Thursday, August 29, 2002

Review of Mickey’s Magical Mirror for Gamecube     Publisher: Nintendo     Developer: Capcom     Genre: Adventure     # Of Players: 1 Why in the blue hell am I reviewing a Mickey Mouse game?  Well, for those ignorant fools who started their game playing with the Playstation, in the 8 &16-bit eras Mickey was just as prominent a star in the video game world as Mario because he came out with some truly classic platforming games (and if you doubt me, just check out they remake of Magical Quest on GBA, one of the best 16-bit platformers ever).  And since this game comes from both Capcom and Nintendo, not too mention this being Mickey’s first game in quite a few years, I was hoping they were planning to have him once again compete with Mario & Sonic as well as newer stars like Abe & Munch and Jak & Daxter.  Unfortunately, what I get is an extremely boring point-and-click game that may rank as the worst Disney game ever made. Graphics: These look like they could be done on N64.  Extremely poorly animated characters, with tons of frames missing and lots of jagged edges.  And many of the animations are cut in odd places, which makes a lot jokes not nearly as funny as they should be.  Maybe since this game is obviously designed for little kids they decided to go with a more simplistic look, but that doesn’t excuse how god-awful the graphics are. Sound: Well, he sounds like Mickey, but he doesn’t really talk like Mickey, missing many of his mannerisms.  Music is like a poor man’s Disney track, nowhere near any of their well-known classic tunes.  Effects are sufficiently cartoony, but nothing exemplary. Gameplay: This is point and click boiled down to its simplest level.  You can only walk to specific places, and you can’t die, and you can’t even really do everything wrong.  I like point-and-click games, some of my all time favorites are games in the King’s Quest & Space Quest series, and I loved Escape from Monkey Island on PS2.  But this is much less complicated, much less entertaining, and yes, this is obviously designed for children but even 5 year olds may find the simplicity of the gameplay insulting.  And yes, there are minigames, but they are too far and few between to keep anybody going. Features: Well, you can collect souvenir items, play the minigames again & again, which is kind of nice, and you can connect the game to the GBA version of Magical Quest (I’m not sure what you can do with that, though).  And believe or not, there is a kids mode, which makes the game even simpler than it already is (for the really slow 5-year olds, apparently).  Funfactor: Ok, maybe this will have some limited appeal for very little kids, but maybe kids that little shouldn’t be playing games just yet anyways.  As I stated previously, I like point-and-click games, the great ones are extremely entertaining.  But this is the kind of game that validates gamer’s bias against point-and-click games, because in my opinion, this barely qualifies as a game. --Final Scores— Graphics: 2.0-These graphics wouldn’t even tax the N64.  Absolutely inexcusable. Sound: 5.0-Bad remixes of Disney-esque music, and Mickey is missing a lot of his key sayings, but effects are fairly well done. Gameplay: 2.0-Only reason this isn’t getting a 0.0 is because of the minigames (which again, don’t happen enough), there is no real point or strategy or even good puzzles in here. Features: 8.5-Surpisingly loaded with stuff like two different modes, minigames, GBA connectivity, and collecting items for those gamers who like to get everything in a game possible. Funfactor: 3.5-Simply one of the most disappointing Disney games I have ever played (let’s pray they make it up with Kingdom hearts). 6:38:19 PM    comment []

Review of Barbarian For PS2     Publisher: Titus Software     Developer: Saffire     Genre: Adventure/Fighting     # Of Players: 1-8     Everybody remember Powerstone 2 for the Dreamcast?  It was really the first console game to feature 4-player simultaneous fighting in full 3d, and it’s really been the only one to do it successfully with living, interactive environments that you could use greatly to your advantage.  The only game(s) that have come close to successfully replicating that experience is the Super Smash Bros. Games, but those are in 2d.  No game really has even really tried to do it in 3d even the Powerstone 2 is one of the best-reviewed fighters in recent years and one of the top-selling games for Dreamcast.  But now along comes Barbarian.  Featuring fully 3d interactive environments, 10 fighters, an adventure mode with over 300 possible branches, and 4-player fights in huge (and I think up to 8 if you have 2 multi-taps), expansive environments, you would think that this would be one of the better fighters to come out this year.  