Little Big Planet Review

Little Big Planet Review

"If you ever step on my patch, I'll bring you down, bring you down."

Game: Little Big Planet
Developer: Media Molecule
M.S.R.P: 17.99
Platform: PS3

This game has gone over my head for a while, but just recently I decided to give one of the opening titles for the PS3 library a chance. "Little Big Planet" is what many have called this generations Mario. Is this adorable game worth the cash in your pockets? Lets find out!

Story:

Little Big Planet has a simple enough story, you are a cute lil sackboy on an adventure that will take you all around the world of Little Big Planet. You will visit locations similair to New York, Mexico, India and Anartica, each with their own unique feeling that makes them part of Little Big Planet.

That's pretty much it. The game is pretty straightforward.

Grade: B

Gameplay:

Little Big Planet is essentially Super Mario styled gameplay at its core. You go from one end of the stage to the other, jumping, swinging and running past obstacles in your way. But its the little differences that make "Little Big Planet" something to remember. You are given a cute little sackboy to control and you can dress them to look however you want. Put a funny dress on him, a silly hat, make him a her, anything you want. It's apparent a lot of time and energy went into making this game so customizable and I for one am thankful for it.

A big part of "Little Big Planet" is the play, create and share aspect in which the game teaches you how to make your own levels from the ground up. You can then take your made levels and share them online. So its like Super Mario, but with the ability to create your own levels to be shared with the world. That is simply awesome, I can't deny that.

Grade: A

Graphics and Sound:

This game definitely has some of the catchiest, coolest songs I've ever heard. The music goes with themes of the levels perfectly. For the levels that take place in Africa, a real african soul beat by an african folk artist plays, and in the Mexico themed levels a real latin grammy winning song plays in the background. These are bits of music that I would have never heard if I didnt play Little Big Planet" and since then I'm happy I had.

The game itself has top of the line graphics and something about the screen makes me feel like im watching a blend between reality and game. True everything is cartoon like, but it's high def and random objects that appear in the game like lets say a shoe, look stunningly real. As if these levels were created by a child looking for a world for their doll to be in. Amazing.

Grade: A

Verdict:

This game is awesome and I don't know how I lived before playing it. Go buy it now!!!!

Final Grade: -A

Is it worth your money: I would've paid for this game at full price if I had known about it when it first came out. This is an unbelievable price for an unbelievable game.

Stars Aren't Worth This F.T.W

This F.T.W is called "Stars Aren't Worth This" a cute interpretation of the classic super mario games as one has to braze all sorts of crazy dangers to get a star. This game is brought to us by, "Cranktrain" on Addicting games.com

Online Game
Free to Play
No age rating

The controls for this game are simple, you move left and right and you jump. The character can also wall slide and jump from wall to wall. Your goal for every stage is to reach the star at the end and as the game goes on, the game gets more and more difficult. What begins as a simple mario like game, becomes a hellish torture like device to test your skills.

Definitely a game worth trying, at least once! And trust me, you will die....a lot.

ENJOY!!!

You can play "Stars Aren't Worth This" here:
http://www.addictinggames.com/action-games/stars-arent-worth-this-game.jsp

2am Truck Stop F.T.W

This F.T.W is called "2 am Truck Stop" and it is brought to us by "Adult Swim games". Its art style seems to be one of a drug trip and its gameplay is sure to keep you hooked.

Online Game
Free to play
No Age Rating / Mature Concepts and Themes

In this automatic side scrolling game you control an industrial trailer truck as it runs down highways to its destination. Using the guns that stick out of the top of your vehicle you must defend yourself from all the dangers that appear on the highway for truckers. Dangers such as pills, demonic coffee, and skull logos.

It's fun, trippy and colorful, definitely check it out.

ENJOY!!!

You can play "2 am Truck Stop" here:
http://games.adultswim.com/two-am-truck-stop-twitchy-online-game.html

Sonic Generations Review

Sonic Generations Review

"Follow me, set me free, trust in me and we'll escape from the city."

