Super Monkey Ball 3D Review

Our first 3DS review isn't the immediate pick on everyone's 'must have' 3DS list when purchasing the console but perhaps you should reconsider? Upon poping in the little white 3DS cartridge and seeing monkey's in ball's happily rolling around the stage I'm reminded of Super Monkey Ball's original debut on the Gamecube and the fun I had when playing it.

If your not used to Super Monkey Ball where have you been? It's a delightful little puzzle game where the object is simple, guide your monkey in a ball to the goal within a minute. A simple premise at first when your tasked with rolling the ball down a simple slant in a straight line, but the further into the game you get the more testing the stages become. Rolling the ball around a swirl with no walls and with springs which fling you off into the distance is not an easy task at all! But Super Monkey Ball 3DS somehow manages to not make you get frustrated, perhaps it's the colours or the loveable monkey's themselves but I never found myself getting annoyed because I couldn't do a level.

The advantage of having a 3D screen helps this game immensely, especially on the latter level's when evading obstacles such as the spring's I mentioned earlier is crucial and the added perception you get really helps. The controls for this game are simple enough, you have the option of using the control stick or the gyroscope in the 3DS itself to control the ball. If you do opt for the gyroscope though make sure you turn 3D off, as moving the system all over the place to control your monkey makes you lose the sweet spot of the 3D very easily and makes viewing a nightmare.

Like every Super Monkey Ball game there are the additional mini-games, not so much this time though. We have Monkey Racing, a delightful Donkey Style kart racer and Monkey Fight which kind of feels like Super Smash Bros, but with monkeys. Each mini-game does a solid if unspectacular job and can take up some of your time but both pale in comparison to puzzle mode which undoubtedly steals the show and it's easy to see where the develops spent the most time perfecting the game.

Super Monkey Ball 3D is a great little starter game for you brand new handheld before some of the more bigger names come to fruition in the summer (who said Zelda?), for now, Super Monkey Ball will delightfully fill your time and provide with a few hours of 3D fun.

7.5

Crysis 2 Review

First person shooter's these days are a dime a dozen, mostly generic war shooters that occasionally may or may not involve space nazi alien's that are planning to take over the country/world/universe (delete as applicable). Crysis 2 is no different, story wise it's about alien's coming up from the ground trying to take over the planet while a government conspiracy is happening and you, the man with 'the' suit, is the only one who can stop it.

So the plot of Crysis 2 is very much well trodden and doesn't really set it apart from other shooters. So what does make this a worthy addition to your game collection? Unlike most first person shooters, it won't be the gun that saves you the most, it'll be the suit. It allows for varying gaming mechanics to aid you in your fight against evil, there's armour mode which allows you an additional few ounces of armour to help you stay alive just that little bit longer or run through fire and pretty much feel untouchable. Stealth camouflage gives you the Predator's very own invisibility, in fact any self respecting Predator fan can see the little nod's to the 1987 classic film throughout Crysis 2. The suit also gives you increased athleticism so jumping higher and running faster is a given, you can also slide on the floor, use thermal vision and of course, grab ledges. While many other shooters can offer some of these things, Crysis make's everything seem very fluid, spiriting, sliding, jumping, grabbing and camouflage can be done one after the other within seconds. To stop you using all these abilities all the time however is a suit meter which counts down from 100 to 0. Depending on what ability you use decides how quickly it depletes, running while being in camouflage drains the meter massively, crawling while camouflage drains the meter much more slowly making stealth kills easier.

As you would expect from a FPS there is a decent amount of variety in weapons but unfortunately not much variety in weapons. Expect to take on the same looking private army and then only three different types of Ceph (the alien species in the game). While the Ceph are interesting enough I can't help but feel like there just rehash's of Elite's and Hunter's from the Halo series with added tentacles. Even right down to shooting in the gaps of their armour to take them down easy, it just feels like not much effort was put into the Ceph at all.

