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Vidya Game Reviews
Topic Started: Feb 26 2011, 03:27 AM (11,981 Views)
Bigcalv2002
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Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception

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Platform:Playstation 3
ESRB Rating:T for teen

And the Playstation 3 signature franchise returns for its 3rd outing. Nathan Drake has set out once more in search of lost treasure, but this time he has taken up a journey that his ancestor, sir francis drake, had started nearly 400 years earlier. The journey? To find the lost city of ubar (or as some call it in the game "Iram of the pillars"), a city of supposed immeasureable wealth. His journey takes him to some quite exotic locales such as London, France, Syria, and Yemen. But he is not the only one searching for the lost city of ubar, as he encounters a woman named Marlowe whom works for a super secret organization high up in the british government looking for this immeasurable wealth as well, and her desire in that wealth is a little more shall we say....sinister (without giving away a major plot twist). The game itself is full of cinematic quality cutscene footage that blends beautifully into the gameplay. Waterfalls look like actual waterfalls, sand dunes look very realistic as when the winds pick up, you can actually see the sand blowing over top of the dunes. At one point there is a scene where water is rushing through the bowels of the ship you are on, and it looks exactly like how you would imagine it.

Posted Image Nathan Drake relaxing in the desert after his plane crashes

While the game is very stunning visually, the gameplay is equally as good. Traversal in this game is easiest IMO (basically, the X button is used for travelling and jumping). Melee combat is just as easy as there are no real button combos you have to remember. Throwing a grenade at an enemy behind cover is pretty sweet as well, due to the game giving you an arc, showing eactly where your grenade will land.

You also have the same basic enemy types that were in the previous Uncharted games, your shotgun guys, your armoured shotgun guys, your rocket guys, your sniper guys, your super heavy machine gun guys etc, so if you have played previous installments, this should feel very familiar.

But as much as the game feels similar to previous installments, in multiplayer, things are quite a bit different. They have added quite a few bells and whistles in multiplayer. One major system they have implemented is an incorporation of a buddy system in any team on team based mode. its basically like this, if you and a buddy work together to take out an opponent, a little icon will spawn over said opponents dead body. Well you and your buddy can go over to his body while its still there, and you can high five each other. Not only will that make him feel lousy, but it will also give both of you extra cash. Another thing they added to multiplayer is an option for a loadout selection, and I am quite happy for this. In the previous installment everyone started out with the AK47 no matter what rank you were at, but now if you do not like the AK47, and lets say you want use a sniper gun most of the time, you can swap your loadout from the start screen, and the next time you respawn, you will spawn with your selected loadout. Now you can also select certain boosters and kickbacks with each loadout slot as well. Kickbacks are another major addition that they have made to multiplayer. In any multiplayer game you will earn medals for completing certain objectives (mostly for how you kill the other guys). Well what kickbacks do is when you get a certain amount of medals, you can activate your kickback to give you an advantage, be it a power weapon, a clip of ammo with no reloading for 30 seconds, or turning into a swarm of spiders with the creepy crawler kickback (creepy, no?).

But they did add more than just loadouts and kickbacks. One new mode is Co-op hunter mode. Its like this, in the regular Co-op arena mode, you and 2 other people fight as a team against up to 10 waves of computer opponents. Well in co-op hunter mode, you and 1 other person fight against waves of computer opponents....and 2 other humans, then after 5 minutes, you switch sides. Another favourite mode of mine is one that they oddly did not have in the last installment, free for all, where you fight for yourself, and the glory is all yours.

Oh I almost forgot one of my favourite improvements to the multiplayer experience, the treasure system. When you kill an enemy, there is a chance that they will drop a treasure. If you complete a treasure set, you will unlock items that you can use in your next match, such as customizable clothing for your character or weapons with the mods built right into them. Those should be highly sought after as each weapon can usually only have 1 mod, but these unlockable weapons will usually have 2 or more mods built in. And when you are playing a match while in the budy system, your buddy will see a different colour treasure on his screen. While he might not be able to get the treasure, he will still get cash, and you will get the treasure if he picks it up.

