You are Drake, a hacker in a futuristic world, ruled by computers and The Matrix (no blue or red pills here though). You wake up in a morque and begin your quest. Your journey starts as a quest to find yourself, to find out who you are, you wake up with almost zero memory of your past. After you find the truth, you go to do what you feel is your duty, revenge. During the game you will find several enemies and gunfights. You eventually are able to hire mercenaries to join you for a little while. Some are mages, ogres, and gunslingers of all walks of life.
Graphics and gameplay are very good. Gunfights are realtime, you have to move your crosshairs to the enemy and fire. There is a chance you will miss too. There is free movement, so you can move anywhere you wish. When you kill enemies, you occasionally get money, and sometimes you get a karma point. When you sleep, you can cash in your karma to make your skills better. Gameplay is very addictive, you are driven to find the next step in the game. If you are going to play, prepare to get hung up in some places because it will happen.
I really enjoy this game, however some parts may get you so hung up you may stop playing. This is what happened to me, so I can't say I have beaten it, but the time I had playing it was a lot of fun, and I recommend this game highly.
I rate it 7.5 out of 10. Give it a try, I think you'll have a great time.
<i>Super R-Type</i> is a scrolling, kill-everything-in-sight game. You know the kind. The game details very little, but I'll sketch together what I can remember from the manual. Apparently an alien known as the Womb has captured four ships, and you are the fifth ship that must come to rescue them. Accompanying you through this is a large glowing orange ball of goodness which can fire any number of weapons, from a barrage of fireballs (I call them cheese-balls), to reflecting lasers. Also available are what are called "pits", which hover above and below your ship when found to protect from more angles. Also available are different sorts of missiles which can either be dropped on the ground, or sent out to home in on random enemies.
This game has four different levels of difficulty, Novice, Easy, Normal, and Hard. I prefer to think of them as Easy, Hard, Impossible, and shouldn't-even-be-allowed-to-be-this-difficult setting.
Graphics take full advantage of everything the SNES can do, creating stunning backgrounds, meticulously detailed bosses, and realistic looking weapons. Music is also very catchy, especially in the very first level, gets stuck in your head. I usually don't care for scrolling games, but this one was an exception, very well done.
This game takes a bit of strategy too. You have to maneuver minefields, jets of water, shrapnel from exploding enemies, and a million other threats to your weak little ship, even a minor hit from a weak foe and you and your ship is a cloud of smoke. So it takes a bit of skill to get the feel for how that ship moves and to steerit out of danger. Level 4 consists of a huge Battleship which you must maneuver through. Its difficult by itself, but the ship is moving and you aren't moving with it, also with enemies and bullets flying everywhere, it makes for a great challenge and overall great game.
<i>Super R-Type</i> has been a recurring favorite of mine for many, many years, and I never tire of playing it. The game sucks you in, and the fact that you can die so easily makes it all to easy too say "well, lemme just try that again". Addictive, fun, and challenging. My kind of game. I rate <i>Super R-Type</i> an 8.0 out of 10!
Surely you remember? That magical moment when you first flipped the switch of your SNES to reveal the lush color of Dinosaur World? The first time you saw <i>Super Mario World</i>, a game that would become one of the greatest games ever made.
Bowser has kidnapped the princess while on vacation with Mario and Luigi to exotic Dinosaur Island. Not too long after they begin their journey, they find a friendly dinosaur named Yoshi trapped in an egg. Henceforth, Yoshi would become an invaluable ally, while Mario was riding Yoshi he could swallow turtle shells. Red shells would cause Yoshi to spit fireballs, Yellow shells made him hit the ground and raise dust clouds when he jumped, and blue shells made him sprout wings. A very versatile dinosaur, Yoshi made Marios success possible.
This game, for it's time, is quite large. From the rolling Donut Plains, to the dark and dreary Vanilla Dome. From Cookie Mountain, to the insanely difficult SPECIAL stages, which made you think if you wanted to win.
In <i>Super Mario World</i>, there are seven castles, each inhabited by one of Bowsers seven villanous children (Bowser must be a ladies koopa). You must defeat each of Bowsers children to retrieve a trapped Yoshi egg, and you can then move on to the next level. Along the way you may find doorways ot the useful Star Road, capable of transporting you anywhere in Dinosaur World in mere seconds. Not only are there castles, but also Fortresses and Ghost Houses.
