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Game Title: Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball Max'd
Platform: Nintendo DS
Developer: Nightlight Studios
Publisher: Activision
Genre: First Person Shooter
Age Rating: PEGI: 12+
Release Date: 31st January 2006 (US)
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Game Score: 4.5/10
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Summery:
It at least functions but however it's a buggy and somewhat lacking paintball experience on the DS.
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Greg Hastings a professional paintball athlete got a chance to star in a video game similar to how boxing bad boy Mike Tyson got his video game appearance in Punch Out for the NES. Greg Hasting Tournament Paintball Max'd is a First Person Shooter with Paintball guns and was released for the PlayStation 2, Xbox as well as handheld releases for the GBA and Nintendo DS. On the DS it tries to take advantage of the DS' capabilities which would make it an ideal port but it's let down by a series of bugs and gameplay problems that ruin what could have been a great port to an otherwise below average game.
In the game you play as a member of a professional paintball team in hopes of becoming a champion, after you select from a small list of characters you get to take on Career mode which has you going through 22 varied arenas around the world. The game is separated into three different game modes which are all team based, there's elimination which has 2 teams against each other till all players on one side is defeated then you have Single Flag where players attempt to take the flag to the enemy team's side and lastly Capture the Flag. During the Career mode you can set up what members to have on your team before a match as well as picking out what Paintball gun and uniform you want to use as well.
The gameplay has you using the paintball gun to take on the opposing team, you either fight in either 3 on 3 or 5 on 5 matches. The game has several different paintball guns and uniforms but however I find that all of them seem to function the same. Now I'm not going to pretend I know anything about Paintball but you would expect there to be a rapid fire paintball guns but however they all seem to fire the same which kind of makes purchasing new ones worthless the same goes to uniforms. The paintball guns do have like stats like better range and firing but I really cannot see the differences what-so-ever which is kind of disappointing.
The game has 6 different control schemes that the player can use, these offer options like using the Thumb Stylus, using the buttons or using the Touch Screen Stylus and D-Pad combo which in my opinion is recommended. If you are going to play the game on newer Nintendo DS models including the 3DS then I'm afraid the Thumb Stylus scheme isn't recommended. Now the controls for the most part function but however you can't do free movement strafing with the D-Pad, you know moving forward while also holding left or right on the D-Pad to strafe which kind of makes movement a little jerky and that will feel worse if using the Circle Pad on the 3DS models. Now to give credit it does offer a little bit of depth in what you can do. There's a button which allows you to lean from a corner as well as a button that switches your gun hand, it's a good idea in theory since it allows you to shoot from behind cover but it's easy to lose control of it as you have to hold down the Snap button on the Touch Screen to use it. You also have two stance buttons which will make you crouch down or go prone. There's even a button where you can dive and instantly go into prone which is rather neat as well as also a sprint button which you only sprint for a full second. These are rather decent controls to get used to but if you played DS FPS titles like Metroid Prime Hunters or the DS port of Goldeneye Rouge Agent then you should know the control basics of this game.
Now the goal in the game is to win about 3 out of 5 matches in order to win and advance to the next round. The catch here is that whenever a player takes one shot they are out and if that happens to you you're out as well. There is a system where if you take a hit a quick time event occurs where you press the A button at the right time to bring you back to the game, however if you are caught using it or you mess up the timing you're eliminated. Sadly I have never been able to make it a single time so I usually just turn the cheating off and play it fair but for the most part the game will cheat you for some simple reasons.
First of which is the AI, now to be fair the ally AI will actually point out where enemies are hiding and take them down without too much fuss but there are times where they would stand around holding the flag while you wait for the bot to score but often times it don't forcing a restart. Other times the enemy AI will act unobvious to your presence till later they start hopping from spot to the next shooting your team down relentlessly with high accuracy. There's even a glitch where the AI will pass through the wall and surprise you which is really nerve wrecking.
Winning tournaments earns EXP which can be spent on your character which can upgrade Accuracy, Reload, Dashing and Weapon skill but however only has minimum effects which really doesn't give upgrade lasting impacts. You also earn Credits which can be used to purchase new equipment if you really want them even though as I said they function the same. Playing through each of the tournament also allows you to earn new allies which you can swap freely as you see fit, you can get professional players like Greg himself and Kelly Watson but however you don't get them till nearly late in the game.
Overall the gameplay in Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball Max'd DS isn't too bad it functions decently enough but I did notice other gameplay glitches. I had one where the poles push me back when I get to close and I am not sure why that even happens, I also noticed that pushing an ally even by pushing them from doesn't push them forward, instead it pushes them backwards which is kind of odd. I also noticed the paintballs seem to go where they want to go when they are fired on the ground which is just weird. Sometimes there's a problem with the hit detection, sometimes you can hit an enemy just fine even from long ranges but then you can fire a paintball anywhere in the chest at closer ranges that it does nothing. When you shoot an enemy in the body when his cover is exposed the paintballs miss the enemy entirely. These hit detection problems alongside the AI really try their best to ruin the game for you but however I noticed that these issues are only few and far between because at least the game is actually beatable and playable when the game plays to your favour.
Obviously on the DS it has slightly weaker graphics then it's console counterpart but at least for a handheld FPS game released back in 2006 it doesn't look too bad. The arenas are varied with different rendered posts where players can take cover and the location style are decent enough. The characters models aren't bad but it uses the same model for both male and females and it only changes appearance when you select a different team uniform. The paintball guns have a horrible FOV meaning that they can take up half of the screen and it's worse when your weapon hand is on the wrong side. The frame rate in the game chops down when there is so many characters on the screen and also the game's HUD also glitches out rarely. At least the FMV quality introduction is cool and on the DS the quality is quite nice.
The soundtrack uses 5 officially licensed music tracks which sound really cool the sound effects are decent and the voice quotes are actually quite good for both males and females. They actually do point out where enemies are when they detect them and also quote if one of them gets eliminated.
Compared to the DS port of King Kong and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Sacrifice this game at least functions and plays better then two terrible games. It may be buggy and it doesn't have much lasting impact nor any reasons to play it again. The main game will only last just 4 hours from start to finish and while there is a multiplayer mode it uses multi-card to play. Online websites are charging very offensive prices for the game so my best advice would be to either play it on Emulators or just give the game a miss. I'm pretty sure that the PS2 and Xbox versions of the game are far better and more playable then this game as it is just a buggy and somewhat lacking paintball experience on the DS that I simply cannot recommend.
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The Good Points:
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1. Multiple control schemes
2. Officially licensed Soundtrack is quite good
3. At least it functions better then the DS port of King Kong and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Sacrifice
The Bad Points:
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1. Paintball guns function the same
2. Plenty of gameplay glitches and some bad physics
3. AI can either be reliable or ruin your game completely
4. Worthless cheating system
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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