Project X Zone

Console: Nintendo 3DS

Genre: Tactical RPG

Release Date: June 25th, 2013

Date Reviewed: August 18th, 2013

Gameplay:

Project X Zone is a tactical RPG for the Nintendo 3DS developed by Bandai Namco. The games story is played through chapters. In total there are 42 chapters in the game. After chapter 10 each mission is about and hour or so long. Overall it is a pretty long game especially if you take your time going through it. After you beat he story mode you unlock new game+ which allows you to keep all of your items but the monsters are a lot stronger and you gain exp a lot slower so levelling will be much more difficult. If you want the challenge then go for it. When you start the game you start off with very few characters but after almost every chapter you gain new companies to help you out. Each of your companions have their own move sets you can master to perform powerful combos. In total you get about 50 characters to control. Each of you're companions also get their own solo units as well. Solo units are additional units that you do not control. You call them in to do some extra damage and add on to you're combo. The higher you're combo the more xp you get. Xp is not the term for experience points. In Project X Zone xp is almost like mana. Every time you do some damage this bar gets increased. If you get it to 100% you can use a characters special attack. The xp bar also allows you to use you're companions skills which can increase your stats, or even an increased walking range. Solo units also provide your companions with extra skills which are useful.

Battle Screen.

When you gain a level you get a stat increase like with any RPG. But when you gain levels you also unlock new move sets for your companions. Levelling is a key part of your adventures. You need these to be able to unlock more moves and more attack opportunities. You also learn skills by levelling. During the campaign you also get items and weapons from bosses and treasure chests which can be used to make your characters a lot more powerful by increasing their stats. The four stats that your characters have are HP which increases your health points, attack which increases how much damage you do, defence to take less damage, and tec which launches your enemies higher into the air to perform more combos on your enemies. Overall I really enjoyed the game play of this game. There are a couple of downfalls though. For example most of the levels you do are very repetitive and can be frustrating when you think you are almost done the chapter when out of no where 30 more enemies appear on the screen. This game also needed a lot more customization options, more moves and items to use or even a shop.

Graphics:

The graphics are decent. It is a tactical RPG so the character models are very small and do not have a whole lot of detail on them. What I do like about the graphics is that when each character performs their special attack they each have their own special little animations, some are 3D and some are 2D but overall they are great. The graphics during combat is crazy like with most cross over fighting style games. When you're doing the combos there is so much happening on the screen at one time especially when you call in support units and solo units to do cross over combos to increase your xp bar. There are no cut scenes in the game it is all mainly dialogue. 

Movement Screen.

The 3D on the 3DS is good, not great but good. When the combat sequence begins the 3D can really hurt your eyes due to the fact that there is so much happening on the screen at one time. The 3D while you are moving your units around isn't anything to interesting. The only time you see the 3D effect well is when each of your character do their special attacks. When some of the characters do their specials some of them have 3D models so the 3D works really well with that. 

Audio:

This is one of my favorite parts of this game is the audio. When you buy the game or pre order the game when the first batches come out you will get the limited edition box which includes a poster, art book, and the soundtrack. The soundtrack is the best part of the package because it has all of the music from the game itself. The music in the game is fantastic and goes very well with the game, and battle scenes. The audio overall from the game is crisp, sounds great and works very well with the game. 

Limited Edition Bundle.

Conclusion:

Project X Zone is a really fun and enjoyable game. When you buy the first initial batch of the game you get the limited edition for the same price of $40. This is a fantastic offer because it includes an art book, a poster and the fantastic soundtrack. The gameplay is solid but is a bit repetitive and can drive you nuts a few times due to the fact that some chapters it seems like the enemies never stop appearing. Project X Zone is a fantastic cross over game, has a lot to offer and is an extremely long game. I personally put 49 hours into the game before I actually beat it. f you are a fan of fighting games, tactical RPG's, and cross over games then I highly recommend trying this game out.

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New Super Mario Bros. 2

Console: Nintendo 3DS

Genre: Platformer

Release Date: August 19, 2012

Date Reviewed: Feb. 1st, 2013

Gameplay:

New Super Mario Bros 2 is the second game for New Super Mario Bros. The original game debuted on the Nintendo DS hand helds. This one however is now on the Nintendo 3DS. The original NSMB was a huge hit on the DS because it was Mario, but Mario remade. It's basically Super Mario Bros. Remade onto the hand held systems. Everyone loved it. Now we have NSMB Wii and NSMB WiiU. The game play is your basic Mario plat former. You go through worlds, each world has a castle with a boss and when you beat the boss you move onto the next world. Not really much to explain more about the game play. However I had a few issues with it. Now it is a fun game don't get me wrong. But this game is missing a lot. The point in this game is to collect as many coins as possible. This is a nice new twist on a Super Mario game. They also introduced a coin rush mode into the game where you play a few levels that have a lot of coins to collect and a short time limit. The other nice thing about this one is it has DLC. The DLC content are new coin rush maps, one they included for free. When you get your one million coin goal all that happens is you get a new background on the game menu, that's it. Not really much of an award.

