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This is more of a preview than a review, because I haven't yet finished the game (which I just bought on Tuesday), but I'll give you my opinions on it so far, in the same fashion as I normally write reviews. The premise of the story, as I can gather, is that the Toa Inika arrived on Voya Nui and were defeated and captured by the Piraka. Then a Matoran finds some energized protodermis, steps in, and comes out a Toa. Now he is going to traverse Voya Nui, defeat the Piraka, and rescue the Toa. It's good enough, I guess; for a game like this you really don't need an epic storyline. Impressively, Bionicle Heroes (when I say this I'm referring to the DS version, unless otherwise specified) has the exact same controls as Metroid Prime: Hunters. You shoot with L (assuming you're right-handed like I am), walk with the D-Pad, and jump by double-tapping on the touch screen. Switching weapons and such is also done with the control panel on the touch screen. In fact the controls are so much like MPH that I have more than once tried to go into Morphball to dodge an enemy's attack. The music is nothing to write home about. For each world, it seems there's 1-3 tracks reused multiple times. They fit the environment, so I suppose it's good enough. The sound effects are great, though. Each elemental weapon has a different sound effect and it's surprisingly entertaining to listen to a Vahki or Rahkshi shriek in pain as you destroy it with bolts of ice. The difficulty is minimal; very disappointing to me. When you die (which, for a veteran Metroid fan like me, isn't often), you hit the fire button and respawn right where you died. You lose all the gears you've collected (which seem to be only good for buying cheats), but there are no other penalties. Sorta like Lego Star Wars. Unlike that game, however, the levels are short and mostly consist of walking into a room, killing the enemies, and moving on. The enemies are generally easy, but in large numbers you might get taken down...if you're careless. As for the boss fights however, you're practically guaranteed to die several times and you can expect to finish the level with little to no gears. The Piraka each have an elemental weapon; you have this weapon too, collected in the first level and upgraded in the second level, but there's is still superior. Because you can't strafe or block or anything and they have a huge range, they can basically run to where you can't hit them and launch a water stream (in Vezok's case) until you're dead. It's unavoidable, as far as I can see. This doesn't make them difficult, however...just annoying. The rest of the fight involves shooting them to death. The graphics of the game are rather impressive, especially for a DS game. I wouldn't say that they're the best graphics any DS game has had, but they are still good; probably the high point of the game. Actually, the game is not too unlike Metroid in that there are many secret pickups that cannot be found until you return to a level after getting a new ability (all of which are received by fighting the Piraka; each gives you a different elemental-based ability). The replay value would be quite high in that respect. Not to mention that there are a dozen or so cheats you can turn on, but first you need to buy them with gears. Also, though there's no reward for it, you can also strive to get ranked "Mata Nui" on each of the 30(?) levels. All in all, this game would be good for a Metroid and/or Bionicle fan (that's me!), though if you've played anything above the difficulty level (battle-wise) of, say, Lego Star Wars, you'll find this game far too easy. Still, it's worth the $13 I paid to get it used...money that would not be better spent on any of those over-priced Mistika. *waits for a comment that completely ignores the entry and criticizes me/agrees with me for calling the Mistika over-priced*
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Brawl. Buy it. If you don't have a Wii, buy a Wii. Then buy Brawl. I think I've made my point.
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Being that it was March 1st, I decided to ask my parents to take me to Barnes and Noble to check for Shadows in the Sky. We didn't get there till after 7:00 PM (despite having asked them the moment I woke up ), but sure enough Bionicle Legends 9 was there. We had to go to Borders for a different book that Barnes and Noble didn't have. I stayed in the car and began reading from the light of a streetlamp. Next we had to go to Lowe's. I brought the book in and spent the entire time there reading. In a matter of less than three hours, I had finished. I actually finished the book as we were checking out at Lowe's. I think I look forward to the books more than I do to the sets, really. I can't say anything about it for two weeks (either that or six weeks, I can't remember if it was supposed to come out in March or April), but I will say that the ending was very interesting. So was the beginning. And the middle. And I just used a emoticon in every paragraph so far... They're invading... In other news, Brawl comes out in exactly one week! In 168 hours (and counting down), I will be playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl. And I will probably do a blog entry about it. With pictures. Just to show off.