But massive gameplay problems make this one of the more mediocre titles out this year. Graphics: Character designs are fairly bland, as they are all fairly generic rip-offs.  Animation is fine, but if you’ve played plenty of fighting games, you’ll notice a few frames of animation missing.  And while the levels are fully 3d, there are no cool environment effects; it’s just like a still background with some stuff to throw at the other guys. Sound: Music is fine; it gets the job done, but nothing too special.  Effects are the same, with generic grunts when people are hit, but no cool lines or sound effects.  The main problem I have is with the narrator.  He’s absolutely horrible, and there is A LOT of text because there are no full-motion videos to explain the story.  Yeah, you can skip him, but why should I do the quest mode if I find the story so boring? Gameplay: Ok, first off, the characters all move VERRRRRYYYYY SLOWWWWWLLLLYYYY.  It’s like they are stuck in invisible tar pits.  In the quest mode the computer is unbelievably hard (and sometimes downright cheap) right from the beginning, and finally, the environments aren’t interactive enough.  Being able to pick up a boulder is not interactive.  Having a volcano that can actually erupt and bury the characters in lava is interactive.  Yes, the rpg elements are nicely done, but when I have no motivation to play, what’s the point. Features: Well, this game is actually pretty loaded, as again there is both a quest and vs. mode, and a very deep and detailed training mode.  I could be wrong, but it doesn’t really seem like there’s any hidden stages or characters. Funfactor: Well, with friends, this may qualify as a decent weekend rental, but the fact of the matter is that either of the Smash Bros. Games or Powerstone 2 is a way beyond superior to this extremely mediocre fighting game.  Maybe Xbox’s Kung Fu Chaos (which is supposed to be out this fall) will fill my void for a true 3d 4-player fighter. --Final Scores— Graphics: 6.5-Enviroments look nice, but they don’t have enough going on, and character designs are pretty generic. Sound: 4.0-Effects and music are extremely generic, and narrator is annoying, and there is SO MUCH TEXT TO MUDDLE THROUGH!!! Gameplay: 4.0-Fighters move very slow, environments aren’t interactive enough, A.I. is super-hard and super-cheap in story mode.  Cool RPG elements are all that save the gameplay from a much lower score. Features: 8.0-Fairly loaded, but seems to be no hidden characters or stages. Funfactor: 5.5-An extremely flawed attempt at 4-player fun, only pick up if you have no other options and 3 friends with no other options. 6:34:13 PM    comment []

Review of Blitz 20-03 for Gamecube     Publisher: Midway Games     Developer: Point of View Development     Genre: Sports     # Of Players: 1-4 Ahh, good old Blitz.  No penalties, no substitutions, no endless amount of needlessly complex plays that all boil down to throw the ball or run with the ball.  Just reckless, smash mouth, fast-paced football with the most brutal tackles you have ever seen in ANY football game period because unnecessary roughness is not in the Blitz dictionary.  Despite the many incarnations since the original and recent spin-offs like NHL Hitz or MLB Slugfest, I haven’t really played any of this series or its spin-offs since the original incarnation (a major reason being I’m still holding onto some last shred of hope that EA will finally release another Mutant League game).  And also because they all seemed to be roughly the same damn game I played in the arcade no matter how many supposed updates they give it.  And in playing this latest version, all my fears were pretty much confirmed, so unless you are a complete Blitz junkie or by some miracle haven’t played it, that would be the only reason you should even consider looking at this one, as for all intents and purposes it’s the same game that came out 5 years ago. Graphics: Well, obviously an upgrade from any previous versions, but more of a smoothing out than anything else.  Everything runs really smoothly with no hint or glitching or slowdown, but the graphics aren’t all that impressive to begin with.  Most players look roughly the same with no distinctive features (in other words, I can’t tell Brees form Flutie), and the same deal with the stadiums.  But the tackle animations still look just as brutal as ever, if not more so. Sound: Music is so-so, but music isn’t all that important in a football game.  Sound on the tackles is done well as every single hit just sounds bone-crushingly brutal.  