First thing is first, as the name describes.  I use this site to review games.  Duh.  I also use it to... well, nothing else really.  That's all this site is honestly good for.  There really isn't ever any discussion, my reviews aren't necessarily contested, and it's not what I use to keep in contact with anyone.  Mostly, this is a public archive of my biased opinions on games with a numerical value tacked on at the end.

In any case, a friend of mine gave me a great idea.  As most of you reading this may know, I'm going to school to be a game designer.  One of the things you must do to graduate is to make a portfolio full of work you have accomplished while here.  Something that was mentioned to me is that this website could be used to show my professional opinion on games and the industry.  While that may be true, I don't think I could best do that in the My Space format.  So I'm going to see how many of my reviews I can salvage and then move them to another site.  I'm going to grab a free forum site and make an entire section dedicated to my reviews as the review itself as the OP.  The rest of the thread can be conversation stemming from that.  Along with that section, I may have a section for free discussion, industry talk, and (possibly) my portfolio for people to look at and comment on.  I think it would be a great idea that would not only help me, but also everyone that visits it.

So, now that I have that out of the way, it's obvious I've been behind on reviews.  In all honesty, I kinda forgot about both of my MySpace accounts and sort-a neglected them.  Now that I'm back and dusting off the cob webs, I want to get back into them.  I want to give a few short reviews as well as talk about upcoming games:

Mario Kart Wii (Wii, duh...)
I'm not particularly happy with this installment with the franchise.  It seems to me that they saw what snaking did on the DS while players were online and decided to drastically change the whole power sliding system, something that I've loved from all subsequent Mario Kart games.  The change doesn't allow you to quickly gain boost, you get it based off a timer.  If it hadn't been for this one change, I would probably just throw an amazing score at it and carry on.  But this one thing, ONE THING, absolutely aggravated me to no extent.  Why Nintendo?  Why?

Then, on top of that, they have increased the draw backs for getting hit.  In MK: Double Dash and MK: DS, if you got hit with an explosion you lost all your items.  Well, in this game, that seems to happen no matter what you are hit with.  You seem to lose items just as fast as you get them, nearly forcing you to use them quickly instead of waiting and using them strategically.  This is also a pain.

The AI is mostly the same as any other MK game, a couple of computers are smarter than the rest and stay right on top of you, while the rest hang back and cover the tail of the group.  This was fine in other games, except now you have more characters on the track more than any other game, 12 I believe.  When you have you in front with 2 or 3 computers, that leaves 8-9 computers in one angry mob behind you.  And computers can get every item you can in this game.  What does this mean to you?  Well, if you get hit by a shell, fall off the track, etc.; you will get trampled by the stampede of dumb computers with every item imaginable from start to big mode.  And you WILL get hit.  Then to get back in the lead, you have to battle your way through that cluster of annoyance just to be free again.  Also, the "rubber band" effect that AI has in racing is still present here.  It causes the A.I karts to stay within a set distance behind you.  Although the intent with this is to keep the player constantly challenged, this can become frustrating when they still catch up with you even if you're racing at your best.
There were a few things I like about this game.  One was the half-pipe system.  You can ramp up certain marked walls, do a trick, and land with a boost.  While it is a cool idea, I don't think they implemented it to the fullest.  Most of the time it is easier just to take the turn tight and avoid the half-pipe since it is usually just as fast, if not faster, to do so.  The half pipe is only useful when you HAVE to do it.  Little peeve, but that's all.
The idea where you can do tricks is a nice addition.  Anytime you hit a bump, you can hit a button (or waggle the remote) and do a swift trick.  When you land from it, you boost a little.  This one mechanic added in creates some interesting level design with moguls and ramps that allow people who know how to do it to get ahead slightly.  It's a great idea, and I'm glad they did it.
One more noticeable gameplay change came in the form of kart choice.  Along with standard karts and crazy other vehicles came motorcycles.  While I don't personally like them, they give an option to some people to ride a good ol' hog.  They have a good advantage on straight ways because they can perform wheelies to gain a little boost.  Their drawback is that they have loose handling, making it harder to round turns nicely.  However, it seems pretty balanced in the long run.  It was a cool choice of direction, though I hope this doesn't detract further games in the series from steering too far from the "Kart" part of Mario Kart.
I didn't get to play online, but I have seen videos.  Wow.  Glitches where you can trick the system into thinking you did all three laps by breaking shortly after the start of the race is dumb.  Aside from that, online looks fine, and it should be if it's anything like the DS was.
In all, the game is fun.  I'm very angry with the choice of changing the Power Sliding, which really hurts the game in my book, but that doesn't mean the game is bad.  I'll give it a 7/10

