The original Sonic Riders was a turd on a disc. Just another notch in Sega's belt of raping the poor Sonic series. Of course it's not like Sonic R was a good Sonic racer either. Thankfully Sega has decided to torture us some more with this unexpected sequel to the flop that the original was.
Now we have Wii controls as well. You need to hold the wiimote sideways. You kind of just go forward. To turn you tilt to either side but to actually turn you ened to use the left and right (which are actually up and down) on the d-pad to turn correctly. There are also a number of different moves to pull of some new skills like diving and something else I don't remember. Sadly the controls are a bit loose and don't really do what you want them to.
The game has some plot about some stones and Jet and an evil doctor. You get the idea and what annoys me most is the game is a whole 6 races long. Wow, that is so awesome. I think I've played a demo with more tracks than what this game has to offer.
Best news is that visually the game is pleasing. The locations are full of action and it chugs along at a good frame rate. There is a decent sense of speed as well so that pleased me a lot.
The game uses the same ole crappy voice overs for the characters. They need to stop hurting my ears with this crap. The music was fun but it felt over used and with only 6 stages it shouldn't be that bad.
The stages themselves have branching paths and different power ups in them. It works well and all three laps can be done differently. The AI seems a bit cheap but once you play a stage twice you'll almost always win because it's just about learning where the turns are since those are the hardest to pull off due to the controls.
Wifi is also present within the game. You download another players ghost and race against it... Yeah, that is truly dumb and a waste of my time. Why even bother with that crap? Just not include it.
I can't recommend this game. It has two story lines but it isn't enough to last past a single day. It offers some solo multi-player but the lack of wifi and the lameness of the wifi we did get just hurts it. The controls also add a little more salt to the wound and I can barely even recommend this as a rental but if you're a die hard Sonic fan then it might be worth a rental.
Story - 6/10
Graphics - 9/10
Sound - 7/10
Control - 5/10
Game Play - 5/10
Replay Value - 2/10
Final Score - 2/10
Monday, May 5, 2008
Destroy All Humans: Big Willy Unleashed
The original was a fun but flawed game and I admit I have never played the second entry in the Destroy All Humans series. I figured I'd give this one a go since it's on the Wii and figured anal probe + wii controls = instant fun. I was delusional.
Our alien friends have been taking people and making them into food in their new restaurant chain, which I believe is called Big Willy or the msscot is at least. Now the government is onto them and they need to cover their tracks. The plot works but it isn't as funny as it's trying to be, a lot of jokes fall flat and I rarely found msyelf laughing.
Perhaps the problem with the plot falls on the heads of the voice actors. The guy who plays the main alien is doing a very bad impersonation of Jack Nicholson. The music has a catchy 70's disco flair to it at times and feels like a running joke as it constantly happens. Burn Baby Burn Disco inferno when you're burning down buildings. It got old after a while.
Graphically this game is poor all around. The locations are rather small and lack any sort of detail. It's like playing a badly animated movie except the game isn't cel shaded or anything. Enemies also tend to all look the same. This is one of the weakest games on the Wii, graphic wise.
Wii controls are hit or miss, depending on the title. This time around we have a very smooth camera control which works great and actually the entire control setup works as the alien. Once you start flying the UFO is where thinks get nasty as you need to roll the Wiimote to turn, but it turns so slow that it almost doesn't feel worth it and you find yourself having to keep rolling, go back and repeat just because it doesn't turn fast enough or far enough.
The actual game play becomes monotonous rather quickly, much like the original game. Run here, kill these, do this. It’s like Grand Theft Auto but with a very bland world and the only thing keeping this series alive is its humor.
Like I said before though, the humor tends to fall flat and when all you have is the generic game play it dawns on you that the game isn’t really worth playing all together. Not that it’s terrible, it just isn’t very good and it shows in its presentation.
Fans should rent it as it’s very short and anyone else should just pass this one by. The next game is hitting the 360/PS3 this summer/fall and I doubt it could be worse than this so I say wait for it or just buy one of the older games as they are chapter now and the original is definitely better than this one.
