and answer a big one right now before the image: This is not a fetish of any kind for me, at all. So please don't take it that way.
    With that established, here it is.

    Seriously, they absolutely knocked this out of the park, into deep space. It looks amazing! The colors, the shading, the overall look, absolutely nailed. They went all in on the relaxed and playful look, pretty much
    Now of course, the elephant in the room that isn't an elephant, because elephants are big! Yes, you are seeing what you are seeing. That's obviously a diaper he has on. Whyyyyy you may ask? I'll explain: Anyone that knows me knows I suffer from different mental problems. Always have, always will. That's how it is. The diaper...well, to put it bluntly, I wear those. 24/7 in fact. Different reasons. To simplify, it provides me with an immense feeling of comfort and safety. You may now be asking "why?", truth be told I cannot quite explain it, but this has been part of my life since I was 5 years old. Yeah, the vast majority of my life, this has been part of it.
    For years I have struggled with accepting myself in regards to this. I've had many periods where I tried to distance myself because I felt ashamed, but I always went back and I felt good when I did. I felt comfort. I felt like...me. So I am truly embracing the fact that I am like this. I know, this might seem weird to many, but please know I don't want to weird anyone out, this is just me. I want to accept myself for who I am. This seems like a good thing to do that with, because most of my life I had to hide it, much like how I had to try and seem as "normal" as possible so other people would not stare at me or make fun of me, but that never worked. My quirks always show, because I am me. I can't hide who I am. So me accepting myself for this, is like a statement of my entire self and accepting it all.
    Gah, I am being awkward here, but I have been so excited to share this and here it is. I hope you all understand. I won't blame any of you if you are weirded out, I am just happy I am doing this.
  15. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    Want just a quick summary? Head to the Final Verdict for that and my rating!
    Pokemon Pinball
    Platform: Gameboy Color
    Genre: Arcade
    Publisher/Developer: Nintendo/Jupiter

    After the release of Pokemon Red and Blue and the premiere of the anime, the popularity of the franchise was skyrocketed into the mainstream. Pokemon got a board game, a card game, merchandise, everything! It even made it into other genres, such as puzzle games and....pinball?! Yeah, pinball, and it was good!
    Pokemon Pinball is, of course, a pinball game with a Pokemon theme, being themed after the Red and Blue games. It features two tables, Red and Blue. This is clearly a small number but the unique designs for both and the adventure aspects of the game really hold it up.
    The standard gameplay is what you would expect from something with pinball in the title. You control two flippers to hit a ball, which here is a Pokeball (Squee!). You hit it to get it to hit different point scoring structures on the table. For being a 2D handheld game, the pinball itself actually feels like it does have some decent physics. The ball has some speed and bounce to it when it hits obstacles. Make no mistake, the core pinball here is actually well done and the developers did a good job. I do not remember any major glitches, though I do remember a small one where the ball would slightly go through an obstacle but this was rare.

    Gotta catch em all....in pinball!
    Here comes the really fun part. While pinballing (Is that a word?), you do the standard pinball stuff, collect points and complete little objectives for bonus scores. Here though, you are actually doing things that you would do in the actual Pokemon games! As you play, you will eventually travel to other towns from the games, and even run into Pokemon! This happens once certain conditions are met and then you must hit the proper obstacles to get the image of the Pokemon full. It is random on which one it is, in true Pokemon fashion. Then, you must hit the Pokemon 3-4 times to catch it. Catching Pokemon is actually really fun here and it provides huge score bonuses at the end. The more you catch, the more points you get! Gotta catch em all...to get that high score! This adventure gameplay is the best part of the game and captures the essence of the original games well, which is impressive for pinball. Of course, it being pinball, there is of course a part of luck associated. It can be a bit frustrating when you are doing good only to have the outlanes ruin your good streak.
    \
    The two awesome tables! If only there were more somehow.
    Another aspect that is well done is the visual and sound area. The two tables have a unique look and have different Pokemon as the obstacles, like Voltorbs for bumpers on the Red table or Cloyster on the Blue table. It lends itself well to the overall theme without being overly cluttered. The kickbacks are even Pikachus! (Squee! Again) The music and sound are both great too. The music is very lively, even when losing a ball, though that is still frustrating. The sound effects are also good with great noises for the bumpers and spinners on each table. Overall the sound is good, however there is some slight glitchiness when multiple things happen. The music tends to cut off when hitting bumpers or when the kickback actives. Any other musical hits precede the regular music. This is not a major issue, but an issue nonetheless. This is the GBC after all. Also, the classic jingle for when you catch a Pokemon is oh so satisfying here. There is also a full sound test which is a nice touch.

    So much Pokemon here...
    Really, the only huge flaw that the game has is the lack of content. As I said, there are only two tables and while they are well done, like anything, it can get old after a while. This game is best played in short bursts. There is a Pokedex here which is another great touch, this keeps track of all Pokemon that you have captured. This is a perfect example of a good portable game, as it is great to bust out for a bit when you are bored.
    Final Verdict:
    Thanks for reading this week's Turbo Review! If you enjoyed it, you can follow this blog to be notified whenever a new review is posted!
     

