Sunday, November 24, 2002

Review of Shinobi for PS2     Publisher: Sega     Developer: Overworks     Genre: Action     # Of Players: 1     The classic returns in 3D.  A mysterious gold palace has arisen.  There are strange powerful demons known as hellspawn that are flooding the city.  Most of your ninja clan has been wiped out, and their corpses are being used to attack you.  As a ninja master, you must fight your way through various enemies and bosses using a variety of skills and weapons.  And while it does have a couple of key flaws that keep it from being great, this new Shinobi is a fairly solid action game will that most likely satisfy fans of the original. Graphics: Shinobi himself moves and animates pretty well, but the enemies (& some bosses) are kind of stiff and poorly detailed.  The levels get the job done but are pretty barren; unless you are fighting some enemies the place is completely lifeless and mostly static even when you are fighting enemies. Sound: The music is actually pretty good, fitting the game very well.  The voice acting is just ok.  The only real weakness is in the effects.  The enemies make little to no noise for the most part, and the bosses are rather underwhelming as well (i.e. the first boss is a helicopter, but I don’t hear the blades even though it’s right on top of me). Gameplay: Shinobi has a decent range of abilities, from his sword that slices through just about anything to throwing daggers, and a very cool quick sort of sidestep move.  But how about some martial arts or a variety of sword combos instead of just one?  Lots of times when he defeats groups of enemies, it will do a cut scene where all the enemies die at the same time.  At first this is cool, but it does it so often it gets annoying within the first level.  And the enemies can gang up on you and get in some incredibly cheap hits (gee, if only they ripped of Mark of Kri’s fighting system to help avoid things like that). Features: Just your basics here.  How about giving us different costumes to unlock or the original Shinobi for that matter? Funfactor: Again not a classic, but a very solid action game that is definitely worth a look if you are a fan of the original or find your selection of action titles rather wanting.  It’s a good update to a classic that opens the game up to a whole new generation of fans.  Being a ninja is cool once again. --Final Scores— Graphics: 7.0-Sinobi looks great, but levels are kind of lifeless & enemies don’t look very good either. Sound: 7.0-Music is good and acting is decent, but effects are lacking. Gameplay: 7.5-Decent amount of moves, but could be more, cut scenes of killings get annoying quickly, lots of cheap hits. Features: 5.0-Just the basics. Gimme the original! Funfactor: 7.5-A perfectly solid action game for your PS2 library and a worthy update. 8:27:46 AM    comment []

Review of Dr. Muto for PS2     Publisher: Midway     Developer: Midway     Genre: Platformer     # Of Players: 1     Meet Dr. Muto, a mad scientist.  Oh he’s a nice guy and all, but he is quite mad.  And his latest invention is an energy converter, designed to solve the energy crisis on Planet Midway.  Unfortunately, when the doctor turns the device on, it blows up the planet into many pieces.  So now to set things straight, Dr. Muto has to restore the planet by gathering energy from the other planets in the solar system.    Sounds like a fairly typical platformer, but Dr. Muto tries to distinguish itself by Muto’s special ability to turn himself into different creatures in with different abilities in order to be able to get through different parts of the level.  But this is all stuff we’ve seen before on tons of other platforming games and that combined with the poor execution, makes for a rather mediocre platform game (especially when you have plenty of other choices on PS2) Graphics: While there is a perfectly fitting wacky look to the levels & Muto himself looks good and is fairly well animated, the levels have really poor quality textures, the enemies look cool, but don’t really animate all that well.  And the game skips all over the place with a horrid frame rate. Sound: The music is just strange, it sounds like it’s a bad rip off of a sci-fi 50s TV show, which I guess sort of fits, but it still doesn’t sound good.  The voices aren’t done all that well either, Muto sounds appropriate, but badly acted and not funny.  The effects are erratic at best (i.e.: You have a zapper that looks like a remote that makes a sound like it’s high voltage, but occasionally it’ll make no sound whatsoever). Gameplay: Oh joy, another collection fest.  All you basically do is go to a level and collect energy spheres, vials, DNA, etc.  Playing as plain old Muto is just plain dull, as he doesn’t have any decent abilities other than double jump (gee how original).  And while you can change into other forms with different abilities, rather than using them at various areas for different ways of playing, the game really restricts you so that they are only really usable at certain parts specifically designed for them.  The camera is awful, obscuring your view all the time, causing a lot of deaths from falling.  And finally, there are invisible walls in the strangest of areas, forcing you to be extremely linear. Features: Surprisingly loaded with stuff including a making of video (apparently so you can figure out where they went wrong), and lots of game demos as well. Funfactor: It doesn’t look good, it doesn’t play good, and it’s unoriginal and derivative.  It’s just not fun.  This seemed to be a promising idea, but the execution is so poorly done, it just feels horribly rushed.  Sure, this isn’t a horrible game, and kids might enjoy it for a weekend, but there are some good quality platformers out there available for the PS2 (especially Ratchet & Clank), so do yourself a favor and skip the insanity of Dr. Muto. --Final Scores— Graphics: 4.0-I like the wacky design, but the poor textures and horrid frame rate really mar the style of the game. Sound: 4.5-Effects just aren’t there sometimes, music is bad, voice is tolerable. Gameplay: 4.0-Bad camera, abilities are too gimmicky, and boring collecting. Features: 7.5-Pretty decent amount of cool extras. Funfactor: 5.5-Just another mediocre platformer. 8:23:42 AM    comment []