Announcer is entertaining the first couple of games, but gets repetitive very quickly.  And there are no nice touches like crowd chants. Gameplay:  Blitz is not designed to be like real football, so the plays are kind of limited, but it helps make the game speedier than regular football.  But even with a couple more modes, this still plays and feels exactly like the original Blitz with no cool innovations or even some kind of updates.  Still fun to mercilessly pound a guy even after you’ve tackled him, though. Features: Pretty much the standard stuff like create-a-player, season, etc.  Doesn’t have nearly as many options as a sim game like Madden, but it’s not supposed to.  Still, create-a-team would be nice. Funfactor: Well, it’s still Blitz, and Blitz is still fun, but only for the occasional weekend rental or maybe one long night with a couple of buds.  The fact of the matter is that there is no reason for me or anybody else to get this when I can pick up any previous version for $10 and not really miss out on anything.  Midway has always been wary of messing with their franchises, but if they want them to be successful longer than two or three games, they really need to try some different things (just look at Final Fantasy, it’s drastically different every single time). --Final Scores— Graphics: 5.0-Tackles look brutal, but this essentially looks like a slightly smoother version instead of a big graphical upgrade. Sound: 6.0-Tackles sound great, but announcer gets tedious quickly, and no cool extra sound effects. Gameplay: 5.5-Still the same recycled play from the last 50 versions. Features: 5.5-Create-a-player is nice, but lacking in overall extras. Funfactor: 5.5-I blitzed all I can blitz, and I can’t blitz no more. 6:31:26 PM    comment []

Review of Super Mario Sunshine for Gamecube Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Nintendo Genre: Platformer # Of Players: 1     Finally, Mario comes back in the form he was meant to in order to rule over all these lame pretenders to the platforming throne!  In this game, it seems Mario has finally bested Bowser enough so that he has given up and not caused any trouble for awhile, so he and Peach decide to take a much needed vacation (oddly enough, they bring along a bunch of Toad-like guys, but no Luigi; maybe he’s still busy at the haunted mansion while all this is going on).  They travel to the sunny tropical paradise of Isle Delfino.  But when you arrive, the isle doesn’t seem to be the sunny, back laid paradise that you’ve heard it is.  The place is covered in this weird magic paint and there is graffiti all over the place.  The perpetrator is a short little pudgy guy with a mustache and a cap with an “M” on it…. Wait a second, that sounds a lot like you!  And the natives notice the similarities and firmly believe that you are the troublemaker who has been messing up their tropical paradise, so now you need to not only clean up the mess this imposter has left behind, you need to find out who is doing this so you can clear your name.  But you aren’t alone in your quest, Yoshi’s here (although not at first), along with a new friend, a robotic water pump you can use to clean up paint and fight enemies with called FLUDD.  Unfortunately, some gameplay and difficulty issues make this the weakest platform game in the Mario series. Graphics: The animation is good on Mario, and the water looks great, and the levels are nicely colored, with no hint of glitching or slow down.  Unfortunately, the graphics are a bit on the simplistic side, as the natives look like really simple oddly colored pears, and aside from Mario, the animation on other main characters isn’t all that impressive.  Mario has a history of being one of the better looking games on the system, but it doesn’t come close to matching the graphic quality of similarly styled games that look better like Smash Bros or Luigi’s Mansion. Sound: Mario still doesn’t speak much aside from his occasional yelps; music is pretty much like the previous ones, fun and cheery like a cartoon.  Sound effects are fairly decent.  My main complaint is that FLUDD’s robotic voice is extremely annoying and it talks a lot. Gameplay:  Mario has his usual moves like the triple jump, the backflip, the ground pound, and so on.  FLUDD gives him a couple of new abilities, like the ability to stun enemies and adds some new dimension to fighting the big bosses, and the ability to hover, which is a key ability in getting to many areas.  Unfortunately, the aim on the hose is extremely imprecise (luckily you don’t need to be too accurate to clean most graffiti).  