Super Smash Brothers Brawl (Wiiiiiiiiii)
I really don't want to write a review on this game, because I constantly discuss the game at www.smashboards.com.  As many of you know, I played Super Smash Brothers Melee (ssbm) a lot.  I got very competitive and got pretty awesome in the scene.  I ended up beating the best in WV as well as becoming runner-up on the AZ power rank list (I would be higher if I had just participated a little more says one of the AZ panelists).  I was anticipating the Brawl release with a lot of excitement, but...
Well, I think Nintendo really wanted to detract from what Melee had become.  While it may not have been recognized as a world-class competitive game, it was still there in people's minds.  Nintendo has decided that Brawl will be a party game, and is making sure that it will stay only that.  There are a lot of problems that I have with the game.  Because of those problems, it's hard for me to play the game seriously, and, instead, only play it like I would Mario Party back on the N64 with my family.
One of the big changes to the game is the adventure mode.  This mode has been upgraded to a full story that involves all the characters independently, 2D side-scrolling levels with puzzles and enemies, boss fights, etc. You can also now play with a teammate while you both share stocks.  You can use this mode to unlock all the characters and most of the stages.  It was a lot of fun and took about 2 days to finish completely (given, my friends and I were swapping places, so I'm sure I could have done it faster If it had been just me :D).  The stickers were also a nice touch to the story mode, allowing you to specialize your character to fit your style and what not.
There is a whole plethora of things to do ranging from the Home Run contest, which has gotten a few gameplay changes to it; a new Break the Target system, with levels that are shared with all characters instead of specific ones; Boss Battles, where you see how many bosses you can beat before dyeing; Coin Launcher, an arcade like game where you use coins from matches to get new trophies and stickers by shooting down spaceships.  On top of that, you can take your stickers into a sandbox area and take pictures of them, play old games that star characters playable in Brawl, and build your own custom stages.  A new option that they added to this game is the ability to change your controls for your name account.  If you want b to do standard attacks and X to do specials, then sure, why not?  This was a fantastic addition and it's about time they added this in smash.
Now with the meat of the review, the gameplay.  Now, I know I am biased in this part because I played the ever loving bajesus out of Melee and I don't like the changes made in Brawl.  All the characters are way floaty in this game.  It seems that everyone is made out of cotton candy as they gentle glide in the breeze.  Generally, if you don't die from going off the screen, you are going to make it back.  Everyone seems to have amazing recoveries this time around.  Characters still maintain the heavier/lighter aspect where some people take longer to knock off and others not so much, but they still fall at, basically, the same speed.
Tripping.  Do I have to comment on it?  Who on Earth thought it was an acceptable idea to make a game where you randomly trip and fall on your ass?  I don't know one person who has tripped and laughed at it.  It is always frustrating, always dangerous, and always unexpected.  Tripping is just a bad idea.  Why Nintendo.  Who ever made tripping is probably one of the worst designers I have ever had the displeasure of playing one of their creations.  Tripping? Honestly...
Final Smashes seemed like an awesome idea, until it got implemented.  Some people have really cool, inventive, powerful final smashes, while others seem to fall short.  You have Sonic who can rip a stock or two off of you with one activation of the Smash Ball while Peach puts people to sleep and she gains life.  Ultimately, the smashes are very unbalanced with some people getting instant kills and other people getting utter crap.
Items are items still.  I don't generally play with them, but when I do, I have to point out that the dragoon is dumb.  If you get it, you are going to kill at least one person.  That's that.  You can kill more sometimes too.  It is dumb.  Assist trophies are like Smash Balls, except it isn't character dependent.  Sometimes you get a really crappy assistant, like the guy that shifts the screen.  Then you have assistants like Grey Fox that goes around gimping the crap out of people.  >_>
There are a lot of characters in this game and, consequently, the game is a little imbalanced.  Yoshi is still pretty bad.  He's never really stood out in smash games, so it's a little less surprising.  However, some of the new characters are completely outrageous.  Snake and metaknight are currently dominating the entire competitive scene because they have ridiculous moves.  Snake's moves hit far beyond the model and can't be stopped while metaknight can keep going and going and going with quick damaging attacks.  It's dumb.  Then there are the loads of characters that can do chain grabs out to wazoo!  Deedeedee, Marth, Falco, Ice Climbers, etc.  You don't want to play Brawl on a walk off stage because you will get walked off!
Plus, the game has been very slowed down.  If you played melee at all, playing Brawl will feel like you are fighting underwater.  The first few days I played, it felt like I was fighting the game more than other people or the story mode.  You don't have exploits like wavedashing or mechanics like L-canceling to improve your speed either.  You can only work with what your character has.  That's all.  If your character is slow, you need to work with it because you just CAN'T work around it.  Since the game is so slow, it increases the necessity to play defensively.  The best way to win in this game is to sit back and force the other person to come to you.  Power shielding is much easier, so now you have a better advantage when you block an attack.  The game is mostly a very reactive game instead of a proactive game now.
Edgegaurding is near impossible now.  Characters can grab the edge from several body lengths away, meaning that the only way to stop people is to go out after them.  If your character can't do that, you are sore-out-of-luck.  Plus, moves auto-grab the edge.  This means that you don't have to worry about your spacing to reach the edge, you just do it and without punishment.  This is very, very frustrating.
Everything I hate about the game aside, the game is still good.  It looks pretty, has beautiful graphics, character models are detailed, nice sound tracks, cool levels, and other ascetic things.  It just sucks that the gameplay is what isn't good in this one.  Sue me.  I'm going to give Super Smash Brothers Brawl a 6/10

Now that I got those out of the way...
I want to review MGS4.  I don't have a PS3.  If you can give me a PS3, I will gladly pain myself to sit through it and review it.  I know I know, it's a burden that someone has to bare, but I'm willing to do it: D

Anyway, when I have everything figured out, I'll let you guys know.  I'm eagerly waiting for a few games like Monster Hunter 3, Guild Wars 2, Beyond Good and Evil 2, Fable 2, (wow that's a lot of sequels) as far as hearing if any new Metroid games will be released.  My next review though will probably be another old game though, Earthbound.  I have a friend who insists I play it, and it has a very good reputation.  So why not?  Well, thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more!

You take two steps from your ship.  You can hear the beat of your heart over the deep breaths coming from your helmet.  You clinch your fist tightly, in anger, in rage, in fury.  You don't know why you feel like this.  Then your eyes open wide... corruption...

Finally, I have played and beaten the final chapter in the Metroid Prime franchise.  And in all fun, I got it on Monday and beat it on Wednesday, count those days people (3 for those who are slow, 3 days).  Now, for all you pansies out there who will probably play the game on easy mode, let me tell you this: I played, and beat the game, all the way through on Veteran mode (the hardest mode from the beginning) and turned the hint system off during the whole game.  Praise me.  Anyway, let's kick this review off shall we?

First glance, the game is beautiful.  You can't look at this game and not wonder how Retro Studios possibly made this game on the Wii.  Amazerating.  In all of the next-gen. of it all, it has bloom lighting, WOOT!  The models look fabulous for everything from characters to plant life.  Every room is unique and it is very easy to distinguish between them.  You will actually find it very hard to get lost in this game with that and the combination of your map.

Another great thing is the Voice acting.  Yes, voice acting.  Samus? No, she gets to keep her aura of mystery, but almost, if not, every other character in the game has a speaking part in it.  The mouths sync up with the voice great, and every word is sub-titled for your pleasure *wink*.   Although, there are times when you will run into a bunch of people who say the same thing like, "Hey, Samus!", "Pleasure to meet you Samus," and, "WASSSSSUP... Samus," over and over again.  But, that is basically only at the beginning.

Let's get into the story now.  Dark Samus is back, how you ask?  Well, the space pirates went back to planet Aether (the planet during Metroid Prime 2) to get one last load of phazon (the hazardous material the Prime games are based off of) before packing up for good.  what they didn't know is that they got the last remnants of Dark Samus.  While in the cargo hold, she gathered energy from the rest of the phazon and came back to life.  Flash forward to Samus.  She has been ordered to help protect a Federation planet, Norion.  She finds out that the pirates have put a virus into the system of computers the federation uses.  This means they are without protection.  Just then, they are attacked and you are forced to fend for your life and for the federation.

If you didn't understand a lot of that, play the other game for Pete's sake.  You really don't even have to play the second one, just pick up Prime 1.  Do it for your own health.

So I don't have to spoil anything, let's just say you magically end up infused with phazon.  Your body self-produces it and you are able to use it as a weapon.  When you use it, you go into hyper mode.  You use one of your energy (health) tanks as a weapon and any reaming phazon after you exit hyper mode goes back into your energy tank.  The problem is, if you stay in hyper mode too long, you become corrupted.  Your body begins to mass produce it and you have to use it all in order to keep yourself alive.  It gets FrEaKy.