Story – 5/10
Graphics – 5/10
Sound – 6/10
Control – 7/10
Game Play – 6/10
Replay Value – 4/10
Final Score – 5/10
Our alien friends have been taking people and making them into food in their new restaurant chain, which I believe is called Big Willy or the msscot is at least. Now the government is onto them and they need to cover their tracks. The plot works but it isn't as funny as it's trying to be, a lot of jokes fall flat and I rarely found msyelf laughing.
Perhaps the problem with the plot falls on the heads of the voice actors. The guy who plays the main alien is doing a very bad impersonation of Jack Nicholson. The music has a catchy 70's disco flair to it at times and feels like a running joke as it constantly happens. Burn Baby Burn Disco inferno when you're burning down buildings. It got old after a while.
Graphically this game is poor all around. The locations are rather small and lack any sort of detail. It's like playing a badly animated movie except the game isn't cel shaded or anything. Enemies also tend to all look the same. This is one of the weakest games on the Wii, graphic wise.
Wii controls are hit or miss, depending on the title. This time around we have a very smooth camera control which works great and actually the entire control setup works as the alien. Once you start flying the UFO is where thinks get nasty as you need to roll the Wiimote to turn, but it turns so slow that it almost doesn't feel worth it and you find yourself having to keep rolling, go back and repeat just because it doesn't turn fast enough or far enough.
The actual game play becomes monotonous rather quickly, much like the original game. Run here, kill these, do this. It’s like Grand Theft Auto but with a very bland world and the only thing keeping this series alive is its humor.
Like I said before though, the humor tends to fall flat and when all you have is the generic game play it dawns on you that the game isn’t really worth playing all together. Not that it’s terrible, it just isn’t very good and it shows in its presentation.
Fans should rent it as it’s very short and anyone else should just pass this one by. The next game is hitting the 360/PS3 this summer/fall and I doubt it could be worse than this so I say wait for it or just buy one of the older games as they are chapter now and the original is definitely better than this one.
Story – 5/10
Graphics – 5/10
Sound – 6/10
Control – 7/10
Game Play – 6/10
Replay Value – 4/10
Final Score – 5/10
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Battle of the Bands
Hot on the trails of the Rock band and Guitar Hero fad we get this interesting take on the music genre. It does a few things correctly but ultimately it's flaw shine through more than the good.
The game is visually bland. The character models kind of wiggle about on the screen and the graphics just look very dated. Almost like a launch GCN little. The locations get old after a while as they are constantly repeated and with only 6 or so music groups it gets just boring all together.
As with any music game we need good music and if you're someone who grew up in the 90's then this soundtrack should be awesome to you. We have some Sound Garden, some good rap tunes and a few others that i just can't remember. We have 30 songs ranging from a number of different genres and the idea of the genre is very heavy for the actual game play as well.
The basic idea is that you're a band of a specific genre and you're trying to abttle it out with other genre bands. So the game play is geared around this. You need to hit notes either center, left or right and every combo you can hit a note for an attack. Each attack varies on how many notes you need to hit.
The AI can do the same to you but you both can block each other attacks by hitting the B button. Learn this early because later on it gets harder to try and get use to the time delay.
That's the games biggest problem though. There is a slight time delay in your movements to what is happening on screen. The Wiimote also isn't too responsive with it. The idea is to jut it forward for a center note or left or right for those notes. In theory this should be fun and fast but it's rather slow at times and a lot of the time it would go in the opposite direction of where I was swinging.
Besides that major annoyance I could see the game being fun. Every three hits a person makes it changes to their genre. Sadly this reflects nothing on the actual game as the winner is decided by the amount of points. It's always promising when you score 10,000 more points than the AI and your whole total is a whole 17,000. Then there are certain songs where the notes just wouldn't hit for me and I'd win by a little less.
