Ok a while ago I traded in smash bros because it was getting boring. I went to EB and traded it in for Kingdom Hearts.
Kingdom Hearts
GREAT game. Seriously it's a really nice game with a great storyline. You'll be amazed how well the Square characters can interect with the majority of the Disney characters. My only complaints are the gummi ship flying missions and the camera. Sometimes when you're running around looking for objects, and you have no clue there they are, the camera becomes a little obtrusive flying around and not actually following the back of your character properly - sometimes it may make you a bit sick for a little while, i know it did to me. And the gummi flying missions are just a waste of time. The game sets you off in a very wild kind of mission to find your friends. Along the way you'll meet a plethora of new characters, both Square and Disney originated.
There are dozens of worlds to visit and to revisit if you wish. They have made the game a long lasting game because they have put tripowers throughout every world. There are three tri power bands (each signified by a different colour). The tri powers require you to form a circle around the little mickey sign found on the ground with your ORIGINAL teammates, goofy and donald and to press X. This reveals alot of hidden secrets and powerups. The further you progress the game the more tri power bands you can open because it plays on the idea of how friendship grows stronger. I said ORIGINAL because throughout the game you can change team memberings according to what world you're in, which is a great way to see how much effort Square has put into this game. If you like Square OR Disney, seriously get this game.
Unfortunately I finished the game within 3-4 days and EB has a return policy within 7 days. So i went back and got another game. This time I got Pro Evolution Soccer by Konami.
9/10
Pro Evolution Soccer
When i traded in for this game, PES 2 was already out, but costed $20 more so I decided to try this first. This game is actually just International Superstar Soccer renamed. The thing is there are TWO divisions of konami companies devloping soccer games. Konami Tokyo and Konami Osaka. It is also known that Konami Osaka develops the lesser liked of the two. In Japan and the US Konami Tokyo develops Internation Supderstar Soccer, a very famous and renowned football game. But things got somewhat messed up in PAL and Konami Osaka released a game called International Superstar Soccer and Tokyo got left with another franchise name. Anyhooow, the football in this is exactly like the well known ISS series. The detail in characters is good, but I don't know why everyone makes such a fuss of detail in character when you can bearly see their faces during play anyhow. Play mechanics i love, I've always like the ISS series play mechanics. Alot of long passing AND short passing is required in this game because unlike FIFA series, running with a ball is not a good idea. When you run, the ball falls about 1 metre ahead of you, giving an easy oppurtunity for tacklers to take it away. Other mechanics they have added are through ball basses, sidesteps and a whole lot of 'moves' you can incorporate.
Commentry always sucks on western soccer games, i think it is because we have SHIT commentators.
I really did like the game, but when i played it on my friends PS2 (jap version) i loved it more. Why? Because the commentry on the JAP version was hilarious. Seriously when you scored he would shout "GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!!!!!!" or "WOOONNNDDAAAFUUURRR" It made multiplayer all the better.
7/10
After 2 days of playing this on and off i decided to go back to EB AGAIN and change it because no doubt PES2 would have added features and perhaps better commentry. I exchanged it for another soccer game. Virtua Striker 3 on the gc
Virtua Striker 3
This game has nice graphics. I like how visually, the game is designed. Also no commentry. But what bugged me at firstafter playing one game is the options. There are bloody no options to change anything. I wanted to turn the speed higher for play and change referees or something but i couldn't find anything like that in the options menu. So I kept at it on the SLOW paced speed (but every normal speed i play is SLOW paced to me, i turn the speed higher in every soccer game). The referees in this game are absolute dicks, they hand out red cards like they would blowjobs :P It is not surprising to see atleast 3 red cards a game, and everyone else on a yellow card.
After playing the game further (and getting bored shitless without any stupid commentry) i realised how FUCKED up the controls are. When the opponents pass the ball, the computer will automatically change your player for you, so that is fine and dandy right? WRONG. When the cpu changes it, you can't control him anyhow! The player you are 'controlling' sort of stands infront of the opponent by 2 metres not doing anything while you're frantically mashing the controls to tackle him. He will start responding when your opponent either passes the ball or runs forward PASS you. The CPU has some kind of nazi control that doesn't let you control any of the players completely. This drove me past the melting point with this game and i returned it on the same day.