The game’s recognition system also needs some work because when I’m in the water it can take a lot of button presses before I actually leap out of the water onto a lily pad. Also, the quests in the main town never change and you can do it over and over again.  It also doesn’t keep track of how many gold coins you got which is really annoying.  And as I mentioned earlier, this is definitely the hardest Mario game I’ve played in awhile, and possibly the hardest ever.  Some of the platforming elements are throw your controller across the room frustrating, and the first boss alone takes so long to beat even if you do it perfectly that it gets a little boring and these factors can definitely turn off Mario’s core audience of younger kids and maybe even older casual gamers. Features: Just the extreme basics here.  How about the ability to play as different characters or unlocking classic Mario games? Funfactor: Despite the difficulty and control issues, this is still a really solid platformer and your best choice for a platform game on the Gamecube.  But Mario games usually stand head and shoulders above the rest of the games in their genre, and this time, off the top off my head I can think of several games in the last year that are better choices (Munch’s Odyssey, Jak & Daxter, Rayman 2).  While still a good game, this is still a letdown for a series that has never failed to be nothing short of redefining the genre every time a new chapter came out. --Final Scores— Graphics: 8.0-World is nice and colorful, and Mario is nicely animated, but design is a tad simplistic. Sound: 7.5-Mario needs to actually talk.  Music and effects are solid, but not great.  FLUDD’s voice is extremely annoying. Gameplay: 7.5-Some recognition issues with control, and game is a little too much on the difficult side occasionally, but otherwise controls handle nicely and water pump adds a lot of dimension to the game. Features: 5.0-Just the bare necessities here. Funfactor: 7.5-Solid overall, but once again, the weakest game in the Mario series. 6:28:30 PM    comment []

Review of The Thing for PS2     Black Label Games     Developer: Computer Artworks     Genre: Shooter     # Of Players: 1     20 years ago.  A small isolated research station in the Antarctic.  An alien presence that can mimic human form.  A squad of commandoes slowly going mad with fear and paranoia.  This was the premise of one of the all time horror classics, John Carpenter’s The Thing. Now, the video game, which is a sequel approved by horror master Carpenter himself, takes you back to that isolated research station where you command a squad of up to three other soldiers to help you figure out why the station is in shambles, and of course eliminate the alien presence there, all the while keeping your teammates trust and fear levels in check through various actions you can perform such as giving them weapons, performing blood tests on yourself, and so on.  Unfortunately a couple of key glitches and the occasionally ass-backwards A.I. of your soldiers keep this game from being a true classic. Graphics: Well, it captures a lot of the look and atmosphere extremely well.  Massive snowstorms make it very hard to see outside, but that adds to the suspense because you never really know just what the hell is out there.  Animation on the creatures and their design is pretty good, but the humans aren’t animated nearly as well.  The base itself looks great, completely a wreck and dilapidated, with great light sourcing.  My only other complaint about the graphics would be that when the Thing transforms (usually from human form), it looks incredibly cheesy and poor quality. Sound: Voice acting is solid all around, pretty much on level with a cheesy B horror flick (the fun ones, anyways).  The music & effects are a gem, however, as they both are very effective and creepy.  You’ll hear things scuttling above and below, random freakish transmissions, and your teammates freaking out on a regular basis add a lot to the atmosphere. Gameplay: Well, first and foremost, The Thing is a shooter, but it’s more like if they made Silent Hill a shooter, meaning that there are plenty of pockets in the game where nothing is going on (there isn’t even any enemies for approximately the first 30 minutes of the game), but the tension slowly builds thanks to all the destruction and mangled or mutated corpses lying around until the intense firefights begin.  Managing your team is left to an effective, simple interface, but the A.I. is flaky.  For trained veteran soldiers, these guys freak out pretty easy, not too mention get lost real easy.  