The Tanooki Suit is back!

The issues I have with this game is it is so plain. The backgrounds, the level designs, and the overall game play lasts only a couple of hours. Sure if your a perfectionist like me then you want to try and unlock all the levels and the star coins. But while your playing through the worlds or even navigating each world to your next level it's just so plain compared to NSMB for the Wii or even the WiiU. The environment in the Wii and WiiU titles are fun, interactive, and adds some life to the game. Compared to the first one on the DS, they really didn't change anything at all besides collecting coins. This I found was very disappointing. It's like they didn't care all to much about this game because they wanted to boost sales on the 3DS system because it is a Mario game. Maria game = sells a lot of consoles.

However when you complete the game you unlock Star world. I like the levels in Star World but when you beat the game and didn't really focus on collecting the star coins it's frustrating to try and go through these levels because it costs a butt load of star coins just to even go to the first level in star world. I do like how they added that feature to the game though. They do have a co op mode within the game as well where you can a friend can connect locally and play the game together collecting your coins or just plain and simple beating the game. I am happy they are sticking with the co op route of things even on the DS systems. Overall the game play is fun, just a bit upsetting with the lack of effort put into this game and the boring environments. I would recommend picking up Paper Mario Sticker Star before this game.

Graphics:

The 3DS uses the graphics very well in this game. The textures are crisp and it looks really good. The only problem which was mentioned up above is the plain environments and bad level designs. Almost all of the levels had a plain background and was really fast and easy to run through. Not a whole look of level creativeness in this version of the game at all. The animations on all of the enemies are great. Like in the first one the enemies dance to the beat of the music as they are walking. I still think it's funny when they hop around or swing their arms to the music.

Co op Style!

Audio:

The soundtrack is basically the same one used in the DS title. Most of the levels have a good soundtrack and goes well with the game but it is all just from the original game. All of the audio in the game is what you'd expect from any Mario plat former game.

Conclusion:

Overall the game is fun, just upsetting on the level design and environments. I mean go watch a video on NSMB for WiiU and compare it to the 3DS version. I wish I was playing the WiiU version is all I am saying. I do like the co op mode in the game and how you can also play as luigi. I also enjoyed the Coin Rush mode which you unlock after the first world is beaten. They have also included a free DLC coin rush map pack for free for a limited time to celebrate the anniversary of Mario. This map pack is known as the “classic map pack” because you play re designed levels from the original Mario games. They are also fun. If you are debating between NSMB or Paper Mario Sticker Star I recommend you pick up Sticker Star before this game.

Paper Mario Sticker Star (3DS)

Console: Nintendo 3DS

Genre: Adventure RPG

Release Date: November 11, 2012

Date Reviewed: January 30, 2013

Gameplay:

Paper Mario Sticker Star is for the 3DS system. Paper Mario Sticker Star is not like the original Paper Mario for the N64 or the Wii versions. This version of Paper Mario is a new and fresh approach to the series. I personally loved the original for the N64 because of the RPG style. With Sticker Star there is still the RPG battle system but it's not nearly the same. With Sticker Star you actually go around peeling, buying, and finding stickers, You use these stickers as your battle commands. You have your basic stickers like the shoe (jump), and your hammer. But there are also a lot of different variations of these stickers like the fire hammer which does damage to all enemies. These stickers can also be powered up or you can even find them. These are known as shiny stickers or even flashy stickers which are much more powerful version of other stickers. There are a total of six worlds and each world has it's own different theme and style like with most mario games. Sticker Star does stay to it's routes by adding a lot of humour within the game. There were several times in the game where I had a good laugh.

So of coarse your roll is to save Princess Peach from Bowser once again. Basically what happens (without giving away spoilers) is everyone is at the sticker festival. While everyone is paying attention to Mario and Peach talking about the royal stickers Bowser sneaks in and steals one of the royal stickers. These royal stickers have great power within them and Bowser uses it to capture Peach and wipe the floor with Mario. Of coarse it is up to you to recover the seven missing royal stickers and rescue Peach.