    Until next week,
    Turbo out!
  16. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    Want to see just a quick summary? Check out the Final Verdict for that and my rating!
    Minecraft
    Platforms: Xbox One, PS4, PC, PS3, Xbox 360, iOS, Android
    Genre: Sandbox, Building/Adventure
    Publisher/Developer: Mojang/4J Studios
    *This is a review only for the Xbox One version of Minecraft.

     
    Minecraft is now a gaming phenomenon. It's simple yet immensely deep and rewarding premise has won over many people and it's success has been one of the fastest in gaming history and it is not slowing down. Having it's start on PC, Minecraft has been ported over to consoles by 4J Studios and now it makes it's next gen console debut on the Xbox One. Prepare for a good time.
     
    Minecraft, as many may know, is a game about breaking blocks and using them to build. What do you build? Anything you can think of. The game features two modes, creative and survival. In creative mode, you have unlimited resources for any kind of block and you can fly and move really fast through the world. This is for anyone that wants to just build to their heart's content. The other mode, Survival, has you spawn into the world with no resources to start with, you must gather these and build tools and many other things to stay alive, defeating enemies along the way. This is by far my preferred mode but each one is great for any type of player.
     

    This forest is one of the many biomes in the game
     
    The game uses randomly generated worlds, with near infinite possibilities. You can have the game generate a world for you randomly or you can put in a specific map seed to generate the world. This adds near infinite replayability as no two worlds are built the same. Like many other versions, the worlds here are not 'infinite' as they are in the PC and now mobile versions, this is due to save file limitations. However, the world size is drastically enlarged compared to the PS3 and 360 versions. Finding the 'edge of the world' is much, much harder to do here and given the massive size, them not being 'infinite' doesn't really matter.
     
    Another big improvement for this version is the draw distance. The overall view distance is much improved just like the world size. You can see for a far greater area with far less object popping into the world off in the distance. It is great to see an improvement on this and it really helps with exploring and keeping track of where you are.
     

    Side by side comparison of the draw distance for last gen and current gen
     
    Speaking of keeping track, this is where the one flaw of this version comes to mind. In the last gen versions, you had a map that would help you keep track of where you have explored and show your coordinates. In the 360/PS3 version, once you hit the edge of the world, that is the edge of the map and you stop. On the next gen versions however, the map is not accustomed to the much larger world size. Once you hit the edge, your character icon on the map changes shape and you keep moving, but the map shows you have hit the 'edge', or what would be the edge in the 360 version. It isn't a game breaker, it just requires more attention to be given to the coordinates, I just wish this was changed somehow as it can be really easy to lose your place if you travel really far.
     
    The graphics are exactly what you expect, the classic and wonderful blocky look is here and it is only in a higher resolution. It is still as appealing as ever and the console texture packs are all here if you want to change it up. The Natural pack is my favorite of these. Some criticize the look of the game, but that is not a fair complaint as the graphics serve the gameplay perfectly and have a wonderful charm to them. I would not have it any other way.
     
    The music is another aspect of this game that is absolutely superb. The music is mostly piano and synths and the tracks here are all relaxing, and go with the tone of the game. This is some of the most wonderful in game music in my opinion. There are a few new tracks that go along with this theme well, though one of them is kinda loud in spots.
     

    Note: I have never made anything like this, but you probably can
     
    There is also multiplayer here, up to 8 players online and 4 player Splitscreen like the last gen versions, 4J has plans to increase the online player count as they weren't able to implement this at launch. The Splitscreen multiplayer is wonderful and it is one of my favorite aspect of the game. Having an adventure in Survival mode with a friend is always fun.
     
    There is just so much to do and so much to see. Whether it is finding rare materials underground, finding a dungeon or an abandoned mine, or just building a cozy shelter in a snowy land, there are just so many possibilities for adventure.
     
    Final Verdict:
     
    Thank you for reading this week's Turbo Review!
     
    Until next time,
     
    Turbo out!
  17. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    Want just a quick summary? Head to the Final Verdict for that and my rating!
    Tomodachi Life
    Platform: Nintendo 3DS
    Genre: Life simulation...kinda
    Publisher/Developer: Nintendo
    ESRB: E

    Sometimes, in life, we just want to indulge in a simulation of life, in the form of a video game. Sometimes, we go for Animal Crossing or The Sims or maybe even a simulator game. Then, there are times where we want something that takes all 3 and makes them...weird, but surprisingly really...good. The result is Tomodachi Life for the 3DS, a game that might surprise you.
    Tomodachi Life is a strange title to describe as a whole but the premise is pretty simple. You are the runner of an island that you name and on this island, you will populate it with Mii's (Starting with a look-a-like of yourself if you prefer) and these Mii's live in an apartment complex. They live their lives here, talking with each other, having problems to be solved, developing relationships, playing games, and sooooo much more. Seriously, there is a lot of stuff to do here. There are tons of things to collect, see, and overtime, do, but it does take some time. You can create new Mii's, import them from your Mii Maker, or even use QR codes to import Mii's made by others so there are plenty of options for Mii making.

