gamefreak781's GameSpot Friend's Reviews gamefreak781's GameSpot Friend's Reviews gamefreak781's GameSpot Friend's Reviews en-us Copyright (c)1995-2013 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved. http://www.gamespot.com 20 Fri, 24 May 2013 05:19:28 -0700 GameSpot gamefreak781's GameSpot Friend's Reviews http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/shared/promos/misc/gs_logo.gif http://www.gamespot.com 135 40 Thu, 13 Jan 2011 09:56:17 -0800 macrules_640 reviewed Earthworm Jim for the Genesis... http://www.gamespot.com/earthworm-jim/user-reviews/752383/platform/genesis/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

I'm here to talk about a very unique game that was made back in 1994 for the Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, Gameboy, Sega CD, PC, Gameboy Adavnce, and Xbox Live, that's quite a lot of system just for one game, but this version of the game I'm going to be talking about in particular is the Sega Genesis version which most people consider the best version of the game. Now what game could I possibly be talking about? Well, if you were born in the 80s or 90s chances are you've heard of Earthworm Jim, it's basically a platformer with shooting mechanics, but what sets Earthworm Jim apart from other games of its day was its smart and witty humor, something that the series was probably best known for. Anyway let's get into my review of the game and to start, let's talk about the story.

Story: Trying to explain the story of Earthworm Jim is kinda hard since you're thrown into the action right away, yet thankfully the instruction booklet gives you a little heads up on what's going on. Basically the story in Earthworm Jim starts as our hero Jim, who is just your typical earthworm is digging around in the dirt and enjoying himself. He digs himself from the soil and is promptly attacked by a crow and while this is going on in space a mutant crow by the name of Psycrow is transporting a special suit to Queen-Slug-For-A-Butt that was designed by Professor-Monkey-For-A-Head to help her in her conquest of the galaxy. Trying to reach the Queen as fast as he can Psycrow makes a mistake and the super suit ends up falling to Earth where it ends up landing on top of Jim and the suit mutates him into a much larger and smarter, if you can call earthworms smart. Jim surprised by what the suit has done to him experiments with it by zapping the crow that was attack him with the ray-gun. It's not too long before Psycrow comes around and sees that the suit isn't around. He contacts the queen and tells her of the situation and Jim overhears Psycrow talking about keeping Princess-What's-Her-Name prisoner. So basically Jim decides to play hero and rescue the Princess which leads him all over the galaxy, meeting a colorful cast of characters. The story is quite weird I'll admit, but I really don't have a problem with it and you shouldn't let it put you off from playing it.

Sound: Despite the weirdness of the story of Earthworm Jim, the sound is quite a different story for the game. Depending on which version of the game you're playing, you'll experience probably one of the most original soundtracks in a game I've heard and that's all thanks to Tommy Tallarico who worked on the soundtrack for the Genesis, Sega CD, and PC version of the game. He didn't work on the Super Nintendo version for some reason, but I'm not going to complain since the SNES version has its own unique sound. Anyway the music is definitely one of the strong points of Earthworm Jim, there's not a song within the game that doesn't fit and all of them are quite catchy too and some of them are quite funny too, like in the second level, What The Heck? the level starts off with Night On Bald Mountain and then a record scratches turning it over to the main song, it's a nice little touch and you'll definitely laugh your head off when Peter Puppy actually skips in beat with the song on For Pete's Sake. There's various sound bites of Jim saying silly stuff which also adds a nice little touch to the game and overall like I said, it's a great soundtrack that everyone will love.

Graphics: This is definitely another one of Earthworm Jim's strong points is the graphics, despite being made for the Sega Genesis which is supposed to be a technically less advanced system than the Super Nintendo, I'm quite surprised by what Shiny Entertainment was able to pull off on with the Genesis. The graphics despite being made in 1994 hold up quite wetland you can definitely tell a lot of effort went into the game to make sure there was no graphical hiccups or slowdown within the game and after playing the game a few times, I've found no issues with the graphics either. In fact I'd say the Genesis version of the game is better in the graphics department versus the Super Nintendo version because the graphics from what I've seen on the SNES version seem to be washed out compared to the Genesis and there's also some graphic effects that were left out of the SNES version that make the Genesis version look better, but that's only a small little problem and overall the graphics for each version are quite good and show a level of creativity that seems to be missing from today's games.

Game Play and Controls: Earthworm Jim is pretty much your basic platformer with shooting elements thrown in. It works quite well for the game and its bound to keep you entertained for a few hours, but there's only so much the game can do with the shooting part, sure they try to mix up the shooting by throwing in a race where you race Psycrow through an asteroid field, but it tends to wear thin after a few hours of play. This is probably where Earthworm Jim is at it's weakest, the game play. It would have been nice to see some more variety besides going from level to level and shooting things up and thankfully the sequel remedied that problem, but for the sheer amount of humor and great music, Earthworm Jim will keep you going to the end. The controls within the game aren't anything to complain about and they allow you to set the controls to you're liking which is always a plus in my book. One more thing I'd like to mention about Earthworm Jim is that it's not a game for beginners, the game can be quite difficult in some areas especially during the third level where you're forced to do a race. It will frustrate new players to the game, but if you can get past that, the game gets much better after that.

Overall: Earthworm Jim is a fun and addicting game to play despite having some difficult levels and a lack of a save feature, but for those of you that are willing to look past that, you'll find a game that's definitely worth your time for at least an afternoon. 8.5 out of 10.

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"macrules_640 reviewed Earthworm Jim for the Genesis..." was posted by macrules_640 on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 09:56:17 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/earthworm-jim/user-reviews/752383/platform/genesis/ Thu, 14 Oct 2010 16:11:33 -0700 macrules_640 reviewed Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/sonic-the-hedgehog-4-episode-1/user-reviews/740752/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

So yesterday marked the release of Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode 1, a return for Sonic to his 2D roots and it's been fifteen years in the making, does Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode 1 live up to the legacy? Find out in my review:

Story: Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode 1 picks up right where Sonic The Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles left off, Sonic has rescued Angel Island and restored the Master Emerald to it's rightful place. Sonic tried of Robotnik and his schemes decides to take a little rest and says his goodbyes to both Tails and Knuckles for the time being, little does Sonic know that Robotnik has survived their encounter in the Doomsday Zone and once again follows Sonic to once again extract his revenge on him and this time Robotnik is not alone it seems. The story is pretty much a throw back to the original Sonic games and instead of some big intro cut scene, we just get a few tidbits of scenes that lead up to Sonic 4, kudos to Sega for sticking to the original formula.

Graphics: Sonic The Hedgehog 4 was build from the ground up using a new graphics engine that Sega developed just for the game and this is probably the best part of Sonic 4, on an HDTV the graphics of Sonic 4 are crisp and clear and really come to life, there's a lot going on in the background and I'm happy that Sega took the time to model each stage with such amazing little details, on a regular standard TV, the games are still great, but you can definitely tell the game was made for an HDTV in mind. The only complaint I have about the graphics, is sometimes there's little graphical glitches that don't take anyway from the game, but they're noticeable. I really can't complain here, overall the graphics are great and help make the game more enjoyable.

Sound: This is probably the category where Sonic 4 is kinda hit and miss, Jun Senoue who composed music for Sonic The Hedgehog 4 did an excellent job with the soundtrack of Sonic 4, but there's just some areas of the game where the soundtrack could have been done much better, I don't know, maybe it's just me, but the soundtrack is lacking in certain areas that the original 2D games had. Most of the music was quite catchy in the original games and Sonic 4 does have some catchy music in the form of Splash Hill Zone, but after that the music seems to fall flat, perhaps it's just because I'm so use to the music of the original games, but otherwise newcomers and fans of the series will definitely like the music and overall it helps fit the theme of Sonic 4.

Game Play: There's not much that can be said about Sonic The Hedgehog 4's game play, it basically boils down to what the original games established quite well, get to the end of the stage and proceed to the next one it's not rocket science. It's refreshing to see Sonic do what he does best and just run, no silly gimmicks, just good old 2D platforming at it's best and even with the inclusion of the homing attack from the 3D games, it doesn't take away from the game play, but if only it were longer! Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode 1 is made up of only four stages with three acts each which includes fighting Robotnik at the end. Most people can probably get through it within an afternoon, but if you're a Sonic veteran, you can probably chew through this game in about an hour. Overall game play is a return to what made Sonic great and you can't complain about that.

Controls: This is also where Sonic The Hedgehog 4 scores some points, the controls. They're simple enough, you only have to use one button for most of your actions, that includes doing the spin dash and homing attack. It's pretty much like the Genesis games which is a great thing and the controls are also customizable to suit everyone's needs. The only problem I had with the game control wise is based on the fact that I own the Xbox 360 version and as you know the placement of the d-pad isn't the best around and using the analog stick to control Sonic does feel a little weird, but after some tweaking, I got use to the controls on the Xbox 360, the PS3 and Wii versions control better from what I've heard.

Overall: Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode 1 is an excellent return to Sonic's 2D roots that any fan of the original 2D games will be proud of and even for those people that aren't fans of the series, I can recommend it to you as it's simple and addictive. Even with all of this praise there's still a few hiccups in Sonic The Hedgehog 4, the length of the game will definitely disappoint long time fans and the general difficulty in some areas may put off some casual gamers, but for all it's worth I recommend Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode 1 and score it an 8.5.

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/sonic-the-hedgehog-4-episode-1/user-reviews/740752/platform/xbox360/ Sun, 26 Sep 2010 15:06:19 -0700 snakes3425 reviewed Superman for the Nintendo 64... http://www.gamespot.com/superman/user-reviews/738512/platform/n64/ ...and gave it a 1.0.