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Another review already? :annoyed2: Actually I've been holding out on this one because my brother and I beat Metroid Prime 2 a few days ago. Actually, it was just my brother. I played all of Metroid Prime 1, so we decided he would play Metroid Prime 2. Thus I shall allow him to comment here and there on parts of this review, and I'll write the review based on what I observed in watching him play. The controls were exactly the same as in Metroid Prime, so there's nothing to say about that if you read my Metroid Prime 1 review. My brother Tahkeh has the same problem with the controls that I do: the camera moving issue. Thankfully in the third installment in the subseries, the Wii remote was used to make Samus look around. In Tahkeh's opinion, the music was "pretty good", but the peaceful music of the Dark World (an "evil" version of the main world, Planet Aether) was essentially silence which, while fitting, got boring quickly. In my opinion, the game in general didn't have exceptionally great music, but the Torvus Bog area's tune was very reminiscent of the Tallon Overworld area in Metroid Prime, which was perhaps one of my favorite areas in all Metroid games, so that was a plus. More on the atmosphere of the game later. From what I saw of my brother playing, Metroid Prime 2 was fairly more difficult than its predecessor. The Boost Guardian, a relatively early boss, took him several tries to beat, and even the Grenchler, a common enemy based off of the Baby Sheegoth from Metroid Prime, was difficult to beat. (Actually he began to avoid them to keep from wasting large quantities of ammo.) Still, the final boss only took him one try (and a good thing too, because there was no chance to save before the preceding boss, which would have wasted probably a good half hour when we were so close to the end), so the game wasn't exceedingly hard...on Normal Mode. The game's atmopshere didn't seem to live up to the original. Agon Wastes, a fittingly-named desert, was simply boring, and the forgettable music didn't do much to help. Torvus Bog was probably my favorite area. I've always loved rain in video games for some reason. The creatures were cool, and the music was great. The Sanctuary Fortress, however, had the best music in the game, but the area itself got rather boring after the first few minutes of playing. And the final area, the Sky Temple, simply failed to even compare with the eerie atmosphere of the Impact Crater from Metroid Prime. My brother's favorite area was Sanctuary Fortress, because the music fit well with the area and he said it "felt like something Luminoth would build". He didn't particularly Agon, and he liked Torvus, but felt that after returning there a few times for upgrades it grew boring. The story, in both my brother's opinion and mine, was one of the best of the Metroid games. To paraphrase my brother, "The game's story might be hard to get into at first, but once you get through the first part, you really get hooked on it." The whole "Light World vs. Dark World" thing, where a planet has been split into two warring interdimensional halves, was uncannily appropriate for this year's Bionicle story, which seems to be Light vs. Dark themed. I feel that while the story was simpler than Metroid Prime 3's, it was somehow better. I enjoyed reading Luminoth lore and the final writings of the Keybearers far more than the Chozo (though for some reason I really liked the Bryyonian lore, and Bryyo in general, in MP3). The ending also seemed more satisfying to me. Leaving Aether in peace is far better than blasting off from Tallon IV as the Chozo Artifact Temple crumbles beneath you. On a separate note, the entire concept of the Dark Aether and the Ing was pretty ingenious IMO. While I didn't play any such parts, I imagine it must have been pretty exciting hopping around from Safe Zone to Safe Zone (before the acquisition of the Light Suit, which kept you from taking damage in Dark Aether's harmful atmosphere), hoping to make it to the next one before an Ing or some other Darkling jumps out of nowhere and starts attacking...! Almost like some sort of interactive horror movie, but much less scary. One thing worth noting is that the game seemed to really try to connect to the original Metroid Prime--perhaps too much. Too many elements from Metroid Prime were present, with the loss of upgrades in the beginning of the game, the search for a number of keys to travel to the final area and fight the final boss--some enemies were copied directly from Metroid Prime and given a new look, a new name, and slightly more power (Grenchlers=Baby Sheegoth, Pulse Bombu=Harmony-Class Drone, Triclops=Mechlops). The game also featured a multiplayer mode. While simple, using only upgrades and music from the game, it definitely grows on you. It seemed to be an early form of Metroid Prime Hunters's multiplayer, which was the best (and aside from MP2 the only) multiplayer Metroid game. You could not choose your character, but the search for weapons and then your opponent while you try to annihilate them with Super Missiles or Power Bombs (or in MPH, the Imperialist or Death Alt.) was still present. One thing in MP2 that I wish would have been present in MPH was the option to choose your own music for the battle. There's not much to choose from, but it's still pretty cool. And the game, like any Metroid game, has no lack of upgrades strewn throughout the planet. Using a walkthrough, Tahkeh was able to gain 100% scans and items the first time around, so we saw the best ending. But without the aid of a walkthrough, you'd almost definitely need more than one playthrough to get every upgrade. Plenty of replay value. If you don't have either Prime 1 or 2, get Metroid Prime first, because I believe that overall it's a better game than this one. But if you do have Metroid Prime already, or you really want the multiplayer and/or a challenge (yes, this game is much more difficult, even on the easiest mode, than Metroid Prime and most other Metroid games). Prime 2 will probably cost $20 used, but I would definitely suggest, to those who enjoy Metroid games, getting this game over say, Toa Ignika. Not that he's a bad set...but this is a really good game. And now that leaves three Metroid game reviews before I've reviewed all of them! The original Metroid (agh, I can't beat it because you start the game with such low energy! :annoyed2:), Super Metroid (which I've been neglecting in favor of the Prime games), and Metroid II (which I have yet to obtain a copy of).