Though the things i like about the game are very good. Play mechanics is good because it's very free (unlike the damn damn controls). You push a direction to pass the ball and it will pass it that way. If you are pointing towards a area where your teammate is standing he will pass it to him, but if you're pointing it at a clear area, the pass will turn into a throughball. Unlike most soccer games, you have unlimited control in where to pass, shoot or long pass. You only need to use 3 buttons in this game, and how Sega came up with that i give a hands up for. It takes a while for the controls to get used to but you will find it to a liking or an absolute hating. if you're used to fifa games, you will probably kick the ball out at every touch until you get used to it. Another aspect i liked about this game is how wild the scoring can get. At one play i spotted the goalie off his line while i was on the half way line. I shot it and it came out blistering, goging straight pass the scrambling goalie. That was one goal i HAD to save on my memory card. Sometimes the goalies can be REALLY fucked up. Say the ball rolls to about 1 metre in front of them, they sometimes still persists to guard the goals instead of diving for the ball, allowing the opponent or you to come in and slam it right through him. But this aspect increases multiplayer fun because it's quite hilarious at time. Another aspect i liked about the game was the penalty shot mode. This penalty shot mode absoluely ROCKS. I could sit here playing this mode with a mate for hours.. It was alot better than any other game i've seen.
This game has the talent to be the best soccer game, if they actually fixed the fucked controls and added some options.
6.5/10
I went back and returned it for a long and drooled after game, Auto Modellista
Auto Modellista
AM is quite a ground breaking game, especially from the likes of CAPCOM who are more renowned for fighting and action RPG games. This is a cell shaded racer focussed on rather Tuned cars than high rolling expensive cars. You won't see one Ferrari or Porche in this game.
In garage mode (where most of you playing will be) you are left with a garage limit of 30, which considering how many DECENT cars there are in this game, is more than enough. But on the UP side of things, you can have the same model cars in your garage, just differently tuned for the several different tracks.
The garage mode is stupidly easy in the first few stages. Atleast up to 5. You are allowed to choose any car you want from the big but good list of cars. You get your typical skylines, supras, nsx, rx's, wrxs, lancers etc. My first car i chose was a IS200 from lexus, or also known as an Acura. Without doing ANYTHING, i was allowed a turbo upgrade 1, a heap of outer mods like bonnets etc (which to the most, don't effect the game or controls at all. just rather for eye candy), slick tyres and a heap of other car mods you wouldn't be able to get in GT3 until atleast 50 days of racing. You will CAIN your opponents the first few races if you don't pick a more suited competition car. So i changed to a Trueno out of feeling guilty for winning too easily.
There is only 6 tracks total in this game. 2 which are hill tracks are VERY good. One oval is just boring as watching grass grow, and the rest are only decently interesting.
The hill tracks are fun because there is a plethora of U turns, not to mention the great drifting you can do within this game. My friend and i played on the akahgi hill track for hours, reinacting initial D scenes. It was a blast..
Play mechanics are good, just don't expect anything as real, or surreal as GT3. The turning and braking is kinda crazy, like in the too EASY crazy way. A Gt3 fan friends of mine absoluetly hates the mechanics because it is simply 'too easy'. If you are only a mediocre racing fan and you like it to be easy to pick up, then you should grab this. If you are a hardcore GT3 fan who expects realism out of every corner, stay away. If you are a fan of VERY nice looking modded cars, pick this up. I picked it up for the third reason mainly, and i also am a racing fan.
You can seriously spend hours decorating your car to the way you like it, giving it stickers, outer decal mods, colour changes, all easily done within the nice and pretty interface. Another subtle aspect of the game is that it allows you to MOD your garage! Yes you heard me right, after winning races you get additional mods like turbo stage 3 etc, and you also get things like 'retro castrol oil can' which amusingly you can enter garage design mode and place it on the ground next to your currently chosen car. You can make your garage look very nice with racing posters, tyres, and oil cans littered across the place :P You also get 3 garage types to choose from, the steel type, the blue metal type and the wooden type. After 'decorating' your car and your garage you can view it in a kind of car show way. Letting the camera spin around on your car, whilst also showing your personal garage. It's a great way to hsow off to friends for the showoff types :P
8/10
Something they ripped from the JAP release onto PAL was the internet mode. I would have really like to try this, but from reading other sources, its restricted to dialup, which could get VERY frustrating. All in all, i liked this game, but to tell you the truth i went back to EB to get my money back (hahaha) because i'm waiting for something that will really be worth my money. Or i might return and get kingdom hearts, because that game is a great game and i'd love to play it again.