    Yup.
    Your Mii's have a happiness rating that increases as you do many things for your Mii's and as their happiness goes up, you earn money to buy clothes, apartment interiors, food, and more all for your Mii's. You also get random items from your Mii's that can be used to entertain them, further increasing their happiness. That is one of the larger aspects to the game, making your Mii's happy as they live out their lives, but there is so much more as well, even if at first it is hard to see.

    The rap battles are so insanely cheesy yet hilarious. There is a lot of that here.
    The game starts out very slowly, much like an Animal Crossing title. It uses real time via the 3DS clock and calendar and each day, new events happen, new items are in stock in the stores, and many new things happen, giving you more and more incentive to check in each day. This is a game where the more you play it, the better it gets. At least, it did for me. The more you play, the more events that unfold, the more items are found and collected, and more relationships develop. Your Mii's can even get married and have a baby! As Mii's develop relationships, there can even be love triangles that happen and of course, you can help dictate these things, so it is not all out of your control. There is just so much to do and see and it is fun to see everything unfold and develop. The game is like making memories constantly and you can even take screenshots of either screen to save photos, as well as special photos you can make. For me, looking back on all that has happened in the past is part of the fun.
    This game definitely is very strange a lot of the time. There are tons of conversations, dreams, news flashes, things that are very random and odd, but that adds to the game's charm. The game oozes in Nintendo charm, with delightful music, sound effects, and a simplistic visual flair, though the graphics are obviously nothing special here at all, but I suppose they don't have to be. There are some small moments where the weirdness does not quite hit it off like it should, but there are many times where this game has had me laughing, which is wonderful for a game that is more relaxing in nature. If you grow to like the game's weirdness like I have, you may find yourself laughing many times like I have.

    One of the many really....odd dream sequences in the game.
    The one major flaw that I have noticed, are the mini games. One of the other great aspects to this game are the collectibles, there are so many things to add to your treasury and it is a blast building up this collection over time. The way you earn these is through random mini games that your islanders might want to play at times. The problem is that most of these mini games are...kinda terrible. They are very simplistic but that is not why they are bad, most of them rely on luck and are very annoying. It is nice to have even more variety in the game, but I do think that they could have done better with the games given how well the rest of the game is made. The only other real thing that bothered me was how Nintendo did not allow any kind of same gender relationship other than friendships. Honestly, there was not much of a point to not allow this since you can dictate where relationships go. That might be a controversial topic to some, but not to me in the slightest and it would have been nice if Nintendo was a bit more progressive.
    As a side note, the voice software in this game is hilariously great.
    Final Verdict:
    Thank you for reading this week's Turbo Review! This game was a huge surprise for me and I love it. If you have the game, feel free to add my 3DS friend code, which is located on my profile.
    Until next time,
    Turbo out!
  18. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    Want just a quick summary? Head to the Final Verdict for that and my rating!
    Spyro the Dragon
    Platform: PS1
    Genre: 3D Platformer
    Publisher/Developer: SCEA/Insomniac Games

    Oh boy, it's another classic game that we have here. Spyro the Dragon is a 3D platformer made by the now famous Insomniac Games. When it arrived, it captured the love of many gamers and became one of the most cherished games of the 32-bit era. Why you may ask? Well, let's find out!
     

    That simple yet glorious title screen.
     
    In Spyro the Dragon, you play as...Spyro, sometimes titles give away spoilers. In the beginning of the game, you see a bunch of large dragons having some sort of interview for...something, as you can see a microphone hanging above. They discuss the state of their treasure and then, an evil character known as Gnasty Gnork. Once a dragon starts insulting him and then calls him ugly, he somehow hears this and gets a bit cheesed off, turning all of the dragons to stone, except for one. I will give you one guess on who that is. Yeah, the story here is very slim but that intro holds a place in my heart for being simple yet kinda funny in a way. Just don't expect anything serious here, it's about the gameplay!
     
    Once the actual game starts, you begin playing as Spryo. Your main objectives are to collect treasure, defeat enemies, explore worlds, and free dragons from their stone prisons. Spyro controls quite well. You roam the world with full 3D control. You can jump, charge, breathe fire, glide, and more. This gives Spyro a really fun sense of control, you are controlling a small dragon and it definitely shows. Several enemies have different ways that they need to be defeated, such as being flame resistant, too big to charge, or even both! I really like the variety of enemies throughout the game. The only real problem that the control has is some slight camera issues, they are only majorly apparent sometimes when jumping or running back, but the camera can be oriented to your liking. There are some jumps that can be troublesome too, but it isn't a game breaker at all.
     

    Wonky textures cannot stop this game at all
     
    There is also a dragonfly named Sparks that indicates your health. When you kill sheep, they release butterfly's somehow and these are consumed by sparks, raising his health. The controls may not be entirely perfect, but for the time, they are very well executed, especially for the first game of the series. Taking out sheep for the purpose of gaining health became a staple of the series.
     