Superman, say that name and what comes to mind: Faster then a speeding bullet, more powerful then a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, fighting for truth justice and the american way etc. Since the 1930s Superman has been an icon of the superhero genre, hell find a copy of Action Comics #1 and you can probably retire, appearing in everything from comic books to TV Shows to movies to breakfast commercials, yet there is one medium where the Man of Steel seems to have become the man of tissue paper: Video Games. In the realm of video games Superman has ranged from passible to gamers saying it doesn't exist, Superman 64 falls into the later catagory.

First off let's get any prases out the way, Superman 64 is based of the excellent Superman: the Animated Series from the 1990s, which along with Batman: The Animated series spawned the legendary Justice League and Justice League Unlimated series and in terms of the sprites they do resemble their animated counter parts, but only bearly, and that's about all I can say that is good about this game.

The game begins it's slide into oblivion from the title screen, the music is bad enough to cause deafness and worst of all it's not even the Superman theme from the movies or even the theme song from the TV show the game is based on. But leave us venture further into the rabbit hole (help) the designers couldn't even program the Options Select screen right, when you use the options screen it should be as easy as pushing left or right on the D-Pad, however this is the N64 era so what do you use to change options: The Analoge Stick, and keep in mind the N64 is no Xbox or Playstation, where the analoge sticks are perfect, the N64's analogue stick is increadibly sensitive so unless you tap the stick gentelly it will flash through the options like lightning.

The plot of the game is fairly straight forward: Lex Luthor has kidnapped Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and Dr. Hamilton and imprisoned them in a Virtual rendition of Metropolis and it's up to the Man of Steel to rescue them (yeah really original Titus) However the gameplay itself is down right abyssmal and that's being gental. When you see an episode of any Superman TV Show or a Superman Movie, what is he doing: Flying around Metropolis rescuing citizens, fighting criminals, aliens, robots, cyborgs, and Lex Luthor, or averting a natural disaster. In Superman 64 we get none of that, the levels are as linier as it gets, with no room for exploration and worst of all go in a pattern: fly through rings then an action stage, fly through rings then another action stage. However if you set the game to Easy the rings dissapear, so playing the game on the easy setting is your best bet to see anything outside of Superman hovering outside the LexCorps building.

Due to the overly sensistive analogue stick, flying through the rings is a nightmare, and if you miss a one or the other you fail the mission, and to add insult to injury you have a time limit. Worst of all is that there are no check points or save states (unless you use an emulater), you fail a mission you dont' start back at the beginning of the level you were on, you start back at the beginning of the last flying stage you were in.

Now let's talk more about the control, with Superman's flight power you expect to just hit a button, jump into the air and the analoge stick does the rest. Well Titus said why do it that way? Instead you have to hold the B button while moving the analogue stick, and correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Superman suppose to be "Faster then a Speeding Bullet" because in the game he's flying like he's on the blasted moon.

On the back of the box, one of the ads said: All the superpowers are yours. Titus should be sued for false advertising on that one, because the only superpowers you have through out the game are Strength and Flight, the other powers are only unlocked for a specific mission via a power up, and once again the designers messed up the controls, you'd expect to be able to select a super power with the directional pad and use with the A, B, or even the Z button but instead you have to press and hold the Right Bumper, yeah like Batman Forver for the SNES, you have to use the R button, which isn't even one of the buttons a gamer would expect is the trigger button, and even then it's so stiff you'll be lucky to get it to work, in fact even the A button, which is suppose to be the Action Button to allow Superman to pick things up and punch is so stiff it bearly registers.

Even worse then the controls are the back ground graphics. Metropolis is suppose to be this enormous high tech city with a huge population, instead we are given a bland background, with all the buildings hidden in mist, and only a few citizens, and Luthor's robotic henchmen "the Dark Bots" scattered about. Like stated before the buildings are hidden in the fog which makes it next to impossible to see them unless you've memorized where they are, this is partly due to the so called "Kryptonite Fog" which is in reality is Distance Fog and was used by the desigers to cover up the fact the draw distances in the game look like a five year old did them on Adobie Flash (word of advice to Titus, Distance Fog is used to ENHANCE the perseption of distance, not hide bad draw distances) also the name is just as confusing, Kryptonite is suppose to be toxic to Superman, therefore if the fog is suppose to be Kryptonite why doesn't Superman's health bar go down during the level (to be honest if they put that in the game the programmers would probably have been arrested for cruel and unusal punishment)

To be honest, this game is simply a disaster through and through, and just putting the cartridge into my N64 made me feel as though my console would hang itself just to avoid ever playing it again. This is one of those games where you only buy it if you want to own a complete N64 library, or if you're a huge fan of Superman, but even then I wouldn't blame if you burned your house down because just to get rid of it, believe me we'd all be better off if all copies of this game were fired into the sun

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"snakes3425 reviewed Superman for the Nintendo 64..." was posted by snakes3425 on Sun, 26 Sep 2010 15:06:19 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/superman/user-reviews/738512/platform/n64/ Sun, 15 Aug 2010 19:02:39 -0700 macrules_640 reviewed Mega Man Maverick Hunter X for the PSP... http://www.gamespot.com/mega-man-maverick-hunter-x/user-reviews/733394/platform/psp/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Hello everyone and welcome once again to another video game review of mine, this time around I'm going to be reviewing Mega Man Maverick Hunter X, a remake of the first Mega Man X game on the SNES and surprisingly this remake actually holds up quite well to the original minus a few flaws, but let's find out in my review why and as always let's start with the most important part of any game, the story.

Story: The story of Mega Man Maverick Hunter X pretty much follows the original story of Mega Man X with some more fleshed out story on X's side, basically, Dr. Cain, a scientist in the future stumbles upon the ruins of Dr. Light's old lab and in the process discovers X, who's a new type of robot. Before Dr. Cain can wake up X, Dr. Light's computers play a message to him, warning him of the danger that X possess. He's a robot that can think and act on his own and Dr. Light was afraid that if X was let out into the Earth too early he could have destroyed it, so basically he sealed X away for 30 plus years to test his reliant and once X is out of the capsule, Dr. Cain is amazed by how advanced X is and being a scientist Dr. Cain tries to copy X's design and succeeds, but unfortunately he wasn't as brilliant as Dr. Light and the robots he built ended up going Maverick and attacked humans, so Dr. Cain builds a newer robot Sigma who will lead the Maverick Hunters, who fight against the mavericks to protect the humans, somehow Sigma, the leader of the Maverick Hunters ends up going maverick himself and launches an attack against the humans, X who had helped the Hunters from sidelines, decides that he's seen enough of Sigma's destruction and decides to help out the current leader of the Hunters Zero, in finally putting an end to Sigma's rebellion against the humans. That's pretty much the story and Maverick Hunter X also includes an OVA which helps to explain Sigma's actions before the game which helps out the story a lot. No complaints here.

Graphics: For an early PSP game, Maverick Hunter X showed what the PSP was capable of at the time, yet there are other games out there that look much better of course, but at the time seeing an actual 3D render of X was pretty cool. The stages themselves seem a lot more updated from the original SNES version and there's a lot more going on in the background too which helps add to the overall presentation of the game, but unfortunately even though the graphics are great there are a few dents in an otherwise good looking game. First of all, I can't tell you how much this game lags when there are so many enemies on screen, I mean it doesn't get in the way of the game, but it's rather annoying when you're trying to hit enemies and there's a delayed react to the fire button and I've even heard rumors that on certain stages the game will freeze up entirely, forcing you to restart your PSP, granted I never experienced that problem myself, but I though I'd just point that out, otherwise the graphics work pretty well for the game.

Sound: Now this is where a lot of fans including myself are split on Maverick Hunter X, being a remake, Capcom of course was going to change the game around and include new versions of the very familiar and catchy music of the original, overall I think the new remixed tracks in the game don't take away from the game, but I would have liked to see an option to replace the remixed music with the original music so Capcom could make both old and new fans happy, but myself I think the remixed tracks were actually pretty good and overall helped the game. One thing that was definitely an improvement in Maverick Hunter X was the addition of voice acting, the original had the scrolling text which sometimes got annoying, but hearing X talk, who is voiced by Mark Gatha, who does a fine job of voicing X might I add, he's probably the best voice of X so far. It helps to make you feel like you're their and the other voice actors do an excellent job of voicing their characters, although I do wish X would shut up when he's using a special weapon, he has the tendency to shout out the special weapon he is using which does get annoying after a while, otherwise sound is quite good.

Game play: Game play in Maverick Hunter X is quite simple and is pretty much like most other Mega Man games, you pick a stage and battle your way through it until you get to the end where the boss is, you defeat him and get his weapon which can be used against the other bosses and like most Mega Man games each boss has a weakness to each weapon, so experiment with each too find their weaknesses. The good thing about Maverick Hunter X is the fact that the game play isn't changed which is a good thing, so old school gamers will have no problem getting right into the game although there are a few minor annoyances like changed stages and different locations of the capsules, but that's just my old school gamer nagging because of that, but one thing I have noticed is the slight decrease in difficulty of the game, on normal the game is fairly easy and even on hard which emulates what the original game's difficulty is almost too easy, even the final battle against Sigma is easy, but once again that's just my opinion, for newer gamers and fans, it's just right and doesn't take away from the game.

Control: The controls in Maverick Hunter X are quite simple and emulate how the controls were on the SNES version, you can pretty much customize the controls to your pleasure and this scores some major points for me since I found the default control scheme to be a little annoying, but a few button adjustments later I was back to kicking Maverick butt, overall the controls are well suited to the PSP and the ability to customize the controls to suit your playing earn this game some major points overall.

Overall: Mega Man Maverick Hunter X is a mixed bag for sure, most old school gamers will be able to breeze through it in an afternoon, but thanks to some more unlockable content, like playing as Vile and unlocking an OVA help to increase the overall re-playability of the game, but the decrease in difficulty like I said will put off some gamers, but for gamers looking for a great action platformer and old school gamers hungering for some old school game play, this is your game. Overall I give Mega Man Maverick Hunter X an 8.5 for being a solid game remake of an excellent game.