Wow, long review huh. Oh, and i'd like to thank EB for not getting up at me.
Kingdom Hearts
GREAT game. Seriously it's a really nice game with a great storyline. You'll be amazed how well the Square characters can interect with the majority of the Disney characters. My only complaints are the gummi ship flying missions and the camera. Sometimes when you're running around looking for objects, and you have no clue there they are, the camera becomes a little obtrusive flying around and not actually following the back of your character properly - sometimes it may make you a bit sick for a little while, i know it did to me. And the gummi flying missions are just a waste of time. The game sets you off in a very wild kind of mission to find your friends. Along the way you'll meet a plethora of new characters, both Square and Disney originated.
There are dozens of worlds to visit and to revisit if you wish. They have made the game a long lasting game because they have put tripowers throughout every world. There are three tri power bands (each signified by a different colour). The tri powers require you to form a circle around the little mickey sign found on the ground with your ORIGINAL teammates, goofy and donald and to press X. This reveals alot of hidden secrets and powerups. The further you progress the game the more tri power bands you can open because it plays on the idea of how friendship grows stronger. I said ORIGINAL because throughout the game you can change team memberings according to what world you're in, which is a great way to see how much effort Square has put into this game. If you like Square OR Disney, seriously get this game.
Unfortunately I finished the game within 3-4 days and EB has a return policy within 7 days. So i went back and got another game. This time I got Pro Evolution Soccer by Konami.
9/10
Pro Evolution Soccer
When i traded in for this game, PES 2 was already out, but costed $20 more so I decided to try this first. This game is actually just International Superstar Soccer renamed. The thing is there are TWO divisions of konami companies devloping soccer games. Konami Tokyo and Konami Osaka. It is also known that Konami Osaka develops the lesser liked of the two. In Japan and the US Konami Tokyo develops Internation Supderstar Soccer, a very famous and renowned football game. But things got somewhat messed up in PAL and Konami Osaka released a game called International Superstar Soccer and Tokyo got left with another franchise name. Anyhooow, the football in this is exactly like the well known ISS series. The detail in characters is good, but I don't know why everyone makes such a fuss of detail in character when you can bearly see their faces during play anyhow. Play mechanics i love, I've always like the ISS series play mechanics. Alot of long passing AND short passing is required in this game because unlike FIFA series, running with a ball is not a good idea. When you run, the ball falls about 1 metre ahead of you, giving an easy oppurtunity for tacklers to take it away. Other mechanics they have added are through ball basses, sidesteps and a whole lot of 'moves' you can incorporate.
Commentry always sucks on western soccer games, i think it is because we have SHIT commentators.
I really did like the game, but when i played it on my friends PS2 (jap version) i loved it more. Why? Because the commentry on the JAP version was hilarious. Seriously when you scored he would shout "GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!!!!!!" or "WOOONNNDDAAAFUUURRR" It made multiplayer all the better.
7/10
After 2 days of playing this on and off i decided to go back to EB AGAIN and change it because no doubt PES2 would have added features and perhaps better commentry. I exchanged it for another soccer game. Virtua Striker 3 on the gc
Virtua Striker 3
This game has nice graphics. I like how visually, the game is designed. Also no commentry. But what bugged me at firstafter playing one game is the options. There are bloody no options to change anything. I wanted to turn the speed higher for play and change referees or something but i couldn't find anything like that in the options menu. So I kept at it on the SLOW paced speed (but every normal speed i play is SLOW paced to me, i turn the speed higher in every soccer game). The referees in this game are absolute dicks, they hand out red cards like they would blowjobs :P It is not surprising to see atleast 3 red cards a game, and everyone else on a yellow card.
After playing the game further (and getting bored shitless without any stupid commentry) i realised how FUCKED up the controls are. When the opponents pass the ball, the computer will automatically change your player for you, so that is fine and dandy right? WRONG. When the cpu changes it, you can't control him anyhow! The player you are 'controlling' sort of stands infront of the opponent by 2 metres not doing anything while you're frantically mashing the controls to tackle him. He will start responding when your opponent either passes the ball or runs forward PASS you. The CPU has some kind of nazi control that doesn't let you control any of the players completely. This drove me past the melting point with this game and i returned it on the same day.