Game: Sonic Generations
Developer: Sega
Platforms: PS3 / Xbox 360
M.S.R.P: 29.99

Everyone's favorite blue hedgehog is back, but unless you've been under a rock it is a well known fact that recent Sonic games have, well, sucked. Sega is aware of this and has made its final attempt to give Sonic is old glory with Sonic Generations,  a game that combines the best of the new games with the best of the old school ones. Has Sonic finally reached his old glory or is this a game you should skip.

Story:

This sonic tale begins with a shadowy creature appearing before sonic and his friends at a party. The creature sucks up all of sonic's friends into a time vortex and sonic chases after him. However, this happens twice. The first time it is with new sonic, and all the new obnoxious friends he has made over the years and the second time occurs with good ol' sega genesis sonic when it was just him and tails. Sonic..or Sonics discover that this creature has altered both space and time and that they must go through memories from their past to rescue their friends.

While the plot is cheesy it serves its purpose in terms of a framing device. The point of the game is to highlight the best of Sonic over the years and in so the levels are all fan favorite levels from Sonic's past. The dialogue is cheesy and cutscenes are few, well few for sonic games. The game is Sonic at his bare minimum and it shows, and to be honest I'm not complaining.

Grade: C+

Gameplay:

The point of having two Sonics is that the game is played in two perspectives. One type of gameplay is new age sonic in which you run around at blazing fast a.d.h.d level speeds to reach the end of the level. The other is the strategic running around, classic sonic gameplay. The levels as aforementioned are based off of fan favorites and because there are two sonics one can play their favorite sonic levels in ways they have never seen before.

The game itself essentially works as a linear mission hub. You are in a huge white space with the levels hanging as backdrops in the background. You can then choose as which Sonic to play as for each level, and after completing a level as both sonics, little challenge missions open up. Completing most of these are optional but it unlocks concept art and alternate songs for levels if you do.

It is a fun and new way to do the series and I appreciated it.

Grade: B

Graphics and Sound:

Graphically its a very childish looking, colorful game. The game looks cool enough and it is kind of cool to see levels I grew up with, redone in glorious hd. The music is entirely based off of old favorites in the series, remixed / remastered. And I will say right now the tunes are as catchy now as they were then.

Grade: B+

Verdict:

I'm glad the Sonic series is finally getting good again. I actually really enjoyed playing this game though, it can seem a bit bland at times with its layout. But to be honest, when I reflect on the most recently released games it actually isn't too far from what has been put out before. If you havent picked up sonic since his sega genesis days I recommend giving this one a try, and if you love Sonic in general then this is a must have for your collection.

Final Grade: B

Is it worth your money: I'd wait for the price to drop a bit more, I would honestly pay 20.00 for this game.

Road of the Dead F.T.W

This F.T.W is a fun first person driving game called, "Road of the Dead" developed by "EvilDog"

Online Game
Free to play
Mature Age Rating

In Road of the Dead you play a survivor of the Zombie Apocolaypse as you try to make your way from city to city to stay alive. The game style is reminiscent of games from the NES era such as excite bike where one keeps going and going to avoid obstacles.

You must keep driving while avoiding obstacles to reach the next city, if you take too much damage your car will explode.

If your mood for something dark and different, check it out,

ENJOY!!!

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/550714

Persona 3 F.E.S Review

Persona 3 F.E.S Review

"Get back here you son of a b----"

PSN re-release
Game: Persona 3 F.E.S
Developer: Atlus
M.S.R.P: 9.99
Platforms: Ps3

The persona series by Atlus has a massive cult following, they are little known RPG's that often place you in the perspective of a highschooler tasked between balancing school work and fighting demons. This game was originally released for the PS2 and is now available for download on PSN. Is this game worth it's asking price, or is it better left as a forgotten relic?

Story:

Persona 3 begins with you being a teen who has just transferred to a new school. The protagonist is silent in the hopes that you will feel like you are the individual himself. You begin the game by choosing your name and are told you will have one school year to overcome all the obstacles life has for you and to "use your heart as your guide."