Review of Kakuto Chojin for Xbox     Publisher: Microsoft     Developer: Dream Publishing     Genre: Fighting     # Of Players: 1-2     A tournament held by a mysterious corporation.  A group of strange fighters all competing for their own reasons.  Sound familiar?  Sounds like just pretty much every other fighter out there.  However, we all know story doesn’t really matter in a fighting game, and this is actually Microsoft’s first attempt to deliver a new challenger to the 3D fighting arena.  Unfortunately, while it looks and sounds like a current generation fighter, it plays like a shallow 16-bit one. Graphics: The fighters look good and unique for the most part, and all move fairly smoothly, but there are some frames of animation missing in hit collision and it shows.  But the real big problem is the arenas.  They are not just contained, they are completely lifeless, just an extremely static & stale background, even though it’s a 3D game. Sound: The music is techno-style, but it actually fits the game pretty well.  The character voices more than fit, as they all just speak their native language, but they only say a couple of canned phrases that get annoying really quickly.  The effects are bare minimum; every hit has the same “snap “ sound to it. Gameplay: And here’s where it falls apart.  The levels are extremely confined, even compared to Virtua Fighter 4’s which are somewhat confined by design.  Everyone has the same basic move set, and even most of the combos are the same (i.e., XXY is a combo, XXA gives me the exact same combo).  And every fighter has about 4 or 5 moves.  It’s just very shallow and gets old very, very quickly. Features: Usual set of extras, some multiplayer modes, practice, survival, etc. Funfactor: Even on its own, this will be seen as an extremely shallow & unpolished fighter.  Up against DOA 3 (and if you have a PS2, Virtua 4, the new Mortal Kombat & even Tekken 4), this game’s flaws show even more.  It’s just an extremely shallow game that feels like it’s an extremely early beta and really needs anywhere from 6 months to year more in development. --Final Scores— Graphics: 8.0-The fighters look good and move well, but the stages are lifeless. Sound: 7.0-Music is pretty good fit, as are the voices, but annoying canned phrases and very minimalistic sound effects. Gameplay: 2.5-Extremely small set of moves & everybody has the same basic moves & combos are way too similar. Features: 7.0-Usual set of extras for a fighter. Funfactor: 4.0-Just a very shallow & unpolished fighter. 8:20:24 AM    comment []

Review of BMX XXX for Xbox     Publisher: Acclaim     Developer: Acclaim     Genre: Extreme Sports     # Of Players: 1-4     The extreme sports genre takes a rather extreme twist with BMX XXX.  Not only featuring outrageous characters such as Amish Boy, topless bikers, a strip challenge, as well as awarding you by offering real videos of strippers.  This is the very definition of using sex to sell something.  But of course the real question is if there is a solid engine behind it so you aren’t paying $50 for some trashy videos.  Unfortunately, however all XXX really has going for it is its softcore nudity. Graphics: Decent.  These graphics are basically on par with first generation PS2 games.  Very large stages with a lot of variety but don’t really look all that great, with plenty of glitching and pop-up, & the characters are really poorly animated. Sound:  The sound effects are not existent.  No voice either.  The music is decent, but fairly outdated (the best example being use of some old Green Day hit, which is the song I heard the most often). Gameplay: Well, let’s start with an example of had badly the objectives are handled.  There’s this mission in one level where you have to drag a lounge singer around the level in about a minute.  And all you have to do is run into the guy to start dragging him, but it gives you no indicator on who the guy is, and other missions have the same problems, never highlighting the objective or pointing you in the right direction.  The controls are decent, but not really up to snuff with top-notch games in the same genre like Tony Hawk & Aggressive Inline. Features: Loaded with extras and a bunch of unlockable movies (all featuring strippers).  But why is there no level editor? That’s pretty much standard in these games nowadays. Funfactor: This is a perfectly decent extreme sports game.  But it’s nowhere near up to the level of all the great extreme sports games available, especially Tony Hawk & Aggressive Inline.  There’s just no compelling reason to buy this. And no, the nudity is definitely not a reason (here’s an idea, go use the $50 on a real stripper! It’ll be much more satisfying!).  It’s a desperate attempt to sell a fairly shallow project. --Final Scores— Graphics: 5.0-Looks like a first generation PS2 game. Sound: 5.0-Music is outdated, sound effects and voice just aren’t there. Gameplay: 4.5-Control is flawed; missions need a lot of work. Features: 7.0-Plenty of extras, but where’s the level editor? Funfactor: 5.5-Just another game with a lame gimmick that doesn’t hide its shortcomings. 8:17:13 AM    comment []