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Earlier today I finally beat Metroid Prime. So as usual, I bring you several long paragraphs on why you should or should not go run to your local video game store and see if you can find this moderately old Metroid game used. The controls, like those of any Metroid game, are simple and easy to get used to. The only gripe I have with them is how to move the camera. You have to hold R and rotate the joystick, which means that you can't move while adjusting the camera. The C stick would have been much more convenient, and while the excuse is that the C stick is already used for switching beams, something could have been done to make both switching beams and visors possible with the D-Pad, while the C stick was devoted to camera movement. The music wasn't obnoxious, but most of it wasn't very memorable. Still, it was always appropriate for the situation and added something to the atmosphere of the various areas of Tallon IV, the planet Samus explores in Metroid Prime. The game wasn't exceedingly difficult (of course, I was playing on Easy Mode ), but there was the occasional boss that took a few tries to beat. The Omega Pirate, third-to-last, was probably the hardest boss in the game, and while the next two battles (Meta Ridley and Metroid Prime) were difficult, neither took more than four or five tries (while the Omega Pirate probably took twice that). Unfortunately lacking in the game was a lot of the head-bangingly confusing puzzles that I have come to love in a Metroid game. The game's six areas (Tallon Overworld, Chozo Ruins, Magmoor Cavers, Phendrana Drifts, Phazon Mines and the Impact Crater) are all very diverse environments. The whole thing is uncannily similar to Mata Nui's six regions, which is a plus for anyone who followed the story back then. Of course, the orange Phazon-infested Impact Crater hardly represents a Bionicle element. The game's story is pretty straightforward. Mostly it's advanced by fighting bosses and gaining upgrades, but much information can be gained by using your scan visor to read Space Pirate data or ancient Chozo texts. While both can give you interesting or useful information, the Space Pirate lore tends to be entertaining as well, such as the anecdote of what happened when Space Pirates tried to replicate Morph Ball technology or the urgings from Space Pirate Command not to feed the Metroids without authorization. After beating the game once, Hard Mode is unlocked and then you can try to beat the game in Hard Mode and/or attempt to collect all energy tanks, missile expansions, power bomb expansions, and charge combos. Or you could challenge yourself to see how fast you can complete the game, or with how few upgrades you can complete the game. With a Metroid game, there's always plenty of replay value, and the same holds true for Metroid Prime. Apparently, it can even link to Metroid Fusion, and if you have a completed file on Metroid Prime, you can play as Fusion Suit Samus in Metroid Prime. (If you have a completed Metroid Fusion file, you can play the original Metroid, but that's not necessary if you have Zero Mission, in which you unlock the original Metroid after beating the game.) While this game doesn't surpass Metroid Prime 3 as my favorite Metroid game, it's not a bad game at all and since you can probably find it used for as much as a Phantoka at your local video game store, I would definitely recommend it for any fan of the Metroid series. For those who haven't played the Metroid series but are interested in it, this would be a good game to become introduced to the series with. Of course, my brother and I have already started Metroid Prime 2, and I'm beginning to like it better...
