AoF's Review Café

[Alexisonfire]

This is a reminder necromancy bump to tell myself to get my butt in gear on reviews for the following games:

Eternal Sonata (Well, finish that review)
Orange Box (just finished Half-Life 2 Episode 2 this weekend)
The World Ends With You (just finished this last night )
Beautiful Katamari
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Mario Galaxy

Most likely in that order too.

[Revan/anakinjmt]

Well, this weekend was interesting. Had a work meeting Saturday morning that lasted two hours, and I split my time reading Brisingr and playing Force Unleashed. Yesterday I finished both. So, here's my spoiler-free review of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.



Story: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a multimedia project akin to Shadows of the Empire back in 1997. It, like Shadows, has a game, book, comics, action figures, and a role-playing game. However, unlike Shadows where the main story was in the book, the main story of Force Unleashed is in the game. The story, while good, isn't as good as that of Shadows of the Empire (though I have not played a lot of the game but I do own and have read the book) or that of KOTOR or KOTOR II. The game is set between Episodes III and IV, the "dark times" as Obi-Wan calls them to Luke in IV. The prologue seems to take place mere months after Episode III, due to the stormtroopers still wearing clonetrooper armor. You play as Vader, which is a real treat that alas lasts too short and is only for one level, who has arrived on Kashyyyk, the Wookie homeworld, to hunt down a Jedi that escaped Order 66. There, Vader finds the Jedi's son and takes him as his secret apprentice, killing the stormtroopers who find the boy with Vader. It is the boy you play as for the rest of game. Codenamed "Starkiller" (a nod to the original name for Luke Skywalker "Luke Starkiller"), for the first third of the game, you move through the galaxy, hunting down Jedi and killing them, all the while killing rebels, Imperials, and natives that see you, for no one can know you exist. Your goal is to overthrow the Emperor. After the first third of the game though, let's just say you need to change tactics and hunt out the rebels to join them and rally them instead of kill them. All the while, your pilot Juno Eclipse wonders what Starkiller is really thinking and intending.

To be honest, you'll feel that way yourself. Starkiller talks, but it's very hard to figure out what he's really doing and planning. Whose side is he really on? It's supposed to be up to you, although you really don't get that "choice" until the end, which I'll get to later, but the game definitely heavily points out the light side, canonical ending, which is a strange contrast to KOTOR and KOTOR II, where it truly felt like it was up to you which ending to take. The "choice" at the end is really who will you have your last fight with. Both of your choices are evil, but one will mean you are for good while the other means you are evil, but the way the cutscene right before the "choice" ends makes it appear like you can only fight the "good" enemy, showing you are good. In fact, I didn't even know you HAD a choice until I looked at the guidebook for a strategy on how to defeat the final boss and saw that it gave strategies for both potential final bosses.

The story is interesting. It shows how the Rebel Alliance truly formed, and you find out that (according to the canonical ending of course) that the insignia of the Rebel Alliance was the family crest of Starkiller's family and they took it in his honor. You also see what REALLY happens to Shaak Ti after her death scene in Episode III was cut (you can see how she was originally supposed to die in the deleted scenes in III). The story definitely helps set up the leadership of the Rebellion being Bail Organa and Mon Mothma, uniting the different Rebel factions consisting of Republic loyalists and former Separatists into one alliance. If you're curious how the Alliance was officially formed, after seeing the early hints of it in Episode III, you'll be satisfied.