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"macrules_640 reviewed Mega Man Maverick Hunter X for the PSP..." was posted by macrules_640 on Sun, 15 Aug 2010 19:02:39 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/mega-man-maverick-hunter-x/user-reviews/733394/platform/psp/ Sat, 29 May 2010 00:31:58 -0700 macrules_640 reviewed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time for the Super Nintendo... http://www.gamespot.com/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-iv-turtles-in-time/user-reviews/722408/platform/snes/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

You guys knew it was only a manner of time before I finally got around to doing one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games and this time around I'm doing a review for probably one of the best known Turtles game around, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles In Time on the Super Nintendo, it's a direct port if the arcade version, but with a few quirks that make it the better version in my opinion, let's get into the review on why I think its better than it's big brother. As always I'm going to break the review down in my four categories, story, graphics, sound, gameplay and controls.

Story: In the arcade version of Turtles In Time, we're treated to an opening scene of that banana raincoat wearing reporter, April O. Neil giving a report of some kind when out of nowhere Krang in his body suit snatches up the Statue Of Liberty and runs off with it. Then we get a scene of Shredder laugh at the misfortune of everyone and the turtles who were watching the whole report from the lair, get mad at Shredder calling him a bloated beanbag and tell him to bring back the statue. That's pretty much where the intro ends and as always, its up to our four reptilian heroes to kick some shell and bring back the Statue Of Liberty from the clutches of Shredder. For a game that was made in 1992, it wasn't big on the story, but for its credit, it was pretty good back then. The Super Nintendo version pretty much adopts too the arcade version's storyline, but it adds in a little bit more of a story that makes better sense that the arcade version. Pretty much the arcade version had you finish stage three of the game and then Shredder appears and sends you into a time warp from which you'll never return. The Super Nintendo version on the other hand adds in an extra stage, the Technodrome which makes better sense of how Shredder sends you back in time. This is where the Super Nintendo version of the game is much better with the story and it helps out considerately, that's if you bother to pay attention to the story. Overall the story is pretty thin, but then again we're talking about a beat em up game, not an epic RPG with fifty hour cutscenes.

Graphics: The arcade version of Turtles In Time was released back in 1991 and the Super Nintendo version was released in 1992, a year afterwords. Now for the arcade version of the game was very colorful and had a lot of smooth animations and the backgrounds were definitely well detailed and each stage had a sense of uniqueness to it, from the stone age all the way up to the future. You'll never see the same background used twice in the game and it helps to make the game seem much different from other beat em ups. Now the Super Nintendo version was limited since it wasn't as powerful as an arcade machine, but for all of the sacrifices the Super Nintendo version had to make, I'd say it looks very close to its arcade counterpart. Every stage that was in the arcade version of the game is present in the Super Nintendo version albeit the SNES version of Sewer Surfin and Neon Night Riders did something a little bit different, it doesn't take anyway from the game. The only thing I noticed about the Super Nintendo version of the game is the fact that with all early games, if there's too many enemies on screen or you're playing co-op expect the game to slow down in parts. Overall the graphics are clean and some of the best on the SNES at the time.

Sound: Now this is where the game definitely scores some high points, the arcade version of the game had some great background music to it and some of the songs were quite catchy (Neon Night Riders for example), you would think porting the game over to the Super Nintendo would make the music lose some of its quality and yes it does, but for some reason the music in the SNES version is somewhat better than it's arcade counterpart, like the boss theme for example. The Sony chip that was used for the SNES's sound chip makes good on making sure the music is close to the arcade as possible, (I wish I could the same for Turtles in Time Re-shelled, they screwed up big time on the music.) In the arcade version there were various voice samples in the game that would play during combat or when you faced off against the boss, sadly the SNES version had to axe these sounds because of it's limited hardware at the time, but thankfully they were able to keep a few of the voice samples and hearing the turtles say, "My toe! My toe!" after hitting a spiked ball never gets old. Overall despite the sacrifices made to the SNES version of the sound, it's still quite good for its time.

Gameplay: Probably the best part of Turtles In Time is the fact that it's a beat em up and like most beat em ups, there's something quite enduring about kicking some shell on the Foot Clan and laying the smack down on their robotic behinds. It's as basic as it gets in gaming, you seen an enemy, you smash enemy until they're no more. A lot of people will complain that it gets old after a while just beating up enemies, but back in the 90s there was nothing more exciting that teaming up with a friend and beating the ever living crap out of your opponents. Overall I can't complain as I spend hours on this game beating up on enemies, trying to get better myself.

Controls: You can't get much simpler than this, if you complain about how the controls in the game are, then you my friend aren't a true gamer! Anyway the controls pretty much boil down to one button that attacks while another button makes you jump. You can press both buttons at the same time to perform a special attack that's unique to each turtle, but be warned as it will take up some of your energy to use the special attack. You can also do a few different running attacks which add in some uniqueness to the game, but overall the controls are simple and it's easy to pick up and play.

Overall: TMNT IV: Turtles In Time is probably the best example of how to do a port right, the extra features they added within the game which included some new bosses, an extra stage, and a two player battle mode help to length out an already solid game. I really can't complain about the game as it's nearly flawless, but what holds it back from getting a perfect score from me is based on the fact that it's very short, you can probably beat the game in thirty minutes and sometimes the difficulty can be harsh on newer players and to get the true ending you have to beat the game on hard difficulty, but if you can get pass these small little problems, you're looking at one of the best TMNT games around and a solid beat em up as well. TMNT IV: Turtles in Time gets a nine from me for being an excellent old school beat em up.

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-iv-turtles-in-time/user-reviews/722408/platform/snes/ Sat, 22 May 2010 22:39:10 -0700 snakes3425 reviewed Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue for the Nintendo 64... http://www.gamespot.com/power-rangers-lightspeed-rescue/user-reviews/721529/platform/n64/ ...and gave it a 3.0.

Back in the day I worshiped the ground the Power Rangers walked on, and evan at the age of 26 I still have a soft spot in my heart for the Power Rangers. Believe me if it wasn't for the name of this game, and a desire to own every game made for Power Rangers, it would have stayed in the store.

Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue is of course based off the show of the same name, with the main campaign forcusing on the Rise of the Titanium Ranger, and with every boss monster you defeat they become unlocked in a fighting mode known as Megazord Arena, but that is were the similarities with the show end, along with anything decent about the game.

In previous Power Ranger games you were given the chance to choose your Ranger, but in this game you're assigned a Ranger automatically with each stage, and what's worse they don't even acknowledge Carter, Ryan, Dania, Kelsey, Chad and Joel by name I mean even in the original MMPR Beat-em-up for the Super Nintendo they at least acknowledged Jason, Kim, Trini, Billy and Zack by name in the character select screen and allowed you to play as their pre-morphed forms. But here the rangers are simply refured to by their colors, and never once do you see them outside of costumes.

The worst part of the game is figuring out what to do, with a game based on the Power Rangers you'd expect to be going around fighting alien foot soldiers, and then take on a boss monster in a Zord battle, guess what they got half of that right, you do go around fighting alien soldiers, but you also have to rescue civilians or destroy a certain object to beat the level. The Zord Battles are a joke, which is made all the worse by a horrific control sceme. Controlling the Zords in vehical mode is a challenge in and of itself due to the stearing controls being so loose. Once you get into the Megazord, the game suddenly changes to a First Person Shooter, along with the control sceme, which is mutalated.

The worst part of this game is of course the graphics, even by N64 stadards the graphics in Lightspeed Rescue are a joke, looking more like cardboard cutouts, and the worst are the cutscenes, which are nothing more then comic book panels, I mean come on the N64 was capable of a more versital graphics engine, look at Super Mario 64 or Doom 64 for example, the graphics are almost on par with the PS1.

In the end, Lightspeed Rescue 64 is one only for the most hardcore fans of Power Rangers, who have to have every game in their collection, however for other gamers, it would be better to play the PS1 verson of this disaster

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/power-rangers-lightspeed-rescue/user-reviews/721529/platform/n64/ Wed, 07 Apr 2010 11:58:25 -0700 macrules_640 reviewed Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Genesis... http://www.gamespot.com/sonic-the-hedgehog-2/user-reviews/716171/platform/genesis/ ...and gave it a 10.0!!!

So for the last few days I've been stuck on one game from my past that I can't seem to put down and that game is Sonic The Hedgehog 2. In a lot of people's opinions it is probably the best 2D Sonic game around and it shows as Sonic 2 was the best selling game on the Genesis. Six million copies of the game have been sold since it was released on the Genesis and back in the 90s that was pretty good for a game. Today that legacy is still held up as the game has also seen numerous releases on other consoles, but in my review I'll be talking about the Genesis version only. Now as with my other reviews, I'll break the review down in four categories: story, graphics, sound, and game play and control. Let's start with the most basic of any game, the story.

Story: Sonic The Hedgehog 2 was made back in the 90s and there wasn't much of a story to the game, but I'll try my best to explain it. After the events of Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic thinks that he's heard the last from Dr. Robotnik and decides to go take a vacation on South Island, it's a mysterious place and Sonic doesn't know much about the place. He arrives via his plane the Tornado and picks a nice peaceful spot on the beach to relax, but unknown to him Dr. Robotnik has followed him and discovers a secret about this island, according to what Robotnik has discovered there are seven mysterious gems called the Chaos Emeralds that are hidden on the island and contain an unlimited source of power, Robotnik thinks these gems are perfect to power his new Death Egg and he sets about searching the island for them. Meanwhile Sonic is enjoying his vacation when he spots a two tailed fox looking over his plane, curious Sonic asks the little guy what his name is and he says it's Miles Prower. For some reason Sonic takes a liking to the two tailed fox named Miles and gives him the nickname Tails. He seems to like it and tells Sonic of what Robotnik is doing, Sonic seems rather surprised by Robotink following him, but more surprised when Tails tells him about the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic not wanting the emeralds to fall into Robotnik's hands sets out to once again thwart his plans with Tails in tow as the both of them race across the island in an effort to find the emeralds before Robotink. There's really nothing wrong with the story so I can't really nitpick at it since the games really never established a continuation and most of the story comes from what fans know. Moving on let's talk about graphics.