The levels are varied enough and despite the whole game being set in New York the developers have given us plenty of changes in scenery to not make the game feel the same throughout. One of Crysis 2's major plus points are the graphics, make no mistake, this is a beautiful looking game. I personally would still put Killzone 3 ahead but this takes a very close second. Some of the set pieces in the level's are outstanding though, seeing building's collapse, helicopter's crashing three feet in front of you and walking along a collapsing bridge are just some of the set piece highlight's that will give you a wow factor every time you play it. The length of single player mode is lengthy and will take you a decent 12 to 15 hours to complete depending on your skill level. It's a nice change from the 6 or 7 hour campaign now go play multiplayer feel that most shooters tend to have. Speaking of multiplayer, it is here in Crysis 2 of course and like my complaint with Killzone 3's multiplayer, it's good without being anything special, there is nothing that set's it apart from the rest and I have my doubts as to the long term community that will evolve from Crysis 2.

During my play through I did notice some quite alarming graphical errors that really shouldn't of happened. On numerous occasions after a cutscene my gun wouldn't be there, in fact one time I could see Alcatraz's (the lead character) hands grip a 'gun' but the actual gun wasn't there. What makes things worse is that I couldn't fire! So I had to let myself die or restart the chapters to be able to shoot. Pop up is also there, while it doesn't affect the actual gameplay it can be annoying and it is such a shame as the rest of Crysis 2 is beautiful but these few graphical errors I encountered really do spoil the experience a little bit.

Crysis 2 is a good game, it falls short on being great because it does feel like I've been here and done it before. It takes the Call of Duty style of gunplay and modern setting with a Halo feel in terms of plot and enemies. On paper it's potentially a great combination but it can just feel like they tried too hard to focus on making the suit spectacular instead of innovating the gameplay to really challenge the suit.

7.5

Mass Effect 2: Arrival DLC Review

If your finishing something, you usually would like to go out with a bang rather than a whimper.  I'm sure this probably wasn't the thinking behind the last piece of DLC for last year's game of the year Mass Effect 2.  This add-on titled 'Arrival' started off with Bioware promising to bridge the story between 2 and the upcoming Mass Effect 3.  But sadly it doesn't.

Arrival starts as any other mission with a "message at your private terminal" there you are given a mission by Admiral Hackett to rescue Dr Amanda Kenson from a fleet of Batarian's holding her captive, apparently she has information on the Reapers.  Hackett gives the excuse that Shepard will have to go in alone as to not attract attention and cause a full scale Batarian-Human war.  It's basically Bioware trying to cover up the fact they wanted us to not have our squad for this mission, I don't really know why this decision was made but I'm not happy about it.  All those hours you put into Mass Effect to build-up your squad and you can't take them on the last mission with you, they even rub salt into the wounds by still having dialogue from Shepard saying thing's like "We've been spotted" No, we haven't been spotted just you Shepard.

Without doubt one of Mass Effect's greatest parts is the conversation system and the idea of choice.  A choice made is one of the ways that your Shepard is 'your' Shepard, you define him by your decisions made in the previous games.  I won't spoil anything, but there looks to be a big decision to be made in Arrival but the choice is taken completely out of your hands.  I was expecting to make the decision and was weighing up both options but then Shepard just decided to 'do' it without me deciding, the control was taken out of my hands.

If you enjoyed shooting things in Mass Effect 2 then you'll like Arrival, as narrow corridors and many shootable enemies is what we get, just foot soldiers, nothing spectacular just loads and loads of bodies to kill.  I think Bioware have let us and Mass Effect 2 down, to let a game this good bow out with DLC that really adds nothing at all is a real shame.  The Reapers are coming, we know that, now let's get Mass Effect 3 out so we can forget about this 'Arrival'.

4/10

RetroView: SEGA Dreamcast Part Two

Welcome back to our second foray into the world of the Dreamcast. After last weeks look at the console itself and the launch titles, let's now take a more detailed look at what made Sega's White beauty special, the games.

Shenmue is a game which is synomonus with the system, both for it's ground breaking production at the time and how it's cost was one of the many major factors of Sega's demise. While the early reports were putting the game at $70 million, game creator Yu Suzuki recently clarified it was only a mere $46 million. A huge risk for Sega and one that in the long run didn't pay off.