Gameplay: This though is the cream of the crop, what the game is all about. I played this on the Wii, just so all of you know, so I don't know how 360, PS3, PC, DS, PSP, or mobile gaming works. The whole point of the game is to see the Force...well, unleashed and used in a way never seen before, which it does very well. Let's just say, although it's in a cutscene, that scene in V where Yoda lifts Luke's X-wing out of the swamp is NOTHING compared to what Starkiller does with a Star Destroyer. The motion controls, for the most part, work pretty well. Your lightsaber is controlled with the Wiimote just like how your sword was controlled in Twilight Princess, and your Force powers and movement are with the nunchuck. Your Force powers are really Lightning, Grip, Choke, and Push or some combination of the four. Push is done by thrusting the nunchuck forward, which is awesome. Lightning is done with the C button, Grip with Z, and Chock by holding Z on an enemy and then rotating the nunchuck 'till it's upside down. Push is pretty effective in the early stages of the game, as it will often times kill the stormtroopers, but honestly about halfway through the game, unless they hit the wall really hard, they're low on health, or something collides with them in the air like a box, it won't kill them. But, that's when lightning become useful. Against simple stormtroopers, Lightning will fry their nervous systems and kill them. Jettroopers, Troopers with Force pikes, commanders, and heavy troopers though will need more effort, especially Jettroopers and troopers with Force Pikes. Force grip is useful for picking up objects, moving them towards an enemy until the enemy glows red, and then releasing the object, sending the object hurtling towards the enemy. This is REALLY useful against AT-STs, mecha (I'll get to that later), rancors, and even some Jedi, although be warned they can and will sometimes throw the object back at you. Now, the powers you have are cool and powerful, but considering the vast range of powers you could use (and often didn't) in KOTOR and KOTOR II, it's a bit disappointing, although one brand new power which is awesome is explode. Basically, Lightning, then Push and if there's more then one enemy, one enemy becomes a human bomb...literally. Useful against groups, but doesn't work if it's a lone enemy, so it's useless in boss battles, unless they summon soldiers to help them, which several of them do.

Saberplay, like I said, is done with the Wiimote. The cool difference between TP and FU is that unlike TP, where you would swing the Wiimote in different ways and the sword would always swing the exact same way, in FU your saber will swing differently, which really shows that this game, unlike TP, was built from the ground up for Wii. Jabbing forward with the Wiimote jabs your saber forward and such. You have two-hit and three-hit combos which are done with nice, fluid, big, LONG motions with the Wiimote. To do a two-hit, you move left, right, left and a three hit is left, right, left, right. You need them to be kinda slow ones though. I started doing fast motions and couldn't get the combos. I had to slow it down to finally get the combos in. If you do a lightsaber combo and then a Force power, you'll unleash devasting attacks. Like, a combo followed by Lightning infuses your sword with lightning and causes a massive explosion of lightning that looks pretty sick. It was definitely more fun swinging your arms around fighting then hitting buttons. You really feel like you're fighting.

The game is hack-and-slash, pure and simple, akin to God of War, though with noticeably less blood. No puzzles here, no items to collect to open a door. You simply move through each area, killing troopers, destroying machinery, and whatever else. You'd think it gets boring, but honestly it doesn't, because it's a good mix of enemies. There's the regular soldier, the grenadier, the melee fighter, the airborne (only against Stormtroopers, Felucian natives don't have airborne soldiers), and I think one other one. You can't just hack through all of them though. The Jettropers you need to basically Lightning them while avoiding the shots of the other Jettroopers, who are surprisingly accurate for being Stormtroopers, and their flamethrowers, which will do a lot of damage. A good mix would be lightning on regular soldiers, pushing airborne and grenadiers out of the way, and then lightning the melee fighters until you run out of Force power or if they're blocking it and then engaging them with your lightsaber. Expect to die several times, although the good news is the enemies that you have already killed don't come back.