Graphics: Ah yes the Sega Genesis, it was quite the capable machine, but it wasn't as powerful as the Super Nintendo in terms of power. It didn't stop Sega for adverting the game as it used what was called Blast Processing, even to this day I don't even know what it meant, but from what I gathered it was a special type of process that Sega invented specifically for Sonic 2 to showcase what the Genesis was capable of. It relied more on the processing speed of the Genesis to achieve a fast scrolling effect which in turned worked out pretty well for the Genesis. I really can't complain about the graphics, everything looks very colorful and the stages themselves have a sense of uniqueness to them. This time around Sonic looks little updated from Sonic The Hedgehog, but it's only minor and for Tails debut he looks pretty good himself. The only time the graphics tend to get choppy is when you're playing the two player versus mode. You can tell the split screen is pushing what the Genesis can do and at times the game will slowdown to a crawl or possibility even freeze up, but these are minor annoyances and don't take anyway from the main game. Next let's talk about sound.

Sound: Now this is definitely where Sonic The Hedgehog 2 scores some high marks. The music in the game is probably some of the best you'll hear out of the 16 bit era. Each stage has its own unique theme and some of them are quite catchy, I found myself humming the boss theme from Sonic 2 a few times and I'll even got as far as to say that I have some of the music from Sonic 2 on my iPod. It shows how much of an influence the music has on a game and if do correctly it can enhance the game quite a lot. The rest of the sounds are somewhat recycled from the first game like the invincible theme, some of the jingles, and various other little sound effects, but that's being nit-picky, overall sound in Sonic 2 isn't a problem and does the game justice. Last but not least is game play and controls.

Game play and Controls: Let's start off with game play, now for Sonic 2 you can't get much simpler than this, pretty much it boils down to you run from the beginning of the stage to the end of the stage and at the end of stage two on each level you face off against Robotnik and one of his various machines he drives. Sonic The Hedgehog 2 isn't the longest game around so expect to finish it off within at least an hour or so, but for those who are looking for a challenge there's the Chaos Emeralds to collect. At first it isn't hard to collect them, but once you get up to the fifth emerald that's where they turn up the difficulty and having Tails with you can prove an exercise in patience as he'll run into bombs making you lose your hard collected rings forcing you to recollect the said emerald again. This little problem can be easily avoided if you make it to where Sonic is on his own. Once you collect all seven emeralds Sonic will transform in Super Sonic, meaning he'll be more difficult to control, but if you're good enough you won't have a problem controlling him. Playing the two player mode can provide some added game play length to Sonic 2 and there's nothing like making your friend or sibling mad when you make them lose their rings or switch places with them via the monitors. For it's worth Sonic The Hedgehog 2 is an enjoyable experience while it lasts, but it's not for everyone do in part to it's short length and sometimes frustrating stages, but for me it's not that much of an annoyance.

Finally controls, now what can I say about the controls. They're probably some of the easiest controls to remember, pretty much any button you push makes Sonic jump and the control pad makes him move in any direction. Additionally new to Sonic The Hedgehog 2 is the addition of the spin dash which is performed by having Sonic stand in place and pushing down on the control pad and any of the buttons makes Sonic curl up into a tight ball and he starts spinning in place. Once released he spins depending on how long you kept the action going. It's a nice addition to the series and helps when you don't have enough speed. Overall controls are simple and easy enough not to trouble new comers.

Overall: Sonic The Hedgehog 2 is one of the best Sonic games around and all around a great platformer, I can recommend it to almost anyone and overall I couldn't see myself not giving the game lower than a 10 since it had a big impact on me as a kid, it's one of the first games I played, it introduced me to games in general and one cool blue hedgehog with an attitude.

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"macrules_640 reviewed Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Genesis..." was posted by macrules_640 on Wed, 07 Apr 2010 11:58:25 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/sonic-the-hedgehog-2/user-reviews/716171/platform/genesis/ Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:00:00 -0800 BrunoBRS reviewed Darksiders for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/darksiders/user-reviews/711156/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

Lets start by pointing the obvious: Darksiders is one giant ripoff. Is it a bad thing? Depending on how you look at it, yes. Does it make the game any less enjoyable? Not at all. Is there anything original on the game? Other than the idea of picking everything from the past decade that you liked in your games and putting all in a single one?


The game starts as War, the main character of the story, falls on Earth to "Answer the Call", as apparently the apocalypse has been triggered before the time it was supposed to. Accused of being the one to do such thing, War proposes to cleanse his name by going back to Earth and punish the ones responsible. To ensure you won't forget your mission, the "Council" sends with you The Watcher, whose only responsibility is to "hold the leash", as he likes to put it.


The gameplay is a mix between the dungeon crawling with obvious "inspirations" on the Zelda series, combat, which, like half the action games on the market, has a lot to owe to God of War, and triggered events that can give a change of pace, like a "starfox-like" moment for example, where you steal an angel's flying mount and his "cannon rod", a weapon that you shoot by mashing the attack button and create a homing attack if you hold down briefly. All on-rails. Due to such diversity, it's better to talk to each of them separately.


The combat is really good. And i mean it. You have your sword, the sub-weapon and your dungeon items. combining the timing you press the attack button with the direction, the use of lock-on, and the use of the dash/block button, you can create long, epic combos that wipe an entire army at once. There are also extra moves for both the sword and the sub weapons, not to mention power-ups and slotted effects that can either be bought in a store with the souls you gather from killing enemies or found hidden in the world (the case of the slotted effects). Not only that, there are also four "Wrath Powers", special abilities that consume your Wrath Gauge, and later in the game, you'll be able to fight while mounting Ruin, your horse.


The combat itself is quite challenging, with tough enemies that not only take some time to be defeated but are also quite strong and can drain your health with just a couple blows. After you've caused enough damage, a huge icon appear over your foe's head. Pressing what i like to call the "fatality button" will trigger a quick animation where you finish off the poor creature in the most brutal way possible. But the real challenges are the bosses, who will definitely do some damage to you before you can finally kill him.


But while half the time is spent slaughtering demons and cherubs on steroids, the other half is spent on challenging, mind-bending puzzle solving. Most of those puzzles are solved with dungeon items, both new and previously acquired ones (something the Zelda games have been lacking recently) and while at first they might look easy, soon you find out they're just part of a bigger, more complex puzzle.


The story begins interesting, but is quickly turned into a premise to throw new abilities and force you to go to the next dungeon. After you land back on Earth, War makes a pact with the demon Samael: if Samael helps War fulfill his duties, War shall bring the hearts of the Chosen Ones, aka the bosses. After that, it's basically "get a power from Samael, get to the dungeon, beat the boss at the dungeon, increase your life by 1 (where did you see that before), get more powers" until you get rid of all the Chosen, and that's when the plot decides it's about time to return and gets interesting. Too bad it only happens with just a few more hours left, when you're near the ending.


The open world is a joke. There is a "central area" and various linear routes that lead one to each dungeon. Aside from one of the last things you'll do before beating the game, there's absolutely no incentive in exploring. You can try to look for some tokens that can be exchanged for money or even a "heart piece" of sorts (collect 4 to increase your life), but most of the time it's just move forward. The game even stimulates you to teleport around instead of exploring, as warping through "Serpent Holes" is one of the earliest abilities in the game. The idea was probably to avoid too much backtracking, but it backfires, as it's transformed into absolutely zero backtracking, meaning you won't go back to that area searching for more unless you really want to.
And what's worse, the game, instead of getting harder as you get to the end, gets relatively easier, as you're filled with extra life gauges, special moves and power-ups, while the enemies remain the same in terms of strength.


Darksiders is a artistically beautiful and detailed, most of it thanks to creative director and lead artist Joe Madureira, of X-men fame. Every enemy, every character, every scenery, even weapons have a level of detail beyond comparison. As for the sound, it's hard to find something to complain. While the soundtrack gives you the feeling of epicness during the most intense moments, the voice acting is simply superb, with people like Mark Hammil (Luke Skywalker, the Joker on Batman: the animated series) and Liam O'Brien (Gaara on the american version of Naruto) on the cast.


Even though Darksiders has a nice story (once it decides to appear), a great cast and a nice idea of mixing everything you like in a single game, you can't help but feel that they might have gone a bit too far. Just for example, one of the items you obtain later in the game is the gun from portal. Even the portals it shoots are in fiery orange and blue. The only difference (other than the weapon design, of course) is that the one from Darksiders is limited to some orange mosaics and it can be used to propel yourself, as there's a "force push" when you leave the portal that can be calibrated.


But if you, like me, can put aside all those "cameos" to enjoy a game, then you'll certainly like Darksiders. And with a sequel confirmed and a cliffhanger like that, you probably are already excited to see War's return.

Graphics: 9/10

Sound: 9/10

Gameplay: 8/10

Fun: 9/10

Replay: 6/10

Final Score: 9/10

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"BrunoBRS reviewed Darksiders for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by BrunoBRS on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:00:00 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/darksiders/user-reviews/711156/platform/ps3/ Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:22:13 -0800 macrules_640 reviewed Prince of Persia: Warrior Within for the GameCube... http://www.gamespot.com/prince-of-persia-warrior-within/user-reviews/709941/platform/gamecube/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

So over the last few days I've gone back to playing some of my older games and one game in particular which was Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within, I never got a chance to finish it as I got frustrated with the game, but now that I've had a chance to play the game once again, I can say its one of the best Prince Of Persia games made. I'll be breaking my review down into four categories: story, control and game play, graphics, sound. Let's start with story.