But let's not get down in the dumps, for me and many others Shenmue was the pinnacle of the last generation with graphics that weren't surpassed by anything on PS2, Xbox or Gamecube. A story that to this day still enriches people's imagination, admittedly this is partly fuelled by the fact the story isn't finished, as the main character Ryo is currently stuck in a cave at the end of the sequel which also appeared on the Dreamcast and later on Xbox.

This is still my highlight of playing games

Shenmue is the first and only game to create it's own genre. The F.R.E.E (full reactive eyes entertainment) is in it's simplest form a mix between a TV series, RPG and Virtua Fighter. Shenmue was the first game where you could truly go wherever you wanted and do what you wanted. While the overall goal of the game was to find the man who killed your father you could've wasted all of Ryo's days playing Space Harrier in the arcade by morning, rummaging through strangers draws and cupboards in the afternoon and playing pool with drunk sailor's at night. You could even look after your own cat as well, if that was your thing. A game that merely started out as a Virtua Fighter RPG turned out to be the high point of the system and to this day deserves either a sequel or re-make to let those that missed it fully appreciate a true classic.


Did the high cost of Shenmue and massive gamble by Sega to have put all their money shaped eggs into one basket backfire? Sort of. There is no doubting the failure of Shenmue to make a profit added a nail to the Dreamcast's coffin, but for Shenmue to break even it is reported every Dreamcast owner would have had to buy the game twice, something that was never going to happen. I find it's best to look at Shenmue as a labour of love from Sega. They knew profit was impossible but wanted to leave us with a fantastic and engrossing experience that nothing has matched since.

Going to another type of true classic now I'll move onto possibly the strangest, quirkiest game ever made on God's green Earth called Seaman. Unfortunately the game is not about trying to become a failed England goalkeeper with a ponytail and is more to do with talking fish. Say wha....???

"I used to play for Arsenal and England, who am I"

Seaman was the first game where you talk to fish! Well fish with a human head, it was the sort of game that could only have come from Japan. They started off life as an egg and grew and by talking into the Dreamcast microphone you could communicate with them and help them develop their talkative nature by teaching them new words and phrases. Amazingly Seaman was a ripple of success and even earned itself a sequel, unlike the massive petition demanding a Shenmue III there is no plans by Sega at this moment in time to produce a fishy sequel, sad face.


For the Dreamcast to fail so early was an absolute crime, all those great games that came out in it's short life span was truly remarkable. From Shenmue to Sonic Adventure, Soul Calibur to Soul Reaver and even to ones I haven't mentioned yet, Skies of Arcadia, Phantasy Star Online, Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi. The real depressing thing is that Sega pulled out of the hardware race, they had almost got it spot on with the Dreamcast but the Playstation brand name was just too strong to overcome at a time in the nineties and noughties where video gaming was Playstation. Will we ever see Sega back in the race? I highly doubt it. Will they continue to produce high quality titles such as Yakuza, Sonic Colours, Bayonetta and Vanquish? Of course, because to be this good takes ageS.

Yakuza 4 Review

Yakuza is very close to establishing itself as an annual franchise. Similar to your Sports title's and Call of Duty type, one a year formula games. This is the second Yakuza game to hit these shores in as many years following on from the mild success of the first two to hit the Playstation 2. After much fan badgering Sega finally decided to release Yakuza 3 last year, they 'westernised' the game by taking out much of the quirky Japanese tastes (hostess bars, massage parlours etc) that made the first two unique. But thanks to solid sales and an unhappiness at what was left out in Yakuza 3 the sequel arrived fully intact with all Japanese shenanigan's and without the need for a brisk internet campaign from loyal fans.

So now that it's here what makes Yakuza 4 different from previous iterations of the series? Well to be truthful not a lot really. It's still the same Kamurocho town that we've been to in the last three games, still the same random battles in the street's and still the same convoluted plot story with massive twists and murder 24/7. But just because it's the same doesn't mean that goes in the negative column. Yakuza 4 differs itself by taking control away from series protagonist Kiryu Kazuma for most of it.

