Monday, December 16, 2002

Review of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for PS2         Publisher: Capcom         Developer: Capcom         Genre: Fighting         # Of Players: 1-2     What’s this?  A 2d fighting game?  I thought those were extinct?  In all seriousness, as we get more and more advanced, we are seeing less and less 2d games in general, but 2d fighters have seemed to be hanging on by a thread thanks mainly to Capcom and their various series of fighters.  This has been one of my favorite fighting series of the last 5 years or so, because it’s one of the few games that not only really does licensed characters justice, but brings together the interesting concept of having comic book characters take on video game characters.  As with most Capcom fighters, this features wild combos and a solid fighting system, but the game itself is rather dated (I believe it actually came out for Dreamcast when it was still a viable system).  However, it still is a solid choice for gamers looking for a good 2d fighter, which is becoming harder and harder to come by as time goes on. Graphics: Yeah, these are fast moving 2d sprites.  But man this game is showing it’s age with the dated color and animation, it could probably be done on PS one with a lot of effort, and it has been done quite easily on the Dreamcast. Sound: The sound all around is pretty bad.  The hits are lacking punch, the voices are two or three canned phrases, and the music is some of the most horrific crap I’ve heard in quite some time.  You’ll do much better just to put on some CDs. Gameplay: It’s classic Capcom fighting, which means 30 billion hit combos, flashy effects, and to add some dimension, you have two partners which you can tag in or have assist you by attacks or even some healing.  However, it may not appeal to some due to its button-mashing tendencies and ridiculous combos compared to the realism & deep fighting engines of games like Virtua Fighter 4.  And all there really is to the game is the fighting; there aren’t any unique modes or mini games. Features: Well, you can somewhat customize your speed, and of course you can play one-on-one, but that’s about it (why not online?).  Funfactor: This may be one of the last 2d fighting games, so fans of it would do best to get their hands on it, as it is a Capcom fighting game and as in most Capcom fighting games the characters are outrageous and flashy with plenty of good balance and provide plenty of fun, fast, and furious action for this style of game. --Final Scores— Graphics: 5.0-Could & has been easily done on Dreamcast. Sound: 3.0-Absolutlely god-awful music, canned voices, and poor effects. Gameplay: 8.5-Great combo system with good variety of balanced characters. Features: 6.0-A couple of minimal extras. Funfactor: 7.0-Not for fans of games like DOA3 or VF4, but this really does capture the spirit of great classic 2d fighters. 8:32:33 PM    comment []

Review of Legends of Wrestling II for Xbox     Publisher: Acclaim     Developer: Acclaim     Genre: Wrestling     # Of Players: 1-4     Oh god no, they brought it back.  Legends of Wrestling was one of the worst games I played last year, and yet somehow it must’ve sold enough for Acclaim to actually punish us with a sequel.  For those not familiar, the setup is roughly the same as any other wrestling game, but you wrestle with so-called legends.  Oh sure, there are some definite legends like Hulk Hogan & Terry Funk, but there are also guys like Koko B. Ware, who just because they had a couple good years in the 80s doesn’t even come close to relegating them to Legends status.  Anyways, this sequel features more match types, a much-expanded create-a-wrestler, and an expanded career mode, which makes it a huge improvement over the original, but it’s most glaring flaws keep it from being anything more than a merely decent wrestling title. Graphics: While they do animate better, the wrestlers are still based on these extremely ugly polygonal models that don’t really bear a whole lot of resemblance to the wrestlers they are supposed to portray.  The arenas all look the same (and they all look pitiful, just like a indy arena); the crowd looks god-awful as well. Sound: The music is bad remixes of many of the classic themes the “legends” are known for.  The effects in ring are pretty much on even with most wrestling titles, not bad, but not all that great either.  There is no color commentary, but that’s a huge plus in my opinion considering how horribly it’s been done in games (Smackdown 4 being the most recent example). Gameplay: Surprisingly, this game features one of the better counter systems I’ve seen in a wrestling game, with a nifty little meter that pops up when you can counter move, but you still have to do the counter really fast which makes for a nice balance in gameplay (although even on the easiest levels the computer counters way too much).  There are a much wider variety of maneuvers, but the collision detection is still sketchy.  The career mode is an interesting concept; as you wrestle in different regions and your progress depends on how well you perform in matches and how you get the crowd excited.  So even if you lose a big match, if you make the crowd excited it can still be beneficial (much like Mick Foley, he lost most of his big matches).  But the career is strictly limited to matches.  There isn’t really any storyline development, however, and you can’t go backstage and make alliances or anything like that. Features: The create-a-wrestler is vastly improved, and you can unlock all sorts of stuff for it.  There are also highlight videos you can unlock, and cool actual interviews with many of the wrestlers featured in the game.  Lots of match variations (although not as many as Smackdown) to keep you busy.  And even a couple of upcoming game videos just for the heck of it.  Funfactor: Let’s face facts, wrestling games have been decent at best in this new generation of consoles, and this is a decent wrestling game, so it’s really as valid a choice as Smackdown or most other wrestling games.  But it’s still facing that huge hurdle of the fact that again most of the so-called legends really, really sucked even back in their heyday, and nobody cares about many of them any more.  I’ve been a fan of wrestling for many years (about 17 now), and the best thing this game does for me is remind at a time when wrestling is going downhill in quality lately is that there was a time when it was much worse with horribly cheesy characters and horrible wrestlers that couldn’t measure up to the guys of today with a few rare exceptions. --Final Scores— Graphics: 4.0-Better animation, but models still ugly as sin and crowds and arenas are poorly done. Sound: 5.0-Bad remixes of original theme music, but decent effects. Gameplay: 6.0-Good counter system, but collision detection still needs plenty of work and career mode is interesting, but really limited. Features: 10-Loaded with interviews, videos, match options, etc. Funfactor: 6.5-Hardly a legend, more of a midcarder. 8:29:28 PM    comment []

