New blog.

Hi everyone, I decided to create a blog centering around video games. I'm not sure if anyone is going to read this, but if anyone does decide to, that's what it's here for. I also might make some personal posts, but for the most part, it's going to be about games, my videos, and similar things.
I've been buying a lot of NES games lately, even though I have pretty much every NES title on my modified XBOX. I still like to have the collection, and I'm not going to review any video game that I don't own. So even though I have many, many games on my XBOX, I'll only be using that to try stuff out, and if I decide to review a game I haven't bought yet, I'll go out and buy it.
It's really not that hard for me to get... pretty much any game (US release) that my heart desires. I mean, at the company I work for, we carry just about anything you can think of, and there are more than 10 stores, so the chances of at least one of those stores having that game are pretty high.

Well, I guess I'm going to make a back posts to fill this thing up. I'll post some videos and old text reviews I've done. I'm tired of having some stuff here, some stuff there, some stuff on another site. It sucks. I need one central place for all the reviews and blogs concerning games.

Can I change the date for blog posts?

Don't worry, I'll figure it out.

Games You Don't Play #5: FireFighter F.D. 18 PS2

I really love to play video games that aren't like the rest. When I saw Firefighter F.D. 18 come through the store, I had to pick it up. I've always thought firefighters were really cool, ever since I was a child. The reason is probably because my father was a firefighter (Retired/Disabled).
To me, this game is pretty cool. I guess the only reason I think it's cool is because it's a Firefighter game and it's not something you see or play everyday.
In Firefighter F.D. 18, you play as Dean McGregor, a firefighter who is determined to save anyone in trouble. The reason he's so determined, and I mean more determined than any other firefighter in the world, is because he lost a loved one to a fire. That seems like a pretty good reason!!!
You're trying to save people caught in fires set by an arsonist who has some some sort of vendetta against Dean. Along the way you'll also meet a woman named Emily, a news reporter who seems like she's in the way but ends up helping you as the story progresses.
The controls in this game are manageable but sometimes clumsy and you have no camera control unless you're standing still. It's not such a big deal though, because the camera usually stays in a pretty good spot.
Everything that happens in this game is scripted, so after a few times of dying (if you die at all) you will have the entire map memorized.
There are a few items you can pick up along the way to heal yourself like first aid kits, which help a lot because sometimes fire embers or explosions happen and catch you on fire, depleting your health quickly. You can also get rid of the fire burning you by running around (Whatever happened to "Stop Drop and Roll"?).
You are on a time limit in this game, dictated by your survivors health bar. The more damage they take, the less time you have, so save them before they die, because if you don't, your mission will end and you'll have to start over again.
This game has most things any action-adventure game would include, action, adventure, boss battles, you name it. The boss battles to me are the most interesting part, because it's more like fighting a monster than an actual fire. The AI is good but still somewhat predictable and easy to memorize. You can usually defeat the fire by calling backup and blasting it, resulting in a somewhat hilarious scream.

Other things of note are the dialogue and music. Both are very dramatic.

I give this game a 6.5 out of 10.

Pick it up if you're a collector (it's quite rare) or a fan of firefighters!!

Games You Don't Play #4: Mad Maestro PS2

Hi friends, yes it's that time again! Time to review another game!
While I am still working on beating Odin Sphere (yeah yeah, I know. It's taking me a little too long..!!) I still have some extra time somewhere to play other games.
This time I'm going to be reviewing the game "Mad Maestro!" for the Playstation 2. This is yet another Japanese music/rhythm game that no one has ever heard of or played. It was released under the "Fresh" line by Edios Games who's sole purpose is to bring you games that you've never heard of before. I have a few other games under this "Fresh" title; "Mister Mosquito", "R-Type Final", etc.
In the game you play as a character named Tackt, a young conductor. A small fairy named Symphony pursues your help to bring music back into the hearts of the townspeople before they tear down the symphony music hall! Of course, this building is also the fairy's home, so her wanting you to save it is not surprising.
This game is very "quirky" which is used by many in the game industry; but I wouldn't say it's the best kind of quirky. The story is quite strange but not engaging or engrossing and definitely not funny. There are all sorts of things happening in the background as there usually are in most rhythm games but of course you cannot pay attention to these things as you are trying to play the game, which brings me to:

The in-game play.
There are a lot of different factors involved with this. Some things you might want to note are timing, tempo change and volume. Yes, volume. Not something I, personally am used to in a rhythm game. I sometimes forget that the Playstation 2 controller has pressure sensitive buttons as not many games use this function. Circles which you must watch to time your action also show a color to tell you what volume to use. If it's blue, you press lightly. If it's green, you press medium. If it's red, of course you press hard. Light and Red are easy, but Green? For some reason I always mess this up. I was playing the game on a Logitec Wireless Controller and thought this might have something to do with it, and yes, it did. I switched to a normal controller and it made the game quite a bit easier but I still sometimes messed it up.
Then you have your "life gauge" to the left of the screen, which will pretty much make or break you. There are two ends to this gauge, "Angel Mode" and "Devil Mode". You must have "Angel Mode" by the end of the song or you will lose the game. If you get "Angel Mode" before the song is over you must keep it at "Angel Mode", because if you mess up, you will get "Devil Mode" and that can sometimes be very difficult to come back from. If you do not have "Angel" or "Devil" mode by the end of the song, you will lose the level. If your life gauge drops to the bottom, of course you will be "Booo'ed" off the stage.

The Graphics for this game are cute but... Not very great. I guess given the year it was released (2001 JP) it's not too terrible. Bright colors, big eyes, but blocky. No big deal though, you don't spend too much time looking at the graphics as you are mostly focusing on timing and pressure.

All of the music on this game is classical music, and I do believe it is the first music/rhythm game to feature classical music exclusively. Unfortunately, most don't enjoy classical music too much, so if you don't, I don't think you will appreciate this game. It's not good enough/moving enough to sway your opinion about it.

Overall: I give this game a 6.0 out of 10.
Pros: Quirky Japanese music/rhythm game, classical music.
Cons: Monotonous controls, less than impressive graphics

Games You Don't Play #3: Odin Sphere PS2

Hay guys, here I am again to shove my video game opinions down your throat! I've got a lot to talk about so I hope you've got the time.

This review is going to cover a more recent game release titled Odin Sphere for the
Playstation 2. I went through a lot of traveling just to get this game on release day and was even late for work because of it, only to find that I could walk into any Best Buy and pick it up. But, nonetheless, I have it and finally got around to playing it once I finished up some old business I had with another game (Mister Mosquito).
This title is a very visually stunning side-scrolling action RPG title that was amazingly picked up by the ever so wonderful Atlus company from VanillaWare. It does have a predecessor, Princess Crown for the Sega Saturn (JP Only) which was recently ported to the PSP. (JP Only as well, HELLO ATLUS LICENSE THIS!!!) It takes place in some sort of war-torn fairy world filled with sorcery, dragons and furries. I know what you're thinking... "Why the hell are YOU playing it then?" Well, it's a damn good game. That's why.
So let me enlighten you:

Graphics: Definitely not lacking here. Absolutely beautiful. It's very anime-inspired, yet it has it's own style. All of the environments are too good to be true, all of them having their own small details that catch your eye every so often, from butterflies in the background to shooting stars. All of the character design is fantastic. Each character is attractive in their own way (Except for Cornelius.. He's the ugliest bunny rabbit I think I've ever seen!) and I feel like I'd like to have all of their outfits. There are not many other games out there that have such well designed characters and backgrounds, especially in the 2D side-scrolling genre.

Controls: Everything seems almost flawless here. Not much I would change except for the lagging when battling the biggest bosses. Only lags at the most crucial points of the battle which can make things difficult, but somehow brings back some nostalgia from the SNES-era. Battling is very simple and straight forward yet takes some tactical planning as most RPG's do. At first I thought this might be your typical hack-and-slash your way through side-scroller but it's really not. Every enemy you fight (especially bosses) have their own things to avoid and sometimes you run out of food or healing tonic.