Boss battles are epic and feel like a real battle, especially after how you moderately easily wipe through the regular soldiers. Jedi is pretty much lightsaber against lightsaber, with some Force powers thrown in. One cool thing about the Wii version is Force locks and lightsaber locks. When you come up against an enemy with equal skill, you'll sometimes enter into Force locks or lightsaber locks, which basically if you're facing a Jedi you'll both be firing lightning against each other for a Force lock, and for a lightsaber lock you'll have your lightsabers clashing with each other and it's a test of strength. To win the lock, you have to rotate the nunchuck or Wiimote (depending on the type of lock) until it's in the position shown on the screen and then thrust forward. Do this several times without missing one and you'll win the lock and get in some free damage. Then, when your boss has low enough health, you'll enter into the final stage of the battle. It'll be a cutscene akin to those of Resident Evil 4, where you have to move your Wiimote or Nunchuck forward when you're prompted. As long as you hit each one, you'll do damage or avoid an attack and then eventually you'll defeat your opponent. These scenes are awesome to watch when you can watch them, but often times you're busy watching both sides of the screen for your next prompt, but if you can keep an eye on the action, you'll see some truly sick things. You'll mainly fight Jedi, but sometimes you'll fight AT-STs, where you satisfyingly compact them in the end, random big criminals or mercenaries, rancors, or mecha. Which, seriously, mecha? What is this, anime? You'll fight guys who will then hop into what seriously can only be described as large mecha and you'll have to destroy the mecha to beat your enemy. Very odd thing to see mecha in Star Wars.

Graphics: Even on the Wii, the weakest of the current gen in terms of power, the graphics are still awesome. Lightning and Push are very satisfying to see. You'll go to a good number of places, some you'll know from the movies like Kashyyyk, the first Death Star, Cloud City, Jedi Temple (if you're playing the Wii, PSP, or PS2 version), and Felucia, if you remember that's the jungle planet briefly seen in III when Order 66 was given and the clonetroopers killed that hot blue Twi'lek Aayla Secura, while others will be familiar if you've played other games or read books, like Nar Shaddaa (which in the nearly 4000 years since KOTOR II hasn't changed much, if at all) and Raxus Prime. You'll even see the interior of Vader's Super Star Destroyer Executor, which is where he primarily is in V. IGN complained that the environment feel uninspired but I have to disagree. They all look amazing and really shows the scope of the galaxy and really look very good. The final battle on the first Death Star, if you "pick" the good ending, gets filled with Lightning and Push, and the Wii shows it all looking great.

Sound: Voice acting seems to be hit and miss. The guy that does Vader does a good job, though you can tell it's not James Earl Jones. Sam Witwer, who is playing Doomsday in this season of Smallville, does a fair job as Starkiller, but his Palpatine makes me miss Ian McDiarmid. Jimmy Smits reprises his role as Bail Organa, so at least there's one voice that matches the face. Whoever played Leia though sounded NOTHING like Carrie Fisher. At least who they got for Padme in the Phantom Menace game and the Clone Wars microseries and movie sorta sounded like Natalie Portman. Leia though I only knew it was Leia because she said her name and she looked like her. Judo Eclipse, your pilot, speaks with a distinct, clipped British accent, which is very interesting. All the other non-American/Canadians toned down their accents for their role, but Judo Eclipse has a very clear British accent. I think they were trying to show her upbringing and intelligence, because she joined the Academy at 16 and was an exceptional commander early in her Imperial career, but honestly her having a British accent sort of threw off the whole "galaxy far, far away" thing. I'm sure Brits appreciated it, but to me it was like "oh, someone from England somehow ended up here."

Music is well done. The music starts off with prequel music and then as you progress through the game and begin forming the Alliance, it starts moving into classic music, sometimes combining the two. And the music scored just for this game sounds pretty Star Wars-y as well. Sound effects are also great. Moving the Wiimote to swing the lightsaber emits lightsaber hums from the Wiimote speaker as well as the main speakers. Blaster fire sounds good, crashes, bangs, and explosions all sound great. Nothing really to comment on here, except that the effect done for the actor that voiced PROXY, the droid that can take on holographic appearances and is what you mainly use to communicate with Vader, sounds really nice.

Once you've beaten the game, you can go back and start the game over with your upgraded Force powers and large health and Force points and enjoy the game again, get the Holocrons you missed the first time (basically you'll find Holocrons which when you get them will unlock concept art) and such, but that's about it. I will mention, speaking of Holocrons, that's there are three types. The regular, yellowish box ones unlock concept art. The blue ones are for your Force bar, increasing your Force points, and the red ones increase your health.