Review of 007: Nightfire for Xbox         Publisher: Electronic Arts         Developer: Electronic Arts         Genre: FPS         # Of Players: 1-4     The world’s smoothest super spy is back in action on consoles in Nightfire.  Why this isn’t based at all on the latest Bond flick, “Die Another Day”, I have no idea.  But an original adventure isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  But just like all the other James Bond movies and games, you go globetrotting in order to stop an evil mastermind (and you’ll of course have time for some hot Bond babes as well).  Now in all honesty, there hasn’t actually been a good 007 game since Goldeneye way back on the N64, and the team that made that great game made stuff like Perfect Dark (still the best FPS of all time IMHO) and more recently, Time Splitters 2.  Surprisingly though, while definitely not up there with Goldeneye, this latest Bond adventure is the best one since it. Graphics: Hey, Bond actually looks like Pierce Brosnan.  That may not seem at that big a deal, but this is the first time they’ve gotten it right in awhile.  The game moves pretty smoothly overall, although it can definitely suffer from some slowdown if there’s a ton going on (which happens plenty in multi-player).  The levels are very expansive and have a lot of great detail, right up there with many great looking Xbox games, which is surprising since this is a multi-platform title. And I love the fact that they have a title sequence that looks like it’s another Bond movie. Sound: Lots of really good remixes of that great 007 theme, but it does play it a little too often for my taste.  The voice acting is pretty bad, the guy doing Bond sounds like he’s doing a very poor Sean Connery impersonation.  And the theme song does really, really suck.  But when not just playing the Bond theme and it’s many variations, the music is very good, and the sound effects are pretty good as well. Gameplay: Unlike most FPS, this game’s biggest strength is it’s huge variety.  You’ll protect an agent by sniping guys from a helicopter, drive your famous BMW, sneak covertly into parties, be in a snowmobile chase, and that’s just the first couple of levels.  A good variety of control setups make sure you get what you want.  Unfortunately, the driving levels are a little too complex, as I’ll have too drive like a stock car racer, release smoke screens, set up and fire missiles, all in the span of 3 seconds.  I also have a problem with the fact that you can’t switch to another weapon while you are reloading, which can leave you completely defenseless at times.  But my biggest complaint is the length of levels.  These are really well designed for the most part, but most can be beaten in about 10 minutes, and a couple can even be beaten in 5. Features: A surprisingly robust multi-player with tons of unlockable varieties of skins (like Odd Job) and multi-player games and arenas, as well as a trailer for the latest film (although in my opinion it’s a bad trailer).  But I do have problem in that in team games, you can’t assign bad guys to certain teams and vice versa with good guys, it’s just stupid. Funfactor: This reminds me a lot of Red Faction II in the fact that it has a fairly good balance between single and multi-player, but the single player isn’t nearly as strong as Halo or more recently Medal of Honor, and the multi-player is great, but not quite as good as Time Splitters 2 (although to be fair, TS2 is the best multi-player FPS since Perfect Dark).  It’s extremely short (but very fun) single player makes it really only for people who do want to add another multi-player FPS to their library, which is never a bad idea. --Final Scores— Graphics: 9.0-Great levels and cinemas, and good animation, but really bad slowdown occasionally. Sound: 7.5-Good music and solid effects, but horrible voice acting. Gameplay: 7.0-One player is great, but WAY too short.  You really should be able to switch guns in the middle of reloading, and driving is too loaded for it’s own good. Features: 9.5-Loaded with multi-player modes, characters, and cheats, but team aspects need a little work. Funfactor: 8.5-Easily the best Bond game since Goldenye. 8:24:01 PM    comment []

Review of Star Trek: Nemesis    Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise are back for yet another voyage in the vastness of space in the latest movie in the long running Trek franchise.  In this latest outing, the Romulan senate has been taken over by a slave race, the Remans.  Sending a request for a diplomatic meeting, the Enterprise travels to Romulus to find that its new leader bears a striking resemblance to Captain Picard.  As it turns out, this new leader was originally supposed to be a Picard clone, meant to infiltrate Star Fleet for the Romulans, but for some reason the plan was never carried out and he was left on the slave planet to die.  He claims to only want to finally have peace between Romulus and the Federation, but of course his real plans turn out to be much more sinister than anyone could’ve imagined.     Most of the original (or at least what was left in the last movie) cast is back, which includes of course Patrick Stewart, Jonathon Frakes, Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden, and so on.  There are even a couple of surprising cameos (which I won’t spoil for the trekkies out there).  This is definitely a movie made for Star Trek fans, with a lot of humor relating to things you’d only get if you watched the show and plenty of in-jokes, which may leave out some of the audience out in the cold if they are just looking for a fun, accessible sci-fi adventure like “First Contact”.  The action scenes are a little cluttered and overall just seem silly, including the climatic battle, which while it takes place over 400 years ahead of us, is basically a knife fight (an I’m not even talking laser knives in some bad Star Wars rip off, more like West Side Story).  Still, it’s got more than enough humor and action to keep most people entertained, making this a fairly worthy space adventure, but still something I’d put under the “good if you’ve seen everything else category.” Final Grade: B- 8:18:32 PM    comment []