Instead you control four different characters from different backgrounds. Akiyama, a loan shark, Saejima a convict, Det. Takimura a rookie cop and finally everyone's favourite ex-Yakuza turned orphanage owner Kiryu Kazuma. Each individual story starts at different time periods throughout the games setting of March 2010 while at first I was extremely sceptical as to how all of these individual stories would link up in the end, they eventually came together quite spectacularly. At time's the story in the middle of the game seems to get very complicated with enough threads to knit a wooly jumper. By taking control of the other three characters we see Kazuma as the true legend that he is in Kamourocho. Much like what Kojima did in Metal Gear Solid 2 with Raiden and Snake. By taking control away from the player of Kazuma it really let's his character develop in a way that you couldn't by controlling him.

While of course a good story is Yakuza's main selling point the fighting comes a close second. Now don't get me wrong the fighting in Yakuza is good, it's the exact same as 3 save for a few new moves for the new characters. All the heat mode finishing moves are identical to what we see in 3. The finishers are still as fun and brutal as ever but I feel it was just sheer laziness to leave the exact same mechanics in. Do we really need to see these again, I must have hit someone round the head with a baseball bat about 70 times in Yakuza 3 and it's the exact same now for 4. The fighting system will probably need a bit of refreshing when the inevitable Yakuza 5 comes round (I'm ignoring Yakuza: Of The End) as it's the only bit of the game that feels old. The lock-system doesn't quite work all the time and blocking can be a bit hit or miss but smashing someone's head into the wall never gets old, ever.

In summing up Yakuza 4 it does feel a bit dated at times, especially if you're right up to date with the series. But being dated isn't always a bad things, the thing's Yakuza 4 does well it does fantastically and kept me hooked right up until the finish. There are hundreds of hours you could lose with many many side-quest's including running a hostess bar, training up rookie karate kid's and even playing in a Sega arcade. If you haven't delved into a Yakuza game before I would start with 3 to learn a bit about the back story, if you enjoyed 3 then I see no reason why you shouldn't come back. Look past the ageing fighting system and you'll find yourself a great game and a great world to be in.

8/10

Pokemon White/Black

Well it's about that time again, a new Pokemon on the shelves. Baring in mind this will be the first time I have played a Pokemon game since 1996, Pokemon Blue obviously, I am interested to see what Pokemon White has so offer! What has changed in 15 years? Well lets find out.

Pokemon White has an interesting story to say the least! Unlike the original Pokemon games where the objective is simply to get all 8 Badges and beat whoever else is in your path. Pokemon white has a more structured story, battling Team Plasma who's goal in the world is to free all Pokemon from their owners. I understand this sounds strange, but you begin to understand how this is wrong! Like always you still need to compete for badges and progress the same old way, but it is certainly nice to have a bit more of a story to play with.

The first thing you will notice is how the games presentation hasn't changed much, but why would it? The original Pokemon Red and Blue was very basic, but simply brilliant. I played Pokemon White and I am very happy with how it all looks, I was interested to see what Nintendo would do with the Dual screens and they did not disappoint! The top screen is your main screen like in most DS games, when walking the tall grass of Unova and also where you get to watch your favorite Pokemon battle it out! The bottom screen is used when fighting, it serves as your command center, you can chose your moves, items, switch Pokemon and the choice to Run here. You can either tap the screen which is a nice touch or simply direct the icon with the D-pad. When you are free roaming the bottom screen is only used for looking at items or if you have Online mode on, you can chose multiple options here.

The scenery is nicely done, with a few little effects whilst roaming, however the game does feel slightly out of date. In such a long time you would feel they may have changed it up a bit, a different camera angle or something.. Just to spice it up a little. Also when the Pokemon fight it seems very basic, a few Pokemon have some sweet effects but again it would have been nice to see a little more physical action between Pokemon.

I was always a fan of the Pokemon music, especially when you first turn the game on or when you get your first Poke battle, feeling like a kid again! And yet again Pokemon have done very well in providing a simple soundtrack, but for the most part I just had the sound off. Most of the sounds are very basic and can get a bit annoying, the option to play without sound is very nice.

