Star Fox 64 3D Review

Here is another remake of an amazing classic put onto the 3DS system.

Gameplay:
Star Fox 64 3D plays exactly the same as the original for the N64. What I love about this is it is like OoT for the 3DS. What I mean by that is they actually updated the graphics and added new features to the game to keep it refreshing. Now they story overall is very very short. I mean in roughly an hour you can beat the entire story. That is the only issue I really have with it but I will focus on the cons in a bit. Lets talk about the Pro's. Star Fox 64 3D is a great addition to the 3DS system and another great remake. Embark on your journey to destroy Andross, the evil mad scientist. In Story mode you navigate through the different planets or missions and progress through the story. What I like about this is when you beat a mission you don't have to go on a straight path onto the next planet. They added it so when you beat a mission you can go ahead and do an alternate mission instead and progress the other way. Another thing I have always enjoyed about this game is the alternate routed you can unlock in mission. The first mission (Corneria) is a prime example. If you save falco and then fly through the hoops in the water and if you go through all of them Falco will compliment you on your flying and then tell you to follow him. You follow and space ship and go through an alternate route through a waterfall. When you beat the boss in the alternate route you actually unlock the other missions and gives you the opportunity to fight Star Wolf again and go to Venom 2 where you fight a harder version of Andross. The story is the same, missions are the same.

They did add other modes to the games. They added a score attack mode where you pick a mission to go through and it's basically trying to see if you can beat your scores. By score I mean how much enemies you can kill. If you kill a certain amount of enemies you earn medal. Bronze, Silver and Gold.

Another mode is the Battle mode. This mode you can face CPU's or some friend in a battle. There are different modes within battle mode such and score attack, and survival. The only issue I have here is that you can only face friends via DS download play, no online play at all. So battle mode is only fun if you want a small challenge and kill some CPU's.

One thing I should mention in the campaign is that there are two modes to choose from. The modes are Nintendo 3DS mode or Nintendo 64 mode. The Nintendo 3DS mode is a mode that uses the Gyro feature in the 3DS. Which means when you tilt your 3DS you ship will turn that way. You use the gyro and the stick to control your ship. The Nintendo 64 mode is based off of the original gameplay. Standard stick and button gameplay like in the original.

Rating: 8.5/10

Graphics:
Yes, the graphics are and have been improved in Star Fox 64 3D. They updated all of the graphics for the 3DS and it is a very nice update. The environment, characters, effects, ships, etc... is all updated and looks a lot better than the original version and makes the gameplay a little bit more fun to play.

The 3D is also well done. The only issue is if you play on the Nintendo 64 mode and you try to view it in 3D you will be moving your head a lot to see the 3 D effect. If you play with the gyro controls then your head will already be moving with the ship so it keeps the 3D effect. 3D looks great overall and really works for the type of game.

Rating: 9/10

Audio:
Well not much to say about here because the audio is the same as in the original. The music is the same and all of the sound effects are the same as well. They did however update all of the audio to make it sound a lot more crisp and clear. With the graphical update also came with and audio update. The voice acting is terrible (like in the original) and the dialogue still sucks. Also Slippy is as annoying as ever.

Rating: 8.5/10

Conclusion:
Star Fox 64 3D is a wonderful remake for the Nintendo 3DS. I have so happy that you can experience this game again like you did in your childhood. Although a great remake, it also has some flaws. For example the gameplay is way to short, as in 45 minutes then you beat it. The extra modes really do not make up for the short gameplay because your constantly re doing all of the missions which can get pretty boring really fast. If your a Star Fox fan then you will enjoy this game.

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

Pokemon Black/White Review!

Yes it is finally here! The review I said I was working on and never posted it!

Gameplay: 
So the gameplay pretty much plays the same as in all of the other pokemon games. What I love about these versions is they updated the graphics and added nice little 3D effects within the game. I will explain that more in the Graphics part. Anyway you get to choose from 3 starters like in all of the other pokemon games. The 3 starters are all new pokemon you have your fire, water and grass types. You may choose from Snivy (Grass), Oshawat (Water), and Tepig (Fire). Each pokemon are as good as you want them to be, also depends which type you like the best, for me it was Tepig then secondly Oshawat who I am not a big fan of personally. You go on a quest to get all 8 badges in this region then go on to face off the elite 4. These versions have new villians than the previous games. These villians are known as Team Plasma and are much more evil than the other teams. I am not going to explain what their roll is because it has a nice twist at the end, especially after you fight the elite four the first time. The game provides a nice challenge for newbies and there are tons more and new pokemon to catch. The gameplay is pretty long which is great. If you play and don't try and rush through it (even if you do) you are looking at at least 30 hours or more of gameplay. Plus there is a lot more to do when you complete the game. What I also enjoy about this version is your not just rushing to get the 8 badges and thats it. The story is so much more in this version. After almost every badge you have to do little side quests along your journey. Which allows you to explore the new areas a lot more. In Black and White they also introduced a new environmental feature. They added seasons to the game which means at the beginning of every month the season changes to winter, fall, summer, or spring. Each of these season offer new pokemon in certain areas. Winter can grant you access to secret areas to explore and grab awesome items. In Twist mountain when it is Winter the mountain is covered and snow and you can walk up snow hills and get to areas you cannot get to in other seasons. In this version they added two brand new battle styles. Rotation battles allow you to have 3 pokemon in battle at once. The only difference is that you only fight with one and you choose wether to rotate them or not to your other pokemon. This is a great battle mode if you are a strategic person. The other mode is Triple battle. Which is well, you guessed it, 3 vs 3. Overall they are nicely added except the triple battles can kind of get crowded and last a long time. Overall Black and White are one of the best in the series.

Rating: 9/10

Graphics:
Gamefreak has finally given the pokemon series and well needed graphical update. The environments are more colorful and a lot more detailed. They even made use of the DS and added 3D enviornments. Not a lot but it is still a nice touch. What I mean by 3D is when you are walking up the loooooooooooooong bridge (they love bridges apparently) you can see the camera rotate with you as your walking up the bridge and when your on the overpass you can see vehicles drive underneath you. There are other 3D areas but you can see them for yourselves. Don't want to ruin the exploration aspect of the game. The pokemon now are constantly moving during battle which is pretty neat. The moves used by pokemon also received an update as in they are more colorful and look nice. The only graphical issue I can really think of is when you use certain moves the camera zooms into your pokemon and it gets very pixelated. But other than that it is a nice update.

Rating: 8.5/10

Audio:

Audio is the same as always. The only difference is the new pokemon cries and the new music in the background. All of the audio does sound crisp and clear and the music in the game is nice and suits the game very much. The elite four music is awesome as always and when you fight the champion or Ghetsis the music is good to. My favorite music during the game would be when you find a rare and legendary pokemon, it gets you pumped up to catch them. The epic music also suits with how huge and fierceful the legendaries look.

Rating: 8.5/10

Conclusion:
If you are a pokemon fan or even a generic RPG fan, you will love this game. For all of you collecters out there (including myself), there is a ton of new pokemon and legendaries to catch and collect. The story is basically the same but is one of the better stories. Team Plasma are much more evil than the other teams and the gameplay is nice and long, over 30 hours! There is even tons to do after you beat the game like White Forest and Black City. Obviously White Forest is for the White version and Black City is for the Black version. Each offering new opportunites to discover and catch the older generation of pokemon. They also added a lot more wireless options such as visiting a friends world and helping them out, catching new pokemon in dream world (off of the website) and tons more. I promise you will all not be dissapointed.

Overall Rating: 9/10