<i>Super Mario World</i> remains one of the best games ever, boasting a lot of great features. Since the Super Ninteno has fallen out of play since the advent of N64, GameCube, and Playstation 1 & 2, this classic game gathers dust on many shelves, but then came the Game Boy Advance! Yuo can once again play this game, and better yet, take it with you wherever you may go!
The game begins with Bowser kidnapping Princess Toadstool (original, huh?), and taking her to his castle. Mario, of course, rescues her about 5-10 gaming minutes later. Just as she is being rescued, a huge sword falls from the sky and plants itself right into Bowser's castle. This is where the game really begins. You come to find that the huge sword is part of an army of the villian Smithy. Now all hell breaks loose in the Mushroom Kingdom and all around Mario's world. Soon, you find that Smithy is attempting to destroy the Star Road, where wishes are granted. In doing this, he wants to make a world filled with weapons and evil. Mario can't have that. During the course of your journey you make four allies. The supposed "tadpole" Mallow, the inhabited doll messenger of the Star Road, Geno, Princess Toadstool, and even King Koopa himself, Bowser joins with Mario. You must defeat bosses like Mack, Bowyer, Yaridovich, the Axem Rangers, and Captain Jonathan Jones to retrieve the seven star pieces, the last held by Smithy. There is so much more to this game, but this is only an overview.
The graphics in <i>Mario RPG</i> are wonderfully detailed and great eye candy, as SNES games go. The music is also quite good, making for a great gaming experience. Even the battle animations are good looking.
If you want to play <i>Mario RPG</i>, quit your job, wait till summer vacation, break up with your significant other, and put a lock on your door because you WILL get hopelessly hooked! This game takes a long time to beat and makes you use your brain in parts too. Once you start, its hard to stop, trust me. I'm a recovering <i>Mario RPG</i> addict myself.
Overall I rate <i>Super Mario RPG</i> a 9.5 out of 10 on the gaming scale, it's really that good. Now go buy it, an emulator just wouldn't do it justice...oh and if you do download an emulation, be sure you have the original cart, or delete it within 24 hours...*wink*.
<i>Civilization</i> is a turn-based war game/strategy game. In it, you begin a civilization of your choice of 18, including the Germans, Japanese, Aztecs, Babylonians, Americans, and Romans. As you play, you build cities and army units with the money you make from mines and city taxes. You add buildings to your cities to make them and your civilization greater. Also, you can build one of several Wonders of the World, each with their own advantages. The Great Wall forces other civilization to make peace with you, while the Pyramids give you all the food you'll need to run all your cities. There are two ways you can win <i>Civilization</i>, one way is to destroy all your opposing Civilizations, and rule the world. The other way is to make it so far into the future, that you build a starship and travel to Alpha Centauri.
Graphics leave something to be desired, cities as well as units appear as squares over a gridded layout map. Attacks show the attacking unit moving and colliding with the opposing unit. But the city screen boasts better graphics. You have the option to view your cities, as well as each building within them, including Wonders, in fairly good detail.
Gameplay is EXTREMELY addictive! I guarantee that when you play this game and get good at it, you'll be hooked for a long time. Because 5 levels of difficulty offer a more challenging game all the time, you'll never get bored.
I give <i>Civilization</i> a 7 out of 10, and highly recommend it to strategy buffs.
In this game, you can pit one on one battles with your favorite Nintendo stars, such as Mario, Link, Kirby, Pikachu, Starfox, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, and Samus Aran. The game starts with all fighters entering the battlefield with 0% damage done to them. As they attack each other with a barrage of vicious attacks, their percentage moves up, and the higher the percentage, the farther the opponent flies after a hit. However, this percentage does not guarantee a winner, your goal is to knock your opponent off of the screen, and that could happen to the one with the lower percentage just as much as it could the character with the higher percentage. Graphics are okay, the backgrounds and characters are well made, but the arenas are a little bit blocky and flat.
<i>Super Smash Bros.</i> is a game that may keep you occupied for a few days, maybe weeks, until you’ve fought everyone against everyone else, found the secret characters, and unearthed all the other goodies. Then you leave it to sit and probably won't play it again for a while. Even still, I give Super Smash Bros. a 6 out of 10.