The Battle System

With Sticker Star I found there was a lot more puzzle work to do than any other Paper Mario. What I mean by that is you have to do a lot of back tracking to other levels to progress. I did enjoy this aspect of the game but some of the times you have no clue where to go or what to do next. There were to much hidden paths to find to advance to the next level. I did enjoy that there was lots to do. If not rushed it is a 12 hour+ game. No replay value but it is longer than most recent Mario games out currently. The exploration is a huge part of the game which makes it even more enjoyable. Most of the bosses are challenging but have the option to make it easier if you know what stickers to use. I do wished they kept how the original one was. You get into a battle, earn XP, gain levels, etc... I am very happy that they added something new to the series but I missed the original game play style.

Sticker Star does stay true to the series of being a fun 2D style game with 3D environments and objects. These objects can be turned into super stickers which can deal a lot of damage or be a good support tool. Some of these include a fan or a vacuum or even a baseball bat. Each has it's own unique purpose. Overall the game play is as fun as it's always been and if your a Paper Mario fan I would check this game out you will have some fun. It is probably the worst one out of the three but still a lot of fun.

Graphics:

Paper Mario Sticker Star has your same 2D graphics as any other Paper Mario game in the past. You play as Mario who is made of paper and talk with NPC's who are also made of paper. Almost everything in the game is made of paper. You play as 2D but the environments are 3D. The game is very colourful and has a lot of variety. Each world you enter is a completely different environment. A little feature that I found really neat was whenever you got a shiny or flashy sticker and moved your 3DS around the stickers will shine as you move it around.

Water coming out of a cardboard bowser mouth?

Paper Mario Sticker Star also has a lot of great battle animations. The animations on the enemies and environment are very well done. They really did stay to the name of “Paper” Mario.

Audio:

The sound track for the game is what you would expect from any Mario game in the series. So catchy and soothing for the most part. When you go underground they did re use the classic soundtrack from Super Mario Bros. The audio is what you would expect from any Mario game. Never bad, always good, and always catchy. It seems to relate to the game very well.

Conclusion:

Overall Paper Mario Sticker Star is a very fun and enjoyable game. There are some things that do affect the overall score. Some of the younger audiences may find this game confusing at some parts and well get lost and will not be able to figure out where to go next. Most of the time they do not tell you where you need to go, it's basically go and figure it out for yourself. There were a couple of times I needed a small walk through to figure out where I needed to go next. I also believe they really didn't need to add the RPG battle system in this version of the game. Yes, battling with the stickers is a cool and new concept but when you win a battle it doesn't really feel like you've accomplished anything from doing it. Yes, you may earn coins or health when you defeat them but I missed when you gained experience, levelled up Mario, use badges, etc... That was very fun to me. Overall Sticker Star is a fun and enjoyable game but if your looking for the “old” Paper Mario this is not it. But try it anyways, you may have a good time as I did with it.

Alien 3

Well I decided to do a review on Alien 3 for the NES. Just recently I had watched the third Alien movie, Alien 3 in the Quadrilogy. The Alien Universe has been a favorite of mine since I was a little guy. I kind of looked up to the marines, because they were so bad*ss. Well in Alien 3, Lt. Ellen Ripley was the main character, as is the same in this game. So now it is time to see how this game lives up to the movie... As we all know movies make bad games, and games make bad movies...

[PS Forgive me for my bad screenshots, I will need to invest in something better than MSPaint]

WOW THIS TITLE SCREEN IS SO WICKED! ITS EPIC AND AWESOME!!
To start off you can see the title screen is a joke... This is gonna be a fun review. 

 Gameplay/Controls:
First off I was kind of confused about how Ripley starts off on the surface of a planet armed with a Pulse Rifle. I love how this game already starts off completely messed up. In the movie Alien 3 Ripley crash lands on the planet Fiorina 'Fury' 161, an old foundry which is used as a prison. I can see how it kind of looks likes a foundry on the first opening scene, but aliens running around on the surface? Come on. This games controls are horrid. Completely garbage, like I mean, you can’t even aim up and shoot the aliens in the ceiling? You can throw grenades which is kind of cool, but you throw them like a handicapped sloth. The grenades, they get tossed about 3 feet in front of you. Last time I checked the shrapnel and the shock would probably kill you at that range.