Aside from hyper mode, there are other cool new things from the start.  Like using your grapple beam as a weapon, which makes for some interesting fights.  Trust me when I say you will get a lot of weapons nothing short of amazing.  Aside from yourself, you hip gets to participate too in this game.  Whenever you are out and about the planet, you can call your ship in to do a carpet bombing if it can.  This just kicks butt (for lack of a better phrase).  Just like in any other Metroid game, as more and more weapons stack up, the more of a powerhouse you become and so do the enemies.  It seems as if the more you play, the more the enemies become corrupt as well.

That brings me to my next point, enemies.  There are a ton of new enemies this time around.  There aren't many clones like you might have seen in Prime 1 to 2, which adds to the experience.  It seems that almost every enemy that has the slightest bit of phazon in them can enter hyper mode.  If you thought you were amazing in hyper mode, you should see these guys.  A normal space pirate could only take a single missile or a charge blast before they died.  When they go hyper, it takes upwards of about 5 or 6 missiles before they croak, and that is if you even hit them before they went hyper!  It makes for some pretty crazy fights, because you are constantly avoiding hyper enemies and killing those who aren't and then having to combat what's left.  Crizazy.

The puzzles are still here, and most of them aren't too hard to figure out.  If you haven't played any of the primes, the puzzles might be hard, but for a veteran they weren't too bad.  A few of them can get you killed though if you don't figure it out quick enough!  Some of the puzzles though feel completely impossible.  At one point you have an endless stream of bad guys coming at you.  while they attack you, you are suppose to stop two radar jammers and call in your ship.  Oh, and did I mention that this is a big room with the jammers on either side, and, oh, did I mention that the jammers reset after 7 seconds?  You have to also use your grapple to unjam them.  So you go to one, unjam it, roll into a ball (to go faster than walking) get to the other one, unjam it, and then call in your ship in under 7  seconds.  Needless to say, it took a few tries.

Speaking of the ship, did I mention that this game has you go from planet to planet?  Each planet is a quite a fair size.  there are 4 main planets that you go to and not to mention side places to visit either.  There is a lot to explore. Plus, each planet has its own distinct feel to it.  One is a jungle turned tech by the Federation, another is a volcanic wasteland, one is a pollution ridden citadel, and another is a mechanized heaven.  Each one was artistically well taken care of.  The creatures, lore, and items found in these regions just make sense, and it is plain to see that their placement was taken into much consideration.  It is just too easy to love.

Another new addition is game points.  If you have ever played an Xbox 360 game, you would know about the achievement points.  These points are not needed to get through the game in most cases, but are awesome when you get them.  When out of the game, you can use these points to unlock gallery pictures, music, and other ins-and-outs.  You get points from scanning things, killing certain enemies, completing objectives, or finding special triggers.  One example of a special would be this:  I was on a bridge with a bunch of robots coming at me.  I waited for them to get close and I rushed for the other side.  when I got there, I turned around and destroyed the bridge.  This activated a cut-scene where it showed Samus walking away from the bridge as the bots fell into the void.  Then words appeared, "Stylish Kill."  It rocked my world.  You can only get one certain type of point though from friends.  If you have a friend on your Wii who also has the game, you can send them vouchers for friend points.  If you have no friends, you have no friend points.  This sucks.  So, if you have this game and want some points, E-MAIL ME NOW!  I want some points.

I know what is on a lot of your minds, the controls.  They are great!  You are slightly limited in what you can set the options as.  I would have like to turn my sensitivity up a little more, but I was already maxed out on Advanced mode.  the movement of the arm cannon if perfect.  It is very easy to pick your headshots off with or without the lock on.  Even if you lock on though, it doesn't guarantee a hit!  You are still free-aiming, lock on just keeps the enemy in the middle of the screen for you.  The motion sensing is tight, even better than in Wario Ware.  Every time you move a hatch, pull a lever, or whatever, it is fluent and not a hassle.  You will frequently find yourself pushing buttons, twisting knobs, and welding which would seem tedious, but are very fun to do.  In the end, the controls are tight and really show what the Wii can do.

Now, I know that you have to think I'm bias (because if you know me, you know I love Metroid), but I do have some problems with this game.  The first is the obvious problem with the Wii hardware.  I guess it is not so much the game, but the Wii.  Load times.  If you already know about how Metroid Prime loads rooms and areas, you can skip the rest of this paragraph.  Anyway, Metroid Primes have kept the loading at a minimum.  It is mostly done when you are going from level to level.  Riding an elevator, riding in your ship, etc. is all places where they hide the loading screen.  when you enter a room, the game preloads the rooms around it but not the ones that are two or three rooms away.  This way, the game can run smoothly without spending days at a loading screen.  The problem arises, though, when you are able to get from one end of a room to another before the game is done loading it.  It tends to sit there and let the door stay shut while you are left standing on the other side.  When it is done, then the door opens and everything is fine.

The problem with Prime 3's loading is that there is so much to load you frequently find yourself standing in front of shut doors for precious seconds and especially long times when you are about to enter a big room full of anything.  It becomes a real hassle when you are trying to be stealthy and are stuck out in the open in front of a semi-locked door.  It can be very frustrating.  Many enemies require you to go into hyper mode to kill, and if you don't have the energy, you might just run away.  Problems happen when the door doesn't open and you are forced to dance in front of it, avoiding projectiles and enemies, while waiting.  Arrg.

*SPOILER*

I was also disappointed that there wasn't one of those Metroid "Run the F*** away" moments in the entire game.  There's the fight with Ridley at the very beginning with a time counter on it, but I really expected one at the end.  Then again, maybe you have to unlock it...

*SPOILER OVER*

Also, as you get more corrupted, there seems to be no effect.  It just says, "Hey, you are corrupted," and you just have to assume so.  You armor changes and looks cooler, but that's about it.  The game also shows her face a lot.  I'm not sure how I feel about that, because seeing her face was a reward in every other game, but this one starts you out staring at it.  Eh, I guess it's a fanboy thing.

Luckily, you don't lose your powers at the start of this game.  Earlier Primes did this to you are the beginning, but not this one.  I was kind of surprised, but relieved.  No hunting for lost abilities and suits.

Was it good?  No, unbelievable!  Was it better than the 1st?  Yes, very yes.  I'm already started on the next level of difficulty to see if I can get even more things unlocked/scanned/destroyed.  If you have a Wii and don't have this game, then Retro should have the right to slap you across you pie-hole.  Get this game now without delay.  Call it an early Christmas present or birthday gift, whatever.  Just get it.

9.9999999999999999999999999/10 ( I don't want to say it was perfect, because there were definite let downs, but I think it doesn't deserve a 9/10 either.  So... compromise.)

See you next mission.

And so the onslaught of games from past generations continue.  I swear when I go home over the break I will get Super Mario Strikers Charged and Metroid Prime 3.  So I expect this to be the last one for a while.  Anyway...