The game has some multi-player but no wifi action. It's a fairly short title and with no downloadable content it will grow old really fast. The Wii controls really hurt the game also and make it so that it just isn't very fun to play. The music is good and I love the crazy genre changes to songs but in the end it just falls apart due to the controls.
Story - 1/10
Graphics - 4/10
Sound - 9/10
Control - 4/10
Game Play - 7/10
Replay Value - 3/10
Final Score - 5/10
The game is visually bland. The character models kind of wiggle about on the screen and the graphics just look very dated. Almost like a launch GCN little. The locations get old after a while as they are constantly repeated and with only 6 or so music groups it gets just boring all together.
As with any music game we need good music and if you're someone who grew up in the 90's then this soundtrack should be awesome to you. We have some Sound Garden, some good rap tunes and a few others that i just can't remember. We have 30 songs ranging from a number of different genres and the idea of the genre is very heavy for the actual game play as well.
The basic idea is that you're a band of a specific genre and you're trying to abttle it out with other genre bands. So the game play is geared around this. You need to hit notes either center, left or right and every combo you can hit a note for an attack. Each attack varies on how many notes you need to hit.
The AI can do the same to you but you both can block each other attacks by hitting the B button. Learn this early because later on it gets harder to try and get use to the time delay.
That's the games biggest problem though. There is a slight time delay in your movements to what is happening on screen. The Wiimote also isn't too responsive with it. The idea is to jut it forward for a center note or left or right for those notes. In theory this should be fun and fast but it's rather slow at times and a lot of the time it would go in the opposite direction of where I was swinging.
Besides that major annoyance I could see the game being fun. Every three hits a person makes it changes to their genre. Sadly this reflects nothing on the actual game as the winner is decided by the amount of points. It's always promising when you score 10,000 more points than the AI and your whole total is a whole 17,000. Then there are certain songs where the notes just wouldn't hit for me and I'd win by a little less.
The game has some multi-player but no wifi action. It's a fairly short title and with no downloadable content it will grow old really fast. The Wii controls really hurt the game also and make it so that it just isn't very fun to play. The music is good and I love the crazy genre changes to songs but in the end it just falls apart due to the controls.
Story - 1/10
Graphics - 4/10
Sound - 9/10
Control - 4/10
Game Play - 7/10
Replay Value - 3/10
Final Score - 5/10
Mario Kart Wii
As I stated back in my review of the DS Mario kart game, I've found this series to be hit or miss. I loved the original titles but the more recent ones haven't really done anything new to make them worthy of the purchase.
There's a reason i bring this up and it's because this is yet another case where Nintendo plays it safe. We get 18 or so new tracks and about the same amount of returning tracks. So our track selection is rather nice.
New tracks are amusing and inetresting and actually kind of fun. I really enjoyed the Mushroom stage which has you bouncing around on mushrooms in spots. it fit the world of mario and it was different.
That's my problem with this game though. Nintendo strives not to do anything too different or to really expand upon the game. So what we get is more of the same with a few tiny changes that really don't add up to a whole lot.
We get three different CC's this time around. The 50 CC is all about karts and it's fairly easy. Next up is the 100CC which is all bikes, which I believe are new to the series. This mode is a little harder. Finally we have the 150 CC which combines the two together and is the hardest of the CC's but not by much.
I found the game to be fairly easy for the first two laps and then the final lap I got a rain of super power ups sued just against me. That's what I hate. Why not create an AI that is good and doesn't come off as being cheap. Playing through both the 50 and the 100 I never once got a power up stronger than a red shell. No clue why and my most common was a banana.
It may sound like a silly complaint but the Ai constantly got thunder, slam shells and pow blocks. All of which totally hurt yo and stop you dead in your tracks. It becomes annoying that they always get these mega weapons and all I ever got was a lame banana.
This game also uses the Wiimote like a steering wheel and if you buy the game you get a cute little white wheel attachment. I rented the game so I can't comment on how that works. I found the Wiimote controls to be perfect and do the game just as well as a real wheel. The turning was tight and smooth and using the 2 button for gas felt natural.