Now thats not to say that i was completely blown away by the whole experience, but its not really the games fault at all. Its the fact that uncharted 2 was such a great experience to play (seriously, if you have a PS3 and you have not played it, pick it up, its amazing!! and amazingly cheap right now too!!) that my expectations might have been a bit too high. But what do you expect, you cant get hundreds of perfect scores twice in a row all the time! So in my own opinion, they kinda shot themselves in the foot for this game by making Uncharted 2 such a great game that it was.

Either way, here is my final thoughts on the game. If you like a gripping cinematic single player experience, and an extensive competitive and co-operative multiplayer experience all rolled into a nice slick package, pick this up for sure!!

Pros:
-Deeply gripping single player
-Stunning visuals
-Extensively improved multiplayer

Cons:
-Might be overshadowed by Uncharted 2

Score:9.5/10

Thanks, and please let me know what you think of my review.
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Romanticide
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Thoughts before I start up my gaming? Sure, why not?

-Sound. It's a pretty important part of games, but it got no mention here. I wonder if you just forgot. Anyway. I've only played the first (I intend to get 2/3 at some point in time), but it had some pretty good music. The London Philharmonic Orchestra's rendition of Nate's Theme is wonderful, but I digress. My question here really is, "how is the game's music and sound effects?"

-I like the story section; it gives me a decent idea of what to expect without spoiling anything of real importance. This is how they should be written, guys.

-The controls sound alright. I found the controls (especially that damn camera) to the first Uncharted kind of awkward, but then again that was my first third person shooter, so I guess some awkwardness was to be expected. The thing I'd really like to know is if they've improved controlling the camera at all. Idk, I found it annoying and cumbersome.

-Is this game as platformer-esque as the first? If so, are these sections done well or not? Are there any really hard parts?

-Speaking of difficulty in general, is it that difficult a game or not? Should I expect to breeze through it or are there parts that will take many tries?

-The multiplayer section is pretty good. If I had to guess, you've played more multiplayer than single player, given the amount of detail on that section.

-A questions that has nothing to do with anything in the review: Are the stories of the three games tied together in any meaningful way? Sure, odds are that I'll still get/play 2 first, but I'd like to know.

All things considered, it was a pretty good review. *nods*
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Bigcalv2002
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MementoVivere
Jan 19 2012, 12:15 AM
Thoughts before I start up my gaming? Sure, why not? -Sound. It's a pretty important part of games, but it got no mention here. I wonder if you just forgot. Anyway. I've only played the first (I intend to get 2/3 at some point in time), but it had some pretty good music. The London Philharmonic Orchestra's rendition of Nate's Theme is wonderful, but I digress. My question here really is, "how is the game's music and sound effects?" -I like the story section; it gives me a decent idea of what to expect without spoiling anything of real importance. This is how they should be written, guys. -The controls sound alright. I found the controls (especially that damn camera) to the first Uncharted kind of awkward, but then again that was my first third person shooter, so I guess some awkwardness was to be expected. The thing I'd really like to know is if they've improved controlling the camera at all. Idk, I found it annoying and cumbersome. -Is this game as platformer-esque as the first? If so, are these sections done well or not? Are there any really hard parts? -Speaking of difficulty in general, is it that difficult a game or not? Should I expect to breeze through it or are there parts that will take many tries? -The multiplayer section is pretty good. If I had to guess, you've played more multiplayer than single player, given the amount of detail on that section. -A questions that has nothing to do with anything in the review: Are the stories of the three games tied together in any meaningful way? Sure, odds are that I'll still get/play 2 first, but I'd like to know. All things considered, it was a pretty good review. *nods*

Sorry RO, yeah I forgot sound, Its got a very good orchestral track selection made specifically for the various locations. Sound effects are also done very well. Explosions and gunfire sound just as epic. Voice over is done quite well. One of my favourite parts of the sound and voice over specifically is the one liners the characters make when you melee kill the enemies (there goes your neck!)

Second point, camera controls are quite easy in this installment.

Also, the AI is pretty intuitive in this game. I got my ass handed to me a few times playing this game on expert difficulty.

To answer your question about the stories being tied together in any significant way, yes and no. Yes in the fact of trying to understand how the characters relate to each other (Nate, Sully, and Elena). But in any major plot twist development related to them finding the lost city of ubar, no.