    As you free dragons, they will tell you certain hints or random facts, or sometimes just a simple 'thank you' and that's it. Each dragon has a name and while having a main collection mechanic being the focus is not unique, this was one of the better ones of the time. For some reason it is quite satisfying when freeing them, especially when reaching a difficult one. Freeing them also leaves a platform that can be used to save your game. You have to free a certain amount of dragons to advance to the next overworld, which has its own number of stages.
     

    Go home Spyro, this is where you belong (in good games)
     
    The graphics might be hit or miss depending on your preference. Like many 32 bit games, the graphics can be kinda choppy in places and kinda fuzzy too, but this is expected. Other than that though, the game does have a charming visual look. The world is vibrant and colorful and the enemies have nice variety in their designs. I personally enjoy the graphics in the game. The nighttime levels have a very distinct look that I like as well.
     
    Speaking of the levels, they are great too. There is a good variety of places and worlds to see, each with their own particular style and brand of enemies. The later levels do get a bit more challenging, but overall the game never seems too hard, not until the final boss. If you want a platformer that will test you constantly and make you sweat, this isn't one of those, but that isn't a bad thing. Thats not to say the game is a cakewalk though.
     
    The last thing I want to mention is the sound. The game boasts some great music with its own very unique style. Like Crash Bandicoot, it is music that goes very well with the game. Each stage has it's own music, usually to accompany the style of the level itself. The game also has voice acting, as (sorta) mentioned earlier. Spyro and the other dragons have pretty funny voicework though they don't speak often. Overall the voice acting is pretty entertaining at times but not really great, not that it needs to be.
     
    Final Verdict:
     
    Thank you for reading this week's Turbo Review! It's a shame that Spyro is not really Spyro anymore, thanks to Activison.
     
    Until next time,
     
    Turbo out!
  19. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    We got a lot of questions answered at the Switch presentation, but most of these answers do nothing to make me excited for the system. We have a price tag, $300, which is okay. That is the highest I would ever go with it though so it is a thin line. The hardware seems incredibly Wii U-esque, Nothing impressive. The overall presentation focused a lot on gimmicks rather than games. Yay, motion controls are back once again. Something tells me that this thing will once again be a third party disaster. The battery life is...okay, but that is only okay on the high end, 6 hours. Less than that and I think the system has problems. Sure, the thing has HD RUMBLE (ugh), but that doesn't mean shit if you don't have games to show why it will be great. Speaking of that...
     
    We also seen nothing on backwards compatibility. Nothing about it being able to play Wii U games at all, not even digitally. Even worse, the launch lineup is insanely slim with what, 3 major titles and that's it? Sure, one of them is Zelda, but I am now convinced they delayed Zelda on the Wii U just so it would not interfere with the Switch. Dick move Nintendo. I know the Wii U was a failure, but a lot of people bought the damn thing for this one game and you screw them over. Nice. Also, there was nothing on how external storage would work. With such a limited lineup, I see no reason to just rush out and pre-order.
     
    Then we have a new paid online service, which was announced in probably the most confusing way possible. So we are going to have a free online service until near the end of the year, where it will be paid. I really hope they know what they are doing with that, because Nintendo has never been strong with online services and if they are going the paid route, I want to see substantial improvements.
     
    So in the end, I am just not impressed by this thing at all. I wanted to like it, I really did, but so far, I am seeing literally the Wii U all over again, with some features even missing from that. The new Mario game looks nice, as well as some other announced titles, but almost none of them are launch titles and so far look like nothing that could not be done on the Wii U. I have been immensely disappointed with Nintendo consoles for two gens in a row now, so I cannot help but to be disappointed by this approach. The system seems to lack focus, like all Nintendo consoles now. I love my 3DS, that is such a nice system, but even that will most likely be phased out soon in favor of this...thing.
  20. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    World Heroes Perfect



    Platform: Neo-Geo Arcade and AES



    Genre: Fighting



    Publisher/Developer: SNK






    The fighting genre exploded in popularity in the early through mid 90's, mostly thanks to Street Fighter II becoming an instant hit in both the arcades and on home consoles. As a result, many fighting games that attempted to emulate its style came about and while some managed to rise above what they were trying to be, there were some that just failed in almost every way. One of those games, was World Heroes Perfect, an oddly ironic named fighter that just couldn't hit the mark.






    World Heroes Perfect was a Neo-Geo arcade fighting game released in 1995. Upon initial examination, it looks like a pretty typical 2D fighter at the time. You have many characters to choose from, everything is a sprite and you have all of the typical fireball moves and such to pull off. The problem is when you start experiencing the game, you will want to immediately play something else.


     

    First off, the game's visual style. While it seems like a pretty typical knock off of Street Fighter 2 in visuals, I find them to be rather unappealing. A lot of the colors, while there are a lot, seem to mend together thanks to the sporadic design of the stages. The characters themselves look decent but very uninspired. This also goes with the stages. While they all actually look okay, their overall design leaves a lot to be desired and often, the visuals just look cluttered and unjustified. Clearly, the devs tried to go with style over substance here but failed. The graphics are not bad, but they scream bare minimum for what they are trying to be. even the health bars and images of the characters next to those bars are so very ugly and could have used a bunch of refinement.