The gameplay is nice as always with Pokemon, its very simple but highly addictive at the same time. You begin to play and even though all of these new Pokemon who you have never seen before, you want to see them grow as always! It was really nice to see them evolve because you had literally no idea what was coming! I do miss the original guys, Charizard and Blastoise.. Don't fear however, because you can get up to over 650 Pokemon in this game! Insane I know! You aren't able to get any of the older Pokemon until you have got or met all the new ones. I do want to stress one thing however, getting the old Pokemon is not easy in anyway. You can meet most of them, however a lot of the original Pokemon have to be traded from other games such as Soul Silver and Heart Gold, lame. I finished the game last night and all I wanted was my Charmander, but no. Now I am looking for a way to get him! As I have not played the previous game on the DS I don't know if this new 3 vs 3 battle is new or not, but its pretty cool.

The burning question is how long does it all last? Put it this way, the main story line takes around 40 hours to complete, seeing as the final battle is very hard and you end up having to go back and level up! Not only that, when you finish the game you can go back on with almost half the world left to explore and then you can fight the Elite four again, getting to level 100 when you only need to be around 50 to beat the game. There are a few Legendary Pokemon for you to get, obviously the Dragons on the covers, along with 5/6 more. There are also some Fossil Pokemon and exclusive Pokemon! They have to be traded over Black and White to 'Catch em all'. So you are looking at hundreds of hours easily! Well worth your money.

Before we end I know everyone who doesn't have the game already, wants to know.. What Color? Well a tough question, just like 15 years ago when you had to chose between Red and Blue the choice is here again. I went for white, why? I have no idea.. I liked the look of the cover? To be honest there isn't much difference, simply the final fight and a few Pokemon here and there, but nothing drastic. I say just chose which looks cooler to you at the time and wing it that way.

So lets recap. Pokemon yet again delivers in every way. Yes its still the same old Pokemon with a dash of color, but that isn't a bad thing! If you have ever been a Pokemon fan you will like this game. Even if it's not 'cool' anymore, I challenge anyone to play this for more than an hour and not enjoy it. If you are looking for a good game to burn some time into, have a relaxed time then this is for you. Well actually, I say relaxed, but I tell you.. There is nothing more frustrating than having an epic battle with this damn wild Pokemon who you, paralyze, put to sleep, confuse, basically everything under the sun.. Leave him with almost no HP and then after all of that..  the little Pokeball shakes 3 times.. Pauses then damn well breaks out!!! The rage does begin to flow, but it's is all part of the fun! As its a DS game the price tag isn't like buying a 360 game or a PS3 game. I am struggling to find anything wrong with this game at all, but simply because it isn't a huge leap forward I can't score it perfectly. Giving Pokemon White a...

9/10

RetroView: SEGA Dreamcast Part One

There are a lot of thing’s people look back on and with the help of nostalgia everything seem’s rose tinted.  As a soon to be 24 year old when I look back at my life there are a few thing’s I remember, playing football for perhaps every day up until I was 18, wasting hours and hours playing Sonic 3 on the Mega Drive, watching Cartoon Network and finally, but most importantly, playing the Dreamcast.  That’s right ladies and gentleman, it may shock you but I am indeed a fanboy, not just any old fanboy, a SEGA fanboy.  Don’t let anyone else tell you they don’t exist anymore.  Were still here, waiting hoping and praying for that Dreamcast 2 release (Maybe SEGA should start buying lottery tickets?) and kick Microsoft, Sony and Nin-ten-don’t right back to the curb!  Yeah go SEEEEEGGGAAAAA!

Until that day arrives though we can happily reminisce on one of the shortest but without a doubt greatest console of this and any generation so far.  Sure your Playstation 3 can play Blu-Rays, the Xbox 360 has got some sort of Halo online thing and the Wii has, err well..waggle I guess?  But did they have a controller with a damn screen in the middle?!  No, no they don’t.  While the Dreamcast was at the time the fastest selling launch ever it never really sold much more once people got a whiff that the Playstation 2 could sell DVD’s.  But let’s not dwell on what went wrong, let’s celebrate the life span of THE greatest console of all time, the SEGA Dreamcast.

This still looks real to me...