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Last night I completed Metroid Mega Man Star Force. This is the first time I've played a Mega Man game, and I'm aware that they aren't all like this one, but Mega Man Star Force at least is a great game, one of the best I've played in a long while. Allow me to explain why: The controls were well-thought out and original. In the "Real World", A is used to interact with things, X is used to bring up the menu screen, L allows you to talk to yourself or your "FM-ian" partner, Omega-Xis (or Mega for short) for a hint or reminder of your current objective. R, when standing on a "wavehole" allows you to "pulse in" to the Wave World, a system of roads above the Real World composed of EM waves. In the Wave World, the controls are mostly the same; however R allowed you to pulse out, returning you to the wavehole from which you pulsed in back in the Real World. The stylus and touch screen are also frequently used. To jump into "CompSpaces", the computers of various electronic objects, you tap a miniature wavehole above the object. The music was nothing special. There were a few basic songs: the various songs for the main areas of the game (Echo Ridge, AMAKEN, Time Square and Dream Island), the music for the Wave World, the "trouble" music for the Real World and the equivalent music for the Wave World, and a variation of the title screen music that came on when a villain (most of them consisted of good guys who had evil FM-ians taking advantage of their loneliness) learned a moral and returned to normal, the battle music, and the boss music. Of course, all of these songs sounded good the first time, but you quickly get sick of some of them, especially when they play for long periods of time. The game could be difficult if you don't know how to play it. You see, I had no idea how to edit your battle card folder at first, so around the second dungeon area I was still using all of the default cards and I kept dying. But afterwards I had no trouble. A few of the bosses were a bit tricky, especially the final one, but the minibosses were generally pushovers. The storyline was simply excellent. Earth tries to form a "BrotherBand" or close friendship, with a planet called FM--and has their space station destroyed. The main character, a 5th grader named Geo Stelar, lost his father in this incident, but an inhabitant of FM, Omega-Xis, befriends him and apparently knows something about his dad. He has betrayed his planet and stolen the Andromeda Key, the key that can awaken FM's greatest, planet-destroying weapon, Andromeda. Several FM-ians, Taurus, Cygnus, Lyra, Libra, Ophiuca, and Gemini, come down to Earth and corrupt various main characters, fusing with them and using them to attack Omega-Xis and Geo (and their fused form, called MegaMan). The main character is at first a pathetic twerp who actually gets on your nerves, refusing to talk to anyone so he can't be hurt if he loses them. However, through the friendship of Mega and, later in the game, Sonia Strumm, Geo eventually warms up, and beats all the bad guys and stuff. Some of the morals, like "relationships are the essence of society" and "if there is even a sliver of hope, you should try to make it happen", are actually pretty inspiring, especially for a writer like me. Just one thing that annoys me about this game--for some reason, whenever someone gets punched or otherwise hurt, the screen goes black and then it shows the person knocked out on the ground. It's really annoying, but I don't really think it detracts from the game too much. The wi-fi part of the game isn't so great; you can form BrotherBands with people and if you both happen to be online you can battle and trade. You can also send e-mails, but these e-mails will not be received until the next time the recipient connects to wi-fi. As I said, not that great. So in conclusion, buy the game for the great storyline and genius gameplay, not particularly for the wi-fi. With about around 20 hours of gameplay (at least, it took me 20 hours ) and a postgame after the main one which I have yet to begin, it is definitely worth the $30.
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I don't know what it is with Metroid game makers and giant carnivorous plant bosses. Metroid: Zero Mission had one, Metroid Fusion had one, Super Metroid had one, and now I've just played through the point in Metroid Prime when I find out that it has one too. (Actually there's a funny story about Metroid Prime--my brother got mad at me once and hid all of the Metroid Prime games... then he forgot where he hid them. So just a few days ago we found them in his dresser--who knows why we didn't look there earlier--and so now I'm finally progressing in Metroid Prime.) I've also noticed a few patterns between this encounters--generally the giant plants don't have obnoxiously catchy boss music, but instead have more quieter "horrific"-sounding music. All of them shoot spores at you, and most of them in some form are seriously hindering Samus' progress until being defeated. (Flaahgra, the plant in Metroid Prime, for example, is poisoning the nearby water, making crossing lakes impossible. The one in Metroid Fusion whose name escapes me is choking the main reactor of the spaceship you're currently on, causing all elevators, save rooms, etc. to be useless. And so on.) Perhaps most importantly (if I remember correctly), all of them are near sources of water. Only one of them is near sunlight though, so apparently in Metroid that's not necessary for plants to grow. Inspired by this, I have a giant plant of death in my epic, To Be A Hero. It makes a brief appearance in Chapter 16 and 17, as a "guardian" of a Dairuno Stone that the protagonists must find. As for why it's on Dyteeli... I know why, and as long as I don't change any of my plans for upcoming epics, you'll eventually find out, but you never know what I'll decide to keep or leave out in the final revision. Plus we're talking about months or perhaps over a year until I finally post the flashback epic in question. I may well have entirely forgotten about the giant carnivorous plant in Book 2. But somehow, if a new Metroid game comes out in that time, I have a feeling I won't forget.
