Pokemon Black and White Review

Pokemon has always been a massively popular franchise: 15 years since the Japanese Red and Green, and the series is still going strong. But as the years have gone by, the franchise has lost some of its luster, due to Game Freak's refusal to do any huge changes. But this is different: Pokemon Black and White is like GF's slap-in-the face: this is the largest change of the game in Pokemon history, and it definitelly paid off.

Now I'm not saying that the Gen 4 games were bad: quite on the contrary, I enjoyed them a lot. But once you play this game, there is simply no going back.

Pokemon Black and White starts off like any other Pokemon game: waking up in your house in the Unova Region, you get to choose from the 3 starter Pokemon (The speedy and defensive Grass-type Snivy, the powerhouse Fire-type Tepig, and the all-arounder Water-type Oshawott), and then build a team from there to beat the 8 Gyms and then the Pokemon Leauge. This may sound simple enough, but the more you dive into it, the game's true colors show: this is one of the most complicated games ever made. Hidden under its childlike designs and bright colors is an RPG with many intricacies: stats are determined on type, natures, styles, orientations, breeding, and much, much more. The learning curve is steep for the newcomer, but once you scale the cliff, you will be hooked. This game is more addictive than drugs: it starts to become a lifestyle, an endless treasuretrove of fun.

This is all old news for the Pokeveteran, so what does Pokemon Black and White offer to them? Answer: a whole lot. A change in plot is the biggest difference, with Team Plasma having a much more dedicated villan role than past evil teams. The side and main characters have much more personalites, like how Gym Leaders help you around town and with activating new areas rather than just sitting idely in the same place forever. The main story is about averave for a normal RPG: about 20 hours, but with training and catching Pokemon devouring the rest of your time.

Possibly the largest improvement in Black and White is the step-up in graphics. Instead of those slight seconds of visual trickery as seen in Generation 4, these games have huge, sprawling bridges, giant 3-D castles, cities actually the size of cities, and spectacular camera angles. The battles are the biggest leap, though. Before, battles were just cardboard cut-outs moving slightly and throwing words at each other. This time, the Pokemon move, jump, flap their wings, dance, and make poses all through battle, making encounters feel really alive. Battles also move at a 2x faster rate than before, so you never feel bored.

Much has been made about the new Pokemon in the game. There are over 156 of them, each more unique than the last. But the big reason they've got so much attention is that they are the only ones that appear in the game: for the fist time in Pokemon history, caves are not littered with Geodudes and Zubats. This also means that veterans have to rethink strategies instead of going into random battles autopilot, and newbies have a fresh start without having to learn all about the other 493. Don't worry, Dragonite and Garchomp lovers: Pokemon from the other 4 Generations appear after the main story is done, and the ability to mix the old Pokemon with the new ones is extremelly enguaging.

Pokemon Black and White also succeds on the slightly smaller changes: the music is much more enjoyable than Gen 4's, TMs are now unlimited usage (a practical godsent for people like me), leveling up is much easier due to obtaining two Exp. Shares and one Lucky Egg early on (which were practically impossible to find in previous generations), Legendaries seem easier to catch, the ability to have many Key Items selected, and the mulitiplayer options are greatly expanded, with random matchups and super-fast Infared connection.

Game Freak may've fixed many of the problems with Pokemon, but a few still persist. As with the aformentioned situation with a steep learing curve, the dialoge seems a bit more cheesy this time, and Pokemon encounter rate has seemed to have shot up a bit. These are minor problems, and only add tiny scratches to this pure gemstone.

VERDICT:
Gameplay: Improved by tenfold. The best in the whole series. 10
Graphics: Also a major step-up. A world you can really relate to. 10
Audio: Brillant. One of the only DS games that you need headphones for. 10
Overall: Game Freak truly lived up to their slogan "A New Beginning". Perfect for any fan of the series, whether they be newbie or Pokefreaks. If you could only have one DS game for the rest of your life, make it this one.

10 out of 10 Starmies

Peggle Review

Popcap, already making huge bucks and massive downloads with their famous Bejewled, decided to go off the beaten track and make a new sensation: Peggle. Peggle is part pachio, part pinball, part shooter, part psychadelic trip, and all awesome.

Peggle is a hard game to describe if you don't try it for yourself. You have 12 balls, and there are 65+ Pegs on the board. You shoot the pinballs out of the cannon placed atop the screen, and they bounce off the pegs like The Price of Right's little game Plinko. Your task: to get rid of the 30 orange pegs on the screen. You can rack up insane combos and perform long shots, 10-in-a-rows, and much more; what's better is that these combos are insanely satisfying to pull off. Plus there are character-specific power-ups that can drastically alter your final result.