Mario has a tough job, what with all those evil turtles and freaky walking mushrooms to contend with, and from time to time, he deserves a vacation. Even that can't go right for the world-famous plumber. Upon flying out to island paradise Island Delfino with Peach, they are forced to land short on the runway due to a huge puddle of some paint-like substance. Mario crosses it and asks for help, and he's <i>blamed</i> for the mess! As he approaches a water pump he'll use to clean the mess, it props up and introduces itself as FLUDD, created by none other and Professor Gadd from Luigis Mansion. FLUDD identifies Mario and agrees to help him. Upon cleaning up the mess, the Delfino authorities take Mario away and throw him in jail. He is later released, and is sentenced to clean up all the graffiti which now covers Delfino. But one question lingers, why do they think Mario is behind it? You'll have to play to find out.
Gameplay is very smooth here, controls are straightforward and easy to use. It utilizes the analog functions of the L and R key, if you press R down partially, you can move while spraying, or you can press it down all the way to shoot out a stronger and longer reaching stream of water. Mario has a lot of jumps too, and they are all pretty simple to execute. If you turn the control stick 360 and then jump, you'll do a spin jump which sends you higher than the usual jump, and also gets rid of any goop which may have gotten on you. FLUDD has two functions at any one time, there is the normal spray, then one of three different nozzles can be attached. The HoverNozzle allows you to hover (obviously) for a few seconds, the Rocket Nozzle makes you blast high into the air, and the Tubo nozzle boosts your speed, even when swimming.
This game is <i>not</i> about just cleaning up messes like it may appear to be. There are plenty of puzzles to be solved, some force you to do them without FLUDD to help you.
Alas, as good as <i>Mario Sunshine</i> is, it has its flaws. First, there is a lot of stuff happening on the screen at one time and at times there can be some noticeable slowdown. Also some of the camera angles, even though it moves with Mario, can be constricting and there are some times when you can't even see your mustached hero. But the good far outweighs the bad in this game, the slowdown is only for a few seconds, and only at some times do you have trouble with the camera, otherwise, its a great Mario adventure with lots of puzzles and plenty to do. You'll never be bored in this game.
I give <i>Super Mario Sunshine</i> a 9.4 and if you own a GameCube, this is a game to buy before all others on that game rack at the store. Besides, no Nintendo system is complete without a Mario adventure.
Mr. Burns has bought the Springfield bus company, irradiated all of the buses and jack fares way up. So Springfield residents start using their own cars as taxis to zip people around town as fast as possible.
This game is frighteningly remiscent of Crazy Taxi but with a few differences, some good, some bad. For one, Springfield is huge, and packed with show references and familiar locations like the Kwik-E-Mart and Springfield Elementary. A good portion of the environment is destructable, such as street lights, trees, and signs. Thing is, they fall very unrealistically. It looks like a toy car driving to a platic tree, it moves with you, wobbles then falls down. In place of the classic green arrow now is a big yellow hand pointing to your destination. There are about 20 characters you can use to drive, (most need to be unlocked) each with their own vehicle. Groundskeeper Willie has a tractor, Professor Frink drives a flying car, and Grandpa drives a tiny Shriners car.
The real treat in this game is the voice acting. Everyone you pick up and all the drivers voices are the actual voices form the show. There are some great lines too. Flanders: "Could you take me to Reverend Lovejoys house? I want him to bless my new haircut" or Abe Simpson after hitting something "Oh, there's my pelvis!". One problem is timing though. In an odd game I drove Flanders to his destination, then picked up and drove Hans Moleman to his destination, and on my way to getting <i>another</i> passenger I finally hear Flanders thanking me for the ride, even though he's blocks away. Again, not good timing.
Simpsons fans (such as myself) should get a kick out of this game. If you liked Crazy Taxi there's really not much here not to like. Rent it first, if you think you'd enjoy it more by all means buy it, but I suggest waiting until your local rental store starts selling used copies for cheap. It's a fun and amusing games, but I personally won't pay 50 bucks for it.</font>
I rate The Simpsons: Road Rage a 7.5 and recommend at least renting it.
One of Segas gifts to the GameCube as a third party developer is Super Monkey Ball. Based on the arcade game of the same title, its the game arcaders remember plus more.
You have single player, in which you can play Beginner mode (10 courses) Advanced mode (30 courses) or Expert Mode (50 courses). In each course you must move the entire stage so the monkey inside the ball rolls to the end, along the way picking up bananas and trying not to fall off the edge. It takes a bit of practice to get the controls down so as to steer the monkey right, but once you have it down, its...well, still challenging at times!