You gain powers by completing levels and you upgrade them with your XP, for lack of a better word, which you get by defeating enemies and getting Holocrons. The more enemies you kill in a row the more XP you get.

Overall, this game is a great game, a lot of fun to play, with a good story, but not up to the level of KOTOR and with some work needed on bosses, where often times you feel cheated because they keep attacking you without letting you get up or get away. I give this game an 8.5/10, or a 4...out of 5.

[Sonic the Werewolf.]

If you liked The Force Unleashed that much on Wii, the 360/PS3 versions would blow your mind.

Wii version is good, but the others are even better.

[Alexisonfire]

If you liked The Force Unleashed that much on Wii, the 360/PS3 versions would blow your mind.

Wii version is good, but the others are even better.

From my understanding, the three versions are relatively equal, in that the PS3/360 version has some pros/cons while the Wii has different, but relatively equal, pros/cons.

As to what is a pro and what is a con, I cannot say. I was never really too enthused by the game and I don't see that changing.

But nice review Anakin nevertheless.

[Extra T]

I wrote a pretty brief review of My Japanese Coach today.  Thought I would share it with all of you.

I'm going to start off this review with a very blunt comment: My Japanese Coach is not a fun game. There was never a time when I legitimately enjoyed playing the game, and there was never really a time when I felt like I was playing a game. Because really, My Japanese Coach isn't a "game" but more of a learning tool. And as a learning tool, My Japanese Coach succeeds in almost every aspect.

When you first start up the game, it encourages you to wear headphones to maximize learning. It may seem a bit unnecessary, but it was definitely helpful to me, if only to help focus more on the game itself. Make sure you are totally focused on the game while you are playing, too, because you will be struggling to memorize words and phrases if you are distracted.

The presentation of this game is a bit lackluster in my eyes. The graphics aren't very exciting, especially those in the mini games. The background music is pretty painful, although you don't hear it too often. The redeeming feature of this is the inclusion of near full voiceover, so each word appearing on the screen will be spoken by a native Japanese speaker.

The game is set up similarly to Rosetta Stone, albeit on a much smaller scale. There are three main sections of the learning process: the first two lay the groundwork, while the third is basically building your vocabulary. Each of these sections is broken down into much smaller sections, called lessons in the game. Each lesson has an overriding theme, such has Colors or Greetings.

At the start of the game you take an aptitude test of sorts, which judges your current understanding of the language. If you already know a lot of basic Japanese words, you can skip over the beginning lessons. If you don't, that's o too, because they will simply start you at the very beginning (which is where I started).

A problem I had with the lesson breakdown is that the order is seemingly random. One minute I was learning how to write the first few letters of Hiragana (the basic Japanese written language) but then the next lesson I was learning numbers 16-100. I wouldn't even get my next Hiragana lesson until three or four lessons down the road. It was frustrating to have to learn something as complex as Hiragana in chunks, because it was harder to retain it all.

Besides simply pronouncing the words and expecting you to remember them, the game also includes a surprisingly roust Playback system. You can record yourself saying a certain word, and play it back to see how well you said it. You can also overlay it with the native speaker's pronunciation to see if you matched it well enough. It was very nice to have this feature included, if not just for the sheer hilarity of hearing yourself mispronounce words.

The game also features a writing mechanic, obviously done via the touch screen. Japanese characters are outlined on the touch screen and you can draw over them will your stylus. You can then take away the character and try to draw it without any aid. Once again, you can overlay the character with what you drew, to see how close you were. The writing recognition is a bit shoddy at times, but overall it's very helpful tool.

As you progress through the various lessons within the game, you are expected to "Master" the new words learned in each lesson. How do you do this? Repetitive mini games, of course! There are a total of 12 mini games in the game, ranging from a Whack-A-Mole variation to a Memory game type thing. These 12 mini games span over more than 50 lessons. To call it repetitive is a bit of an understatement.