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Welcome one and all, to my first ever non-Metroid video game review! Last night I beat Super Mario Galaxy, at last, and so I bring you a review of it. The controls were nice and simple. A on the Wiimote to jump, B to shoot Star Bits (not really a necessary function), the Nunchuk's joystick to move, shake the Wiimote to spin, Z to crouch, the direction pad on the Wiimote to turn the camera angle, and + and - to pause. I believe that covers everything you really need to know. They were simple and easy to get used to. There were also several minigames with different controls, such as Manta Ray Racing which involved turning the Wiimote to turn the ray. The second player collected Star Bits (sort of the game's currency, although there were normal old coins in it too) by moving a cursor over them with the Wiimote, and could hold down enemies by putting the cursor on them and holding A. Doing this on Mario would cause him to jump, and the second player could shoot Star Bits as well, although all it was good for was stunning enemies. The music was one of the game's strong points. It sounded like orchestra music and was always enjoyable. Even the boss music sounded like an orchestra, and the main hub had music that I have found myself subconsciously humming. The music in general was really excellent. As for the difficulty, the bosses could've been harder, mostly consisting of finding out how to hurt the boss and then just doing that three times. But aside from that it was a fairly challenging game. Like any Mario game, it was not focused on fighting so much as getting through difficult manuevers. One particular annoyance was the Matter Splatter Galaxy, especially one area of it where you had to get to the top of a room while the bottom was dematerializing--but the trick is that the top is materializing as you go, keeping you from getting to the top too quickly. One wrong move, and you'll find yourself dropping into nothingness. The game had a moderately light storyline. Of course, after playing Super Paper Mario any Mario game will seem light, but that's a story for another day. It was obviously not meant for older people so much, as anyone with a seventh grade education will be able to point out how much the game defies scientific accuracy. There are several "planets" (really more like space rocks with life on them, due to the size of them) sitting right above a black hole that will suck you in if you fall off the edge, but somehow the tiny planet isn't effected at all by its pull. Also, the game teaches that everything in space has its own gravity field--a platform hardly bigger than Mario himself has a gravity field strong enough to keep Mario from falling off if he feels the need to walk to the other side of it and stand upside-down on the bottom. You would think that Mario should have his own gravity field too! There's 120 stars to collect, and I hear that Luigi becomes playable after you collect them all, and you collect them all again. So there's quite a bit of replay value. In summary, don't buy this game if you're looking for scientific accuracy or a great storyline. Do buy this game if you're looking for a mildly long and difficult platformer with excellent music. Oh, and I'm writing a short story right now, taking a brief break from writing my epic (Chapter 4 of my comedy is just about done; expect to see it later this evening). It's a tribute to everyone's favorite dead hero... but not like you might think. I think everyone will like it.
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My brother and I (mostly my brother) have been working on an RPG in RPGMaker 2003 for over a year now. If you'll glance down to the atlas entry I just made, you'll see that there is an island called Rode Nui. Well, Rode Nui will appear in some of my stories, but it is primarily the playground for my brother's RPGs. Probably before 2006 even started (we can't really remember anymore), we were jumping on our trampoline when he told me he wanted to do a Bionicle RPG. He said he wanted it to be about a purple Toa Hordika as the main villain, with some Matoran looking for a mask and sealing it away from him. By the end of the day, we knew more or less how the RPG would end, and everything that would happen in between. In the time between that day and this one, much has been changed of the story. The main villain is not a purple Toa Hordika--you'll find out when he finishes it and posts it who it really is. Anyway, the next step after deciding on the story was to make the maps. While my bro did most of that, I helped him out with the coding (though now in many aspects of it he's better at it than I am) and the cutscenes (he is not a natural-born writer, but I am). At the moment, the RPG is nearly fully done. We expect to be posting it sometime early next year (in other words, the release date is 2008 Q1 ). Even so, we just worked out the exact details of the ending a few days ago. Then we're going to do the second one, which will basically be an RPG form of my third epic from a different point of view. Hopefully by the time April rolls around and I'm going to post my third epic, the second RPG will be done. It'll be a pretty outstanding feat to finish an RPG in less than half a year, but we'll see. In other news, I've posted the sequel to my epic. Why don't you check it out? And if you like it, how about you tell me so? I'd really appreciate it. Speaking of stuff I wrote, my comedy is doing quite nicely as well, and is now up to its third chapter. I'm now accepting guest stars, so why don't you check that out too, while you're at it? And if you're really in a good mood, or you just love me, be sure to read my Short Story Contest #4 entry and tell me what you think. Geez, I need a library.