Not only is Peggle unique with its gameplay, but the visual aesthetic certainly isn't holding back. Each character has outrageous design and the levels reflect their themes. When you get major combos, a rock-heavy gerbil screams out a radical message to you. Getting a lucky shot will flash the words "SUPER LONG SHOT!", along with a huge bang. And when you hit that last orange peg, Betthoven's Symphony plays, and rainbows fly everywhere. It's all kinds of crazy.

Gameplay modes are not in poverty: there are 50 Levels, 75 unique Smash Bros-style Challenge modes, a Vs. Mode, and Free Play to reflect your skills. The only thing lacking in this game is the music, with the same 4 tracks playing over and over. Though if you are playing the Ipod versions, you can change it to what's currently playing.

VERDICT
Gameplay: Starts off simple but then turns into a crazy, swirly masterpiece. A truly addictive experience. 9.75
Graphics: Whoever works at the visual and design department of Popcap needs an even bigger paycheck. 9.75
Audio: Slightly lacking, but easilly fixable, because you can use your own. 7.5
Overall: This is highly recommended to all no matter what your gaming experience is. Unfourtunatelly, the best version is the Ipod Classic version (because it was made with the clickwheel in mind), which is hard to find on the Itunes Store.

9.5 out of 10

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island Review

In 1995, the gaming world's eyes were fixed on Nintendo's next new gaming wonder: the Nintendo 64. The pre-rendered silicon graphics and Blast Processing of the day were being overtaken by the rise in 3D gaming. Not ignoring the people who already had a SNES, Nintendo pushed everything the 16-bit machine could do into one single game: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. This game became an instant success and gave Yoshi a long-running franchise in gaming.

Yoshi's Island is a prequel to previous Mario games: the stork is carrying babies Mario and Luigi to their parents when the evil magikoopa Kamek abducts greenie, leaving Mario plunging towards an island. He lands on Yoshi's back by coincedence, and the two instantly bond: Yoshi is charged with protecting the little plumber from the evil all around them. This game plays very differently from the past Marios: there's no time limit, no power-ups (in the traditional sense), and instead of controlling Mario, you control Yoshi. This has been the center of debate as if this is really a Mario series game, but for my money, this goes amongst the plummber's other platformers.

Players instantly found out that Yoshi controls much differently from Mario: he can dash without holding a button, has a long tounge that can go into any direction, can produce eggs and throw them using an ingeniuos Egg-tossing system, can Ground-pound (the first game it appears in), and can flutter to gain extra height and width on his jumps. Yoshi can also encounter Transformation Bubbles, which turn him into a helicopter, mole tank, train, etc., each with a more distinct feel than the last. But if he gets hit, Baby Mario floats away in a bubble (crying obnoxiously), and a timer ticks down until 0, when he will be abducted by Kamek's croonies and a live will be lost.

The levels are the true highlight of this game. Besides one or two levels, the rest all are brilliantly designed. Nearly every one has its own unique gimmick, then that same gimmick is multiplied tenfold in the later level. There are too many of them to list, but the most notable are merry-go platforms that move by your weight, jelly blocks that conform to you and the wall, the fuzzies that make you dizzy and the world go wavy, and much more. This game's difficulty level is no child's play, either. The first two worlds give you the basics, then the challenge ramps up evenly until levels become pure madness. Yoshi's Island also has a high emphasis on collecting: with 30 mini-stars, 5 Flowers, and 20 red coins to collect every level. Trying to get 100% on every level certainly adds a huge replay value.

The game's graphical style is one of the most unique in gaming history: the art, levels, enemies, and effects seem straight from a child's coloring book: it still looks beautiful in motion today. Yoshi's Island ran on the Super FX 2 chip, so it could process these astounding graphics on the fly. The music is also worth a great look. Out of all the tunes from the SNES era, this game probably has the most catchy and memorable.

The only real problems with Yoshi's Island, besides the aformentioned 2 unfun levels, is that the difficulty spike might be too much for smaller gamers, and there could be much less of Baby Mario's obnoxious crying.

VERDICT
Gameplay: Well-polished and tight. Yoshi can definitelly do what Mario doesn't. 9.75
Graphics: Still a charm. This graphical style eventually carried over to games like Paper Mario and Kirby's Epic Yarn. 9.75
Audio: Joyous. Tunes that get you up and running in the level. 10
Overall: The huge variety quantity of insanely fun gameplay should keep you well into this game for months. If you plan on owning one SNES game, make it this one or Super Metriod.