I lost a lot of time having to back track to make sure my team wasn’t going to get mauled because they forgot how to open a freaking door that they had opened just a couple of minutes ago, or get stuck behind some fallen concrete.  And I found a couple of really dumb bugs, like if you walked on an open ammo crate on the ground, you could actually get stuck on it and be unable to get out. Features: You can adjust auto-aiming, but other than that, it’s petty much the basic standards for a one-player shooter.  It might’ve been hard to do, but I think an option for co-op would’ve been a really cool idea here. Funfactor: Well, if you don’t mind the sometimes outright stupidity of your squad’s A.I., this is a very exciting and fun game, with plenty of strategy involved, and a pretty good story to boot.  This is one of the more intense, well done shooters of the year on PS2 (although it doesn’t quite measure up to Medal of Honor), so if you enjoy shooters, this is more than worth checking out. --Final Scores— Graphics: 8.5-Looks very solid, with great enemy design and animation, but human animation and effects need a little work. Sound: 9.0-Voice acting is solid, music and effects are excellently eerie. Gameplay: 7.0-Managing team is nice and easy, but some idiotic bugs and A.I. is occasionally dumber than a post. Features: 5.5-You can adjust auto-aiming, other than that, standard features, but no multi-player (although I grant that may have been really hard to pull off). Funfactor: 8.5-Despite some minor issues, one of the better shooters on PS2 this year. 5:58:14 PM    comment []

Review of Enclave for Xbox     Publisher: Conspiracy Entertainment     Developer: Starbreeze Studios     Genre: Adventure     # Of Players: 1 Long ago, dark hordes led by an evil demon named Vatar were closing in on the barely surviving army of Celenheim.  But a lone figure clad in wizard robes lifted his staff in defiance and slammed it with all his magic into the ground, splitting the realm into a huge rift, but saving Celenheim from the demon threat.  But eventually, the Earth starting healing again, and the rift started growing smaller, even becoming passable at some points.  Of course, this creates a problem because the dark hordes are starting to show up again, slowly weakening Celeheim’s forces until the rift is closed enough for another full invasion.  You, of course, are the hero that is pretty much expected to single-handedly save the nation.  You start off as a knight, but can gain quite a few other characters, and even be the bad guys after you’ve beaten the game as the good guys.  Unfortunately, a promising premise is marred by yawn-inspiring and just plain cheap gameplay. Graphics: Well, as long as the game isn’t moving, it looks gorgeous.  The character models are fantastic, and the fairly large, sprawling levels look extremely smooth and impressive.  But animation is stiff, slow, and glitchy.  Effects aren’t impressive in the least bit either, as there is little to no background interaction.  Sound: The music is decently appropriate, but doesn’t really get you in that epic adventure mood.  Voice acting is solid, not great, but better than most voice acting in games.  Sound effects get the job done, but no real extras (in-game dialogue like Buffy, screams of dying agony would be nice). Gameplay: Well, for every point I give Enclave, I have to take two away.  Good selection of weapon that increase as you go, but it doesn’t matter because close combat is clumsy and tedious, and such an advantage is given to distance attacks that you’ll almost always be using the wizard or the huntress because they’ve got the best distance attacks.  Game could’ve really benefited from a two-player mode, while the missions actually have varied objectives such as escort, the levels are long and have no save points, and there are many times when you run into things that are basically instant death like a horde of enemy assassins, and you have to start the level all over again.  Moves are fairly limited as well, as it’s just your basic swing, swing, and swing some more until your foe goes down, no advanced tactics here like you’d find in other straight up action games like say Mark of Kri or Buffy (which isn’t even all that advanced).  Features: Lots of guys to gain (although they are fairly academic, as you don’t have to do anything special to get them), and the ability to play as bad guys is cool, but how about multi-player?  That would make this game a lot more fun with at least one more person. Funfactor: This game could’ve been a lot of fun as a straight medieval shooter, but it’s another example of what can happen when you try a blend styles of gameplay.  It’s always extremely risky, and rarely ever pays off.  Now, when it works, it pays off huge, but it’s such a rarity that I can’t even remember the last game that was truly great at it.   --Final Scores— Graphics: 6.5-Looks great… as long as it’s not actually moving. Sound: 6.0-Uninspired music, but voice acting is decent and so are the sound effects. Gameplay: 4.0-Close combat is lame and tedious.  Levels are filled with cheap deaths and no save points, and limited moveset. Features: 6.5-All the classes and being able to play as the bad guys is cool, but two-player option would be nice. Funfactor: 6.0-A promising idea that fails in execution and becomes another cautionary tail about mixing gameplay 5:53:12 PM    comment []