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My friend's going to be here in about half an hour, so I need to do this quick. Yesterday I beat Metroid: Zero Mission. It was a good game, but far too short and easy. Allow me to elaborate. The controls were nearly identical to the controls of Metroid Fusion, the other GBA Metroid game. A to jump, B to shoot, etc. I was already used to them, so they gave me no problem. If you haven't played Metroid Fusion and you buy Zero Mission, it doesn't take long to get used to. The music was mostly taken from the original Metroid game (it was a remake of it, after all), but it was touched up a bit. It sounded good, but since there were only maybe six or so background songs, I found myself occasionally getting sick of the music. The boss music was unique for each boss battle, as few as there were, and it was enjoyable. The sound effects were typical Metroid sound effects, nothing special. The game was far too easy, however. I died perhaps five times in the course of the entire game. I was on easy mode, but on other Metroid games, the easy mode is much harder than Zero Mission's. Maybe I'm just used to it, though? I'm trying the game again on Normal, and hoping to find it harder. Even the final boss, a robotic version of Ridley (a recurring Metroid boss) only took a few Super Missiles to kill. It was too short as well. If you didn't spend all of your time collecting energy tanks and weapon expansions, all you really needed to do was to get to and kill Ridley and Kraid (two "mini-bosses" that were necessary to fight in order to get to the final area of the game). Then you were only a few screens away from Mother Brain. In the original Metroid, the game ends after the defeat of Mother Brain (I haven't beaten it yet, but it's common knowledge), but in Zero Mission, the game continues for one last area. This area does not take long either, but you lose your Power Suit and thus it is slightly more difficult than the rest of the game--all but one of my five deaths in the game were there. After beating a boss, you regain your Power Suit, find the final upgrade, and make your way to the final boss. I spent some time getting upgrades and such, but if I hadn't, I probably would've beaten the game in under 3 hours. From what I've played of the original Metroid, Zero Mission stayed fairly close to it. I've actually been using the location of upgrades in Zero Mission to find them in the original Metroid, and it's working. Of course, it's radically different in some respects, adding bosses and entire areas that were not in the orignal. And that's a good thing--otherwise it would've just been an update on the graphics of a game released in 1986. Speaking of that game, after beating Zero Mission, you unlock the original Metroid to play on your GBA or DS! It's so much more convenient than playing it on the Wii, which I had been doing up till yesterday. Of course, on the Wii you can exit the game and resume exactly where you left off. On Zero Mission, turning off the game results in you losing all of your progress, only recoverable by the use of a password system. That gets annoying, but seeing as the whole thing is a bonus feature that the creators of the game didn't have to add in, I don't mind. In short, I would suggest the game for rent, if you could find this 3-year old game for rent. Before it was due back, you could've beaten the game and the original Metroid with time to spare. But if you really love the Metroid series, you might as well buy it, because at this point you can find it used pretty easily for around $10.00.
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This morning I beat Metroid Fusion, and I must say it would be my favorite Metroid game so far, if it weren't for some minor annoyances. Anyway, as is my tradition so far in this blog, I will now write a review on this old GBA game from five years ago. The controls were typical: A to jump, B to shoot. You hold R to shoot missiles (or drop a power bomb when in morphball), tap Down twice to go into morphball, and use the control pad to move and aim. They became second nature quite quickly. No problems there. The battle music was excellent--every boss had different music. The music in general was good, but the battle music especially. The sound effects were awesome, from Ridley-X screaming his head off when I was bombarding him with ice missiles to the sound of a power bomb blowing up. The sound was one of the game's highest points. I can safely say that Metroid Fusion was probably the hardest game I've ever played. Even minor enemies did around 40-50 damage from just touching you, and some bosses could wipe out multiple energy tanks in a matter of seconds if you weren't careful. Of course, that got annoying, because there were several bosses I was stuck on for hours, as you might have picked up from some recent entries. The SA-X, a creature mimicking Samus Aran, appears in certain areas and you have to run and hide because you're too weak to fight it. By the end of the game, you've collected enough upgrades to fight it (though really all you needed was the Screw Attack and the Plasma Beam, two of the last upgrades you get), but it is still one of the most difficult battles in the game, as beating it requires masterful dodging and aim. But Metroid Fusion was not only difficult due to battles--the puzzles became mind-boggling at times, at least until the power bomb upgrade was received, fairly late in the game. You would have to instinctively know where hidden morphball tunnels were, and what parts of the wall could be destroyed if shot until you got the power bomb, which would automatically reveal every hidden area on the screen and destroy most of the enemies, too. There was a long time shortly before the third boss that I almost gave up on the game, totally lost and with no idea of what to do. The game had an excellent storyline as well, including a rather interesting plot twist near the end. It was more linear than most Metroid games, but the story made up for it, along with the creative idea of the X-Parasites, which acted as health but could turn into enemies if not absorbed quickly enough. In the final battle against an Omega Metroid, the SA-X actually helps you--it hates Metroids, as they are the natural predator of the X-Parasites. The Omega Metroid, with powers I could only dream about having, kills the SA-X in one swipe of its claw (well, I had weakened it earlier), and Samus absorbs it, allowing her to regain the Ice Beam and finally defeat the Omega Metroid. While the game is old, anyone who has a DS is able to play it, if you find it used. The game isn't exactly long, but the difficulty makes up for it, and it has a little bit of replay value as well. If you're a fan of the Metroid series and don't have this game yet, I would suggest getting it used for cheap to keep you entertained for a few days. And now I have a question for anyone who regularly reads my blog: do you like these reviews, or should I stop? Other than the "other" category, reviews on average get the most comments, and it's the only category where every entry has comments, so it appears to be pretty popular. I enjoy doing it as well, and while it's only been Metroid games so far, once I beat a non-Metroid game, I'll review it. If I keep doing these, you can expect either Metroid Prime 2 or Super Mario Galaxy next.