Story: For anyone that hasn't played Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time, the story in Warrior Within is a sharp contrast from the light heart story we got in the Sands Of Time. The Prince has been on the run for the last seven years from a strange entity called the Dahaka who is the keeper of the time line and since the prince never died like he was suppose to, the Dahaka wants to make sure of this and that's why the Prince himself has gotten more jaded over the years. Supposedly before leaving the Prince consulted with a wise old man that told him of the Island Of Time where the Sands were created and the Prince gets a bright idea to go to the Island to make sure the Sands were never created so the Dahaka will not go after him. I will add in that a lot of people don't like the fact that the Prince is portrayed as a dark emo type, but if you were chased by some entity wouldn't you get dark and jaded as well? At least the Prince isn't out trying to get revenge on a village that he thinks betrayed him.

Sound: Now this is where a lot of people are split on Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within, in the original game, we had a more upbeat soundtrack mixed with middle eastern themes, but in Warrior Within those are thrown out the window as the soundtrack is replaced with heavy rock riffs and a hint of Godsmack. That's right nothing says badass when you're running away from the Dahaka with Godsmack's "I Stand Alone" screaming in the background. Although some people say it doesn't fit within the game, I think the heavy rock riffs help add to the game's more mature tone and maybe if they would have used it more sparingly it would have worked out, but I really don't have any complains myself about the music. Stuart Chatwood who composed most of the music for Warrior Within did a fantastic job on the music I think. If you don't like the rock music in the game there's always the mute button on your TV. The voice acting is great as well, Robin Atkin Downes does a great job voicing the prince and gives him the right amount of edginess he needs, although I don't understand why Ubisoft didn't ask Yuri Lowenthal to voice the Prince again since I'm sure he could have made the Prince sound dark like another well known character he voices.

Graphics: I'm reviewing the Gamecube version of Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within and I haven't noticed anything wrong with them, but I've heard the Xbox and PS2 versions have had some problems in the graphics department, so I guess we can count the Gamecube as the best version for now, but overall the graphics from Warrior Within are very beautiful despite being a game from 2004. It still holds up pretty well now. The various locations you visit on the Island of Time are nicely detailed and the little details show up nicely as well, although there is some minor graphical glitches I did discover only by accident, but it doesn't take away from the pace of the game. Probably the best looking version is the PC if you have the right hardware to run it, but overall all three versions look nice with the Xbox version edging out the Gamecube and PS2 version.

Game play and Controls: This is probably the biggest thing that Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within gets right is the combat. In the Sands Of Time, you were limited to using your sword and just swinging away at the enemies until you could finish them off with the Dagger Of Time, in Warrior Within the combat has been fleshed out big time and now you can pull off a lot of combos using your main weapon or your side weapon. Since the Dagger of Time is no longer with you, you have to rely on weapons that your enemies drop or you can even steal their weapons right out of their hands and the Prince looks pretty badass when he disarms a foe slicing them in half. The combat feels more well defined as well and of course you can still rely on just hacking and slashing your foes, but where's the fun in that? The combos are pretty easy to learn and in no time you'll be a pro. The controls are pretty easy to learn, right when you being the game it teaches you the basics of how to do all of the moves and they even provide a combo list so you can remember how to do them. I don't see any problems here.

Overall: Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within is a great game that I recommend to anyone who likes a good dark storyline peppered with some good puzzles and great combat, although I will warn you that the game isn't for everyone as there are some mature themes to the game, like the way the female characters are dressed and there's some minor language as well, but nothing vulgar. There is blood in the game as well, but its not in mass like Mortal Kombat.

I give Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within a 9 for being a fantastic sequel to a great gaming franchise.

Get the full article at GameSpot

]]> http://www.gamespot.com/prince-of-persia-warrior-within/user-reviews/709941/platform/gamecube/ Mon, 01 Mar 2010 04:18:46 -0800 BrunoBRS reviewed The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for the DS... http://www.gamespot.com/the-legend-of-zelda-spirit-tracks/user-reviews/709848/platform/ds/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

I'll save you some time by saying it right away: if it has Zelda on the title, you know it's great and worth buying (the CD-i never existed!), and spirit tracks is among the best in the series. So if that's what you've been wondering, go ahead and buy it. Oh, still want the review, eh? guess there's no way to avoid it then...


Spirit Tracks is a sequel to 2007 title Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Set about 100 years after the original game, you travel around the lands of "New Hyrule" on a train, the main focus of the story, if you haven't guessed already. Turns out, though, the rails people have been using for their trains for so long are actually chains that keeps an evil demon named Malladus from escaping, and those chains are slowly disappearing. It is up to recently graduated train engineer Link to save the day, of course.


The controls are the same from Phantom Hourglass. Everything is controlled with the stylus, and it works great. you hold the stylus in a place and Link runs on its direction. the closer to Link, the slower he moves. Tap the screen twice for a roll. Tap an enemy to attack it, or do it "manually" by slicing in front of Link.Draw a circle for a spin attack. Tap the item icon (or hold one of the shoulder buttons) to ready the equipped item. And that's it. simple as it can be, perfectly functional and really enjoyable.


There's a huge focus on the use of the DS' built-in microphone this time. you'll use it to play your flute (and that will be done all the time for the most variable reasons) and use the first dungeon item you get, the whirlwind, for example. At first it might be awkward, but after five minutes, you're already used to it.


On board of the train is a little different. At first glance, it's a more limited version of PH's sailing, but playing the game for some time will make you notice how different it is. To make the train start moving, you have to draw your route. You don't necessarily have to follow it, and many times you'll have to get off of the planned route to avoid a game over. You can also just point the direction you want the train to move when leaving the station and taking the turns depending on the situation.


Being literally on-rails might sound like something limited, but in fact it just improves the game. Being limited means less places to run to, and less time spent on useless scouting for secret places, since you know they have to be somewhere on the rails. And this plays a major role in the game. You'll often have to go to the opposite direction to avoid the invincible bomb trains that run on the rails, fight enemies, look for the secret bunnies hidden all over the place and, if you're carrying a passenger, obey the sign posts. If you don't, they might get angry and leave the train. And no tip.


After a certain turn of events that happen early in the game, Zelda starts following you as a spirit. That not only adds many humorous moments to the game, but also implements a whole new feature, which is dungeon crawling as a team. On the Tower of Spirits, after you collect 3 Tears of Light, you can hit a phantom on its back so Zelda can transform into it. Controlling Zelda is really easy. You just draw a route for her to follow and she'll do it. As a phantom, Zelda can do many things you can't, like walking over lava or spikes. On the other hand, there are things only Link can do, so both of them have to cooperate in order to progress.


The game is relatively long, at least longer than Phantom Hourglass was. There are 5 main dungeons and 6 "tower of spirits" dungeons. The game starts off easy, but as time goes by, the challenge increases gradually. There are also many hidden puzzles and mini-dungeons, and those tend to be the toughest. The number of sidequests increased and few of them are still "fetch quests". Most of them involves bringing a certain cargo from somewhere else or transporting people around, but one of the most enjoyable ones, in my opinion, is finding the hidden place for all the stamp stands and collecting the stamps, as those stamps are usually very well hidden and you don't get to it without some extra exploring.


As for those wondering if the tower of spirits is another temple of the ocean king nightmare, it's not. there's no time limit, no retracking all the way through and no need to remain hidden all the time. They are completely normal dungeons, weren't it for the fact that you don't get dungeon items from it and Zelda helps you.


Spirit Tracks is a gorgeous game. Even if you don't take the DS as the standard, it looks great. The cel-shading from the previous game was improved, and the chances of seeing huge pixels has been drastically reduced. Sound plays a major role in this game, so it's no surprise that the soundtrack is excellent, maybe one of the best in the series. The train song is especially catchy, and don't be surprised if you find yourself whistling it (i know i do it all the time).


Like i mentioned earlier, Spirit Tracks is a great game for the Zelda standards, and that means being one of the best of the best. Great visuals, great soundtrack, excellent control scheme, clever puzzles, there's nothing you can find wrong on Spirit Tracks, unless you want to nitpick and say that drawing on the map still feels a bit inaccurate and Zelda's AI might not be as "intelligent" as the term implies, but other than that, it's a flawless game.


Graphics: 10/10

Sound: 10/10

Gameplay: 9/10

Fun: 10/10

Replay: 8/10

Final score: 9.5/10

Get the full article at GameSpot

"BrunoBRS reviewed The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for the DS..." was posted by BrunoBRS on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 04:18:46 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/the-legend-of-zelda-spirit-tracks/user-reviews/709848/platform/ds/ Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:02:36 -0800 BrunoBRS reviewed Dark Void Zero for the DS... http://www.gamespot.com/dark-void-zero/user-reviews/703469/platform/ds/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Following the release of Dark Void (PC/X360/PS3), CAPCOM came up with something that can't exactly be called a remake, but isn't a new game either. why so? Because Dark Void Zero, available on the DSiWare for 500 points, is actually the result of finishing a 20-year old NES-based arcade project that was abandoned with the release of the SNES.

Paying homage to the old school gamers, the first thing you see on the screen is a NES cart. Why? Obviously, being a NES game, you can't boot it properly until you blow the cartridge. After the little nostalgic moment of blowing into the mic to make the game work, you get to the title screen, which is pretty simple. You can check the high scores (just offline high scores, which is a letdown for a game like this that only people who have wi-fi internet would be able to get), continue from where you stopped or restart the game.

There are three difficulties, being Hard the difficulty from the original game. I highly recommend that you start on Easy, because this is one tough game.