In America we had the iconic launch date of 9/9/99, probably the most brilliant idea for a launch date of all time and with 375,000 sold the Dreamcast got off to a flyer.  The Dreamcast itself was the first console to ship with a modem, meaning online gaming for the first time ever for consoles.  The slogan ‘only 6 billion players’ may have been slightly exaggerated but you got the point.  The controller itself while not special at the time, you can see in both the HD console’s now that they both have their roots in the Dreamcast controller.  Especially Microsoft’s 360, it’s almost an exact copy.  Oh and how on earth can we forget the VMU, Visual Memory Unit, arguably the star of the show in terms of hardware.  This little beauty enabled you to take the game away from the console.  In Sonic Adventure it enabled you to raise your Tamigotchi like Chao animal by going on an adventure with it and playing mini-games.  Not many games used the VMU but it was quite handy also at saving your game, I mean, this is in the day’s your average Joe thought a hard drive was some sort of sexual innuendo.

Still to this day, nothing comes close to beating it

As you can see from just reading the small paragraph above here, Dreamcast made a heck of a lot of innovation’s both at the time and one’s that caught on in this generation.  But Sega’s new baby isn’t done yet with the party tricks, within it’s short two year life span the Dreamcast had the best amount of triple A title’s released in such a short life span.  Right from launch the Dreamcast was kicking with Sonic Adventure, the first ever Sonic game in 3D.  While trying to ignore the fact you were looking at a giant blue hedgehog on two feet and wearing sneakers, the graphics looked real at the time.  Sonic Adventure was the first Dreamcast game I put into the console and just watching the intro stunned me.  Within a couple of years I had gone from blocky Mario 64 to watching water stream out of buildings and some sort of Chaos monster destroy an entire city, and it looked so beautiful.

The second game I got with the Dreamcast is still to this day without doubt the greatest fighting game of all time, Soul Calibur.  As amazing as Sonic Adventure was, this looked better and at the time was the best looking game ever made.  Luckily, we also got the best fighting game to go along with the graphics.  For me, most fighting games disappoint when I’m left with Arcade Mode and VS Mode in the main menu.  Soul Calibur of course had these, but it also had Mission BAttle Mode.  A gameplay mechanic that sent your character across the world fighting against enemies but in different situations.  I remember one stage where both you and your opponent are being poisoned while slowly sinking into the sand.  Nothing like this had been done before, let’s remember again that this innovation in fighting game’s, was started with the Dreamcast.  Just to add a little personal touch as to how good Soul Calibur was, I spent the end of 1999 and the beginning of 2000 playing Mission Battle as Kilik, yes I missed the New Year's party, well worth it.

To this day Power Stone is way too crazy for me, but I want more!

The launch line up also included Power Stone, a great arcade fighting game that allows four fighters at once with an environment that can act as safety and as a weapon depending on what you choose.  It was a great game from Capcom and while later in the life of the console we did get a Power Stone 2, fans are still clambering for a sequel to this day, another franchise that has unfortunately died with the Dreamcast.  There was also the crazy horror game Blue Stinger, which had possibly the worst voice acting of all time it's still a hit on YouTube because of it.  It seemed a bit like Jurassic Park meets Resident Evil.  There were a few other games of note, NFL 2K, Penguin racing game PenPen, Ready 2 Rumble Boxing and Fast and the Furious inspired Tokyo Xtreme Racer.

While the promise from the start of the Dreamcast was for online gaming, here in Europe for whatever reason we got this a couple of months late which was a real shame.  So what did Sega do to make it up for all of us early European adopters?  They gave us Chu Chu Rocket for free!  Yes, a £40 game given to us for absolutely nothing!  Not only that, Chu Chu Rocket is the only console puzzle game I’ve ever liked, possibly because it involved Cat’s, Mice and spaceship’s but that’s a story for another day....

Anyway, here end’s part one of the Dreamcast’s early life, in part two I will introduce arguably the killer game and killer of the console plus will look at all the niche title’s that Sega gave us, some of which we will never see a sequel for.  Here’s a clue for one of the titles - Talking Fish....until next time, Ciao!