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I beat Metroid Prime Hunters yesterday. While I can't say it was my favorite game ever, it was enjoyable, and the multiplayer feature never ceases to entertain me. The controls were a little awkward, as you had to turn by sliding the stylus over the touch screen in the direction you wanted to turn. "Double clicking" the touch screen allowed you to jump. To switch weapons you would have to touch a picture of the weapon on the touch screen. To switch to your scan visor you tapped something on the touch screen. To transform into morphball form... do I even have to say it? It's something on the touch screen. If you lost your stylus, the game would become unplayable. In fact, all you could do would be shooting, which is done with L. Technically, A, B, X, and Y cause you to jump, but if you're right handed, your right hand is holding the stylus and it's impossible to jump and say, turn, and the same time unless you use the touch screen. If you were left-handed, I'm not sure what you would do. The music was okay--it was mostly strange and unfitting, but the battle music, while horribly overused, was nice to listen to. The final boss actually used various songs heard before in the game, something that I am fully against (my strong belief is that a final boss should have its own music that should not be heard until the final boss, nor should it ever be used again). Of course, there was a secret second phase with its own music, but that's another story. Sound effects were typical, but at least they sounded good. In general, the game was pretty easy. The puzzles could be tricky, but as far as actually battling goes, the game could've been harder. You encounter several bounty hunters and "Guardians" multiple times throughout the game, fights which become increasingly easy as you get more and more power-ups. Also at the end of every level you fight either a "Cretaphid", a giant pillar of death, or a "Slench", a giant eyeball of death. Then comes the final boss, Gorea, who has two phases, one of which is optional to unlock a better ending sequence. Other than to Gorea while trying to unlock the second phase, I only died once to Cretaphid v4, a.k.a. mobile giant totem pole with superweapons. Other than that, my 60 deaths in the game were comprised of falling into bottomless pits (and/or lava), getting crushed in morphball form, or dying to random enemies who caught me with low health. Not only was the game easy, it was short. There were four relatively short worlds, each of which had to be done twice. By the time I was doing the last world for the second time, I got the idea the game designers had gotten bored and were trying to get through with their job as quickly as possible so they could get to the final boss battle. Every level had a countdown to escape the world before a "security system" activated, which got quite repetitive and was fairly easy. But I must say it was fun, especially the few times a bounty hunter attacked you on your way out, wasting a few minutes before you could get them out of the way. Now, so far this review has made the game sound horrible. But that's only single-player mode. The game truly shines in its multiplayer mode, either wi-fi or local. You can play as any one of the seven bounty hunters in the game (Samus, Kanden, Spire, Weavel, Sylux, Noxus or Trace) and fight in around 25 various areas from the game. There are several types of battle, including Prime Hunter, where you kill someone and see how long you can stay alive while having your health gauge constantly lowered till you kill another person, seeing how many seconds of "prime time" you can get before the game ends. I haven't even tried all of them yet. Wi-fi is wildly fun as well, though right now I'm practicing against computers before I do any wi-fi matches. Replay value is fair enough, but to get 100% it seems that you'll need to be in your Scan Visor, nosing around, more than actually battling and exploring for pickups. Multiplayer mode is the game's strongest point. I would suggest getting the game used and spending most of your time on the multiplayer mode. But be sure to try the single player mode as well. While it's not the best game you'll ever play, it's fun, especially for people who like the Metroid Prime series.