On top of that, mastering words requires playing the same 2 games offered in the lesson over and over again. Even if you feel that you know how to count to ten, the game insists that you master the words in game. It's tedious and repetitive. Eventually I even began to dread the mini games as I played through the lessons, not because they were necessarily unfun but more because I didn't want to have to play them thirty times before moving on to the next lesson.

However, I think Ubisoft knew what they were doing when the made this a necessary step in the game, because seeing the same words within the games over and over again helped me better remember their definitions. As tedious as they are, the games are definitely helpful in the learning process. I just wish there was more variation within the lessons, or at least less tedium within the rote repetition.

This aside, I must say I am very impressed with this game. I actually feel like I am learning Japanese, and not just memorizing Japanese words. The game is very engaging in that respect; it always explains how the lesson pertains to Japanese culture and language. It isn't entirely immersing, but at least it isn't simple memorizing words and characters.

My Japanese Coach succeeds in being a tool to help you learn Japanese. It can be tedious at times, and it may not be a "fun" game, but at the end of the day you are learning Japanese on your Nintendo DS. The robust Audio interface and helpful writing recognition enhance the lessons and help you better understand Japanese. But the lackluster mini games and tedious repetition stop this game from being the total package.

[Alexisonfire]

Sly 3 Mini-Review

- First off, I should mention that I have not played Band of Thieves or Thievius Racoonus in a few years. So maybe I'm glossing over the truth about those games, with time erasing any nitpicks and gripes about them and maybe adding some sparkles and polish that wasn't there. But still, I'll compare them as best I can.

- The game is definitely the strongest of the series in the story department. Not to say it was flawless. There were some twists that were obvious, a few connections with characters that were flimsy at best, and some... lackluster writing. That last one in particularis outshined by it's predecessors. Regardless, Sly 3 is a nice tale with a enjoyable premise and is an especially fitting end to the series.

- The game, however, is weakest in the gameplay department. Not to say it is a bad game, but it doesn't live up to those before it. Why? Well it's because the game is like, odd as it is compare these two, Sonic Adventure 2. There are some missions that are quite fun, while others are so dull that you wonder why you are playing this game. Except Sly 3 never really tilted that far to the "horrible" end of the spectrum as SA2. This was a complaint I had with Sly 2 as well. I mean, Murray and Bentley were fun to play sometimes, but the point of the series was Sly himself. His sneaking abilities and what have you. And his missions are undoubtedly the funnest and most rewarding. Bentley and Murray are fun in moderation only. (Seeing the SA2 connection now?) Sly 3 began to several more characters to the mix. Great. Two of the characters are clunky and not well implemented, another one is fine but his only attack is nearly impossible to control, and the other one takes away one of the cooler aspects of Bentley gameplay. Still, the sly missions and most of the Bentley/Murray/sometimes Penelope missions were fun. Which is the majority of the game.

-Speaking of the characters. I'm really disappointed in how they tackled them. While Bentley and Murray had some significant story development in Sly 2 and Sly 3, all of the other characters seem rushed and not fully explored.

- Any challenge whatsoever in the game is completely negated by the almost constant stream of checkpoints. Unless you are in a boss fight or certain missions (dogfights comes to mind), death will mean nothing but getting your health back to full. It really irked me when I was playing it and really is my biggest complaint about the game, especially given the almost ruthless(ly refreshing) nature of the first game's difficulty.

-Carmelita's voice is changed AGAIN. Hate that.

- But for all my criticisms, it is a sly game. It is a good game. Not a perfect game. Not a great game, but a good one. It has the excellent visual style, voice acting (except for Carmelita), fun gameplay mechanics, and everything else the series is known for. It's probably my least favourite of the series, but I still found it an enjoyable experience. If you've played the other games in the series, it's a must own (especially with how cheap it is nowadays. I got it for $10). But if you're new to the series, I suggest heading back to the start.



Highlight of the Night: Murray's Speed Racer parody.

[The Dark One™]

Time to get my reviewing pants on.