I recently found myself flying through the VC on the Wii and, to my great suprise, noticed that Paper Mario 64 was on the list.  Thinking back to middle school, I remembered that I didn't beat the game in the rental time.  I eagerly downloaded the game and got to work pounding Bowser's minions.

This Mario is a bit different from the rest.  The entire game is depicted by 2D sprites in a 3D world.  The game takes on a "pop-up book" effect that is evident throughout the course of the game.  The art direction is great, and very clever in some points.  There are many times when the paper style is used as a joke, puzzel, or part of the story.  It isn't just some kind of gimmik.

The main game is a turn-based RPG.  Actually, this is the only turn-based RPG that I can stand to play for more than an hour.  Ironically, I think it is one of the best games ever made, let alone for the 64.  It is very well polished, especially the combat.  The combat is what makes this game so fun for me.  In every battle after the tutorial area, or beginning of the game as some might call it, you are able to preform action commands.  When correctly done, a special event is triggered which helps Mario in some way.  This keeps battle somewhat fresh and entertaining.

Action commands can stretch anywhere from pressing A before something hits to slamming the control stick in a direction to power up.  When done successfully, there is an obvious notice in the affect.  Party members also get to perform these kinds of moves.  You entire strategy will most likely be based on your ability to pull these off.  This means it takes a bit of skill in order to truely master this game than it does farming goombas in the woods for experience and coins.

The basic HUD has the essencials from any game.  You have your health (Heart Points), energy (Flower Points), Experience (Star Points), and skill points (Badge Points).  What are badge points?  Badge points allow you to equip special badges that give you specific powers.  For example, one might give you a new move or increase your max health.  Badges can sometimes take a lot of points to equip and the number of points you can have caps off fairlyearly, so it becomes a strategy to put on the right ones before entering a new area.  Later on you get a star meter.  This allows you to do your "special" moves that can do a wide variety of things. 

Each battle starts from the main area.  If you hit or get hit by an enemy, you enter a battle scene.  If you hit the enemy, you get a first strike, which means you do damage before the fight even starts at no expense to you.  Same goes for them though if they hit you, so look out!  After that, it is always Mario's turn.  You can choose between a stategy move, items, jumping, hammering, or using a special.  After you have done it, your partner goes.  They have less choices: just choices between strategy and attack.  After that's done, your enemies attack at you from left to right.  Lather, rinse, repeat... or is it?  Each attack you do will have you attempt the action command, which makes sure you don't fall asleep at the wheel like most turn-based games.  This was refreshing to see.

Silly me, I forgot to say what the story was I was so excited.  Basically, Bowser kidnaps Peach... original I know... and whisks her and her servents into the sky.  Bowser has stolen a magic wand, which was ripped right out of Kirby's Adventure, and is using it to take control of the world.  Not even Mario can stop him.  That is, not without the help of the stars.  He has to resue all of the elder star spiritsin order to be able to save the Princess and the World.

Back to the gameplay though.  There are a ton of mini-quests that you can do to get more badges, which is like the equipment of this game.  You end up with a very wide variety of party members which you must use to progress in the game.  Each party member has a special ability.  This ability can be used in combat or out in the main areas.  Most likely though, you will end up liking one and investing everything into them.  The game really isn't fair to all of the characters and you may end up not using some.  I know that after I got to the 2nd or 3rd chapter, my 1st  party member never saw combat again.  It is sad.

Although the game keeps things fresh with the action commands, your controller will hate you.  You are constantly mashing buttons.  I am afraid that I might have damaged my tournament ready GC controller playing this (My only fully operational controller).  Many of the simple commands require the most work, so you end up constantly doing them.  It turns out fine though considering youend up being excelent at doing it, but man does it stress the controller.  This games requires breaks... you know... if you're a girl or something...

One drawback is the lack of co-op or multiplayer.  I know it was way too early to have MMO console games, but it would have been nice to have some 2nd player support.  Oh well.  My roomate and I joked about how it would be fun to pull a 40 man raid on the Goomba forrest to find good drops and farm exp..

Paper Mario has excelent music.  After the first chapter of the game, most of the songs flooded back to my memory.  Each town and eare has music to accompany.  The songs are timeless, and there hardly are any songs from previous Mario titles.  That's right, most songs are completely original.  It is great.  Hearing that victory sound is always a pleasure.

The difficulty in this game is next to perfect.  I wasn't able to make it through the whole game without dieing, which is a good thing.  I should be able to get everything right the first time in a tactical game and get away with it.  You suffer for your mistakes.  SAVE OFTEN.  It is a pain if you miss a save point, die, and have tostart the chapter over again, trust me.  With that though, common sense helps a lot.  Water attacks beat fire easily, so it isn't hard to understand what you have to do as much as it is to actually execute it.  After dieing once though, you probably know what you have to do.  It's a Mario gave for Pete's sake.

There are some pointsin the game where you take control of Peach and wonder you obducted castle in the sky.  These are normally stealth missions and have the potential to help Mario out if you find secrets.  They don't take that long to beat, sadly, but they are interesting.  It is kinda neat to see the game through the eyes of the captive.

At the end of the day, or beginning of the morning depending on when you beat it, it is a stellar game.  The characters and places are memorable and the fighting is fun and simple.  The story is awesome and was nicely executed.  In general, if you pick this game up, you will have fun with it.  8/10

And now for something completely different...

Good Music

Nice cinematics with alright story

Everything else sucked, fucking sucked ass.

4/10

Hide from this lame ass game

Now for the real review.  This game really did piss me off to one of the extents I normally never reach.  The last game that I can remember pissing me off to this caliber was Tony Hawk 1 for the 64.  >_>  Back to the point though.  The game definitely suffers from control issues and is certainly stuck in the arcade mentallity.

The purpose of the game is to avenge the death of your father who was slain in front of you.  The story is presented to you in great cinematics (for the game's time), and you truely understand what is going on with the characters.  The music that accompanies not only the story, but the levels also is great.  Each level has an ending and opening cinematic.

You start the level with a full bar of health and so does the boss of the level.  Basically, this game is a hack and slash mixed with platformer.  This mixture works well for the first few levels, but in later leves, it becomes near impossible to do anything.  There will be people spawning every five seconds and attacking you from every direction.  Enemies have obvious spawn points, but what really sucks is that they come back if you even slightly move back and forth.  So you will easily find yourself killing the same guy over and over again if you are also trying to avoid another attack.

The developers tried to aid you by giving you power ups.  In order to use a power up, you have to have the "strength" to use it. To gain strength, you have to pick up little items that add 10 or 25 to your strength.  It isn't so bad to use an item, but for the price, they are quite useless.  Sure you can hack through 3 guys without having to get close, but what does that matter if they just respawn if you aren't careful about watching the spawn point?  Blam, they are all back in your face and you have no items! There are a handful of items that could allow for different strategies, but you will most likely be jumping around flailing your arms like a wacky, flailing arm, inflatable tube-man.