And thanks, im not much of a reviewer, but i like this game enough to try my hand at it for a 2nd time :)
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Game: Final Fantasy XIII-2
Platform: 360, PS3
Genre: RPG

So the question that many Final Fantasy die-hards have been asking is, "does this game rectify the errors that Final Fantasy XIII made?" Asking this question implies two things: One, that FFXIII was a bad game, and two, that there's a set formula for a Final Fantasy Game. Neither is true. What I want to attempt to do, unlike the mainstream gaming media (which seems as mercurial as Final Fantasy "fans"), is review this game on its own merits.

Gameplay obviously shares many similarities with FFXIII. Your party is comprised of the game's two main characters, Noel and Serah, and the third slot is occupied by a monster. I'll get to the monsters and the inevitable Pokemon comparisons in a little bit.

Leveling is done via the Crystarium once again. As you level up each role with your acculmulated CP (experience), you'll learn skills corresponding to said role and gain increases in HP, Strength, and Magic. However, it differs from XIII in that all six roles share the same Crystarium, streamlining the process. More importantly, there are no more arbitrary caps. I'm not particularly huge on grinding, but there was a point in XIII that you could *easily* max out your CP and have fuck all to do with it until you reach the next chapter/post-game. No such issues here.

The paradigm system relies upon the aforementioned "roles". There are six of them, and you can mix and match them as you please. Want three physical attackers? Go for it. Want two buffers and a debuffer? You can do that. I could do this all day, but the point is that you'll eventually find six paradigms that work for you in most situations. Boss battles are an exception and may very well require some tweaking of the deck, but if they require a total overhaul, odds are you're doing something wrong. The system rewards you for pre-battle planning, pretty much. If you have a good deck, you'll win most fights easily. If not, well, you'll get stomped.

The monster system gets compared to Pokemon a lot. It's more similar to Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, though - In both games, taming monsters is random despite your best efforts and you don't control them. There seems to be no limit on the number of tamed monsters you can possess, but only three can take the field at a time. Unlike your human characters, your monsters only have one role, so picking the three you feel will best supplement your team isn't as easy as just picking the monsters with the highest stats. It's a pretty fun system, and if you like Pokemon or the *original* monster collecting series, Shin Megami Tensei, odds are you will like this system.

Finally moving on to fighting itself. Switching paradigms (you hit L1 to do so, then pick one and hit X) will most likely comprise much of the action you take during battle. If you need to heal, you'll switch to a designated healing paradigm. If you need to de/buff, you'll likely have one for that as well. In a chaotic fight, you might switch paradigms four or five times in under thirty seconds. Other than that, you'll likely make use of the auto-battle function. As maligned as it is for taking direct control out of the player's hands, it will pick suitable actions for the situation. It removes the tedium from easier battles. You can choose to manually input commands too, but because auto-battle does such a good job, I only manually input commands when I need to accomplish something or die.

Minor annoyances from FFXIII/RPGs in general are gone. First and foremost is that the death of your leader is not game over like it was in FFXIII. You'll be switched to the other living human character and have a chance to get back on your feet. Even if you do lose the fight, you aren't sent back to wherever you last saved. Instead, you're given the option to immediately retry the fight and lose no progress. There are also no "magic points" or anything similar, either, which is small but a touch I appreciate. It's not dumbing down the game; it's cutting out archaic bullshit.

The effect of all this is that you can focus on what's really important: Keeping your characters alive and killing the enemy. Keeping yourself alive is self-explanatory, so how do you kill enemies? The fastest way to kill enemies, especially tough ones, in FFXIII and this game is to drive their "stagger gauge" up. Once it reaches a certain percentage (varies with each enemy), the enemy starts to take many times more damage than normal *and* each hit interrupts any action they were going to take. As you might expect, some bosses cannot be interrupted in this fashion, but they do need to be staggered to win in any reasonable amount of time due to their high health.

Have to mention the puzzles. All of the game's puzzles take place in time anomalies. There are three sorts: One has you walking across tiles that disappear to collect jewels. Another has you connecting crystals, much like you'd connect the dots. The last type and the most fiendish type are the "clock puzzles". They're not so easy to explain, but once you're dealing with 10-13 numbers, they are pure evil. The puzzles aren't objectively bad or anything, but you can't help but feel they were shoehorned into the game. They just don't really fit anywhere.