    Then there is the sound design. The sound design is even worse. While the music in some stages is okay, like the graphics, much of it is unappealing but there are also some really bad and repetitive tracks here. One stage in particular, which takes place in feudal japan, has a track that just irritated me while playing. Then there are the sounds of the characters. Oh, wow. These are bad. The characters that you play as have their own assortment of grunts and yells like other fighting games do, but here, they happen FAR TOO OFTEN. The grunts and yells here are incredibly repetitive as there aren't that many for each character, but they repeat at a near constant rate. This will annoy you so fast that you will want to mute the game in less than a minute most likely. While I can see why they tried to give each character a personality that is distinct, the sound design here is mostly an epic fail, even if some of the impact sounds are well done. Also, each character here is incredibly generic, from your typical Ryu rip off, to a wrestler, to some demon American football player. Yeah, what?






    Now, we can talk about the control, the most important part to any fighter. While everything else screams sub par, the controls here are actually okay, for the most part. Each fighter controls in a pretty typical manner, but the game just feels clunky. Movement can sometimes be sporadic with how inconsistent the movement speed can be. Double tapping a direction will make your character sort of dash in that direction but this is unreliable and most often results in you being hit. The special moves are also a pain to pull off. Add this up with biased hit detection and lousy movesets for each character and you have a game that just becomes tedious. Most of the A.I. fighters resort to spamming certain moves thanks to the unpolished gameplay and I find that spamming is actually far more effective than any other strategy, which is a huge no-no in a fighting game like this. There is barely any strategy to be had and the amount of damage that each hit does is rather inconsistent as well, some characters do an insane amount of damage with some hits for no apparent reason and this makes the A.I. fights challenging, but in an unfair way.


     

    Final Verdict:






  21. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    Atari has apparently been on a mission to murder the beloved Rollercoaster Tycoon franchise, one of my all time favorite games EVER. They pretty much were successful with the crowdfunded disaster of Rollercoaster Tycoon World and then proceeded to put a few more bullets into the series with Rollercoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile, a horrendous mobile pile of trash.
    Well, Atari is back at it again. They have come back to now parade the corpse of RCT around like some puppet in a horrific nightmare fun-house, minus the fun. Their latest venture happens to be taking place on the Nintendo Switch of all systems, but hey, an RCT game on the Switch? Hell yeah! I like the Switch, I love RCT, good match no? Apparently though, Atari is hell bent on making sure that this series stays buried forever.
    This is their latest 'project'
    Yes, you saw that. How many things can they possibly get wrong with a simple video?! This next 'game' is going to be crowdfunded, despite the COO spending the first 2 minutes bragging about how awesome and successful Atari is. They want a minimum of $10,000 in 3 months. Thing is, you notice how the thumbnail uses a shot of the original classic game? Look closely at the footage of the 'new' game for the Switch. It is just a goddamn PORT OF A MOBILE GAME. What realm of reality are the people at Atari living in? What hellbeast spawn sided with them to make such a horrible cash grab attempt? There is literally nothing about this that has what makes RCT fun or even remotely good. They want US, the consumer, to pay for their shitty cash-in mobile monstrosity on the Switch. The Switch deserves better, RCT fans deserve better, GAMING deserves better. That smug pile of shit COO who clearly wanted us to know how good his company is wants to rely on crowdfunding. Yet, they even are fucking up that to no end. You wanna know how much the minimum pledge is to this game? $250. You read that right. $250, at minimum. What about pledging a higher amount? What will you get from that? Well, if you donate $750 to this campaign, you will get the luxurious prize of...a 25% discount on the game when it releases. So, if you pledge that much money, you don't even get the fucking game. Even then, this game is actually going to cost MONEY? A port of a free to play shithole and we will have to pay for it on the Switch? How about...NO.
    Seriously, screw you Atari. They have done terrible stuff in the past, but this is the last straw for me. I hope they fall, I hope this fails horribly and I hope eventually, they lose everything. This is greed beyond anything else out there. This is worse than EA, this is somehow worse than Activision. This is just abysmal. So, to anyone reading this, please go to that video and dislike it to hell. Make your voice known on their Twitter if you wish. Anything. Atari needs to be sent a clear message for absolutely destroying a franchise that so many people love and grew up with, including me. Rollercoaster Tycoon, a game that stands the test of time even 20 years later, is now reduced to this. Thanks Atari, thanks.
  22. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    Rocket League



    Platform: Xbox One, PS4, PC


     

    Genre: Driving/Sport


     

    Publisher/Developer: SNK


     




     

    Rocket League was welcomed with praise and gamer love when it first launched for PS4 and PC. It took YouTube by storm and became one of the most popular games ever in its genre, even winning Best Sports/Driving game at the 2015 Game Awards. Now the game makes its way to Xbox One so Xbox gamers can now see if the hype and praise is justified for the title. I can simple say; Yes, yes it is.


