Category: Written Features

Just before the New Year, Castlevania The Adventure ReBirth was released and I coughed up the thousand Wii Points to buy it. Somehow, I managed to reach the fifth stage on my first game on Normal difficulty… seems rather off. Don’t know if I’m that good or if the game’s that easy… most likely the latter. Even so, it’s still no walk in the park, it’s classic Castlevania, and I wouldn’t have it any other way… unless they made it more like Super Castlevania IV… but oh well.

Bought the version of Tetris that was released last week as a downloadable PSP mini game and have had a week to play it. I’ll probably be posting a full review on GameFAQs or something, but basically this is your usual offering of Tetris. It has a nice, clean presentation, the gameplay is familiar to those who have played the game before (although the controls are somewhat slippery and sensitive), and there are a nice variety of game modes (that you must unlock first) to try out. The game also comes with built-in acheivements or “feats” as they call it.

All in all, it’s a fairly decent Tetris, although at ten bucks, it seem a little steep. If you really enjoy Tetris, this is a nice one to add to your collection, but if you’re perfectly happy with the Game Boy version, this isn’t going to offer you anything new.

I had recently purchased an FC3 clone system – this is the system that plays NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis games on a single system. With such a wonderful set-up, you’d think it’d be an awesome package. Well in a way, it is, but there are some flaws. I’ll go into more detail in a short while.

Kirby Super Star Ultra is a remake/port of the SNES game of the same name (minus the Ultra part). Essentially, it’s touted as having several games in one, but really it’s the same for a majority of the games; Kirby goes through several levels and clears them in typical fashion – sometimes with the help of a helper. Nothing too complicated, nothing thought-provoking, it’s essentially a what-you-see is what you get type of deal.

It’s a nice little deal that keeps in tune with other Kirby game. My only real problem is that it’s too easy; I’ve already cleared a good chunk of the game’s… er, games and there’s not much left to do other than improve my scores. Definately not worth the cash I paid for, but still a fun little romp and a decent addition to any Kirby collection.

So a couple days ago, I picked up a PSP… the POP Station rip-off console.

I kid, of course.

In all seriousness, I picked up the Star Wars edition PSP, which is the white Darth Vader-engraved PSP handheld that comes with a copy of the Star Wars Battlefront game. I’ve also picked up a copy of Dracula X Chronicles along with a Memory Stick to save all my crap in. I think it’s crap that I have to buy a separate memory stick when it should be included in the package, but that’s a fault that has been evident with most consoles requiring memory units, but I digress.

After giving it a couple days, I don’t think the PSP is such a bad system. The game selection might be a bit icky, but the system is fairly functional and seems to have a lot of stuff it’s capable of. The D-Pad and controls seem to be functional, they feel fairly good in the hands, I actually don’t feel awkward playing a system with Darth Vader’s mug on it in public while riding the metro, so that’s a plus. The analog stick is rather strange – at first glance, I thought it was a button or extra padding – but it works, so no complaints. Haven’t gotten the network function to work, but I’m not really a big network guy anyway, so that’s alright.

All in all, not bad, really. My main problem right now is finding some decent games for the console, but that’s another story…

I got to play this game at one of my cousin’s houses a couple weeks ago and meant to comment on it then, but I got busy and so you’re getting my thoughts now. Now I only played about a couple hours of the game, but usually that’s enough to warrant some thoughts and opinions.

First of all, the graphics look pretty sweet, even on a rinky-dink old tube TV and the sound is fairly standard, crisp, appropriate sounding sound. Barring the intermission scenes which take place in present day, the story is rather workable and gripping. As for the gameplay, the controls are pretty solid, it’s fairly easy to play, and it doesn’t really get too boring. If you seem lost on what you have to do, a little window will pop up to remind you of what you have to do – a nice feature even if it gets redundant later on. All in all, my first real foray into the next generation of video games was a good deal. If you have a Xbox 360, go ahead and pick up Assassin’s Creed.

A full-review might be forth coming, but I just wanted to get my thoughts up quickly.

KOF2006 isn’t a traditional team-based fighting game in the series, but rather the follow-up to the Maximum Impact game (the 3D version of KOF) that was released prior. I never played the first one, but thought to give this one a try.

For the most part, the game plays fairly good, the difficulty is pretty balanced (except for the bosses, but they’re somewhat beatable unlike most of SNK’s bosses), there’s a plethora of fighters to use and unlock, and then there are the Time Attacks, Survivals, and Mission Modes that you can partake in. While the graphics aren’t the greatest, they are still fairly good and the animation is quick. The sound in this game is also pretty decent too.

This is one of those games where you get more than your money’s worth. You have a lot of options and gameplay modes to tinker around with that it’d take a few weeks to go through it all (or at least half the time if you’re really good). KOF2006 might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for fans of the series and fighting games in general, this is a worthy addition to your collection. Recommended.