The story picks up three years after FFXIII. Lightning has vanished and only her sister, Serah, believes she is still alive. You find out in the first few minutes of cutscenes that Serah is indeed correct. Lightning is alive and she's fighting the game's antagonist, Caius Ballad, in a place called Valhalla. Amidst this chaos, a teenager known as Noel falls into Valhalla, meets Lightning, and is tasked with bringing Serah to Valhalla. Along the way, they have to set the timeline straight and prevent Caius from fucking it up further.

This game's plot has much the same problem as the first game did, just in a different way: It's hard to care about the world. It's not entirely clear to me which areas are part of the "true timeline", if any of them are at all. So, which areas am I saving and which events am I preventing from fucking up the future? I have my ideas, but it's a bit ambiguous due to the non-linear nature of the game.

Not that the above point matters too much; the game is more character-driven than story-driven. All three of the game's main characters are decent characters, though they aren't great. They're good enough to carry the story and make you feel something during the emotional moments of the plot. Serah is an altogether different lead from her sister; she's more emotive and doesn't have the same single-minded focus that Lightning does. Noel is the last human in a future world and much of his motivation boils down to wanting to prevent that fate, even if it means he never exists. I found myself nodding my head along with his assessment on most things, but especially on Snow's character. Caius has more personal and emotional reasons for setting his plot in motion than most villains in this series, but he's just another variation on the typical "I want to destroy everything" Final Fantasy villain. Like every other villain, he made me appreciate Vayne from XII that much more.

On that topic, all the characters from the original game appear in one way or another. Hope gets more screen time than any of them due to his integral role in many of the game's events. Luckily for us, he's done a total 180 in terms of personality. He's now a mature and well-adjusted adult. It makes sense considering that his issues were resolved in XIII, but I was slightly worried he'd go all emo on us again. Vanille, Fang, Snow, and Sazh also all appear, but they don't appear for very long and their roles aren't exactly pivotal. I suspect most, if not all, will also appear as DLC in some fashion since Lightning already has.


The graphics are just as good as those of FFXIII. I was kind of worried that the graphics wouldn't look as nice due to the demo, but that's an unfounded worry. The artstyle is also much the same as the original game, with lush forests, technologically advanced cities, ancient stone ruins, that sort of thing. Most areas from the first game look different in this one, yet you'll still be able to recognize the old places. The new ones look gorgeous, and Academia (this game's major city) is far more epic/ambitious than Eden ever was.

The sound is a mixed bag. On one hand, you have abominations to music that should not exist. Breaking the Limits and Crazy Chocobo come to mind. Those songs throw together the worst aspects of metal and call them songs. Ugh. On the other, you have songs like Noel's Theme (Final Journey) and Unseen Abyss, which are great songs and help create a proper atmosphere in the areas they are played. Some older songs also make a return, like Saber's Edge and The Sunleth Landscape, which is awesome. On the whole, the music adds more to the game than it takes away. It's a pretty good soundtrack, though Masashi Hamauzu did such an amazing job on FFXIII's that I don't see why they needed two more composers.


This game is intentionally different from XIII in that it has replayability and side quests out the ass. Due to the focus on time travel, there are almost as many optional timelines to explore as there are mandatory timelines. You don't have to go somewhere like Bresha Ruins AF300, but it's more content and it's interesting to see the effects your actions have on history. There are also missions throughout the game, though unlike in FFXIII, these missions aren't all just hitting things until they die from it. Fetch quests and exploring entire maps aren't much better, but they are something different. There is also a quiz game, gambling at Serendipity, chocobo races, taming lots of monsters, additional post-game content like getting all eight Paradox Endings, fighting monsters you won't see in the normal game, and now DLC... There is so much to do that even though the main story is MAYBE 15-20 hours long, it's rather easy to pour three or four times that amount of time into the game.

In lieu of scores, which are subjective and generally a reflection of confirmation bias, I think I'll go with the answer to the question, "Is it worth buying?" If you liked the original, I would snap this up as soon as you are able. I would recommend that everyone else try the demo and see if this is for them and/or wait until the price reaches $20-30. It's a good game, but it won't change any minds on the original game or on JRPGs in general.


EDIT: Now that ALL the DLC is released, some DLC reviews. Don't worry, these will be *much* shorter.

Costumes/Weapons: Do I really have to tell you to save your money? In the case of weapons, the game is easy enough even without them. As for costumes, I suppose you could get them if you really like them, but they're purely cosmetic. Get the free one (because free is awesome) and leave the rest alone.