     




     

    Rocket League is a deceptively simple game on the surface. It is a game where you drive RC-like turbo charged cars, collecting boost and trying to hit a soccer ball into the opposing team's goal. So essentially, it is soccer. With super-charged RC cars. You can play 4 different modes online, these are all just player amount variants. 1v1 duels, 2v2, 3v3 and the ultra crazy 4v4. Each of these have their own sort of feel and I think that 3v3 and 4v4 are the most fun of these. Then you have splitscreen online offerings and up to 4 player splitscreen locally, as well as exhibition games with AI and players and a single player season. All of this revolves around the same premise: Crazy RC cars, playing soccer. Does this sound like it can feel samey and repetitive? Well, it doesn't.


     
     
     

    The best phrase I can use to describe Rocket League is this: Simplistic Perfection. While the game is simple at the surface, what makes it work so well is how perfectly it is crafted. The cars feel incredibly fun to drive, being able to boost and jump around and hit the ball at extreme speeds never gets old. It might take a while to get used to the physics and how they work here, but they soon become second nature. There are tons of things to unlock, the sheer amount of items available will keep you unlocking things for hours and hours on end and all of these things are unlocked as you play, so there is no focus on trying to get them, you will eventually either way. The rewards are also handed out randomly so nobody unlocks the same things at the same rate. So you and someone else at the same rank will not get the same exact item at the same time. The sheer amount of content to unlock and use is incredibly impressive for a $20 title. There are a bunch of new car bodies, tires, paint jobs, paint types and even boost visuals that you can get, and there are also tons of different things from other games here too. These are a treat to see and I would love to see even more come to the game in future DLC.


     




     

    The balance here is also so beautifully done that it pains me to see so many military shooters nowadays that have balance as an afterthought. Here, everyone is on an even playing field. The skill gap is relatively small compared to most games and this allows many players, casual or not, to jump right in. There also is not much skill that is needed to play the game well. While one can learn the ins and outs of the angles needed to make some really good shots, the extreme chaos of the gameplay makes it to where skill becomes an afterthought and it becomes pure madness and fun. Seeing all of the players boost towards the ball and slamming into it and crashing into each other in such a frantic pace makes me think of a bunch of five year olds that have just received an immense sugar rush and here, that works!


     
     
     

    Even the matchmaking works incredibly well. It does not take long to get into a game and if the game is taking a bit to find a certain player, it will just replace him/her with an AI car that is there until a player joins to replace it. This completely eliminates any team balancing issues and the AI, while kinda dumb at times, knows how to make some great saves and defend the goal. I did have a couple of instances where, for some reason, the AI pushed the ball towards our own goal, resulting in the other team getting an advantage, but this happened very rarely. Speaking of happenings that are rare, I have rarely experienced any lag issues in the game, save for a few moments and I have experienced absolutely no disconnections whatsoever. With huge shooter franchises like Call of Duty that charge you $60 for the game AND an additional $50 upfront for DLC, it is insane that this $20 game experiences less network problems than that franchise.


     




     

    Honestly, I find myself enjoying this game more and more the more I play it and it is difficult to find any major flaws. I suppose the A.I. can be finicky at times, but this is very few and far between. I suppose another slight gripe is the lack of play-field variation. While there are a lot of environments in the game, each one is built upon the exact same field, with no changes in elevation or overall style. This could be to help the balance out though and thus, it doesn't bother me much. I am just too busy having fun and going crazy in the game to care. I do highly recommend that if you can play it with a friend, take that opportunity, as playing with a friend was some of the most fun I have ever had in a video game. Also, I have experienced a couple of crashes in the game, but only while playing splitscreen online.


     
     
     

    Final Verdict:


     




  23. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    Want just a quick summary? Head to the Final Verdict for that and my rating!
    Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix
    Platform: Xbox 360, PS3
    Genre: Puzzle
    Publisher/Developer: Capcom/Backbone Entertainment

    Originally released on the Playstation and Arcades during the Street Fighter 2 craze, Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo came to make us all out of breath with its long name but also entertain with it's surprisingly fun gameplay. I remember playing it constantly back in 'the day'. Such a shame I have to call that time as it is but whatever. Capcom much later decided that we needed a longer name with a huge visual upgrade with Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix. You may breathe now.
     
    Puzzle Fighter's gameplay is simple. You move and drop pairs of differently colored blocks. When you get four of them together or more, they from a much larger block. You use these trippy orb-like items that randomly appear with a block to break the blocks of its corresponding color when it comes in contact with that color, this will break the blocks it comes in contact with and any it is connected to, again, if it is the same color as the orb. One thing that makes this a bit different though, is it uses characters from the Street Fighter and Darkstalker's fighting games and once you break blocks, you will then drop blocks onto your opponent! This makes it feel a lot like a fighting-puzzle game especially thanks to the animations that play out as you 'attack'. The gameplay here is addicting thanks to the very fun combos and chains you can create, pummeling your opponent after making a huge chain of blocks.
     