The gameplay is a simple but quite effective formula. If you've played Bionic Commando (also from CAPCOM) on the NES, you'll feel at home. The main objective is to collect card keys in order to open doors that lead to new areas on the level, until you collect a golden card key, meet Nikola Tesla at a specific location and fight the boss. On the way, you'll have to solve simple puzzles and blow up enemies with a plethora of weapons and power-ups you find scattered through the levels . You can also collect floating orange balls to increase your score. Collecting the 100 balls from the level earn you an extra life. And to give you even more things to do on the same level, there are 5 things you must collect/destroy to complete the secondary objective.

What differs this game from Bionic Commando is also the greatest feature: a rocket pack. With it, you can fly and hover around the stage in whatever direction you feel like, making the game more vertical oriented than horizontal oriented.

There is a story, but it's nothing great and, like most NES games, it's just an excuse for you to jump into the action and attempt to reach the high score.

On the technical part, Dark Void Zero keeps his old-school roots, featuring typical 8-bit music and graphics. The surprising part about the graphics is that even though it's obviously 8-bit, it doesn't look old. In fact, the opposite happens: the supposedly dated visuals actually look fresh and new. The same cannot be said about the sound. the repetition of the same catchy tune with the same blips and blops from the guns might become an annoyance with time.

Sadly, the game is ridiculously short. The three levels in the game can be beaten in about two hours, on the easiest difficulty; The difference between difficulties is only how many bullets the enemies need to take before they die; and for a downloadable game where the main objective is getting the highest score possible, no online leaderboards is an offense.

Despite the length issues, Dark Void Zero is a great game, and for a price as small as 500 points, there's no reason to ignore it. Though not as fun as competing with others, you can always play it over and over to try to reach a new high score.

--

Graphics: 9/10

Sound: 6/10

Gameplay: 9/10

Fun: 9/10

Replay: 5/10

Final Score: 8.5/10

Get the full article at GameSpot

"BrunoBRS reviewed Dark Void Zero for the DS..." was posted by BrunoBRS on Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:02:36 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/dark-void-zero/user-reviews/703469/platform/ds/ Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:54:30 -0800 macrules_640 reviewed Conker's Bad Fur Day for the Nintendo 64... http://www.gamespot.com/conkers-bad-fur-day/user-reviews/701580/platform/n64/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

Who knew that this game was suppose to originally be a kids game? Just from the box art alone you can this game isn't intended for kids and it holds true. The game is chalk full of vulgar language, bathroom humor, excessive violence, but yet at the same time this is one game that's made me laugh so much before. Under all of that its a fantastic platformer that anyone should play and one of the best games on the N64 as well.

First off let's begin with the story. The story is explained in a cut scene at the being of the game and it shows Conker at a bar celebrating a friend's birthday it seems. Originally he was suppose to meet his girlfriend Berri, so he ends up calling her to let her know he'll be late, but unfortunately Conker never does end up making it because he gets to drunk and forgets all about Berri. It seems as though Conker ends up taking a wrong turn somewhere because he ends up in a strange place filled with weird creatures like a cursing cogs, a talking scarecrow, catfish, and a singing pile of poo to name a few, all the while he must avoid the Panther King who wants Conker as a replacement for his missing table leg so he can drink his milk. Its a weird story to say the least, but for some reason it just works for the game.

What about graphics? The graphics within Conker's Bad Fur Day are some of the best the N64 can produce and lets not forget this game was made by Rare and they were known for pushing what the SNES and the N64 were capable of. The graphics are dated by today's standards yes, but back in 2001 they were some of the best. The attention to detail on each of the characters are great and the way they show expression is hilarious as well. If you own the expansion pak that came with certain games it enhance the game and its highly recommended to get the most out of the game. The only problem I found with the graphics is that during some multiplayer matches the frame rate can start to go downhill, but what do you expect from a fifth generation machine?

Now onto sound. This is where Conker's Bad Fur Day receives most of its points as for an N64 game this had a lot of talking dialogue within a game and to fit that much onto a cartridge is amazing. As well there were only three voice actors hired for the whole game and they all worked for Rare. Now you may think it would bring the game down, but its the exact opposite as Conker's BFD had some of the best writing for a game I've seen in a while. The way the jokes are executed is just awesome and addition the use of vulgarity and bathroom humor oddly helps the game out and some of the dialogue is downright hilarious especially when you have to face off with The Great Mighty Poo. The other sound effects are done great as well and add to an already great experience.

Gameplay, is it good? Surprisingly Conker's BFD is one of the best platformers I had the chance to play on the N64 besides Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Koozie, but what makes Conker's BFD different from the rest is the fact that Rare simplified the controls so you wouldn't have to remember what moves do this and that. You mainly use the B button to perform actions and within the game there are spaces with the B button and Conker's head will light up with a bulb telling you to use the B button here and it makes the game go much faster, making it much more enjoyable for newer players as well. The multiplayer that's added in as well is fantastic and I much prefer it to the Xbox's version which stripped it of that. So people may not like it that there aren't complex controls to learn within Conker's BFD, but for the rest of us it works out just great.

Controls, do they work? For the most part the controls within Conker's Bad Fur Day and I really don't have any complains about them. They work just as good as Super Mario 64 and if you're use to using the controls within the game as well, the ones within Conker's won't give you any problems.

Complains? Conker's Bad Fur Day is one of those games that rarely get made that are great and this is a game that any gamer should play. Some people may complain about the use of swearing within the game, but I think it helps the game out. The only complains I have about the game is sometimes the camera gets out of hand, but if you can get over that then this is one game that's worth playing and if you haven't played it, why haven't you?

Overall I give Conker's Bad Fur Day a 9.5 for being a game that's both entertaining and hilarious at the same time and still manages to be an a great platformer.

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"macrules_640 reviewed Conker's Bad Fur Day for the Nintendo 64..." was posted by macrules_640 on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:54:30 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/conkers-bad-fur-day/user-reviews/701580/platform/n64/ Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:50:10 -0800 snakes3425 reviewed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-turtles-in-time-re-s/user-reviews/700384/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 6.5.

Ah the Ninja Turtles, back in the day Leo, Mike, Raph, and Don were everywhere, comic books, toys, live action films, and of course video games. While the games ranged from good to poor, depending on a gamer's point of view, easily the title of Greatest TMNT game ever made goes to Konami's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time. When I first heard that Turtles in Time was being remade, it was one of the games I was looking forward to playing. The restult though is a mixed bag.

For the most part the game is fairly faithful to the original SNES game. Shredder and the Foot Clan have stolen the Statue of Liberty and it's up to everyone's favorite reptiles to get it back. The gameplay is what you would expect from a good Ninja Turtles game, going around beating up Foot Soldiers, and Shredder's henchmen. The controls are responsive and fairly loyal to the original game. However the biggest improvement to the game are the graphics and voice clarity. Graphic wise, the game is vastly improved when compared to the orignal arcade and SNES versons, the voices are also clearer, allowing you to make out the various jokes.

While the game does have improved graphics, it also suffers from two major things: Cut levels and cut enemies. In the original SNES Game, the level in which the turtles are sent back in time, is the Technodrome, however in this port, the Technodrome level has been completly deleted, and instead the turtles go back in time at the end of the Sewer Surfing level. The other major flaw, which is the game's fatal flaw, is that numerous characters have been cut or replaced. Examples include: Rat King: Gone, Mousers: Gone, Slash: Replaced with a mud monster, Shredder: Doesn't become Super Shredder during the final battle, Beabop and Rocksteady: Gone, and are replaced at the end of the level with Tonka and Razar.

In the end, this is a game that will appeal to fans of both the new and old TMNT Series, however fans of the old series, will no doubt be disapointed with the missing levels and characters

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-turtles-in-time-re-s/user-reviews/700384/platform/xbox360/ Fri, 25 Dec 2009 22:59:41 -0800 snakes3425 reviewed Corpse Killer for the Sega CD... http://www.gamespot.com/corpse-killer/user-reviews/699206/platform/segacd/ ...and gave it a 5.5.

In the annals of Horror films, and video games, one scenario remains a constant source that combines terror with fun: The Zombie Apocalypse. Today we have games like Left 4 Dead, Resident Evil, and Dead Rising, all of which capture the thrill and terror of the Zombie Apocalypse perfectally. However back in the day, one game came out that attempted to do what modern Zombie games have perfected, and failed. That game is Corpse Killer for the Sega CD.

On the surface Corpse Killer sees like an okay game. The player takes control of the leader of a US Special Forces Unit, sent into the jungle of a tropical island to track down the evil Dr. Hellman, who is out to rule the world by resurecting the dead. Unlike most games on the Sega CD, which reduced the player to little more then an observer pressing a button, Corpse Killer actually plays like a game, with shooting stages seperated by FMV Cutscenes.

While the game play is vastly improved when compared to other FMV Games, it is also dull and repetitive. Every stage is essentually the same, shooting Zombies, that emerge from differet areas of the screen. The gameplay however is harmed greatly by the limits of video technology. Unlike games like Left 4 Dead or Resident Evil, which change constantly everytime you play, Corpse Killer's enemies never change their tactics, due to the use of Live action video, so once the player memorizes where the Zombies are coming from the levels become a cake walk.

Another problem the game has, is that it's just too easy, and this is thanks in no part to your weapon. Even in the worst shooter games, you always have to find ammo or reload, however in Corpse Killer your weapon never runs out of ammo, and that weapon is the only one you seem to get through out the game.

Another problem the game has is that it lacks any sort of Horror Movie atmosphere. In a game like Left 4 Dead you are presented with variety of different locations, each of which is designed in a way that it creates a strong and scary mood, making you feel like you're part of the game. Corpse Killer on the other hand, has little to no atmosphere in it, and this is due to the fact it's obvious the Zombies are actors in make up, and many of the locations on the island are also obviously sets or minitures. The atmosphere of the game is also not helped by the limitations of the Sega CD, which causes the cutscenes and even the gameplay levels to be so badly rendured they are nearly unplayable or unwatchable.