Battles: I'd recommend Gilgamesh to anyone looking for a challenge. The first form is piss easy, but the second is damn hard, to the point where I haven't figured out and executed a strategy that isn't "avoid staggering him so he cannot recover HP". I'll prolly try raising a stronger Commando monster (Chichu, Twilight Odin, Omega) for this. Lightning/Amodar is a decently fun fight and you're getting two usable monsters for your $3, so I'd recommend this to most anyone. Omega is a pretty good Commando OR Ravager from what I hear (haven't tamed it myself), and the fight is pretty fun as well. I'll likely wind up getting the others at some point, but I'd recommend them in this order based on what I've read on the fights: Ultros/Typhon, Jihl, PuPu. That could change with your own familiarity of the characters/need of those roles, however.

Sazh's story: No. Only adds an hour of gameplay and a little bit of story on Chocolina. I'd ignore this if it meant that you could play Texas Hold 'Em in the main story because Texas Hold 'Em kicks ass, but you cannot. Save your $5.

Snow's story: Yes. Has like six battles, two of which are pretty difficult from what I hear. If you're looking for more challenges, this is definitely worth your $4. Getting this myself atm, I'll prolly update this with my impressions later.

Lightning's story: It provides "closure", as it were, and yet another sequel hook. If you get nothing else, you need to get this. Only reason I don't have this is lolmonehs.
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MrMarill
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Excellent review. Is the story on par with the first game, out of interest? Or at least, approaching it?
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MrMarill
Feb 8 2012, 08:30 PM
Excellent review. Is the story on par with the first game, out of interest? Or at least, approaching it?

The buildup to the climax isn't better, but I would say this game's ending is even better than the original's.
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MrMarill
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>Better ending

Good thing I bought it, then. Can't wait to see it!
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Updating the OP took ENTIRELY too long to do.

Also, I took out the sections for consoles like the SNES/NES and combined all 1st-5th gen consoles into a "retro" section. Naturally I put each game's platform in the OP along with the link. It streamlines the post.
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MrMarill
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The OP looks pretty sweet, good job!
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MrMarill
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Journey
PS3


You're probably thinking "Oh, Journey. I've heard of that, but I dunno what it is." So I'm here to shine light on it!

Problem is, it's reeeaaally complicated to review and explain. Like everyone else who's played it, I'll just say "it's hard to describe". But it's good. Oh, so very good.

You play as a... orange-robed-dude. He/she/it has a scarf. When you go near token thingies, you fill your scarf and you can fly. You can press circle to send out a communication thingy and fuel token thingies and oh my God this is REALLY hard to explain.

Let's pretend it's a normal game for a second. The controls are smooth. There are only two buttons to use, and everything works fine. In terms of graphics and presentation, it's a visually stunning game. For a game which has basically nothing but sand for the first 50% of gameplay, it's pretty damned impressive. The sand looks fantastic (it's watery and miragey and stuff), and your character will react well to the area around him. He struggles up hills, trips over loose rocks, slides at odd footing and so on. The other... game objects also animate well, and the game looks beautiful.

The game plays like a movie. Everything feels like a controllable cutscene as you're subjected to beautiful set pieces and places to explore. The music is perfectly in time with everything and sets the atmosphere more perfectly than anything ever. I'm being serious, the music is perfect. Very little of it would be amazing outside of game (two songs would, and they're on my iPod already), but it all fits so beautifully.

And now, the game. Journey is just that; a journey. You go on a quest through beautiful locations with no defined storyline, in almost complete isolation, save for occasional companions you meet online. People automatically join your world, and you communicate with them through sounds. They join you on your journey and in the occasional actual cutscene. There's a sense of loneliness in the game, but a sense of co-operation too. It's a nice balance I like.

Each section is concluded with a small story section, told in an archaic fashion through pictures. It's a great way to tell the "story", and I use inverted commas on purpose there.

One of Journey's entire themes is that the story is entirely interpretive. The player is able to create their own story on their own Journey, and play through each section in wonder of what's coming next. Honestly, the introduction is not captivating. You walk through a desert for quite a long time to find new things for your scarf and random carvings in the wall. There's a reason for everything, though, and you'll notice things the second time that foreshadow the ending beautifully.