     
    Each of the fighters have their own unique drop patterns and this is one of the better aspects of the game. While some patterns are better than others, each one feels unique and adds a bunch of replayability to a game that already plays pretty well. The modes in the game also change this up. You have the new X' mode, which changes some of the fighter's drop patterns to be a bit more competitive, X mode which has the original drop patterns, and Y & Y' modes which are variations of the gameplay. The main meat of the game is in the X modes as they are the standards and the most fun. The Y modes, which have you breaking blocks in very weird ways, feels tacked on and I honestly never played much of them. I doubt many play these regularly. Each of these four modes are also like the standard arcade mode, where you go through the fighters until you beat the boss.
     
    There is also an online mode where you can play against other players in ranked and non-ranked play. This is what you would expect, it's Puzzle Fighter online! This obviously not being in the original makes this a pretty interesting addition and it works well, though it is pretty standard fare. My one gripe beyond the lack of features, is the occasional online lag. While it never completely hampers the gameplay, at times it can make some of your block movements be delayed which can really mess up a specific strategy that you were aiming for. Beyond that there is not much else to say about the online, it is very standard, but it works.
     
    One of the biggest additions to this version obviously are the revamped HD visuals. The art style and graphics have been completely overhauled for most of the game, especially for the blocks and visual effects and it shows. When played on an HD display, the colors are far more vibrant and pop out way more than the original. Even the sound is vastly improved! This definitely puts this game far beyond the original in the graphics and sound area. My one gripe here though, are the character sprites. I am sure there was a reason behind this, but for some reason the character sprites did not get the same visual upgrade, they are actually the same sprites from the mid 90's essentially. This makes them look kinda fuzzy and quite out of place in comparison to the rest of the eye popping visuals.
     

     
    Another thing I want to mention is in my opinion a decently huge addition to this Remix, the ability to press Up on the controller to instantly drop your current block. In the original game, you could not do such a thing, you had to hold down in order to drop the blocks and it dropped at a standard pace. Here, you can press down but now pressing up will instantly drop your current block. This makes for some really intense and much faster gameplay when this is mastered. I found that to be one of my favorite additions to this game and I am happy it was made. Going back to the original felt so much slower in comparison.
     
    One last thing, this remix is missing the unlockables from the Playstation version, for reasons beyond me. This game could have used something like this because while the gameplay is very fun and replayable, it does lack in content overall. I want my sound clips and artwork!
     
    Final Verdict:
     
    Thank you for reading this week's Turbo Review!
     
    If you enjoyed this review, be sure to follow Turbo Reviews for notifications on every new review!
     

    Until next time,
     
    Turbo out!
     
    (Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix is available for Xbox Live Arcade and PSN for $9.99)
  24. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    Want just a quick summary of the game and my rating? Check out the spoiler below!
    The Sims 3
    Platform: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
    Genre: Strategic Life Simulation
    Publisher/Developer: Electronic Arts/The Sims Studio
    *This is a review for the original Sims 3 on Xbox 360. It does not include The Sims 3 Pets or any PC expansions.

    Ever since I played the original Sims on the PS2 (Yep, played it on that first) and later on the PC, I have always had a special place for The Sims. For me it was originally one of those relaxation games. As time went on the series really felt like it was going further and further away from its roots without actually improving them though and the Sims 2 on consoles was a complete disaster. Turbo Review for that one? Maybe. Then, comes along The Sims 3, which I purchased for consoles. My expectations were very low but I had a little bit of hope that it would be great again. That tiny bit of hope did wonders. The PC might be superior in many ways but for a console effort, The Sims Studio pulled off something really good.
    Upon entering the game with a blandish menu you get some very nice music that sounds like it always had belonged in the series. More on that later. Then a first slight gripe pops up, EA Online. You need an online pass to access some pretty basic features, such as the Workshop where you upload and access custom design from other players. This, was not the best first impression. It does not hinder the overall game, but it was an annoyance to see. This pass might be free at this point, I cannot remember actually. Be sure to check that if you pick up the game.

    Upon entering the actual game though, you are immediately tasked with making your first Sims so you can put them in a lot within the city. There is no real story mode to speak of, its just get in the game and do whatever you wish, which I actually prefer. Creating your Sims is very simple as it has always been but now you get far more options than any previous console Sims game. You can change the hair, face, clothing, clothing for specific events, such as the wonderful event of sleeping, make-up, and more. Here you can also write a biography for your Sim and select personality traits for them, which there are plenty to choose from to make good combinations. This helps your Sims easily stand out from each other and it is one of the best features. You also choose a Lifetime Wish here. Wishes are random objectives that will pop up a lot from your Sims, which upon completion, increase your Sims mood and gives you Lifetime Happiness points, which can be spent on different rewards. There are also plenty of challenges to complete which once you complete you earn different points for different rewards, like new furniture, clothing, and more. Some might say that the game lacks features in the overall modes since there is literally only one, but I found plenty to do as there are numerous locations to explore, people to meet, and all of this can be done at your leisure.