9.75 out of 10

Super Mario All-Stars: Limited Edition Review

In 1993, Nintendo came out with an amazing collection of Mario's greatest adventures: Super Mario All-Stars. It contained fancy remakes of Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, and the not-released in America at the time, The Lost Levels, which was the Japanese Mario 2. Fast-foward 18 years: the NES Super Mario Bros. is celebrating its 25th Anniversary, and Nintendo decides to celebrate it: with re-releacing Super Mario All-Stars on the Wii, but with some added anniversary content. What comes out is reasonable at the most, but it could've been much, much better.

The game part of SMAS remains untouched, even the button prompts. It has now been modified to support the Wii Remote, which is pretty convienient. Everything is still as great as before (and The Lost Levels hasn't got any easier); but in turn, these have already been on the Virtual Console for years, abiet without their 16-bit polish. They play almost the same, so you'll probably save more money anyways if you buy the originals. I would've liked full-fledged remakes of these games with New Super Mario Bros.-style graphics, or at LEAST the Super Mario All-Stars+Super Mario World redo from the SNES.

Sadly, the game is probably the only highlight of the package. The included art "book" is only the size of an Instruction Manual, and not even the notes at the bottom of the pictures are translated. Sure, it is cool to see a picture of the whole Mario production crew with some cool notes about each game in the series, but it could've been much, much better. Just look at the Mega Man: Official Complete Works artbook. 200+ pages of art, beta drawings, fan art, and other cool stuff; plus, all the notes are translated. This really didn't take that long to make, I can tell.

The CD's even worse. You would expect fully-orchestrated remixes of classic Mario tunes, but no, it's all the originals. It's not even the best selection of music for Petey's sake; they used the TRAILER music for SMG2 instead of the actual in-game song! This is laziness beyond my belief.

VERDICT
Gameplay: Still as good as before, but you'll probably see nothing new here. 8.0
Graphics: Again, the same. 7.0
Audio: The game's audio still rocks, but the included CD is a total miss. 5.0
Overall: If I could summarize the whole package into one word, it would be this: lazy. Virtually nothing here is all that amusing, and you're better off buying the originals off VC anyways; mostly because they have Pause-states so you can put it down for awhile then pick right where you left off. Mario deserves better for his big birthday.

5 out of 10

Kirby Air Ride Review

By 2003, Kirby had become a Nintendo icon. He had a host of games, a playable-character role in the Super Smash Bros. series, and now even had his own anime. So it was obvious Nintendo would bring the little guy to their next-gen console, the Nintendo Gamecube. But instead of a platforming adventure, HAL created the first-ever Kirby racing games, and it ended up being the finest entry in the series.

Kirby Air Ride takes a lot from the Smash Bros. plate: the menu screens look almost the same, and it supports 4-player competition. The controls are extremelly simple: Control Stick to steer, A to hold down a boost and take on tight corners. This makes the game acessable to all audiences, but still has a lot of content for the experienced gamer; mostly because there are over 20 Air Ride machines, all of which control in their own special ways and have different strengths and weaknesses.

There are three modes to this game: Air Ride, Top Ride, and City Trial. Air Ride comprises of 10 tracks and is a good place to test your skills. These 10 tracks get kinda boring after awhile, but you can do Time Trials of these courses. Kirby's ability-copying in integrated in this mode by swallowing up enemies on the side of the track and taking their powers, acting much like the Mario Kart Item Boxes. Top Ride plays like the top-down racers of old, and has a much bigger emphasis on Item usage. They range from a cake that makes you huge to a giant cloud that zaps anyone unfourtunate enough to pass its way. The controls feel a bit weird, though; and once again, there's only 10 tracks or so to enjoy. But it's great in short bursts.

The mode that makes the whole game is City Trial. You are set over a fairly small city with 5 minutes to upgrade your ship for the minigame that appears after the timer stops. So much happens between those 5 minutes, though. You can find other ships lying around and hop on them, you can pick up patches that increase Offense, Defense, Flight, etc., much like an RPG, you can pick up items or copy abilities and destroy the other 3 opposing Kirbys and steal all their stats, you can gather pieces of a ship and then fuse them together to make one of the Legendary Air Ride machines, and so, so, so much more. The ending minigame is always fun: from a Drag Race to a Demilition Derby to a fight with King Dedede; all take advantage of one of the stats you boosted. To sum it up, it plays like an extended version of Mario Kart's battle mode on crack. You and your friends will not stop playing this mode.

The graphical and musical quality of this game is also astounding: each area has its own distint textures, and the music is all orchestrated and is absolute ear candy (though most came from the Japanese version of the Anime). This game has a bunch of replay value, too, in the form of a checkist with many different tasks to fill out. There are over 300 of 'em, so you have a lot to do if you truly want to be the master of the Ride.