The platforming in the later levels will have you slitting your wrists and blaring Fall Out Boy.  They ask you to make rediculous leaps, attacking things in the air, and then kill a guy as you land.  This would be alright if you could swing your sword in more than just left or right direction!  A down or up attack would have helped this game 10 fold.  If you get hit at all when platforming, you are most likely going to fall to your death.  Which brings me to the crappy death system.

When you die in this game, you return to the beginning of the area.  Most levels have multiple areas in them.  So, if you make it to the 2nd level in the 2nd area and get game over, you return to the 2nd area.  That's right, game over.  If you just lose a life, you return to that area as well.  The real problem comes in when you get to the boss.  If you die in the boss room, you go back to the start of the level, LEVEL!!!  So, if you have 2 lives left and die in the boss room, you start over.  If you are in area 3 of level 5 and die with no lives left and get game over, you start in area 3 of level 5.  WTF!!!  The game punishes you for progressing in it!

Remember how I said that if you die in the boss room you go back to the start of the level?  Yeah, well *SPOILERS* the ending boss is a 3 part battle.  If you die at any part, you go back to the start of the level.  BS.  The case is not helped by the broken sword movement.  You will think, "hey, I hit that guy," and you probably did.  The game somtimes gets confused if you attack while moving.  For example, two guys are coming at you side by side.  You swing your sword.  You kill the one in the back, but the other one lives.  O_O

This game was horrible and proves what we had to grow up on.  Kids these days have it so easy with their training modes, tutorial levels, and walkthroughs.  I think this game should be mandated to all children who were born PS1 or later.  It is not right that they don't have to catch the tail end of the arcade phenomenon.  This just reminds me why we don't have extremely hard games anymore, becuase we don't have to make them NEAR IMPOSSIBLE to get at least a full day's worth of life out of it.

Had this game not had a good story, it would have probably gotten a 2, but since it does and has some nice music, I'm going to be nice and say:

4/10, this game blows and I feel sorry for whoever played through this whole game without being good enough to have the satisfaction of victory.

The dungeon you are in contains a beast so foul that nothing has yet survived its wrath.  You must venture though its dungeon of unspeakable horrors to reach it.  You must... wait... is that enemy a worm?  And is that a giant nose with eyeballs?  A freaking Eggplant Wizard? WHO MADE THIS GAME?!?!?!?!

Yes, after having this game on my Wii forever and in suit of my recent tend to review older games, here comes Kid Icarus.  Kid Icarus is about Pit, the last survivor of Angle Land.  Medusa and her minions struck Angle Land and destroyed nearly everything.  It is up to you to traverse the world and defeat Medusa and set everything straight again.

This game is a side scrolling / vertical scrolling game.  It is basically a lot like the first Metroid, but much more linear.  Each outside area has you running from the start point to the finish door, while castles have you exploring areas in order to find the boss and get magical treasures.  Most of the game is in the platforiming though, and not actual the combat.  Most of the time you will think that the bottom of the creen is your worst enemy being as if you touch it, you die.  Ontop of that, you have practically no health at the start of the game.  Getting hit 3 times will probably kill you, and each area feels like miles in length.  There are no check points, so dieing will send you back to the start of the level, no questions.

This game is difficult.  How difficult you ask?  Have you ever threaded a needle?  Yeah, try putting a brick through the eye of a needle and tell me how it turns out.  This game is relentless.  The focus of the game is platforming, and it knows it.  So when you are jumping from tiny, skinny platform to platform, the game makes sure to throw 8 or so flying eyeballs at you, just to make you you fall, die, and start over.  The controls also don't help.  When on the ground, you can jump left or right.  Once you have jumped, you can not move mid air (unlike in most, if not all, Mario and Sonic type platformers).  While in the air, the controls seem to be unresponsive being that sometimes when you press to turn around, you keep facing the other way.  Other times it works.  Also, you can look up but not down.  I don't understand that, and it got me killed a few times.  One frequent problem was the fact that you can jump and look up, but you can't be looking up while you jump, you will just stand there intead.  Wierd.

The game also runs into problems with moving platforms.  A few times I found myself patially embedded in a platform I recently jumped on.  Or, because the platform was moving down, the game thought I was falling and decided to not let me do jumps because it was think I was in mid-air.  Also not good.  These are key things that should not have been overlooked, especially in a platfom intensive game.

Enemies in this game are sad to say the least.  I know it was the NES, but come on.  The only thing that enemies do is mindlessly walk or fly back and forth until the either go off screen or get hit.  At least in Zelda there were Wizrobes that jumped in your path and shot at you!  The bosses aren't even that hard.  One boss is a giant bubble that floats around the room.  All you have to do is follow him and shoot without letting him actually touch you.  Wow.

One way that the developers decided to put in to help the player was shops.  You can go into shops and by health or upgrades so that living was much easier.  The problem with this is everything is so expensive that you probably won't be ale to by anything from a shop until the the 3rd or 4th level.  Plus, once you go in a shop and see the prices, you can't leave without the store shutting down.  So if you are close to getting the item, you have to wait until you reach the next store before you can by it, you can't go out and re-enter the same one.  This also bites when you are low on health and so close to bying more.

The single, most annoying thing in the game has to be the Eggplant Wizards.  These jerks dwell in the castles and will rape you dry.  They have the most life, aside from bosses and you, in the game.  Plus, they cast a spell that flies high in the air and then comes back down.  If you get hit with it, you transform into an eggplant.  What does that mean?  You cannot attack at all, but can still get hurt.  From there, you have to find a hospital room and get the curse removed.  This is a major pain in the rump when you are very far away from that room and you get hit.  Plus, it is unavoidable sometimes.  The curse go so high that sometimes, when you enter a room from above, you are immediatly hit before you can do anything.   The game also doesn't keep track of what rooms you killed in, so everytime you enter a room, all of the enemies will be back in it; this means that those Wizards will be there every single time no matter what!

When I reached the end boss, I think I found a glitch in its AI.  I was able to stand in one spot during the whole fight, if you can even call it that, and beat it with the greatest of ease.  Quite different from the rest of the game.  The ending was good, and it lets you play the game over again with your new abilities, but I don't see me playing through this again.  At least not for a long time...

This game gets the not so liked 6/10. (Don't worry about this game if you haven't played it, it's not worth the time although I commend all those that have beaten it).

Just so you all know, I beat it on the third day I played it.

You can hardly here the drips of water squeaking through the cracks of the cieling as your heavy footsteps trudge on through the deep abyss.  You turn a corner to find the eyes of a hundred beasts hone in on your flesh.  You take a stance and prepare for the battle ahead.  Then, without notice, your party rounds the corner and kills them all with you only bludgening one beast over the head.  The leader yells to his troops... "GG".