Super Monkey Ball is at its best during Party Mode. Wherein you have Monkey fight, where up to four monkeys roll around with big boxing gloves attached to them trying to knock your opponents off the stage. Next is Monkey Race, which is up to four Monkey balls racing along tracks. Finally there is Monkey Target, where you roll down a steep hill then when you jump off, you open your ball and glide to a target across water, where you land on the target determines your points.</font></p>
There are also minigames to unlock, every time you play Single Player, you get points. When you get enough points you may unlock one of three minigames, Monkey Billiards, Monkey Bowling, and Monkey Golf. All of which are fairly self-explanatory.
If you like getting together with friends with your Cube, Super Monkey Ball is the game for you, it's Party Games and Minigames are a lot of fun. However if you prefer to enjoy your Cube alone, and only venture out to share with friends on occasion, rent this game only. Single Player is fun, don't get me wrong. Fun for a few days. Then it gets kind of tiring and you just want to play minigames. Then they themselves really become no fun without friends to play with.
I rate Super Monkey Ball a 6.5 and I think it's worth at least a rental. If nothing else, you and your immature friends can laugh uncontrollably every time somebody mentions the word "balls".
So many secrets reside in that little disk waiting to be unlocked: characters, stages, trophies, and other goodies. We won't go into the trophies here, but we will tell you how to unlock everything else.
Unlockable Characters
<b><i>Unlock Jigglypuff:</i></b> Beat Classic or Adventure with any character on any difficulty or play 50 VS matches.
<b><i>Unlock Dr. Mario:</i></b> Beat Classic or Adventure with Mario without continuing or play 100 VS matches
<b><i>Unlock Pichu:</i></b> Beat Event 37, Legendary Pokemon, or play 200 VS matches
<b><i>Unlock Falco:</i></b> Beat the 100 Man Melee or play 300 VS matches
<b><i>Unlock Marth:</i></b> Beat Classic or Adventure with the 14 original characters or play 400 VS matches
<b><i>Unlock Young Link:</i></b> Clear Classic or Adventure with ten characters or play 500 VS matches
<b><i>Unlock Ganondorf:</i></b> Beat Event 29, Triforce Gathering, or play 600 VS matches
<b><i>Unlock MewTwo:</i></b> Play 20 hours or 700 VS Matches
<b><i>Unlock Luigi:</i></b> Beat Luigi in Adventure (he appears if you finish Mushroom Kingdom with a 2 in the seconds, like 1:02 or 3:52)or play 800 VS matches
<b><i>Unlock Roy:</i></b> Beat Classic or Adventure with Marth or play 900 VS matches
<b><i>Unlock Mr. Game and Watch:</i></b> Beat Classic or Adventure with every other character or play 1000 VS matches
Unlockable Arenas
<i><b>Mushroom Kingdom II:</i></b> Win Birdo from the Trophy Lottery
<i><b>Brinstar Depths:</i></b> Play 50 VS matches
<i><b>Fourside:</i></b> Play 100 VS matches
<i><b>Big Blue:</i></b> Play 150 VS Matches
<i><b>Poké Floats:</i></b> Play 200 VS Matches
<i><b>N64 Dream Land:</i></b> Beat Classic, Adventure, or Break the Targets with all 25 characters.
<i><b>N64 Kongo Jungle:</i></b> Beat the 15 Minute Melee
<i><b>N64 Yoshi's Island:</i></b> Hit the Sandbag 1350 feet in Home-Run Test.
<i><b>Flat Zone:</i></b> Unlock Mr. Game and Watch
<i><b>Battlefield</i></b> Beat All-Star with any character
<i><b>Final Destination</i></b> Beat all 51 Event Matches
Other Stuff
<i><b>All-Star Mode:</i></b> Unlock all 25 characters
<i><b>Score Display:</i></b> Earn a total of 5000 KOS (this will display your score in time mode.)
<i><b>Random Stage:</i></b> Open Brinstar Depths, Fourside, Big Blue, Poke Floats, Mushroom Kingdom II, and Flat Zone
<i><b>Sound Test:</i></b> Unlock all characters and stages
So there you have it, now go start unlocking and play this great game to its fullest!