Another thing that destroys the atmosphere is the acting, the characters are as flat as it comes, and the actors look and sound as though they're reading from cue cards, with the director shouting movement orders. Another problem is that some of the characters are just plain annoying, namely your sidekicks and the primary villian Dr. Hellman, who is played by the late Vincent Schiavelli, is terribly miscasted, and his preformance lacks any sort of malace.

The biggest problem this game has, is that it has no mystery. In a good Zombie Game like Resident Evil, you have to piece together the mystery of what caused the outbreaks, however in Corpse Killer the entire story is essentually given to you in the first few cut scenes, which detail not only your mission, but also reveal that Hellman is not only responsible for the Zombies, but also his ultimate plan, there for there is little in the way of puzzels or mysteries that need solving.

While not the worst Sega CD game, Corpse Killer is still a bad game, thanks in part to it being essentually a stripped down verson of Resident Evil or Left 4 Dead, that is ruined by the limitations of it's technology and budget. In the end Corpse Killer had potental, but today it's a game only for die hard FMV gamers or fans of Zombie films.

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"snakes3425 reviewed Corpse Killer for the Sega CD..." was posted by snakes3425 on Fri, 25 Dec 2009 22:59:41 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/corpse-killer/user-reviews/699206/platform/segacd/ Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:03:31 -0800 snakes3425 reviewed Godzilla: Monster of Monsters! for the NES... http://www.gamespot.com/godzilla-monster-of-monsters/user-reviews/698447/platform/nes/ ...and gave it a 4.0.

Ah Godzilla, one of the greatest monsters ever created, and one of the best monster movie series of all time. By now everyone probably knows the plot of every Godzilla movie by heat: Godzilla and his pals throw a tantrum or the Big G has to protect the Earth from an alien invasion, who often bring their own monster, and the cities of Earth, end up as smoldering creators. Now when it comes to video games, a Godzilla game should be no more complicated then rampaging through downtown Tokyo fighting other monsters and trashing buildings. Godzilla Monster of Monsters however only gets half of that right.

The plot of the game is fairly straight forward, war has broken out between Earth and Planet X, and Godzilla and Mothra are Earth's first and last lines of defense against the alien onslaught. Through out the game, you control both Godzilla and Mothra as they fight their way through various battle zones and engage a variety of monsters from the Godzilla series.

Overall the graphics are pretty good for the NES Era, Godzilla and Mothra are well done, and look like their movie counterparts. During the battle zone stages, it's fun to attack the various enemy space ships and tanks. However the highlight of the gameplay are the fights between Godzilla, Mothra, and an enemy monster, who are all drawn from the various Godzilla Movies. However the graphics and over all game play are the only few redeeming factors for this game.

While the graphics and game play are over all okay, they are also the game's fatal flaw. At times the graphics will flicker or suffer from lag time, however this is a common flaw with NES games and many games played on 8-bit consoles caused by too much being on the screen at once. However the biggest flaw lies in the gameplay itself. When one thinks of a Godzilla game, they think of rampaging through cities, instead we are treated to a combination of chess master and super mario. Before you can enter a battle zone, you have to first use a hexagonal shaped chess board to move your monsters to the various enemy battle fields, and only then can you fight in the battle zone or against the enemy monster. But more then anything most of the game play is just plain boaring, often having the same battle zone repeated over and over again.

Another major problem lies in the controls, especially on the hexagonal boards. Often time the controls fail to respond, or are so stiff that it takes forever to execute a simple move, such as moving from one square to another on the map screen, or executing an attack. The only time that the controls seem to be fairly responsive, is when you're fighting the other monsters.

Another problem with this game is a lack of Godzilla Characters, as the player you're limited to just Godzilla and Mothra while the computer has control of dozens, and some of the monsters, such as Magura, Gezora, and Varien either never appeared in a Godzilla movie until long after this game had been released or were restricted to stock footage or poster cameos in other Godzilla movies. It isn't until much later in the game that you start encountering much more appropriate Godzilla villains including fan favorites Mechagodzilla and King Gidorah.

Overall Godzilla Monster of Monsters had the potential to be the definitive Godzilla Game of the 8-Bit Era, but boring and repetitive game play coupled with crippled controls, and a lack of Godzilla monsters destroyed any chance of this game appealing to anyone but hardcore Godzilla Fans or people desiring a complete NES Library.

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"snakes3425 reviewed Godzilla: Monster of Monsters! for the NES..." was posted by snakes3425 on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:03:31 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/godzilla-monster-of-monsters/user-reviews/698447/platform/nes/ Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:34:46 -0800 macrules_640 reviewed Doom for the PlayStation... http://www.gamespot.com/doom/user-reviews/692498/platform/ps/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

The year was 1995 and the PlayStation had just come out and didn't have to many games at launch and Doom was one of the first games to be launched with the system and it was a success selling well over 1 million copies and to this day the PlayStation port holds up better than the other ports.

The story in Doom. Is there a story? There's not much of a story to Doom and pretty much it borrows from the PC version. You're a marine as tough as they come. You were sent to Phobos because you hurt your commanding officer for disobeying a direct order to fire on civilians. Your days on Phobos are boring and consist of watching restricted flicks and sucking dust in the rec room. All of a sudden all hell breaks lose on Phobos, everyone is killed expect you and now its up to you as the player to blast your way through 59 levels to kick those sorry demons in their behinds all the way back to hell. They'll pay for messing with you and killing your pet rabbit Daisy.

Let's talk about the graphics. For their time in 1995 they looked pretty good and by today's standards they don't look the best, but if you can get around that then you're in for a hellishly good time. The PlayStation port of Doom received an upgrades of sort and that was to the graphics and sound, but let's talk about the enhanced graphics first. It got ambient lighting when was suppose to help the game seem scary in some parts and it does a good job of making you scared sometimes when you least expect a Spectre to sneak up on you and scare you. The only problem with the lighting is the fact that it makes it so hard to see in some of the levels. You'll usually end up getting hit by an unseen enemy who you can't see and this will most likely frustrate you to no end, but you can remedy that by turning up your TV's brightness.

On to sound. This is where the PlayStation version of Doom got the biggest upgrade and that was to the sound. Instead of using the original sound effects and music that was created by Bobby Prince, Midway called in Aubrey Hodges to compose new music and sound effects for the game and its probably some of the best sound effects for Doom. Everything sounds so much better in the PS port from the sounds of the shotgun going off to the groans of the demons and their death screams as well. Its limited by today's standards yes, but it was scary enough to make Doom seem even more scarier and it worked. A lot of people complain about the newer sound effects included and it would have been nice to see an option to include the original effects and music, but I can live with it.

Last, but now least game play. Doom is pretty simple when it comes to game play and pretty much boils down to going from on area to the next blasting demons that dare get in your way and collecting keys that open up doors as well. Some people might find it annoying to have to keep doing this, but for people that can put up with it, its some of the best gaming you'll ever have and with 59 levels its sure to keep you busy for a weekend.

The only complain I have about the game besides the lighting and some of the music is the graphics. Now as you can tell this version is based on the Jaguar code and almost every version used it. It doesn't take away from the game, but the PC version was much more colorful and had better textures. The Jaguar version used a lot of the Doom 2 textures and it made the game seem bland. If the SNES version of Doom was able to use the PC textures than other versions could have as well. Other than that the PS port of Doom is great.

The controls in the game work very well and can be customized to the way you play so it earns some points for that. My suggestion for the control scheme in Doom is go with X for attack, O for use, Square for strafe on and Triangle for speed as this feels the most natural for the game. The game uses a password system which can get annoying as you'll most likely lose the passwords, but since Doom was released in 1995 I can forgive it for that. All in all the PlayStation port of Doom is the best around and if you're a fan of Doom then there's no questioning you should get this port which combines Ultimate Doom and Doom 2 together.

Overall Doom on the PlayStation scores an 8.5 for being able to be the closet port of Doom on a console within sacrificing too much of the original game.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"macrules_640 reviewed Doom for the PlayStation..." was posted by macrules_640 on Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:34:46 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/doom/user-reviews/692498/platform/ps/ Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:01:02 -0700 snakes3425 reviewed Transformers: Convoy no Nazo for the NES... http://www.gamespot.com/transformers-convoy-no-nazo/user-reviews/688953/platform/nes/ ...and gave it a 5.5.

What can be said about Transformers, it's one of the most iconic and beloved franchises in history, spawning two live action films, an animated film, dozens of cartoon shows, comic books, and of course a line of popular action figures. With the coming of the live action series, Transformers has seen a revival in terms of video games, however back in the day fans weren't so lucky.

Transformers Convoy no Nazo (Transformers: The Mystery of Convoy/Optimus Prime) is a Transformers platforming game released only in Japan for the Nintendo Famicom/NES, and supposidly picks up where the 1986 film ends, casting the player in the role of fan favorite Ultra Magnus who embarks on a quest to track down Optimus Prime/Convoy's assassin (the realse of Transformers 1986 was delayed four years in Japan)

The one part in which the game excelles is it's controls, which are responsive, and the over game play is what one would expect in a Transformers game, namely running around blasting Decepticons.

However the game play is also where this game begins to fall apart. The enemies the player faces aren't what one would expect when playing a Transformers game, including recycled Cyclonus Attack Drones and small lasers cannons that are next to impossible to hit.