And what an ending. Not going to spoil anything, but this is an absolutely fantastic ending. I mean, this ending is interpretive, as is the whole story, and yet it manages to be a satisfying conclusion. More than that. The ending will stick with you for so long, and oh my God this isn't a review but just a gush. It is so difficult to review this game, because it's not a game. It's a journey. It's so unorthodox and I loved every second of it. The game's beauty and intricate design is unrivalled. It's currently £10 on the PSN store, so you have no reason not to get it.

Actually... you may have. The game is around two hours long. Maybe not even that. Like I said, it's like a movie, not a game. The journey manages to feel more meaningful and lasts longer than any 40-hour game possibly could. You can power through this game in an hour, and that's fine. Journey is your own journey, open for you to interpret in any way you want. If I'd spent £40 on this game, I wouldn't feel my money was wasted. Journey is one of the most interesting and fantastic games ever conceived, and it just saddens me that games like this can't hit the mainstream more often. This is the only game ever I feel the gameplay should take a back seat to everything else.

...So, how do I score such a game? Eh. I'll give it a score that I feel it deserves, and you guys can play it for yourselves and see.

Pros
-Beautiful presentation
-Fantastic music
-An adventure that will stay with you for ages
-Interpretive story that is amazingly subjective, and great for discussions

Cons
-Insanely short
-Very unorthodox gameplay could turn off some players

Rating: 9.7/10
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MrMarill
Mar 28 2012, 03:57 PM
The journey manages to feel more meaningful and lasts longer than any 40-hour game possibly could.

If this is true, then the industry is doing something wrong.

The question is, "what are they doing wrong?"
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MrMarill
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The intensity of Journey and the power behind its scenes means that it's a story that constantly sticks with you. Games like Final Fantasy XIII has a powerful ending and all that, but Journey is YOUR own story, and seeing it develop so quickly and climax so perfectly is simply a joy.
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Bigcalv2002
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^

Great attempted review, but it still left me saying "huh?"
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MrMarill
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It is incredibly difficult to review without spoiling the whole game, as everyone else has said. If you play it, you'll understand what I mean xD
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Kid Icarus: Uprising (3DS)
Rating: 9/10
  • Pros:
  • Long-awaited sequel to an underrated game
  • Lovable characters with awesome voice acting
  • Music is a perfect blend of orchestrations and MIDIs
  • Makes great use of each of the system’s features
  • High replayability
  • Cons:
  • Left-handed people might have problems
  • Moving the camera can be frustrating
  • Forgettable multiplayer
            Forget Ocarina of Time 3D. Forget Super Mario 3D Land. Forget Mario Kart 7. Kid Icarus: Uprising is the true Nintendo game that perfectly shows off what the 3DS is capable of. This is the game we should have gotten at launch, but Nintendo just loves delaying their games until they’re perfect. Anyways, for those that don’t know, Kid Icarus: Uprising is the long-awaited sequel to Kid Icarus, an underrated Metroid clone for the NES. The game stars angel Pit, with his Super Smash Bros. Brawl design, who, with the guidance of the goddess of light Palutena, fights the forces of evil from destroying humanity, specifically Medusa, the antagonist of the first game who has been mysteriously revived.

            Almost every level is split into two parts: air battles and land battles. As the name suggests, air battles have Pit flying around and fighting enemies in the sky. These sections are completely on-rails, though you can still move Pit around the screen to avoid incoming fire. I’ve seen quite a few people compare them to Sin and Punishment, and I’d have to say that’s pretty accurate. Star Fox would be another great comparison. Anyways, because Pit isn’t able to fly forever, he must return to the land after a while and fight there. You are able to freely control Pit during these sections as he continues fighting the hordes thrown at him. Now the question is just “How well do the controls work?”

            To answer that simply: the controls are surprisingly comfortable. Pit moves with the circle pad, aims with the touch screen, and shoots/attacks with the L button. It may take some getting used to for some people, but after playing for a level or two, it becomes easy to do. During land battles, the touch screen also moves the camera by flicking the stylus across it. This can be a bit of a hassle at times, but it works well for the most part. Of course, with these controls, the 3DS can only be held with one hand, but it’s not like the system is very heavy. However, for those with weak hands, the game comes with a free stand to hold the system for you. The controls are also customizable: aiming can be moved to the ABXY buttons, or the controls can be flipped for left-handed players. The game also supports the Circle Pad Pro. Unfortunately, since that is a hard to acquire peripheral, and because controlling Pit with the face buttons is really awkward, us south paws are sort of shafted. I didn’t have too much trouble using the stylus with my right hand though.