Review of Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth for PS2     Publisher: THQ     Developer: Yukes     Genre: Wrestling     # Of Players: 1-6     Oh joy, another Smackdown title.  It’s been a very popular and successful series, but its emphasis on arcade-like gameplay has not made it well liked among many hardcore wrestling fans like myself.  Now with the 4th installment of the series, they’ve added even more features for their huge create-a-character, new match modes, a much deeper season mode than the previous one, improved the graphics, and fine-tuned the fighting style.  But under all that glitz and glamour, this is still roughly the same Smackdown, for better or for worse. Graphics: Well, these are a huge improvement over Smackdown 3’s pathetic graphics.  The male wrestlers are all represented extremely well (the females are done decently, they still can’t get them quite right for some reason), and the animation is excellent overall.  The arenas and outside areas are represented fairly well when you are actually fighting in them (but they look really poor when you are just exploring in the areas).  In fact my only complaint is that during matches, the wrestlers will often melt into each other and into the mat.  It happens quite often, and it’s distracting. Sound: Oh no, they included commentary!  This always goes horribly in wrestling games, and here it’s no different.  A bunch of really lame canned phrases that make no sense because they are usually said at the wrong time.  The music during matches is lame techno crap.  The effects are pretty minimal, as every hit pretty much sounds the same.  On the bright side, pretty much all the theme songs of the superstars are here, but for some weird reason they don’t have Maven’s theme music, which irks me because it’s one of my favorite theme songs. Gameplay: While there is a much better balance in the counter system, there still are some problems.  With its on the fly move system, many times you won’t perform the move you wanted to do.  You can’t interrupt anything other than pins, which is just lame.  The A.I. is still extremely flaky, often backing off for no reason or in tag matches tagging the partner right after they have just done a finishing move & should pin you (although I guess I should be thankful for that). And the A.I. of the ref is even worse, I (and computer characters have run into matches, pulled of a finisher, and the ref doesn’t do anything even though he should at the least push me out of the ring.  Create-a-wrestler may be too in-depth for some; it took me an hour and a half to make a fairly basic character.  The season mode is much improved over the last one, but there are still some major problems.  You can only get involved in matches that are before yours.  I often explored backstage only to find absolutely nothing (like random wrestlers to fight with or make alliances with), you don’t have a much control over your character as I’d like as I was often forced to team with people I’d rather beat up or I’d viciously beat somebody with a chair randomly after a match and I had no control over it.  Plus although it follows fairly current storylines, starting with the big draft, most of the storylines over the last few months have been really bad; so that’s not really a plus.  I’d rather they did some original storylines.  Features: Again this is Smackdown’s biggest strength.  You can do just about every type of match imaginable (sorry guys, no bra & panties matches) including three stages of hell, in which you can make a 2 out of three falls with three different styles of match.  The create-a-wrestler is just massive; you can even create new taunting animations.  And as usual there is a ton of unlockable stuff like outfits, accessories, & wrestlers. Funfactor: Although an improvement over last year’s absolutely abysmal effort, this brings again with it many of the same problems that have always plagued the series ever since its original inception on the PS one.  Bottom line, if you like the series, this is the most loaded one yet, if you don’t, don’t ever bother giving this one a look. --Final Scores— Graphics: 8.5-Male wrestlers represented really well, and animation is good, but they often literally melt into each other into the mat. Sound: 5.0-Sure they have most of the themes, but the in-ring music blows, the commentary borders on painful, and the effects are terrible. Gameplay: 5.0-Difficiult to pull of the right maneuvers, A.I. all around is still flaky, season mode is improved but still needs lots of work. Features: 10-Too many to count. Funfactor: 6.5-Good choice for fans of the series, everybody else should skip it. 8:12:53 AM    comment []