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Oct. 7th, 2006 09:22 pmYou know you're in Texas when you go to a Greek restaurant, get chicken and it goes back to the kitchen as "pollo"
Oct. 7th, 2006
Review - Rocket Slime
Oct. 7th, 2006 10:14 pmTitle: Dragon Quest Hero: Rocket Slime
Platform: DS
Genre: Action Adventure / RTS
Complete: Yes (main story)
Price Paid: $34.99 (new)
Would Pay: $29.99
<gump>
There's small slimes, big slimes, borg slimes, hard slime, soft slime, soap slime, flying slimes, jumping slimes, hairy slimes, ninja slimes, dog slimes...
</gump>
I swear, this game hits every possible (clean) slime joke in the book. There's no lack of groaners in here at all. You play a slime from Dragon's Quest 8. Your hometown was invaded by the plob (platypus mob), leaving only you in the wreckage.
This is really two games in one. You start out wandering around, trying to find your friends. This works somewhat like the top down Zelda games, and the style is somewhat reminiscent of Minish Cap. Your main weapon is yourself. You stretch and let yourself go, hitting things like a rubber band. As you knock items into the air, you can catch them on your head and can send them to town for later. Enemies that you catch become residents of the town, and if you catch enough, they will help you out.
The second part of the game begins after you find a legendary tank. You get in tank battles at various points of the adventure. You launch ammo that the tank provides at the enemy, trying to shoot down their fire and hit them. Everything you've collected can be used as ammo, and enemies will join you as tank crew members, after you've caught enough of the particular type.
This game is extremely, extremely easy. I died once, and that was fighting the final boss. I didn't lose any tank battles, although some were pretty damn close, with both tanks down to 0 and each crew heading in for the coup de grace to the other. The initial impression of the tank battles was that they were going to be extremely difficult, I barely pulled through by the skin of my teeth. Then I gained the ability to add other crew members to the tank and pretty much dominated most tank battles. The AI of the crew leaves much to be desired, there's no way to tell them what type of ammo to use, which hurt when they loaded good ammo and the other tank launched a mirror.
Despite the games ease, there are little gems in there for gamers. Many of the slimes are puns on characters or items in DQ8, and possibly earlier. The caretaker of the tank is, in a nod to other Square/Enix properties, Cid. Although in this case, he's a platypus with a german accent. I'm still collecting items to try and finish up all the alchemy, another nod to DQ8. There is also a museum with statues of the enemies you capture, with the metal quality (I have bronze and one silver) changing as you capture more monsters. There's tank battles, run by none other than a slime named "Morrie". The main disappointment in this game is that it doesn't take advantage of the capabilities of the DS. It's nice having the two screens, but there is almost no use of the touch screen as an input device except for one mini-"game" where you can scribble.
Platform: DS
Genre: Action Adventure / RTS
Complete: Yes (main story)
Price Paid: $34.99 (new)
Would Pay: $29.99
<gump>
There's small slimes, big slimes, borg slimes, hard slime, soft slime, soap slime, flying slimes, jumping slimes, hairy slimes, ninja slimes, dog slimes...
</gump>
I swear, this game hits every possible (clean) slime joke in the book. There's no lack of groaners in here at all. You play a slime from Dragon's Quest 8. Your hometown was invaded by the plob (platypus mob), leaving only you in the wreckage.
This is really two games in one. You start out wandering around, trying to find your friends. This works somewhat like the top down Zelda games, and the style is somewhat reminiscent of Minish Cap. Your main weapon is yourself. You stretch and let yourself go, hitting things like a rubber band. As you knock items into the air, you can catch them on your head and can send them to town for later. Enemies that you catch become residents of the town, and if you catch enough, they will help you out.
The second part of the game begins after you find a legendary tank. You get in tank battles at various points of the adventure. You launch ammo that the tank provides at the enemy, trying to shoot down their fire and hit them. Everything you've collected can be used as ammo, and enemies will join you as tank crew members, after you've caught enough of the particular type.