Though the things i like about the game are very good. Play mechanics is good because it's very free (unlike the damn damn controls). You push a direction to pass the ball and it will pass it that way. If you are pointing towards a area where your teammate is standing he will pass it to him, but if you're pointing it at a clear area, the pass will turn into a throughball. Unlike most soccer games, you have unlimited control in where to pass, shoot or long pass. You only need to use 3 buttons in this game, and how Sega came up with that i give a hands up for. It takes a while for the controls to get used to but you will find it to a liking or an absolute hating. if you're used to fifa games, you will probably kick the ball out at every touch until you get used to it. Another aspect i liked about this game is how wild the scoring can get. At one play i spotted the goalie off his line while i was on the half way line. I shot it and it came out blistering, goging straight pass the scrambling goalie. That was one goal i HAD to save on my memory card. Sometimes the goalies can be REALLY fucked up. Say the ball rolls to about 1 metre in front of them, they sometimes still persists to guard the goals instead of diving for the ball, allowing the opponent or you to come in and slam it right through him. But this aspect increases multiplayer fun because it's quite hilarious at time. Another aspect i liked about the game was the penalty shot mode. This penalty shot mode absoluely ROCKS. I could sit here playing this mode with a mate for hours.. It was alot better than any other game i've seen.
This game has the talent to be the best soccer game, if they actually fixed the fucked controls and added some options.
6.5/10
I went back and returned it for a long and drooled after game, Auto Modellista
Auto Modellista
AM is quite a ground breaking game, especially from the likes of CAPCOM who are more renowned for fighting and action RPG games. This is a cell shaded racer focussed on rather Tuned cars than high rolling expensive cars. You won't see one Ferrari or Porche in this game.
In garage mode (where most of you playing will be) you are left with a garage limit of 30, which considering how many DECENT cars there are in this game, is more than enough. But on the UP side of things, you can have the same model cars in your garage, just differently tuned for the several different tracks.
The garage mode is stupidly easy in the first few stages. Atleast up to 5. You are allowed to choose any car you want from the big but good list of cars. You get your typical skylines, supras, nsx, rx's, wrxs, lancers etc. My first car i chose was a IS200 from lexus, or also known as an Acura. Without doing ANYTHING, i was allowed a turbo upgrade 1, a heap of outer mods like bonnets etc (which to the most, don't effect the game or controls at all. just rather for eye candy), slick tyres and a heap of other car mods you wouldn't be able to get in GT3 until atleast 50 days of racing. You will CAIN your opponents the first few races if you don't pick a more suited competition car. So i changed to a Trueno out of feeling guilty for winning too easily.
There is only 6 tracks total in this game. 2 which are hill tracks are VERY good. One oval is just boring as watching grass grow, and the rest are only decently interesting.
The hill tracks are fun because there is a plethora of U turns, not to mention the great drifting you can do within this game. My friend and i played on the akahgi hill track for hours, reinacting initial D scenes. It was a blast..
Play mechanics are good, just don't expect anything as real, or surreal as GT3. The turning and braking is kinda crazy, like in the too EASY crazy way. A Gt3 fan friends of mine absoluetly hates the mechanics because it is simply 'too easy'. If you are only a mediocre racing fan and you like it to be easy to pick up, then you should grab this. If you are a hardcore GT3 fan who expects realism out of every corner, stay away. If you are a fan of VERY nice looking modded cars, pick this up. I picked it up for the third reason mainly, and i also am a racing fan.
You can seriously spend hours decorating your car to the way you like it, giving it stickers, outer decal mods, colour changes, all easily done within the nice and pretty interface. Another subtle aspect of the game is that it allows you to MOD your garage! Yes you heard me right, after winning races you get additional mods like turbo stage 3 etc, and you also get things like 'retro castrol oil can' which amusingly you can enter garage design mode and place it on the ground next to your currently chosen car. You can make your garage look very nice with racing posters, tyres, and oil cans littered across the place :P You also get 3 garage types to choose from, the steel type, the blue metal type and the wooden type. After 'decorating' your car and your garage you can view it in a kind of car show way. Letting the camera spin around on your car, whilst also showing your personal garage. It's a great way to hsow off to friends for the showoff types :P
8/10
Something they ripped from the JAP release onto PAL was the internet mode. I would have really like to try this, but from reading other sources, its restricted to dialup, which could get VERY frustrating. All in all, i liked this game, but to tell you the truth i went back to EB to get my money back (hahaha) because i'm waiting for something that will really be worth my money. Or i might return and get kingdom hearts, because that game is a great game and i'd love to play it again.
Wow, long review huh. Oh, and i'd like to thank EB for not getting up at me.