VERDICT:
Gameplay: Ultra-addicting. One of the most fun multiplayer experiences ever. 10
Graphics: Well done. Not too spectacular, but it's good to the eyes. 9
Audio: The top-tier of epic. Tunes that seriously make you feel like a winner. 10
Overall: Never before has one simple gameplay mode made a whole entire game, and then some. If you want a game that is great to get into by yourself or with friends, but absolutely impossible to put down, this is it. No other GCN game is finer.

10 out of 10

Cave Story Review

In 2004, Indie game designer Pixel created probably one of the greatest downloadable games of all time: Cave Story. It became so popular that it eventually got an upgrade on PSP, WiiWare, and DSiWare. This review shall focus on the Wii version, though.

Cave Story plays and looks like the 2-D NES games of old, mostly Metroid and Mega Man. You are a lone robotic warrior named Quote who must fight his way through a deep and grand cave, picking up a variety of weapons upon the way. These weapons range from a simple handgun to an almighty laser. Each weapon has 3 different levels of power, and experience points for them are found from defeated enemies. This makes gunplay never get old, because you always wanna see the max your weapon of mass destruction can really do.

The one thing this game has what other NES games failed to convey was an amazing story. The evil Doctor has enslaved the rabbitlike Mijima people, and it's up to you to liberate the cave. Along the way, the plot takes so many stunning turn and heart-wrenching moments that I won't spoil any of it; though do have some tissues ready if you have a soft heart. An even more interesting part about this game is its endings: each show how the game will end in a variety of ways. Getting the worst one is suprisingly easy, but in order to get the best one, it requires some insane videogame skills.

The graphics are ,in one word, stunning. Even with the orignal filter on, these are the greatest hand-drawn sprites ever made. The music is something of beauty, too, and thanks to a recent patch, the music bugs have been all fixed.

Some negative aspects of the game are more of annoyances than actual problems: the tiny character can be kinda hard on the weak at seeing, the music is still a bit on the quiet side, and getting the best endings takes multiple playthroughs.

VERDICT
Gameplay: Insanely fun. There are no control errors and the story is very gripping. 10
Graphics: Brilliant. Best pixelated visuals done on any console. 10
Audio: Fits every area and is well-made. 9.75
Verdict: This is one man's love letter to all things that make gaming fun: Great gameplay, an amazing plot, brilliant graphics, and well-done music. If you like games in general, this is not to be missed.
10 out of 10

Mega Man 4 Review

In 1987, Capcom launched probably their most recognizable franchise: Mega Man. His weapon-stealing, shooting action became so popular that it produced a very large number of sequels and side franchises. Mega Man 2 is the most well-known and popular out of all of them, but one title in the franchise, Mega Man 4, remains sorely overlooked.

Mega Man 4 starts off with a little backstory on the Blue Bomber's past; how he turned from humble cleaning droid to a super-fighting robot. Pressing Start sends you to that all-to familiar Boss select screen, an important staple in the franchise. These robots this time around are well-designed and feature some of the most fun stages in MM history. Dive Man's stage is decievingly difficult, with underwater physics and death spikes all around. Pharoah Man's stage has branching pathways that lead to some tightly-spaced platforming. Toad Man's stage is water-logged and full of dizzying effects. And the story is even more interesting this time; a Russian scientist is now the evil mastermind of these new Robot Masters, though it's not long until you figure out who the real villian is.

The new gimmick of MM4 is the Charge Shot, which allows Mega Man to hold a Buster shot in, then release it to make it much more powerful. While it erases some of the challenge, it is still a very welcome addition. The weapons this time around are the series' best: every one is used numerous times throughout the game. The Rain Flush and the Pharoah Shot in particular are very usefull, but not brokenly-spammable like MM2's Metal Blade.

The graphics are vibrant and still amazing, but unlike MM3, do not cause horrible slowdown and flicker. The music is the series' best: with amazingly atmospheric tunes and beats you'll be whistling for weeks. One small complaint about this game could be that the password saves still won't let you advance to any of the castle stages, which ruins some replayability, but the game is so polished and fun anyways that you probably won't notice it as much.

VERDICT:
Gameplay: Polished to perfection. Capcom got everything right this time. 9.75
Graphics: Still well-done, and almost no slowdown. 9.5
Audio: Amazing, but great music is a Capcom standard. 9.75
Overall: It all adds up to be the greates MM in the whole series, even better than Number 2. If you're planning on picking up one Mega Man game, make it this one.
9.75 out of 10