The other thing that is frustrating about this games gameplay is it’s a race against the clock to save people who were face hugged? Either way you save someone after they have been face hugged their dead anyways. As there is no technology to cryo-freeze them to keep them alive until the embryo of the Alien was removed. Another thing how does Ripley have access to grenades and weapons to begin with? In the movie there were no fire arms, explosives etc. The other thing I have beef with is that, why does this game suck so bad? Well continue reading on.

The controls are horrid like I stated earlier. You jump like your slam dunking a basketball. You fall down when you get hit by an alien, than you teleport back into the standing position. Thats orignial. You can also get knocked down the ladders by the aliens too. In which you lay there, than teleport back into standing position. Also where are all the prisoners in like in the movie to help you kill the hybrid "Runner" alien? So this game is completely wrong!  How is there multiple "Aliens" in this game? The game is called "Alien 3" aka single not plural! In later levels I suppose you fight "Praetorian" or "Warrior" Aliens due to them being bigger and more bad*ss than the smaller ones. Not to mension theres eggs and facehuggers in the game, which would claim there is a queen laying eggs and the drones are doing their job. This game should have been called Aliens because it follows the the second Alien installment, you guessed it, "Aliens".

Like I had stated, the controls are horrible, and the gameplay is the same thing over and over.

Ellen Ripley I knew she was tall. Nice jumping girl, looks like your doing an ad for some nice Nike Air Jordans. This is the famous "jump" I was talking about. SLAM DUNK!!

[Trivia Time! In the Director’s cut of Alien 3, a facehugger actually impregnates some sort of bovine creature. Than when the alien is born, it gains some of the DNA structure of its host. Thus replicating a stature, or structure of its host. In most cases we see drones which are usually spawned from human hosts. Minus the one which was born in the way a human gives birth in Alien Resurrection. In other cases such as Alien VS Predator, and AVP 2: Requiem [The Movies] At the end of the first AVP, this theory is proven correct once again, as there is a Hybrid Alien; the Pred-Alien. Also the Theatrical release of Alien 3, the facehugger gets a hold of a dog instead of the bovine.]

As you can see, its that god awful RED again! [Note to those who do not know, I am colorblind, thus making the "red" appear like a shade of orange+pink]

DO A BARREL ROLL!! Ripley as she falls down a bunch of random broken catwalks?

Graphics/Background:

Wow so entertaining, the game looks drier than, well I don’t even know. The screens before each level begins suck too. Well the graphics seem ok for this game. It’s nothing special at all. The flamethrowers flame animation looks like complete garbage. The animation of Ripley tumbling down off of things is well done, but too bad it does nothing to help out the gameplay at all. The aliens look decent for their sprites being like one shade of color, and all the explosion animations look like crap. Nothing much else to say about this other than the background has random black holes in the walls in the first stage. This was over used waaaaay too much. They could have at least used a few different sets of backgrounds instead of the same thing over and over and over again. Not to mension Ripley looks like a employee of a santation department for a city. Aka Garbageman.

The detail on the alien looks ok. This the the screen before a the first level begins...

BGM/SFX:

Well I never thought I would say this, but this games music is ok. Aside from all the other crap, the sounds are somewhat decent. You can tolerate it for the most part. The BGM isn’t that bad, the SFX are ok, and the guns sound something like they should. All in all nothing special at all.

Uniqueness/Creativity:

Like I said before I started this review. Games make bad movies, movies make bad games. It seems this is a true statement. Look at the terminator movies, the games all stunk more than rotten egg farts and beer, same with the movie Doom. The Doom games were way better than the movie. At least the Doom movie had some ideas from the games, mainly the third one but not all of them. This is why Alien 3 on the NES gets its balls busted due to it following nothing from the movie Alien 3.

Closing thoughts/Statements:

All in all this game is bad. Waste of time. I wish I had the 3 hours back that I wasted on this game to review a different game, but this is what I enjoy doing. Saving people from wasting their time on bad games like this. In all of my reviews, I do my best to either beat the game, or get damn near close to it. This game I got fed up with saving people who are doomed anyways. I took one for the team and played this horrid, putrid pile of turds... 

I guess the Aliens won because I did not finish this game. Bow down to them. All our base are belong to them!!

Here goes...

Castlevania 1 (NES)

  

Well here is my first review on what some say is a great installment on some old classic NES games. This is the first installment of three on the NES. To my knowledge you are some dude named Simon Belmont and you have a whip, which later powers up to a flail. Your one bad*ss who enjoys slapping ghouls, ghosts, bats, cats, rats, and whatever else gets in your way. So here we go!