In addition to the lack of enemies, the first thing you will notice is a lack of Decepticons and Autobots, in fact most Transformers games allow you to select your character, in this game you're limited to Ultra Magnus, even though you can unlock Rodimus Prime, he's just the Ultra Magnus spirt repainted. The Boss Battles are rediculus, ranging from fighting Megatron himself to the Nemesis, and even though Megatron was the one to deliver the fatal wound to Optimus Prime in the animated movie, he isn't the final boss, instead of facing off against Megatron's upgraded form, Galvatron, you fight Trypticon as the final boss

However the biggest flaw this game has is it's difficulty, which is made all the more harder by the lack luster graphics, which at times allows enemy fire to blend into the back ground. In terms of difficulty this game is brutal, you're limited to one life, and one hit with no health power ups, status bar, or check points, but there is at least a continue code. However the enemy can take a lot more damage, and can often kill you by simply running into you. The other thing that makes this game almost impossible to beat, is the hit detection, which is mutaltated. In most games if you're shot so much as touches the enemy it counts as a hit, but in this game if you shoot any ware other then dead center, you attack passes right through the enemy doing no damage at all.

In conclusion, Transformers Convoy no Nazo has more in common with games like Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog then Transformers, it even lacks the Transformers theme song, with the exception of "More then Meets the eye" and doesn't even acknowledge the Transformers by name, with the exception of Rodimus, whose name is spelled out in letters you have to collect to unlock him. In the end this is a game that is soley for a Transformers collector, or anyone seeking a complete Famicom Library

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"snakes3425 reviewed Transformers: Convoy no Nazo for the NES..." was posted by snakes3425 on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:01:02 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/transformers-convoy-no-nazo/user-reviews/688953/platform/nes/ Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:06:20 -0700 macrules_640 reviewed Sonic the Hedgehog for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/sonic-the-hedgehog-2006/user-reviews/688032/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 1.0.

What would happen if you decided to make a cake, but didn't have all the ingredients and decided to go on with it and then baked it in half the time it recommends? You get Sonic Next Gen.

Don't let the title confuse you. This isn't Sonic The Hedgehog, you know the lovable little blue guy that ran at high speeds and had an attitude right? Well Sega decided for Sonic's 15th anniversary they would make a new Sonic game and just call it Sonic The Hedgehog and they said it would be the best Sonic game ever made and boy were they wrong. This is by far the worst Sonic game ever made and it tainted Sonic's already dying fan base and mostly likely this made Sonic want to hang himself for not only having Princess Elise kiss him, but for just how bad this game was made. Let's get started shall we?

So where should I begin on this fiasco of a game? Let's start with how the game literally makes you think its going to be awesome from the beginning scene, but as soon as its done you're thrown in a town and forced to find out information on Dr. Robotnik which is cool and all, but they didn't bother to help you out and the map in the game is totally useless, it feels like Sega tried to hard to copy Sonic Adventure which is true since the first stage in Sonic Next Gen is like Emerald Coast from Sonic Adventure and heck they even threw in the killer whale chase again, but it doesn't capture what Sonic Adventure did good. I think Sega tried a little to hard to make Sonic Next Gen seem like the older games and it didn't work.

Let's get into the meat and potatoes of why Sonic Next Gen is truly a bad game. First of all let's talk about the glitches in the game. If I wasn't mistaken I thought that when I was playing Sonic Next Gen, I was playing a beta release of the game because there is so many darn glitches in the game. I mean come on I was in the Wave Ocean stage and as I was rounding a loop somehow I fell off and died right in the ocean. WTF? At first I thought it was maybe my controlling, but after I was going up around the loop again it did it again and this is the truth I had to reset the game because I died on that same spot and lost all of my lives. The glitches don't end there. The camera will sometimes freeze up and you won't be able to control it meaning you can't see where the heck you're going and you'll die from cheap shots of enemies.

The worst thing about the game is the load times. I won't even get started on it, but it takes at least a good two to three minutes just for one stage to load in Sonic Next Gen and I'm not lying. The first stage took around two and a half minutes to load for me and it doesn't stop there. When you're in town and doing the missions for people it takes forever to load as well and when you finish the mission it has to load as well. It drove me crazy having to wait for the game to load and I installed the game on the hard drive to see if it helped speed up the load times, but unfortunately it didn't. I won't even get started on the characters you have to play as. Sonic plays all good and well, but Shadow and Sliver just seemed so out of place. I would mention the other characters you have to play as, but they all suck and control horribly.

To top it all off they mention some stuff in the manual that you can do with the characters, but that's a lot of bs as I never once saw any of that stuff. If you have any common sense stay away from this game because its horrible! Hitting yourself in the junk with a sledgehammer is more enjoyable than this game. It tainted Sonic's reputation big time and its a game that deserves to be banished back to the depths of hell.

I'd rate the game, but there is no scale that could rate just how bad this game is, but for review's sake I give it a 1.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"macrules_640 reviewed Sonic the Hedgehog for the Xbox 360..." was posted by macrules_640 on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:06:20 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/sonic-the-hedgehog-2006/user-reviews/688032/platform/xbox360/ Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:01:06 -0700 macrules_640 reviewed Doom for the Sega 32X... http://www.gamespot.com/doom/user-reviews/688030/platform/sega32x/ ...and gave it a 4.5.

Perhaps one of the worst ports of Doom ever and that's being nice to it, but for my next games to avoid I'm going to tell you why you should avoid the 32X version of Doom at all costs.

It was 1994 and like a lot of things at the time it was popular to port good games to other consoles at the time and since the 32X wasn't doing all that well at the time, Sega though it would be a great idea to port Doom over to the 32X to show people just what the 32X could do, but the problem was the gaming ended up being rushed just in time for the Christmas season and the game itself shows just how bad they screwed up on this port of Doom.

Where should I being with the game on just how bad it is? How about cutting out half of the levels from the game? Yes that's right they cut out almost half of the levels from Doom 32X and only left us with episode 1 Knee Deep Into The Dead and they did manage to get some of the Shores of Hell in there, but seriously, no Inferno and only keep it at 17 levels which is half of the original 27 levels of Doom not including Thy Flesh Consumed which was included in The Ultimate Doom. Seriously the SNES version managed to keep 22 of the original 27 levels in the game and I know it was made 2 years later than the 32X version, but they were just being lazy over at ID porting the game.

Another problem with the game was the omission of The Cyberdemon and Spidermaster Mind bosses which was a big mistake as it took away some of the difficulty of the game and they also removed the Spectre enemy and some of the blur artifacts in the game as well which hurt it even more and it seemed at the time it was a big thing to use the Jaguar's source code for the game as the 32X used the simplified maps of the Jaguar and not of the original PC version which only the SNES version seemed to use the PC source code, but that's not a big deal as it made some of the maps were shorter than the PC ones and that meant an easier time for newer players.

The biggest hit to the 32X version of Doom was the fact that the music sounded like fart noises and I don't know why they couldn't of made the music better, supposedly being a more powerful system that the SNES, the SNES version had better music and was more in vain to the PC version and although the 32X version was crap, the graphics were pretty good for the system and it was on par with the Jaguar in some parts, but the enemies were only drawn from the front so that meant you couldn't sneak up on them and this was a pain sometimes, but still even though the graphics were pretty good it still couldn't make up for the fact that it had sub-par music, simplified maps, the missing Cyberdemon and Spidermaster Mind bosses, the BFG is also missing from the game as well and can only be gotten through cheating. The controls for Doom 32X were okay, but it was necessary for the 6 button controller as 3 buttons weren't enough.

Overall Doom 32X wasn't the best port of Doom with all of it's troubles, but if you could put up with the missing levels and the headache inducing music then it's an average port of a great game.

My rating for it: D-

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"macrules_640 reviewed Doom for the Sega 32X..." was posted by macrules_640 on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:01:06 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/doom/user-reviews/688030/platform/sega32x/ Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:28:57 -0700 snakes3425 reviewed Darkest of Days for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/darkest-of-days/user-reviews/683143/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 7.5.

When I first saw the box art to this game, that of a Union Soldier holding a futuristic assault rifle, I felt this was a game worth checking out. When I picked it up, I was expecting being able to play as a time traveler fighting his way through various historic time periods armed with futuristic weapons, sadly though the game doesn't live up to the hype.

Plot wise the game is fairly straight forward, you take on the role of a member of the doomed 7th Calvary Column commanded by George Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, who is saved from the fate his comrades met by a time traveler who takes him 300 years into the future, where the former Calvary soldier is made into a time cop, and tasked with tracking down a missing scientist.

Over the course of the game you get to experience many familiar time periods including World War I, the American Civil War, the Indian Wars, and World War II. Each time period is well researched, and presents the player with a wide variety of weapons unique to the specific time period, which can be upgraded once the player returns to future, and the Civil War Era weapons are given quicker reload times.

However the problems begin with the idea that some enemies have to be kept alive, and this is made all the more difficult by being provided with a limited number of stun grenades which can't be replenished, this makes completing a mission without killing someone who has to be kept alive all but impossible. The other problems this game has lie in it's poor hit detection and brain dead AI.

At times the hit detection is so poor that you wonder how you missed, example during a mission set during World War I, you have numerous chances to shoot an advancing German Infantry officer in the face with a rifle, yet the game won't register the hit, while most weapons like Civil War era guns weren't known for their accuracy, the game designers could have at least made sure hitting the enemy wasn't simply good luck.

While the Hit Detection is in need of a major over hall, the brain dead AI all but negates the need for an over hall, since many enemies will simply run into rocks or trees and stay there shooting blindly at you as you pick them off one by one.

While Darkest of Days isn't the worst game, earning a lot of points for being original, and introducing wars that have rarely been featured in video games, it's a game that feels incomplete and boils down to just another FPS. Had the developers taken time to fine tune the story, improve the hit detection and AI, then this game would have been a must have, instead we get a game that will mostly appeal to history buffs and casual FPS fans

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"snakes3425 reviewed Darkest of Days for the Xbox 360..." was posted by snakes3425 on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:28:57 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/darkest-of-days/user-reviews/683143/platform/xbox360/