The character is put in a dorm with other students who all attend a wealth private boarding school. All goes well until one night a dormmate kicks open your door at midnight and asks you to come with her, because your dorm is under attack. The two of you escape to the rooftop where you are attacked by creatures called shadows. The dormmate helping you, pulls out a gun and points it to her head and screams out, "Persona" but nothing happens. She becomes disarmed and so you take the gun and try it yourself, causing a god to appear before you and fight with you. Later that night your fellow dorm mates reveal to you that you were chosen for this dorm because you have the ability to summon these gods, these other forms of yourself called "Personas" and that they all have that ability and would like you to fight with them.

Every night at midnight there is a hidden hour that occurs where these demons appear and only those with the power of persona are awake to fight them. On top of that every night a giant tower appears in the middle of town, and they believe the answers for why the shadows and the secret hours appear must be at the top. You decide to help them climb this tower, balancing school and a social life as well to put an end to all this once and for all.

Interesting story huh? 


Grade: B+

Gameplay:

The game is a simple RPG with a social simulation aspect involved. At night, if you so choose you can climb the tower known as "Tartarus" to fight enemies and become stronger. During the day you attend class, hang out with friends, do homework or hang around town. Ya know, typical highschooler stuff.

This all takes place in the course of the year in game time and a day usually consists of going to school then doing at least two activities of your choice. So essentially you go to school, then hang out with people then go to "Tartarus", or go to school, spend time at an arcade then go home and study. When fighting the game is a turn based rpg, you and your dormmates make up your "party" (the groups of individuals who will fight with you every night). You can only control the main character in combat and the rest of your party is controlled by the games computer.

Your party members don't always make the smartest moves in battle but they are reliable enough and if you want them to focus on something especially (I.e; healing) you can command them to be the healer for most of the battle. Every turn you can only make one move but if you make a move that exploits an enemies weakness (i.e hitting a tree enemy with a fire attack) then your characters can do something called "AN ALL OUT ATTACK" where your party throws taking turns to the wind and bum rushes the enemy doing extra damage and not costing a turn.

Aside from that the game is essentially just walking around and talking to people. The better friendships you get the stronger you are in battle, and you can even date some of the people you are closest to. It becomes a weird cross between an rpg and a social sim and it really makes the highschool experience seem a lot more fun than it is in reality?

Did I also mention you take midterms???

Grade: B+

Graphics and Sound

Being a port of a PS2 game the graphics are a bit outdated. The game is mostly cell shaded but even so, its art style shows its age horribly. There is a lot of hand drawn art in the game as well however,  like when people talk / descriptions of personas and they still look amazing.

The music in the game can be catchy especially the battle music. All the tracks are memorable and given that this is a game from way way back and the tracks still got stuck in my head from time to time, thats saying something.

Grade: B

Verdict:

I say get this game because you will never play anything like it. The dialogue is believable and witty and you will find yourself caring and falling in love with the characters in this world. It is blaintantly apparent the developers spent alot of time making this game and it shows, this is definetely something to pick up. This version also comes with the add on "The Answer" which takes place a few months after the end of the game adding another 20 hours to gameplay. All this for such a meager price should not be passed up.

Final Grade: B+

Is it worth your money: Yes, for 9.99 it's a steal.

Angry Bees F.T.W

For this F.T.W Im going to introduce a cute and fun, wave shooter. This week's F.T.W is "Angry Bees" brought to us by developers, "Shahsoft" and "c0rupt3d"

Online Game
Free to play
No age rating

In this simple wave shooter you are the King of the Bees. Your fellow bees had worked for you day and night creating honey for you, but now have started an uprising to take all the honey away from you. You must defend your crown and honey but shooting down and killing any bees that come towards your glob of honey.

The game is a wave shooter, if you are unfamiliar with the term it essentially means enemies will keep coming to you in wave after waves and you have to try to last as long as you can. You are given a handgun and everytime you complete a wave the game gives you the option to upgrade to use more powerful weapons. All you need to do is click at an enemy and keep clicking until they're dead.

Sounds fun, no?

ENJOY!!!

You can play "Angry Bees" here:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/593406