Review of Dead to Rights for Xbox     Publisher: Namco     Developer: Namco     Genre: Action     # Of Players: 1     Grant City.  The toughest city in America.  Littered with mobsters, corrupt cops and officials.  But one cop still fights to keep the peace and put the bad guys away, and that’s you.  You play as Jack Slate, Grant city’s toughest cop.  One night, you respond to a call of a disturbance at a construction site.  What you find is massive gunplay, and the body of your father.  Of course, the chief won’t let you investigate the case, so you’re on your own.  Mixing pretty much every action style of gameplay except platforming, Namco has tried to make the uber action game.  It has shooting, fighting, sniping, a massive amount of minigames, and even the ability to do “bullet-time” like in Max Payne.  With such a massive load of gameplay styles I’m sure Namco expected this to be one of the top action games of the year.  Unfortunately, the mundane minigames and other styles of play get in the way of the cool gunplay levels. Graphics: While decent, these are nowhere near top-notch for Xbox.  Occasional slowdown, glitching, some pop-up, and quite frankly, weapon effects aren’t as neat and tidy as they are in similarly styled games such as Max Payne.  Plus, all the thugs look so similar on levels that it’s feels kind of tedious killing them over and over again.  I’m not asking for every thug to be different, but a little variety would’ve helped. Sound: Well, the music is decent, but not the kind of pulse pounding music that really gets you going in other intense action games.  Effects are solid, but how about some in-game dialogue?  The voice acting itself is decent by video game standards, but its still pretty cheesy at best. Gameplay: Well, every time you are blasting away, the action is intense, fun, and extremely hard because for cheesy b-movie bad guys these guys have really good aim.  I do wish there was an auto lock on feature instead of having to manually lock on.  And while throwing canisters to clear some room is a great idea, it’s not executed to it’s full potential because if they are above or below you, it’s not effective as it should be (if at all).  But then there are the other styles of gameplay.  There is the boring striptease game at the beginning which is tedious and stupid and like some horrible bastardized version of Bust-a-Groove, the horribly boring minigames of unlocking doors and disarming bombs, and usually failing once means starting the level over again.  I realize that Namco was trying to make this everything for everyone, but sticking to trying to be a Hong Kong action flick where guns are blazing would’ve been a lot more successful approach, because whenever you are in intense firefights it’s fun, whenever you are not, it’s incredibly tedious and boring. Features: There are no additional game modes, but there are cheats to unlock.  That’s really about it. Funfactor: If you’re looking for a good, solid action game, there are certainly better choices out the (Max Payne being the one that most immediately springs to mind).  It’s a noble attempt to mix different styles of play, but the result is stretching everything too thin.  If they had made it more of a Max Payne rip-off, it actually would’ve been a much better game. --Final Scores— Graphics: 6.0-Decent, but plenty of pop-up, glitching, and occasional slowdown, and thugs aren’t distinct enough. Sound: 6.0-Sound effects are well done, but music is uninspiring at best and voice acting is cheesy, but not horribly so. Gameplay: 5.0-Levels where you simply go in gung ho and start blasting away are very fun (and really hard), but those are few and far between with mundane minigames being way too much of the game. Features: 5.5-Hidden cheats, but not much else. Funfactor: 6.0-Only buy if you are tired of Max Payne and desperate for anything even slightly similar.  More of a failed experiment to blend genres than anything else.     5:48:28 PM    comment []