Now I've played a lot of "free" online mmo games a lot of which were average at best. They always included an item mall which you could buy lots of helpful stuff or clothes to dress your person in.

One such game is called Tales Runner made by some japanese people.

The premise of the game is running really fast in a race using different items to trip up the other players. Think Mario Kart without the kart.

So far, you can choose from 4 characters, each with different speeds and handling and whatnot.

Let's judge it by its merits first.

-Pretty fun game. It's challenging and very unforgiving which adds some fun, as well as a little frustration, but that's what all games need. The animation of each character is very smooth and is pretty good looking even on mediocrely specced computers, like mine. The items are varied as well as the stages to run, with different boss "battles" that will keep you on your toes. They even have horizontal runs of many different maps as well. You can run, swim, climb, jump, and more action verbs through lots of fun levels.

Now it's downsides.

-Each character has to spout something out whenever you jump. I've heard so many "Jump! Double Jump! One more time! Jump! Etc!" Over and over again when on levels with lots of jumping over things. Kinda annoying. I also find the controls kinda too simple. Most things can be done by bashing the jump button over and over again. The next thing would be that some of the items, though varied, can really cripple those ahead. I remember being in first, only to get hit by a chicken (think red shell) or other item and be bumped into 5th place. The next thing would be the fact that when someone else finishes first, no matter where you are, you have 10 seconds to get to the end or you lose. It does help to keep gameplay fast paced, but it makes it annoying when you're up against someone who can quickly get ahead of everyone and finish while the rest of the group lags behind. Cheeses me off. Another down side would be the unforgivingness. Though I like how hard it is, there are times when it is almost unfair. I have seen many times on a level where a giant lizard sends slightly smaller versions of itself with rollers trying to roll you over. Getting hit means instant death. I have seen where there are two people left alive and one gets a chicken, shoots it at them and they die from getting run over. Kinda unfair for the leader, but oh well. I only wish you had some health, like two hits maybe.

This game is pretty worth it. New content is slowly being added all the time, keeping everything fresh. I recommend this game to those who like Mario Kart or racing. It's fun. Something we forget to have.

TD1 Approved!

[Alexisonfire]

World of Goo Review!

Okay, so for those who don't know: World of Goo is a WiiWare and PC/Mac/Linux title developed by all of three people. Seriously, the credits are about 30 seconds long, with a good majority just being thank yous. Anyway, the game is a puzzle game in which you build constructs to guide small, googly, crazy noise making goo balls to a pipe at the end of the level that will suck them up and send them to... well, send tehm to wherever the heck the pipe leads. So what are these constructs made of? Well the goo balls themselves! The balls of goo function both as your mission objective and as your resource. Pick up one of those goo balls, and place it near an already made construct and you'll be able to connect them to build upon what's already there. Simple, no?

Well, it is simple, but it is excellently refined simplicity with great pacing and a ton of fun. The game starts off with the basics. Make a tower out of your goo. Get across a small gap. The first chapter, containing ~10 stages, pretty much shows you everything you could do with the goo balls.

And then they introduce new goo balls. Goos that you can detach and use again. Goos that can survive on spikes. Goo that extend when weight is placed on them. Goos that sick to walls. Goos that set on fire. And several others. These are all cleverly implemented and introduced in a way that their usefulness is immediately realized, yet the potential for what they can be used for is only slowly unraveled. With these new introductions of goo types and usage for existing goos, the game is constantly evolving

And once you have mastered the types of goo... well, lets just quote the game "Everything Changes in Chapter 4."

While the difficulty curve is finely crafted for the most parts, there are a few levels that will leave you scratching your head long past when you finish the game. The most obvious example that comes to mind is a level about half way through the game that called for some intuitive placement of goos and using a limited amount of a new type of goo that was needed to get yourself to the end point of the level. Forgive me for being vague, but spoiling a level is spoiling the fun. Anyways, no matter how clever I crafted my construct, no matter how sound I placed my goos, the slightest change in weight would send the whole thing crashing down. Frustrated and baffled, I franticly made my goo structure as fast as I can, ignoring gravity, common sense, and whatnot.... and i ended up finishing the level, much to my even more frustration.