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Note: do not click the spoiler tags unless you have read Comic #11: Death of a Hero or do not mind having the 2007 ending spoiled. » Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «So... Matoro is dead. I'm still in a state of shock--I haven't really accepted the fact yet. I'm half-thinking that he must not be dead, and in the next comic he'll be back on Metru Nui with the other Mahri... But if you see the little quote down in the content block entitled "Stuff I Said (Or Wrote)", you'll see a quote from a certain "Toa Barnoka". I can give a little more background info on that quote. First of all, here's the quote: He says that after killing an innocent who has been fused with a deadly machine and is, against his own will, threatening to kill Barnoka and all of his friends (myself included among them). Qedono, his Matoran comrade, objects to this, and Barnoka says that line, ending the chapter. In the very next chapter (or maybe the chapter after; can't remember exactly), Barnoka gives his own life to do something very important for his island. When reading Comic 11, I was much reminded of Barnoka's sacrifice, and realized that by Barnoka's logic, Matoro now surpasses Lhikan as the greatest hero in the Bionicle storyline. He gave his life, and by doing so, he saved the life of every being--hero or villain (or neutral)--in the universe. He made the ultimate sacrifice for the good of the universe, restoring order, knowing that his death would be worth the peace he brought to the entire universe. Thus, the title "Death of a Hero" is quite appopriate. For Matoro was truly the greatest hero the Bionicle universe has ever had. ...Cheesy, I know, but I felt it had to be said. Any comments?
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If you'll glance down to the "Metroid Game Checklist" content block on your right, you will see that Metroid Prime 3 is now in purple, signifying that I have beaten the game. Now I figured I might do a sort of review of it. First of all, let me start by saying that MP3 was my first Metroid game. Now I have several more Metroid games, and I'm glad I got into it. But the point is that when I started playing, I didn't have a bias for or against it from my judgement of previous installments. Okay, now for the review. The controls were excellent. From the very beginning, you become the main character. Moving the Wiimote around turns the camera. There are several sequences where you must move the Wiimote up or down to pull a lever, or twisting it and pulling it away from the sensor bar to get an energy cell out of the wall. You had to throw the Nunchuck forward to activate the Grapple, and yank back to pull stuff. They were awkward at first, but I quickly got used to it, and because the controls were so realistic, they soon became second nature. The music and sound were exceptional. Voice acting=win. Even Samus's grunts of pain were good, though she didn't say anything else. Each area had distinct music that you either grew to love or hate depending on what you thought of the area. The planet Bryyo, home to a primitive reptillian species, played music reminiscient of MNOLG1. Bryyo, needless to say, was my favorite area in the game. Battle music and boss music was spectacular. You don't know how many boss fights I wanted to die on just to hear the music a little longer. Speaking of boss fights, some were quite challenging, and others... not so much (*coughberserkerlordtwocough*). For the most part, they were fun, at least. The first time I fought the first boss, I actually lost to him, because I wasn't used to the controls yet. Of course, the second time I fought him, I was used to the controls and he got owned. The three bounty hunter battles were all fun, if slightly easy, as were the three Leviathan battles. The final boss was the hardest in the game (that's how it should be, but sadly too many games have easy final boss fights), and probably the only one I died on more than once. Graphics are amazing too, especially considering that the game isn't for the PS3 or 360 (I don't own either one, BTW). Not much to say about that. Early on in the game, Samus becomes corrupted with Phazon, and her body begins to produce it. From then on, you can go into Hypermode, where you inject an energy tank with Phazon. Samus becomes much more powerful, but as she uses Phazon-based attacks, her health meter goes down. Staying in Hypermode for more than 15 seconds or so results in Samus becoming corrupted. While corrupted, Hypermode can not be exited, and Samus's Phazon gauge turns red and begins to rise instead. If the player does not vent all Phazon before the gauge reaches the top or before too much time elapses, Samus will become fully corrupted and die. It adds a sense of urgency to the game, especially in several boss fights where you must overload the boss with Phazon energy, and thus must enter Hypermode. In the final stages of the game, all of Samus's energy tanks become permanently injected with Phazon, and she is given a slowly-rising gauge that marks the amount of Phazon in her body. When it reaches the top, she dies. The only way to keep the gauge down is to absorb Anti-Phazon, a substance the sucks away Phazon. But the last two bosses--and the last few enemies on your way to them, have plenty of Phazon-based attacks that will make your gauge go up quicker. It's a very hectic experience. Overall, I would reccomend the game to anyone with a Wii, especially people who have any other games in the Metroid Prime subseries. It has tons of replay value, and is fairly long to begin with. If you're waiting for Brawl or something else coming out in the nearby future, MP3 is a great game to tide you over till then. In other news, I've had this blog for a week now. Yay! That is all.
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The highly anticipated Super Mario Galaxy comes out in just three days (not counting today), and I have it preordered. Being that I am homeschooled, and will be going to walk a dog in the area of the GameStop store I preordered it at on Monday, I will be one of the first school-age children in my time zone to play Super Mario Galaxy. My friends won't be playing it at least till 3:00 on Monday, while I'll be around three hours into the game already. I even did double homeschool work today so I could take Monday off. Yeah, I was that desperate. This whole thing will be happening all over again in February when Brawl comes out... Can't wait.