Over the passed couple of weeks, my roomate and I have been going through Diablo 2 (Technically the expansion too, but that is insignificant considering I have only played it as an expansion and don't know what the game is like without it.).  It is a top down RPG that pits you against inpratical odds in order to gain fortune and power... oh, and finish that thing called a story.  Speaking of story, this game has one that is trying to be seen, but is over shadowed by the hack-and-slash style of gameplay.  Basically, this man named "The Wanderer" is going from city to city leaving a wake of destruction.  It is up to you to hunt him down and all the while fix what has been broken.

With the expansion, you can play as a wide variety of characters.  There are Barbarians, Amazons, Paladins, Necromancers, Rouges, Assassins, Mages, etc..  My roommate chose Amazon and I chose Paladin.  As an Amazon, he usually stood back and shot waves of arrows into the masses, while I, a Paladin, would rush in arms flailing.  I'm not sure if it was because I am new to the game, let alone series, but I died frequently.  Being face to face with the bad guys constantly requires healing, which mean if you run out of potions in the middle of a 25 skeleton archer attack... screwed.  He didn't die a lot because he was twenty feet back flinging arrows in while sipping tea and laying on a lawn chair.  I don't know.

Here is how the game basically works.  The game is broken down into Acts; Each Act has its own town where you learn of quests, by stuff, repair stuff, etc..  Outside of the town is where the main land is.  This land is usually broken into many different areas, but the are similar in most ways.  Each of these areas will contain dungeons where you go to complete quests assigned to you.  Most of those dungeons end with some sort of boss and then you go back to town to reap your reward.  Lather, rense, repeat.  The whole game is just large numbers of enemies everywhere, all the time.

One of the most redeaming qualities of this basic gameplay is the random map generator.  Everytime you have to load a map, it makes one completely new and will have enemies placed differently.  This is very exciting and makes exploring very fresh considering that you can go back to a previous level and play it for the first time all over again.  The only problem with this is that sometimes the enemies overlay and it becomes near impossible to complete.  Say a level is suppose to have 8 groups of Zombies over the span of the map, but the random generator puts them all in the same place.  When you walk into the room, there is no escape.  On several occasions, we had to reset the game because our bodies were overrun by enemies and we could not reach them because there were just too many to try to get by when you are basically naked.  This did not equal good times.

This is where the game defines difficulty.  The only difficult parts of the game were where there was accidentally too many enemies, and boss battles.  The boss battles are cool and all, but they all boil down to the same thing.  Stock up on potions, run in, and start stabbing.  There is no real "strategy" to any part of this game.  You hit enemies with your weapon.  If you find a better weapon, use that.  There is no, "I think I'll save this sword because it is good against undead while the one I have now gives me more health."  No, you just go with the one that has more power and losts of additional info on the bottom.  If you see a bunch of blue text (meaning added on abilities to the item), you are probably going to want it.  After that, just hope you have enough health.

The game is very repititious if you haven't noticed me saying.  Most of the enemies are also the same, they just have different names and color tone.  The game also suffers from pacing problems.  One second, you will be fighting 300 guys and winning, walk into the next room, get attcked by 5 guys that are colored red instead of normal, and get your *** kicked.  Not cool at all.  Some bad guys will explode without warning after you kill them, which, more often than not, kills.

After you beat the final boss, you don't really feel well acomplished.  Beating him gives you practically nothing.  Hardly any experience, crap items, and a spec of gold.  Wow.  I don't care if it is random or not, but if you spend nearly 45 min. trying to kill this One, single, solitary guy, you should be well compenstated for it.  You know what I got?  An item for a class I don't even belong to, so I had to sell it.  Woopdy doo.  After you beat the game, you get to play on a harder difficulty with better items, equipment, harder enemies, and it takes away a lot of your stats.  I got killed by the first wave of attacks when we started it!  The challenge evened out after a while though because this difficulty allowed us to level up faster.

You spend a lot of time going through dungeons looking for cool stuff, and you hardly ever come out with anything remotely like that.  Early in the game I got a rare weapon, and didn't find a better one throughout the entire second game!  It was rediculous.  We are starting now on the most difficult setting, so it should be a blast... right.

After everything is said and done, this game is alright.  It is mostly constant action, so that fulfills my ADD.  It also makes for a nice time killer, which it has been glad to do for the passed couple of nights.  It wasn't terribly annoying, but there are just some things that shouldn't have been done the way they were in this game.  If I had to tell you to buy it or avoid it, I would have to say go ahead and buy, especially if you have someone to play with!

This is a level 7 out of 10 game.  (If you have 34 dexterity, you may have it)

My name is SA-X, of course, and I am a level 57 Paladin with a major in Fanaticism and a minor in Zeal.  So... yeah...

Hey guys,

I haven't been on top of many reviews because of school, so let me do a real quick one for you.  This game is called Flow, and it is a downloadable (it costs money, so don't say crap about freeware [coleman]) game from the PS store.  The game is a very beautiful but simple looking game.  You character and all the other objects in the environment are made up of simple geometry and represent simple organisms.  Your character eats and becomes bigger and bigger as it does.

The game is very simple.  The cool and complex part of this game is the controlscheme.  Flow uses the tilt sensing power of the SIXAXIS controller in order to steer your character in the 2D plane on screen.  Which ever direction you point the controller in, that's where it goes.  For some reason, I found that I was holding the controller upside-down within the first 3 min. of playing.  From this way, I used the controller like a streering wheel, and it worked.  Once you get into the game, the controls becom part of you, for the most part.  In some places, it is hard to make tight turns and may find it very frustrating.

Your character starts out as the simplest and smallest it can be.  You start out eating tiny particles which not only make you bigger, but give you health.  As you get bigger, your max health increases.  Health is represented by small bubbles on your character and the enemies.  In order to kill, you must pick off the bubbles until there are none left on them.  Once done, the enemy turns into particles that you can eat.  The game becomes obviously too easy when you find out that when you loose all of your health you only back out to the previous level.  There is no game over.

When you play through one character, you unlock another.  Each character has their own traits.  For example, one has the ability to poison other organisms and another has the ability to bite off several bubbles in one swoop.  This gives the game a bit of strategy.  Not only do you have to figure out what the character can do, but you also have to learn how to use it correctly.

The audio in this game is interesting.  There is some ambient humming in the background for the most part, but there is also some dynamic sounds too.  Everytime you eat, kill, heal, or get hit a cord plays.  When many things are happenning on the screen, the game turns into an orchestra.  The visuals are also nice since it plays in HD.  As you are floating along in this "space", you can see shady images of creatures in the next level down as well as tiny dust particles or clouds in the area.

In all, the only weak points of this game was its length, difficulty, and redundancy.  The game is very very short.  You will probably beat it in a sitting or two.  It is very very easy considering there is no way to lose.  Lastly, the game is highly redundant.  Although it is very addictive, you will be doing the same thing over and over again.  Start out small, eat some small things, get bigger, eat some bigger things, etc..  This game also just throws you in without telling you jack about what you are, what is going on, or what to do.  Some may look at this as a good thing, but I like to know what is going on.  The only hint it gives you is "Press any button for boost".  Later in the game, this doesn't even stay true.  Some may get confused by this.