This game is extremely, extremely easy. I died once, and that was fighting the final boss. I didn't lose any tank battles, although some were pretty damn close, with both tanks down to 0 and each crew heading in for the coup de grace to the other. The initial impression of the tank battles was that they were going to be extremely difficult, I barely pulled through by the skin of my teeth. Then I gained the ability to add other crew members to the tank and pretty much dominated most tank battles. The AI of the crew leaves much to be desired, there's no way to tell them what type of ammo to use, which hurt when they loaded good ammo and the other tank launched a mirror.
Despite the games ease, there are little gems in there for gamers. Many of the slimes are puns on characters or items in DQ8, and possibly earlier. The caretaker of the tank is, in a nod to other Square/Enix properties, Cid. Although in this case, he's a platypus with a german accent. I'm still collecting items to try and finish up all the alchemy, another nod to DQ8. There is also a museum with statues of the enemies you capture, with the metal quality (I have bronze and one silver) changing as you capture more monsters. There's tank battles, run by none other than a slime named "Morrie". The main disappointment in this game is that it doesn't take advantage of the capabilities of the DS. It's nice having the two screens, but there is almost no use of the touch screen as an input device except for one mini-"game" where you can scribble.
Review - Defiance
Oct. 7th, 2006 10:50 pmTitle: Legacy of Kain: Defiance
Genre: Third Person Action Adventure
Platform: XBox
Complete: Yes
Price Paid: $12.99 - 10% (used)
Would Pay: $29.99
This is Soul Reaver 3, except you get to play as both Kain and Raziel and see the storyline from each of their views. This is much closer to Soul Reaver than Soul Reaver 2. I just wish it was a little closer. The Elemental Temples were a shadow of their former selves, although getting to the Water Temple felt almost exactly like puzzles from Soul Reaver 1. It's a shame that more of the game wasn't like this.
The Kain portions were fairly linear feeling, but still fun. You could easily tell where you were going to be as Raziel, as Kain couldn't open Elemental doors and you could often catch a glimpse of one. Some of this overlap was done rather sloppily however. The events of Kain and Raziel were 500 years apart, but sometimes the later time would be cleaner and have less damage than the earlier time even though the area was abandoned for that whole time.
The voice acting and story of the Kain series (Blood Omen and Soul Reaver) are both excellent, although with all the time travel it's hard to know what's going on and who's the good guy and who's the bad guy, although that is part of the charm. The series has kept it's voice actors (RIP Tony Jay, you'll be missed) throughout, making it easy to get into one after playing the others. Although whatever you do, don't play soon after eating. The graphical effects of the underworld can make your stomach do flips.
Genre: Third Person Action Adventure
Platform: XBox
Complete: Yes
Price Paid: $12.99 - 10% (used)
Would Pay: $29.99
This is Soul Reaver 3, except you get to play as both Kain and Raziel and see the storyline from each of their views. This is much closer to Soul Reaver than Soul Reaver 2. I just wish it was a little closer. The Elemental Temples were a shadow of their former selves, although getting to the Water Temple felt almost exactly like puzzles from Soul Reaver 1. It's a shame that more of the game wasn't like this.
The Kain portions were fairly linear feeling, but still fun. You could easily tell where you were going to be as Raziel, as Kain couldn't open Elemental doors and you could often catch a glimpse of one. Some of this overlap was done rather sloppily however. The events of Kain and Raziel were 500 years apart, but sometimes the later time would be cleaner and have less damage than the earlier time even though the area was abandoned for that whole time.
The voice acting and story of the Kain series (Blood Omen and Soul Reaver) are both excellent, although with all the time travel it's hard to know what's going on and who's the good guy and who's the bad guy, although that is part of the charm. The series has kept it's voice actors (RIP Tony Jay, you'll be missed) throughout, making it easy to get into one after playing the others. Although whatever you do, don't play soon after eating. The graphical effects of the underworld can make your stomach do flips.