Story: Actually, it's quite engrossing. I didn't think it would be, but it is. Somehow, this game has me sucked in. It's really well written once you give it a chance. The story builds slow and doesn't give much back story in the beginning but if you stick with it, makes up for it later on. There is some great character development here and many intertwining relationships that somehow resemble a fairy-tale/soap opera hybrid. There are lots of dramatic twists and turns and plenty of surprises to be found. The give a great nod to a novel series, and the story plays out that way. Every cut scene is awesome, as some cut scenes in RPGs can get a little over the top or pointless, in this game, they are short but sweet and totally necessary to story development.

Music: Well, not much to say here. You're typical RPG music, for the most part. It's pretty, but not moving. Not annoying, but it does get repetitive at times. Just the same 30-second track looping over and over until you make it to the next scene.

Side Quests: Well, not really much here either. I could say that Alchemy and recipes are side-quests of some sort but not really. It is a cool mechanic in the game though!

Voice Acting: At first, it seemed a bit boring, but became very interesting later on. The voice actors are great in both Japanese and English, which is rare, as I find most voice actors in games to be pretty horrendous and bottom of the barrel actors in the first place. Also, the speech bubbles, while not absolutely necessary, are a great little add-on. I like them.

So, overall, this game is pretty good. I'm sucked in at the moment, as I played it from 8pm-4am last night. I really just can't get off it. I could honestly stare at the game for hours and not get bored. I wouldn't say it's the best game ever, nor the game of the year, but as stated in EGM, definitely the game of the month. Nothing quite like this has been released state-side so it's nice to see something original get released.

I give the game a 3 1/2 out of 5.

Recommended for: Hardcore RPG fans, quirky gamers, collectors, side-scrolling fans.

Sure to be a guaranteed rare game in years to come. Pick this one up while you can, because 5 years from now it won't be easy to find.

MOTHER3 impressions... 1 year later

I knew that I would love Mother 3 from the time it was announced .
The first screenshots only proved that fact even more..

I did not download the rom or look at anything I shouldn't have before I got the game. I'm pretty positive I got it next day shipping, my bill was pretty high, but it was worth it. I didn't want to wait any longer.
I loaded up Mother 3 into my GameBoy Player, plugged in my trusty Hori controller and pressed the power button. To be honest with you, when I finally saw "MOTHER 3" come on the TV screen, I started to cry. I didn't ever think this day would come. I was completely over-whelmed when the naming character screen came up, because it reminded me so much of EarthBound. I noticed everything about it. When I named my first character and I heard "OK desu-ka" I pretty much freaked out.
When they do an overview of the world, showing you the town, the houses, etc. I felt it was very familiar, but not too familiar. It felt new, yet nostalgic. I was amazed. I literally had tears running down my cheek.
I felt the graphics were amazing. I had heard a few other people say that the graphics weren't that great, that they looked the same as EB on SNES, etc. But I felt it was much more detailed while still keeping the minimalism that Mother is famous for.
The movements of the characters were much more fluid and I could actually see body parts moving. It's definitely not 16-bit grade.
The music was amazing. I was humming the tunes for months, making everyone listen to the tracks that were ripped from the game.
I wasn't so sure about the theme at first, I almost thought it was going to be a country-western themed game, and I was really afraid of that, but I stayed open minded and reminded myself that "This is Mother 3!!!!" and I definitely wasn't disappointed as I progressed through the game.
There were parts that made me laugh, parts that made me cry, and parts that made me think, all in a language I can't read or understand.
I felt that Mother 3 trancended all language barriers and could touch anyone if they just gave it a chance.
I truly felt that, "Strange, Funny and Heartrendering" was the best slogan for it because it was so true. Much better than "This game stinks!" like it's predecesor.
Mother's audience/fans have grown up and matured a lot since Mother 2's release, and the series as a whole has aswell. The story is much more mature.
I honestly think that if Mother 3 would have been released on N64, I might not have enjoyed it as much, if it were to have this story. I might have been too young to fully comprehend the story, even if it were completely in English.
I was very happy about this game, more than happy, ecstatic even.
I was proud of Itoi. He proved to the world again how much of an amazing storyteller he is, how deep he is and the genius he is.
This game proves it.
I couldn't have been, and still couldn't be happier with the game.. Well, if it were in English that would be nice, but hey! People are working on it!! And I can experience it all over again when that happens.