I should stress this only happened in one of the game's ~50 levels, but still. An hour of frustration could have been used more wisely if I would have used the game's skip ability. Basically, you get a finite amount of levels you can skip, but you can finish the last level in the chapter and pretty much the game as long as you skip or beat every level.

Anyway, critiquing.

The music in this game is amazing and just has enough variety in it to not seem reused, even if there are only a handful of tracks in the game. The score tries to give the game the required epic feel or dark, gloomy ambiance. Whatever the level calls for, the game delivers simply exquisitely.

Okay, that was critiquing at all. Let's try that again.

The visuals in this game, while not going to blow anyone away, are pleasing. The art style, while seemingly crude to the naked eye, because beautiful in its strangeness as you play. The Goo structures themselves are a joy to watch, as they squirm to fight gravity, your one, true, constant enemy in the game (as it should be), and as they finally succumb to it and fall to their deaths. A small consolation prize to utter failure, I suppose. Regardless, the art style grows on you, to the point where the game would feel unnatural in any other state than what it is now.

Wait. That didn't work either.

Okay the story! The story! I have gripes about that!

Sure, the game has an excellent narrative throughout it, supplied by the mysterious Sign Painter. The narrative in general is between Portal in it's essence and Braid in it's execution, in which there are signs that you can read throughout the game, but it is completely optional. But if you skip over them, you are probably missing one of the greatest parts of the game. The undeniable humour of the sign painter's words offer hints and allusions of what is to come, but the words of your "companion" is half of the entertainment in the game.

The game touches on many subjects that you would expect it to. Nothing too "dark", but issues like evil corporations are not normally tackled by a physics based puzzle game. Which is a refreshing change of pace. But I am a tad confused as to why these topics are left dangling come the conclusion of the story.Actually, the ending in its entirety I found to be somewhat lackluster. Just kind of anticlimatic, but I think that flaw is easily overlooked as a "rookie mistake".

I think I need to wrap this up. And for good reason. I've run out of things to talk about. This game really only has three more, minor gameplay faults I can think of:
The A.I. of the goo balls can be frustrating at times. They never seem to want to be off screen, so they just kind of move on their own to the general area of where you are. That usually means that, since each Goo Ball has weight, this can severely screw up your towers, bridges, and whatever you are creating when the wrong amount of weight is placed on the wrong place at the wrong time. Yet, I can only think of a handful of missions where this would come into play. 
Another one is that you can't cycle through goo balls. Like I said before, they tend to just move off on their own, but when they have a small space to work with, they are cramped together. Trying to pick out a single green goo from dozens of red or black ones is like cutting out a single gray hair from your head with a hedge trimmer.
Lastly, their is no zoom function. Fixed camera zoom in, all the time. So you'll have to scroll down and back up to make sure your tower isn't going to collapse due to lack of supports at the bottom. One can see how this could get annoying.

And that's really it. World of Goo does little wrong, but that does not make it GotY material. It is a great experience, but definitely not one that everyone would enjoy going through. Plus, the 1500 Wii Point (20 USD for PC/MAC/Linux) is pretty steep. If you like these kind of puzzle games, have some extra Wii points burning in your pocket, or REALLY want to buy a Wii ware game, this game is for you. But if you're cautious about making the leap, head over to 2DBoy's site to download the demo, which includes about the first 1/5 of the game. Either way, you'll get a great and refreshingly new puzzle experience that has been incredibly polished. Definitely one of the better downloads of the year and second best on the WiiWare system (right behind MM9).

[Alexisonfire]

I'm going to bang out two quick reviews, right here, right now. Don't expect good quality. My brain is kind of shot today.