The game doesn't take very long at all to beat, maybe 3 hours or more in all.  There is some way to play 2 player, but I didn't have the chance since my friend only had 1 controller.  There is no online.  I think this game would have done incredible had it been complete with an online feature, but I won't hold it against it for not having one.  The game is very immersive and almost makes you feel like you can't stop playing.  It used the SIXAXIS very well, the best I've seen it used.  The game was fun, and I'm sure that we'll see more good games like this come from indy devs since this new age of downloading games onto consoles has started.

I deem this game... 6/10.

Heck, what else are you playing on your PS3?

(sorry no pic. of game since it is a download)

Sorry guys, but I can't write you an intro this time... I have a pretty nasty paper cut.

BA-DUMP-TISHHHHH

Worst joke ever aside, it's time to enter the universe of paper mario once more in the newly released "Super Paper Mario".  As any good ol' Mario tale would begin, the Princess is missing and you need to find her.  Of course you check out Bowser's place to see if she's there, but you find out that he actually hasn't done anything this time.  As it would turn out, a wierd guy with a pimpin' cane shows up and ruins your life... and then you get to play?  No.  Prepare for:

PAPER MARIO: REVENGE OF THE TEXT BOX

Yes, there will be much reading.  Like the other Paper Marios, this is a heavily story-ridden game.  If there is a character you can talk to, they probably have a page worth of words to say to you.  Which is alright, because the story of the game is good.  The undertone is completely saturated by "love".  Everything in this game has to do with "love".  If it isn't love, then it's hearts.  Story plays out over a nice lengthy game.  It took me nearly 17 hours to beat this game.

The game is a blend of Action RPG and Platformer.  The RPG elements work great just as they always have in previous Paper Mario games.  Leveling up gives you a noticeable increase of strength and health (alternating every time you level up).  The platforming was fine, but I have come to expect a lot more from a game that has Mario in a title.  The world isn't free roaming, you have to pick "Chapters" of worlds to visit to explore them.  This means that if you wanted to go to point A.3 (for example) while you are at point C.2, then you have to exit from world C, go back to the main lobby world, go to the entrance to world A, then make it to where you want to go.  This is how most of the Mario platformers work, I know, but the Paper Mario franchise hardly came close to this type of gameplay.  I mostly have a great disappointment with the last few segments of the game.

Mostly, the last part of the game up to the ending was filler.  To keep any spoilers from leaking, I'll just say that Nintendo imagination ran dry after a while and it showed through those slow and dragging last level.  The game became like a 100 step staircase with buckets of water on top that you had to carry down to the bottom without spilling.  Yes, you are constantly in action, but is so lame and tedious it feels like you are doing busy work for a teacher.

Overall, the game was way too easy.  I didn't die once throughout this entire adventure.  You may think, "You've been playing games, let alone Mario, your whole life, what did you expect?"  Even though that's true, I did die repeatedly in the other Paper Marios and Super Mario World (Which I recently downloaded and beat [tell me if you want a review of that] and was a great game).  Not to say the game was not challenging, but you couuld easily infer what you had to do next.

The game also felt a little like fan servicery.  While most of the game was completely original, other parts seemed like they took it from the other Paper Marios.  The mentioning of rupees in the game is one example of this.  Although this feeling only seemed to come from things like that.  The music and places were original, but enemies and items seemed copied and pasted onto the game.  Speaking of copied and pasted, the Wii mote was a bit tact on.  Yes, this game WAS intended to be a GC game, but it missed it.  The only real time you even use the motion sensing is with the items, and you hardly ever have to use them because the game is easy enough to complete without them.

During the adventure, you get to control different characters.  Each of the characters plays fairly different, because they have their own special ability.  The problem with this is that once you find a character you like, you can stick with them pretty much throughout the rest of the game because the other characters are only needed for specific things like jumping abnormally large gaps or melting ice.  Combat has been reduced back to Mario 1 gameplay.  I think it is very sad when Mario cannot pick stuff up WITHOUT A SPECIAL PIXI TO DO IT FOR HIM.

My biggest let down for this game was the fact that it was Paper Mario.  I really like the other Paper Mario games, just because they are the only turn-based RPGs that I can tollerate as well as love.  After beating this game, I have no real incentive to go back through and find the stuff I missed.  The game was all about the story, and when the show's over, what's left to do other than pick up the popcorn?  The game was really exciting for the first 11 hours... that I played straight... but it fely like it was all built up for next to nothing.

In the end, I can walk away from this game happy, but it is far from perfect.  I was hoping that I would want to find all the cool stuff in this game so that this Wii drought would be more bearable, but it looks like I'm going to go back to the VC for support (Which isn't necessarily an aweful thing)

7/10

Save up your coins so that you can buy this game NOW... or just rent it.

PUNCH! CUT! FLIP! ANSWER THE PHONE! JUMP! SHOOT! BALLANCE! DO THE WAVE!!! Finally, you did it.  Now... let's pose.

Wario Ware is the most insane game that you will ever play on any system, anywhere, anytime.  The Wii's remote goes into full affect here, and you will be surprised how easy you can interface with the game.  The creativity that has gone into this game is astonishing, yet very amusing.  This is going to be one of the greatest Wii games.

Just like other Wario Ware games in the past, this is a compilation of amany many many micro games to form minigames that make this game.  Essentialy, you are given different scenarios to go through to see how many games you can do before losing; the farther you progress, the more games you unlock.   And this game has a lot to give.

When playing alone, the game is still a blast to play.  Everytime you complete a micro game, I swear that you will at least chuckle at whatever happens.  Sometimes, just doing what you have to do to win will make you laugh.  Single player is driven by mini stories (mini, much like the rest of the game) that show off the regular life of one character in the Wario Ware world.  When you open a new story event, you also open up new styles of games.  Originally, you start out with the styles "remote" and "umbrella", but you add many more after that.  You beat a story event after you defeat the boss level (around 20 games for most) and are rewarded with a new story or something.  You can go back through story events, but this time there won't be an end.  It will get faster and harder until you lose.  Everytime you beat a boss, you unlock a "let's pose" picture.  It is little thing that shows someone holding the remote in different ways to try to get you to do it too, but you don't have to.

Aside from the story, there are also other games they throw in.  You can play a set of balancing games, shoot cans (all red-neck style), etc.  You can play just a straight up game where it takes all the games you've unlocked and let's you play them in 4 different variations (as you unlock them).  There is a library where you can play individual micro games to get better at them and to see all the stuff you have gotten.