    Once in the game itself, the building features are also the best that the series has to offer, on consoles at least. You get plenty of options to build that perfect house for your newly created...creations. You can build up to 3 stories, make pools, balconies, have differently themed rooms, and plenty more. Want a neato outdoor porch area with a swimming pool and an HDTV right next to it? You can do that. Building has always been half the fun in this series and it is no different here. One of the newest features in the series, which I mentioned earlier, is the Workshop. here you can paint specific parts of your furniture, choose materials, patterns, and the colors for those patterns. Remember that HDTV you put next to your pool? Make it more natural looking with a wood texture! This is a simple yet remarkably clever feature that allows you to further personalize your household. I once made table and chair set after the Mane 6 color schemes. Sounds neat? It was. Another great thing is the options for your Sims. As per series standard, you can have your Sims make money in several ways, but a job was always the best option before. Now, you can either do that or make money in many different ways. Paintings which eventually can get you a bunch of money, fishing, growing friggin money trees, there are plenty of options and I loved this freedom of choice.
    Everything else with your Sims is what you would expect from this series with some small but new tricks. Your sims have an overall mood which is dictated by the several attributes, which fall over time and you have to keep those up in various ways. Series staple there. however, there is one new thing. Moodlets. These are mood enhancers that appear once your sims do certain things, like eating. If they eat a good meal, boom, their hunger bar goes up but they also get a nifty positive moodlet that enhances their mood for a set time. There are also negative moodlets as well, so be on the lookout. You can also have your Sims get into relationships, get married, have a baby, have the baby grow up over time, there is a lot to do here. You can also dictate how fast your Sims age or you can disable that all together, again, more freedom of choice which is wonderful. One gripe I have here, there is no proper family tree. All it shows you are Sims that are currently living, not any past relatives if they had passed away. This is a small gripe but I would have loved a proper lineage tree.
    The music in the game is actually very nice. The build/buy modes offer very upbeat tracks that do such a wonderful job setting the atmosphere. It all feels strangely uplifting and sounds like it always belonged here. While I do miss the wonderful Piano music from the original, this does the series justice in a different way. Of course, there is always custom soundtracks that you could use.
    Lastly, the graphics are the best that the series has seen on consoles of course. Everything has that Sims charm to it, especially the Sims themselves who are very expressive. The game runs very well on the Xbox 360 (With installation, which I recommend) but there were some moments of slowdown in the PS3 version. nothing gamebreaking at all, but it is there a bit.
    Final Verdict:
  25. Kyoshi Frost Wolf
    Want just a quick summary? Head to the Final Verdict for that and my rating!



    Nintendo Badge Arcade



    Platform: Nintendo 3DS



    Genre: Arcade



    Publisher/Developer: Nintendo






    2015 was an odd year for Nintendo. While we received greatness like Bayonetta 2, Nintendo decided to experiment with much greedier concepts. One of these was Amiibo Festival. The other, was Nintendo Badge Arcade. An awesome looking concept on paper that is foiled by greed.


     

    Nintendo badge arcade is a simple premise that sounds like a winner. You play on various claw machines to get numerous types of badges from several games and these badges can be used to decorate your home screen. That sounds cool! While doing this, you have a pink rabbit that is your assistant as you do this. He likes to make all sorts of puns and tell you about stuff going on in Nintendo. Like new games and even past games. Sounds good, right?


     

    Quickly, you will see how this concept falls apart. Early on, you are given some free plays to maybe get some badges, but the first problem arises: The control. While the control is simple, the claw machine physics feel incredibly biased against the player, making for a lot of cheap moments when the claw doesn't want to properly grip onto a badge or just randomly stops because it came in contact with the wall slightly. On top of that, the badges love to slip right out of the claw and it makes for a very luck oriented experience. While this might actually be very accurate to real claw machines, this makes for a very frustrating and pointless gameplay experience.






    On top of this, the plays cost $1 for 5 of them. Essentially 20 cents a play. While that may not seem too bad on the surface, the game here is mostly luck and there are many plays where you may get nothing at all. Thus, this is a case where you are paying for potentially nothing at all and that is terrible for a video game. The game is free to download, but since you rarely will get free plays, one a day if you are lucky, the game essentially costs money to do anything. All for simple badges that do look nice, but are not worth such an investment, especially at the chance of not getting them at all. Along with this, there are also many machines that have badges in places where it will take more than one play to get them, mostly for popular characters that Nintendo knows that people want. Clever, but also, a dick move.






    Then, there is the rabbit. This pink assistant at first seems like a friendly little guy to help you learn the game and give you some tips. While this seems true at first, it quickly becomes apparent that this characters exists for one purpose: To trick the kids. His personality is clearly fine tuned to make children get excited about these badges and talk them into spending money off of their parent's credit card. Every single time you use up your free plays, which happens very, very often, he will ask you if you want to switch to 'paid play' and of course, the selection marker is on 'Yes' by default. This tactic, while blatantly transparent, feels rather shameless and something I never quite expected from Nintendo.





     

    Final Verdict:






     

    And there you have it. One of the worst 3DS games of last year and of all time. Thanks Nintendo, I guess.


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