Gameplay/Controls:

I like the idea of power ups being hidden in some blocks, kind of like Mario Brothers. You can break the random candles on the walls for hearts, money bags, and also find certain items. Each item has a unique purpose, at a cost of 1 heart each use. (Nothing is free!) An example of a great weapon on the first boss is the axes. The axes can be lobbed to help you kill the boss, a flying bat. Each item can be utilized in certain areas to help you out, but at other times be completely useless. For a prime example, you get the Blue bottle, (seems like a Molotov cocktail) and you toss it on the ground and it makes a flame. That is extremely useful against flying enemies. (Sarcasm) In that case, the Cross, (acts as a boomerang) would be more useful in that situation. Another one of Simon's power ups look like a flail which you can get to increase your whips damage and range, are quite easy to stumble upon. Without some of these you would be dead meat in some situations.

I like the idea of ascending and descending on the stairs. This is quite a unique function to have for a game of this time (1986 on the Family Computer Disk System in Japan, which was ported to the NES Cartridge in North America in 1987.) Alot of older games were more simple than this game, I can see why for its time it was a favorite among many NES gamers.

The controls seem a bit sluggish, as in when you need to be critical in timing all the time. There seems to be no midair control at all. Those flying horsehead Medusa things that knock you off ledges and downstairs, you need to be critical in hitting those. It almost seems that they will always knock you off a ledge so that you die. One of the flaws I have noticed in the overall gameplay is that, if you proceed up a set of stairs, and get knocked back down them, you die! It’s as if you fall into a bottomless pit and just, well, die. Maybe Simon falls down and cracks his skull open how do we know?

Graphics/Background:

The graphics for this game are not too shabby. They seem to utilize the color red a lot. Then again this game is older than I am by 2 years! Majority of the other backgrounds are well done.The Enemies all have a unique look which is good. They do not seem to recycle the sprites which is good. Many of the older games do this which is a lazy game designer’s way out. I am colorblind so the colors always mess with me. Red/Blue/Greens are the worst for me. So the red backgrounds, as I am told, really mess with my eyes. These older games really rack a toll on my sight after gaming them, but all in all this games Graphics are not too shabby!

The axes, best for slaying this Bloodsucking Rat!

This is the "Red" color I am talking about!

BGM/SFX:

 The music for this game is alright. It gets annoying after a while though. The SFX when you collect things is pretty cool; it makes you want to collect more and more items. The sound of the whip is pretty accurate for the age of this game. The noise it makes when enemies die is ok too. Makes kind of like a boom noise. The other thing that is annoying about when you die is it’s almost like the Price is Right jingle they play when you die. It gives you that sense of feeling that you’re a failure, you suck, and you need to end it NOW. Why even keep trying? All in all this games Sound and SFX are pretty solid.

Uniqueness/Creativity:

I might catch some flak here but this game is very much like a typical Dracula/Zombie/Undead killing game. There is some superstition in the background of this game with the crosses and such. This game probably is one of the best side scrolling games for its time. The adventure aspect of it is quite good too. I also give this game thumbs up for the stairs being implemented and being functional. This is why it is set apart from other side scrollers where you can only jump on blocks to ascend or descend.

Closing thoughts/Statements:

All in all I give the first Castlevania credit for being a solid game for its time. It’s not a bad game, it’s just the controls are clunky and sluggish. If the controls were a little more responsive, the game would have been a lot better. I would strongly suggest this game to anyone with a love for sidescrolling good old ghoul bashing madness!

Family Guy Online Beta Review

Reviewed on: Feb. 22, 2012

Gameplay:
Family Guy Online has been advertised for some time now. They have recently started doing small sessions for a closed beta. I was lucky enough to get into one of those betas. Family Guy Online is an online game that you play in your web browser. You start off by creating your character. As of right now there are 4 different character types to choose from. They are Stewie, Lois, Peter, and Chris. There is also another character slot that is blanked out and by looking at the portrait it is Bryan. I assume when the game is out of beta you will be able to create a Bryan type character. Now each character type has it's own speciality for example Stewie is able to deal massive amounts of damage because that is one of his skills. When you decide to choose what character you want to be you are now able to fully customize the character of your choice. Whether is be shirts, eyes, mouths, or your nose and you customize everything. There aren't a ton of customizable items as of yet but it is enough for now. When you are finished are are brought into the game. You start off in front of the Griffin's house on spooner street. Your first quests begins with Peter Griffon where he asks you to talk to Chris Griffon on why he does not want to go to school. From here on out you start to do quests to earn money, experience, and vanity items.