Multiplayer is where the game really shines.  This is game is the most fun I've had with 4 people in my life.  But that's not all you can have.  You can have up to 12 people playing this game off of 1 remote.  It is incredible.  Not only is it mad chaos whenever you have to pass the remote off, but playing the games infront of everyone, whether failing or succeeding, is a blast.  Just be careful that you have enough room for everyone.

The game doesn't have too many flaws, but here is what I found.  The game's story is very short.  Don't be surprised if you go all the way through the story in one sitting.  I'm not sure if that is a testiment to its ability to suck you in or if it is just really short.  Either way, it just felt way too short.  Before you know it, you will be going back through to see if you can stretch it out, which you will.  You will be let down though when you find that the story is pretty much over though.  Another thing is, sometimes you have no clue what to do in a micro game.  When my friends came over, they had no clue what to do in some games because it didn't have good enough instructions.  For the most part, it is easy to figure out what you have to do though.

After all is said and done, the game is really fun.  For a mini game based game, it has a lot of replay value.  8/10

Now, let's pose.

An old wooden door.  That is all that stands between you and the imminent death on the other side.  With one last sigh, you turn and kick down the door.  Just to your right stands an armored enemy unit.  Before he can raise his gun, you turn his body into a fountain, with a little help from your chainsaw.

Gears of War was the last big game for the 360 in 2006.  Gears boasts the best looking and most fun game out now, but can it live up to its hype?  It is painstakingly obvious to see that this is a beautiful game, the detail put into each texture and model is astounding.  Lighting looks very real and almost anything can be interacted with.  Saying this game is ugly, would be giving it a compliment; it does a great job of being gritty and nasty.  Plus, explosions are great.

The game plays like this, go into an area, take cover, and then kill everything.  You can hold up to four weapons at one time: grenades, two primaries, and a secondary.  This limitation stops you from having so much weaponry that you are a one man army, but you still feel like it some times.  There are a wide variety of guns to pick from.  My favorite is the Torque Bow, look it up or play the game.  Ammo is very limited in some portions of the game and requires you to use all of your guns and have to pick up some that you may not like, just to be able to shoot something.  This kind of chaotic game play keeps every situation from falling into a mold.  And for an added bonus, there is no extra ammo when you play co-op.  You have to share.

The game lasts near 10 hours through the story.  This is alright, but great in comparison to other FPSs.  The game is going to be made into a trilogy, and did a great job of giving you a feeling of closure from beating this installment anyway.  Cut-scenes flowed in and out of game play near seamlessly, and there was hardly a loading screen anywhere.  The game doesn't have many bugs, and the AI was scripted well.  They have a great mentality of when to duck and cover. Although, you might not be able to say the same thing about your team; they have tendency to run out in the open and die, so you have to risk your neck to save them.  All this while bullets are whizzing passed your head and explosions at your feet.

The developers also came up with some interesting ideas to throw in the game.  One level consists completely of staying in the light so that you aren't...well, I don't won't to spoil what happens.  It is hilarious, scary, and gory all at once.  These kinds of sudden changes in the game also help keep things interesting.

The real problems with the game come from the repetition.  Yes, I said that little things like looking for ammo help, but it is not enough.  You will get into a groove where you feel a rumble (yeah, rumble is important) and have to look around for enemies and then shoot them.  Speaking of shooting them, you feel let down when you get a headshot.  The game doesn't reward you for getting a head shot!  If you pick up a sniper rifle and pick off a good headshot, sometimes it won't kill them.  It just knocks a helmet off or goes right through them.  It takes the same amount of shots on the body as it does on the head, and the only difference is a headshot gets you a nice exploding head animation.  The only way to get a one hit kill is with a chainsaw.

There are also problems with glitches.  The first time I played, I ended up randomly floating and getting stuck in a ceiling.  Since there is no friendly fire, my friend couldn't kill me.  When I ask my roommate, he said he had found himself stuck in a few places while ducking behind pillars.  At the end of the day though, it feels like I would have had more fun in another TPS like Resident Evil 4.

Multiplayer Review:

Now that I've gotten my hands on the multi-player part of this, let me tell you how it is.  The main focus of the multiplayer is strategy.  If you go commando style, you ARE going to die.  Downing people is just half the game, it is really hard to actually kill people off.  I love the strategy even in the midst of how chaotic this game can get.  It is an especially stand out experience to play this game at a LAN, everyone should try it.

Campaign 7/10

Multiplayer 9/10

If you have a 360, you need to have this game.

If you keep up with my reviews, you know this is the intro.  This is where I say something poetic or an excerpt from the game that you really might not understand until you play the game, but this game is too different, too crazy for the "normal" intro.  So, I will open this up by saying, "Gwable"

Rayman is completely different in this installment, aside from the fact the he stars in it.  Even saying that though is a stretch, because the Rabbids definitely steal a lot of the spotlight.  The game is out there.  Even though the game is massively chaotic, understanding what you have to do is never really a struggle. This is a nice example of how to do a compilation of mini-games.

The game pulls a great deal of its amazement from the diversity of the games.  Yes, most games make you do the same movements as in other games, but they also throw in a twist to give it its own personality.  Sooner than you know it, you will be tossing cows and dancing to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun."  The number of mini-games is staggering.  It stretches from FPS to racing to puzzles to anything else.  There is skydiving game!  I think this is the one game Ubisoft can be actually proud of.

The multiplayer is whole other variety of fun.  You think that playing beat the bunny is fun solo, then you don't know what it is like to continually beat the thing in competition!  Many of the games are simultaneous play too.  Fun also doesn't come from accomplishments; most games have entire cut scenes devoted to you utterly failing.  Not to mention that every time that happens, you will at least chuckle to yourself.  If you think that some of those other rhythm games stay on beat, you have to play the groove games.

The game's shortcomings are obvious though.  The game gets real repetitive real fast.  Each time you play story mode, you must play a whole "day" before it saves.  Before I go any further into that, let's start on the whole concept of story mode.  This game has no story.  The entire story takes place at the beginning and the end, the plot is not progressed at all through out the course of the game.  Story mode, the use of those words to describe it is a joke.  Back to the "day" concept.  Imagine this, you just spent 30 minutes trying to beat this one difficult game and you've moved on to the other games in that day. Then you want to quit, but you can't quit in the middle of the day.  Saving isn't a special part of the game either, like finding save spots in Castlevania.  There shouldn't be a reason why you can't save mid day.

Also, unlike Mario Party or other mini-game based games, there really isn't much you can do with the games outside of pick-and-play them.  That would work fine if most of the games weren't so quick and easy.  After you have played the game a few times, it looses its shine.  Not to mention, this game wears you out, and I am not fat.

The game is good, but is quite rough around the edges.  The game is fun and will leave you with some hilarious memories, but in the end the game is average.  The game gets a 6/10.

Rent it or hope you have people to play with when you buy it.  (No plungers were thrown in the making of this review)