            The game’s single-player is pretty short, taking maybe 10 hours at the most to beat (I beat it in 8.5 hours). It can also be pretty easy, though that really depends on what difficulty you play on. There are 91 different difficulties, using a scale of 0.0 to 9.0 with every tenth digit in between. In addition to making the game harder, increasing the difficulty also increases the amount of treasure found in the level and also allows access to blocked-off areas that can’t be opened on lower difficulties. I’m sure there’s not much difference between difficulties only 0.1 apart. The only thing that seems to change is how many hearts (this game’s currency) you bet. An interesting feature of the game is that it recommends a difficulty for you at the beginning of each level. I’m not sure what decides the recommendation, but I’m guessing it’s based on how well you did the previous level. Let me just say that just because the game is “easy” does not mean you’ll breeze through it. You’re guaranteed to die, a lot. As a penalty, when you die, you lose hearts and the game drops the difficulty rating.

            The story of Kid Icarus: Uprising is great. I’m not going to pretend it’s the best story ever, but it’s one of the better ones to come from Nintendo. It has a basic “light vs. dark” concept where the light is protecting the humans, and the dark doesn’t think the humans deserve protection because they are corrupt and selfish. It’s very character-focused and dialogue-driven, and thank goodness, the characters are wonderful. Their interactions with each other, specifically between Pit, Palutena, and Viridi, are always entertaining to listen to while playing the game. The voice acting is also quite amazing, with some well-known voice actors such as Ali Hillis (Final Fantasy XIII, Mass Effect), Cree Summer (Danny Phantom, Rugrats), Kari Wahlgren (Durarara!!, FLCL), Hynden Walch (Adventure Time, Gurren Lagann), Troy Baker (Catherine, Persona 4), and others. Each of them does a great job delivering their lines and making their conversations feel natural. Although the dialogue can be a bit cheesy at times, it’s never particularly a bad kind of cheesy. There are also constant references thrown out to Nintendo’s catalogue of games, and they love to massacre the fourth wall.

            The graphics for the game are pretty amazing, though I wouldn’t say they’re the best I’ve seen on 3DS. The environment of each level is beautiful and varied. The best part of doing the air battles is getting to fly around and take in all the scenery. The 3D effect just makes it all even more breath-taking. It’s subtle enough to where you don’t really notice it, but effective enough to where you’ll miss it if you turn the 3D off. The soundtrack is a great listen with its combination of re-mastered, orchestrated pieces and original 8-bit MIDIs. I smiled when I was first spotted by a reaper because I’ve always loved the music and was glad to hear it return, completely untouched.

            Even though the single-player may be short, the game is filled to the brim with extra features to keep the game as replay-able as possible. Considering this is from the same team that developed Super Smash Bros. Brawl, a few of its features have been carried over. Trophies appear as idols, challenges return as treasure hunts, and there’s a boss rush mode you can unlock. There’s an “Arms Altar” where you can buy, customize, and test weapons, as well as customize extra powers to use in the game (similar to the stickers from Brawl). There are nine different kinds of weapons each with their own abilities and whatnot. I will just warn anyone: bows are the worst. Clubs are pretty bad too because they don’t have good attack range.

            The game also makes use of a few of the 3DS’ features. Customized weapons can be shared with other 3DS users via StreetPass. AR cards bundled with the game can be used to unlock idols and hearts as well be used for AR battles. It’s a nice feature though it probably won’t get used much except by extreme card collectors. You can also battle people online on the Nintendo Network. The online multiplayer is decent, though it’s not the best. There are only two game options: Light vs. Dark and Free-for-All. It can provide some extra entertainment, but once again, probably won’t be a feature that gets used much.

            Kid Icarus: Uprising is a wonderfully-made game that makes perfect use of the 3DS’ features. It has an entertaining single-player with lovable characters, and plenty of bonus features to keep you coming back for more. The game has little flaws that are easy to ignore. If there was any reason to buy a 3DS now, this would be it. This game has shown me that Project Sora is an extremely competent developer, and I’m excited to see what they do with the next Super Smash Bros. game.
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