Character Screen

As your questing you will find random items laying around that may or may not look familiar. For example you will find a tennis ball. When you click it the ball gets added to Bryan's collection. So you can collect important items from the Family Guy universe and add them to each characters collection. The town of Quahog is pretty big. You start off in the urban area aka. spooner street. When you have done all the quests or enough quests you are able to move on to other parts of the town to explore. Overall the map is a pretty decent size to walk around and explore. In Family Guy Online you are also able to interact with many other people in the game as well. In the beta the chat was not working so hopefully that will be fixed when the game is released. Despite all of the bugs in the game (see down below) Family Guy Online is a decent experience. Not great but alright.

Bugs:
There are several bugs in the game that I noticed while playing. For one some of the audio likes to overlap other audio within the game. The quest where you go into the other universes through Stewie are all bugged. When I did this quest I was stuck in the Asian Griffon family house. There was no way out and no NPC's to interact. Another big one is the constant lag. Some parts were alright but every minute or less there was lots of log and lots of loading. There was another bug where if you clicked on a emoticon or quest item it would not activate or respond. This bug happened to me a lot. Yes, there are a lot of bugs in the game but this is why they do beta tests to find all of them and fix them for the release.

Customize your character! (Not my character)

Conclusion:
Family Guy Online is a game where you play for 30 mins - an hour at a time before getting bored of it. It is meant for casual players. You can tell just by playing it. I did however find it neat that I was able to explore and experience Quahog virtually. I love the show and there are a lot of little easter eggs through quests that fans of the series will pick up right away. The game is still in rough shape and still in the beta process. They are doing multiple beta tests to work out all of the bugs so it will be fresh on launch day. Overall it was a nice experience and looking forward to getting into the next beta test.

**Note**
This review will be constantly updated as further beta tests are implemented. This is not the full review just my thoughts on the beta as of now.

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Mario Kart 7 (3DS)

Console: Nintendo 3DS

Genre: Racing
Release Date: December 4, 2011
Reviewed: Feb. 2/12

Gameplay:

Mario Kart 7 is the seventh instalment in the Mario Kart series. This time it is coming to the handheld, the Nintendo 3DS. May I add that it is a fantastic addition to the series. Mario Kart 7 plays like all other Mario Kart games ever released. There are a couple of new additions to the game like parachutes or para sales. These are only activated when driving over a rainbow colored (<----Canadian) boost arrows. When driven over you sore in the air and your parachute is activated and you take the race into the skies for a few seconds anyway. There are other great features added to the game to keep the interest level high. You can use the built in gyro controls within the 3DS system to steer in Mario Kart 7. While your racing in some of the courses you will notice that there are coins scattered everywhere throughout the entire track. You can only get 10 coins per track but these coins to provide a use for the game. When a certain amount of coins are collected you unlock extra vehicle parts to customize your kart. Each unlockable part provides some sort of stat to your vehicle such as speed, handling, weight or even drifting. There are some pretty awesome unlockables like the mushroom wheels. That is not all you can unlock though. In addition to unlocking vehicle parts you can also unlock additional characters, up to eight to be exact. Some of these characters include Metal Mario, and Wario. The other characters are up to you to find out ;). As usual there are 16 new maps added to the game and 16 old maps from previous mario kart games added to the game as well. I was pretty happy to be able to race on Koopa Beach again. With the old maps added they didn't just port over the old maps over they actually added boosts or updated some of there areas on the map. They even added some shortcuts. 

Once you have received all of the trophies in the game and unlocked all of the characters they brought the famous and flawless multiplayer back. With this multiplayer they added features like creating or joining community groups and racing with people in the group. Overall the online experience in Mario Kart 7 is as fun as it's always been with the previous Mario Kart games. There are only a couple of things that annoy me in Mario Kart 7. When your racing on 150cc or Mirror Mode the computers are constantly using Blue Shells which just urks you especially when your right in front of the finish like and you lose due to the shell. Another thing is the shortcut people like to take when your racing with them online in the map Maka Wuhu. You can take a shortcut on this map which skips over half of the course. One other thing is the overall music quality in the game isn't all that impressive compared to the other Mario Kart games. One of the maps "Neo Bowser City" takes a msuci from past games and combines them into one.

Graphics:

The graphics in Mario Kart 7 are great. The game really uses the power of the 3DS to make the game lively and colorful. The graphics are roughly the same as compared to the Wii version but much better than the DS version by far. Of coarse you have your occasional 2D background environments but most of it is all in 3D and looks fantastic. The 3D is something I would not recommend. With the 3D you will be moving your head a lot with the game due to the racing, especially if your using the gyro controls. It will end up giving you a huge headache and hurting your eyes. It's nice to have on once in awhile just to see the 3D but it is not recommended that you keep it on for long especially when your racing. Overall the graphics are great.