Review of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for Xbox Publisher: EA/Fox Interactive     Developer: The Collective     Genre: Action/Adventure     # Of Players: 1 Now, if there is any current TV series that is really built for being a video game, it is one of my personal favorites, Buffy.  Any game where a teen with superpowers kicks demon’s asses with the help of her quirky sidekicks all the while throwing in witty social commentary and great pop culture humor sounds like a fantastic game to me.  Following the Buffy mythology, this game takes place somewhere between the second & third season, so Angel is still around, and Dawn hasn’t appeared yet.  And as usual, some bad things are going down in the hell mouth, where a mysterious new gang of vampires is trying to resurrect an ancient (and somewhat familiar) evil.  Featuring voice acting from almost all of the actual cast members (except for Sarah Michelle Gellar herself), and mostly real locations from the show, this reminds me a lot of the recent Scooby Doo game for PS2, as the presentation was dead-on and truly captured the feel of the show, but the basic gameplay is flawed, thus making strictly for the most hardcore fans of the show. Graphics: This may be graphically the most impressive game I’ve seen this year.  The locales are stunningly realistic and detailed; I’d swear I’m in the TV show.  The animation is great and never hiccups even with the most intense fighting going on.  The characters all look eerily like their real life counterparts, and even the facial expressions are done very well which helps a lot in bringing good emotion to the acting in the game (unlike say, FFX, which wasn’t able to get facial emotions down well).  Good level effects as well, as you can actually break tables and tombstones by throwing/knocking guys into them. Sound: Ok, bad news: As I stated previously, Sarah Michelle Gellar didn’t do any voice work for this game, so it’s a little odd to see such a good visual representation of her, but a different voice coming out of her.  It’s a good replacement, but it’s still not Buffy.  But the good news that the rest of the cast is all here, and the music for each level is great, sounds like it’s straight out of the show, and the dialogue is also vintage Buffy, full of good humor and pop-culture references. Gameplay: Well, some promising ideas, but as with a lot of games, the execution falls a bit flat.  Gameplay is sort of a Tomb Raider style, but with a martial arts and crossbows instead of guns.  While Buffy has a pretty decent variety of moves, it’s not really close to the abilities we’ve seen her do on the show (no back flips, super jumps, etc.).  Stakes have limited use, which I think is ridiculous.  And you can break stuff like tables, chairs, and barrels, but those rarely produce stakes.  You don’t automatically stake a vampire in the heart when they are stunned, which makes actually staking really tedious.  There isn’t really an auto-target system, which can make combat a little clumsy, and quite frankly, it’s fairly easy when you are fighting multiple enemies for them to get occasional cheap hits in.  The fighting system is actually a really good basis; I just think it needs some polish. Features: Other than being able to choose difficulty, just the basics here.  How about some hidden characters, levels, and so on?  Being able to fight as Giles, Angel, Faith, etc. would be really cool. Funfactor: Well, for non-fans, looking for some tight action, this may be the something to hold you over till the next big action game comes out (or if you have PS2, Mark of Kri is a better choice for intense action).  For fans of the show (or which I am a huge one), this doesn’t expand the characters or the Buffy mythology any amount, but the mere fact that it is just like an episode of the show may make it worth picking up for the really devoted.  It’s a flawed but funny and overall solid action game. --Final Scores— Graphics: 10-Captures the show’s look amazingly and again possibly the best graphics I’ve seen this year. Sound: 9.0-No Sarah Michelle Gellar, but the rest of the cast is there, great music and sound effects, and very good dialogue as well. Gameplay: 5.5-Good basis for a fighting system, buts lacks some polish, as enemies can get cheap shots, and should be easier to find stakes since they have limited use and to stake vampires successfully. Features; 5.0-Pretty much the standard minimum for this style of game.  Could use hidden characters or maybe even outfits. Funfactor: 7.0-Good, solid buy for hardcore fans, and a solid (if a little flawed) action game for everyone else 5:42:01 PM    comment []