Rez HD

Those reading the forum a lot will remember me mentioning that there are three games I consider to be without fault. Rez is one of them. An on-rails shooter, you don't directly control your character, but your cursor. The game is all about trying to chain shooting enemies while protecting yourself at the same time. It's simple in concept, but amazing in execution. Which really is what all Rez is about.

The coolest part of the game is that whenever you kill an enemy, it will create a sound. "So what?" you may be thinking. But it's when you are good enough to chain those sounds together that the real magic happens. The sound brilliantly weaves itself with the background music, which is constantly evolving as you move about the stage. You see, enemies are not there to kill. Enemies are there to create harmonious music and you are the one controlling it.

Yes, the game is short. Yes, the game has heavily polygon'd visuals. Yes, the story is brief and really not too involving. By "perfect", I don't mean flawless. I mean I wouldn't change a thing about this game if I could. Definitely pick it up if you have a 360 or have a PS2/DC and are willing to drop a fortune on this rare gem.

Or at least watch some videos or download the demo and give it a chance.



Sin & Punishment

Never to be released in NA shores, this game is exactly what you'd expect from Treasure. A fun action game that stands above all else in its generation. Gunstar Heroes was one of the best games of the 16 Bit era and the king of run and guns. Sin & Punishment holds a similar title for 32/64 bit generation.

Weird how I'm reviewing two on-rails shooters in one post, but this one seems to remind me of Star Fox 64 more than anything. Maybe it's just that unique, muddy textured flavour of N64. Mmmmm... Muddy Textures.

But in all seriousness, they are quite alike. The major difference is that you are a person running across the ground in this one, limiting you to rolling and strafing capabilities. But that's all cool. Being mobile off of the ground just wouldn't fit the rest of the game (which is why S&P2 has me a bit worried, but that's besides the point). Anyways, the game offers a fast paced action game with many, many, many, enemies to shoot and slice your way through, which is all very satisfying. Check out some videos and you'll see what I mean. It's good stuff. The game even has several choices of control setups, which translate surprisingly well to the Classic Controller.

Although the game is completely in English, I would be hesitant to call it that. It's more like "English". The story is muddled, confusing, and poorly executed. And so is the Voice Acting. But this is coming from an age where every game outside of MGS had the cheesiest Voice Acting available. I think the bad VO in this game actually lends to its charm, given the kind of low budget, action, B-movie kind of story that it has.

My biggest complaint about the is the length. Well, it would be my biggest complaint. I mean, it's a 12 dollar game that can be finished in an hour. But this is where the beauty of its difficulty curve shines through. The game starts off slow, giving you time to adjust to the game and giving you more extra lives than you can shake a stick at. But before you know what hit you, the game will kick your butt and those twenty credits are gone. So you start again, get to that boss and find an easy way to beat him. Awesome. You'll get a bit farther in the title, dying along the way, finally reaching to the point where you must restart all over again.

Sound familiar? It should. That's pretty much Gunstar Heroes in a nutshell. Both games can be completed in a laughable amount of time. But it's the way that the game makes you master the very elements the game is built off of that makes it truly shine. When you get to that point where you are absolutely demolishing bosses and foes that once kept you from playing the game for 6 months (like in my case), let me tell you, it is empowering.

So let's just say this. If you liked Star Fox 64 or/and Gunstar Heroes, you owe it to yourself to check out through the Virtual Console. It's one of the best games on the service and one of the better games to 64. Again, like Rez, at least check out some gameplay footage before you dismiss it.

[Revan/anakinjmt]

AoF, if you liked Sin and Punishment, than you should be excited that they're making a Sin and Punishment 2 for the Wii due to the popularity of the original's release on VC.

[Alexisonfire]

Sin & Punishment 2 is only my most anticipated game of 2009. But that doesn't mean that there isn't parts that I am worried about in that short, 30-second long trailer that I have dissected 100 times. Like the aforementioned ability to move your character, I have yet to figure who he actually is, up and down instead of just strafing.

But from the motion of the cursor, I think you aim with the wiimote now, so that would be a major plus.