Audio:

The Audio in Mario Kart 7 overall is well done. There are some courses where the music just makes no sense and drives you crazy because of the annoyance but overall the music experience is pretty good. One level I mentions above earlier "Neo Bowser City" takes some music from previous games like "Toad's Turnpike" from the N64 version and combines them into one for "Neo Bowser City". The other maps are retro maps so they have the original music from the previous Mario Kart Games. Overall excellent audio.

Conclusion:

Mario Kart 7 is a fantastic addition to the Mario Kart series. As always there is lots to do. Mario Kart 7 will keep you occupied with it's time trials and multiplayer for awhile. I highly recommend this game to anyone, especially the Mario Kart fans. Other then some small minor issues like the shortcut glitch in Maku Wuhu or the endless blue shells of death it is a great experience for anyone. The 3D is not recommended for this game while racing but it is nice to turn on once in awhile to just look at the 3D. 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Multiplayer (Part 1 of 2)

I will be breaking Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 into two separate
reviews. The first part will be the multiplayer aspect of the game.
The second part will be the campaign and spec ops portion of the game.
The multiplayer portion of this review will just be on big review. The
second part will be my original review style where I break it down into
other parts (gameplay, graphics, audio). Lets get started!

MW3 Multiplayer Review (part 1 of 2)
Since multiplayer is the most important part of the game for all of
you gamers I decided to do this part first. So MW3 has improved on the
multiplayer once again. I will begin with the positives and then move
on to the problems and negatives.

First off the multiplayer is as good as ever. There are tons of things
to be unlocked. There is a huge roster of guns to be unlocked by
ranking up. There are new and additional titles, emblems and
camouflages. If you are an elite member or and elite founder you
unlock a winter camo and new titles and emblems for your playercard.
There are 16 maps that shipped with the game with map packs soon to be
added. If your an elite premium member you get monthly DLC for free.

So essentially the multiplayer is the same. You rank up and as you
rank up you unlock guns, perks and equipment. The max rank for MW3 is
80 which is pretty high up there and can take some time. As I am
typing this review I am currently first prestige rank 19. You have
your basic gun classes and they are the Assault Rifles, Sub machine
Guns, Light Machine Guns, Sniper Rifles, and shotguns. I would like to
note that shotguns are now used as primary weapons. MW2 had them as
secondary weapons. A cool feature that was added to the multiplayer
portion would be the ability to level up your guns. The more you use
the guns the more attachments and camos you unlock for them. The max
level for primary guns is level 31. At level 31 you will have unlocked
everything for that gun including the gold camouflage which looks much
better in Modern Warfare 3 than Modern Warfare 2. Another feature
added are strike packages. This is also a great addition. The strike
packages changes up your play style. For example if you want to play
the regular MW style of multiplayer you would pick the Assault strike
package. This is your standard killstreak rewards. You kill 3 in a row
you get UAV. You die you lose your kill streaks. The other package is
the support package. This package is really neat because you get
points towards your killstreaks by killing enemies as well as doing
objectives like capturing a flag in domination. When you die your
points towards your killstreaks do not reset. The support package
offers different types of streaks which will support your team. For
example you get an advanced UAV which you cannot get by using a
assault strike package. The last one is the specialist strike package.
This can make you a god in multiplayer if used right. Basically your
kills do not go towards killstreaks but they go to perks. So if you
get three kills you will get an additional perk to help you out so
instead of three you will have four. These perks are customizable. You
can choose any order you want your perks to appear.

Overall the maps are pretty good. There is a huge variety of maps for
multiplayer. The maps are much smaller then the maps from MW2. This
can be a problem for campers, there are a lot of campers in
multiplayer but it is due to the game just being released so people
are not as familiar with the maps yet. There is a lack of sniping maps
for all of you snipers out there. I am sure some will be added with
the map packs. Some maps are a lot darker and very hard to see some
areas and can be sucky because that's where people camp the most.
Another negative thing about the maps is there is way to much stuff.
The open areas don't really feel as open anymore because there is
always stuff in the area to hide behind and pick people off.

There are new modes added to the multiplayer. These new modes include
Team Defender and Kill Confirmed. These very fun game modes and highly
recommended. Kill confirmed forces people to come out of hiding. With
Kill Confirmed the objective of the game is to kill your enemies. When
you kill your enemies they drop dog tags which count for one point
towards your team. First team to collect 65 dog tags wins the round.
The cool thing about this is if one of your team mates dies they will
drop their dog tag. If you don't want the enemy to get that point you
can run over the dog tag and deny their kill. Team Defender is exactly
like Team Deathmatch with a little twist. So regular kills don't
reward your team as much for points. In Team Deathmatch you get 100
points per kill for your team. You get about half in Team Defender.
The main objective in the game mode is to hold on to the flag as long
as you can. If your team is holding on to the flag and you kill an
enemy you get a bonus towards your experience and towards the team
score. So if you hold on to the flag most of the match then you are
sure to win. Both modes are tons of fun, go try it out!

Now the negatives. The main issue I have with the multiplayer in MW3
are the re spawn points. The maps are small so in game modes like
Domination the re spawning is terrible. At points I re spawned right in
front of the enemy. Another time I re spawned in front of three
enemies. This is extremely irritating. Another problem is the cheap
weapons every tends to use. For example the Type 95 can kill someone
with one single burst fire. Another cheap weapon is the UMP45 which is
by far the most over used weapon in the game. This gun has insane
accuracy and really high damage. Another problem is the shotguns. The
shotguns were awesome weapons in MW2 and Black Ops. The shotguns in
MW3 need a major buff up. Using the model 1887 that gun was a one shot
kill in MW2. In MW3 you get 3 hit markers before the guy dies even up
close! One other annoyance is the Light Machine Guns. These are a huge
disappointment. These guns are so underpowered that literally nobody
uses them.

MW3 was just released so there is still lots of time for them to fix
some issues with the multiplayer. Almost every game at launch has
issues and usually they get fixed. What they recently said in one of
their interviews is that they added a new system to the multiplayer
where they can tweak things on the fly instead of waiting three months
to produce a patch. They already had a small patch where they
apparently increased the power off shotguns.

Overall the multiplayer is as fun as ever. I know a lot of people are
upset with the multiplayer due to the problems. This game just came
out, give it a chance before quitting and bashing it. They need time
to fix the problems. Be patient. I highly recommend people pick this
game up. The multiplayer is fantastic! Enjoy!

Ninety-Nine Nights 2

Console: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Genre: Action/Role-Playing
Release Date: June 29, 2010
Reviewed: November 15, 2011

Gameplay:
N3 2 is a hack and slash game full of action. This game in a way is
like Dynasty Warriors....but worse. The first one I enjoyed but this
one I recommend be avoided. First off with N3 2 you are going through
story mode doing different missions. If you know what Dynasty Warriors
is then there really is no need of an explanation for this game, but
for those of you who don't know what it is I shall explain. N3 2 is
basically a run in and kill game. You face massive armies and to get
to the next zone to complete your mission you need to kill the entire
army. Now these armies and idiots. The enemies stand around while your
destroying them. The odd enemy will come in and attempt to swing at
you to hurt you. As you progress through the game you unlock new
spells for your character. Some of these spells are actually very cool
and can help out a lot. Some of these spells are completely useless
and shouldn't even be in the game.

A lot of the enemies are extremely easy while a lot of them are
extremely annoying. The fly enemies that shoot ice and fireballs at
you are by far the most annoying. Half the time you aren't even able
to complete the mission without dying from them several times.                                                   Every time they hit you with their attacks you get stunned for a few
seconds and knocked down, even if you are in a middle of a huge combo.
No, as soon as you get hit you drop to the ground and are stunned.
Another annoying enemy are the different types of berserkers. Now the
first ones are easy and can easily be avoided but when there are 3+
white ones and you have to kill them to progress.....it's impossible.
Every hit is about 1/4 of your health and it knocks you down and stuns
you. Extremely annoying.

The missions are all the same thing over and over and over again. You
run, kill hundreds of enemies, get mad because of the BS enemies,
reach end of mission, done. There is nothing added to the missions
like obstacles or nothing. Same thing every time.

Graphics:
The graphics are anything new or great. The graphics are a bit
outdated and some of the animations look cheesy and lame. One thing I
can say about this is that the animations for some of the spells look
awesome. Looks like they will do some damage to your enemies. Overall
nothing new, nothing great.

Audio:
The audio is also outdated. The music can be decent at some points.
The voice acting isn't all that great and the overall sound quality
isn't great as well.

Conclusion:
Overall this game isn't the great. If you want to try it then please
rent it. Other wise avoid it entirely. The first one was much better.
Short review but you can't really say to much for a game this bad.