The difference between the karts and bikes is very minimal and really besides needing a little more prep for turns there was no real difference. It only becomes when you play as both in the 150 as you can sue the bieks small size to your advantage but a kart can knock you out.
Besides that we get a vs mode which is your typical vs racing. There is also a battle mode which has the classic balloon mode and a coin mode. That's it and I really wish they would allow for more mini games or battle types. it gets old quickly and I swear there use to be four battle types back in the day.
On-line multi-player is also present and runs rather smoothly as far as frame rate is concerned. My only problem is that the Wii Friend Code is still in use. It wouldn't be a problem except every game has a different code. I do wish Nintendo would at least make a universal friend code for their first party titles. It would make on-line gaming easier for the Wii community.
Only thing left to talk about is the graphics and the sound department. We get classic Mario tunes that are remixed for the game. Pretty basic for the Mario Kart series but I do enjoy the faster temp for the final laps.
Visually the game is pleasant to look at. No real sense of speed as it appears the wheels never move. Not only that but a lot of the land appears 2d in nature. Making the game look a little lackluster and last generation. It runs nicely though and the character models look excellent.
So, do you rent or buy this title? It depends if you're a fan of the series or not. Fans will love it as it's more of the same they have been playing but new players may be let down as it really hasn't changed over the years and is just more of the same. I realize that doesn't make much sense but Nintendo fans don't want change and it's a shame because with a few tweaks this could have been a perfect game.
Story - N/A
Graphics - 8/10
Sound - 9/10
Control - 10/10
Game Play - 7/10
Replay Value - 7/10
Final Score - 8/10
There's a reason i bring this up and it's because this is yet another case where Nintendo plays it safe. We get 18 or so new tracks and about the same amount of returning tracks. So our track selection is rather nice.
New tracks are amusing and inetresting and actually kind of fun. I really enjoyed the Mushroom stage which has you bouncing around on mushrooms in spots. it fit the world of mario and it was different.
That's my problem with this game though. Nintendo strives not to do anything too different or to really expand upon the game. So what we get is more of the same with a few tiny changes that really don't add up to a whole lot.
We get three different CC's this time around. The 50 CC is all about karts and it's fairly easy. Next up is the 100CC which is all bikes, which I believe are new to the series. This mode is a little harder. Finally we have the 150 CC which combines the two together and is the hardest of the CC's but not by much.
I found the game to be fairly easy for the first two laps and then the final lap I got a rain of super power ups sued just against me. That's what I hate. Why not create an AI that is good and doesn't come off as being cheap. Playing through both the 50 and the 100 I never once got a power up stronger than a red shell. No clue why and my most common was a banana.
It may sound like a silly complaint but the Ai constantly got thunder, slam shells and pow blocks. All of which totally hurt yo and stop you dead in your tracks. It becomes annoying that they always get these mega weapons and all I ever got was a lame banana.
This game also uses the Wiimote like a steering wheel and if you buy the game you get a cute little white wheel attachment. I rented the game so I can't comment on how that works. I found the Wiimote controls to be perfect and do the game just as well as a real wheel. The turning was tight and smooth and using the 2 button for gas felt natural.
The difference between the karts and bikes is very minimal and really besides needing a little more prep for turns there was no real difference. It only becomes when you play as both in the 150 as you can sue the bieks small size to your advantage but a kart can knock you out.
Besides that we get a vs mode which is your typical vs racing. There is also a battle mode which has the classic balloon mode and a coin mode. That's it and I really wish they would allow for more mini games or battle types. it gets old quickly and I swear there use to be four battle types back in the day.
On-line multi-player is also present and runs rather smoothly as far as frame rate is concerned. My only problem is that the Wii Friend Code is still in use. It wouldn't be a problem except every game has a different code. I do wish Nintendo would at least make a universal friend code for their first party titles. It would make on-line gaming easier for the Wii community.
Only thing left to talk about is the graphics and the sound department. We get classic Mario tunes that are remixed for the game. Pretty basic for the Mario Kart series but I do enjoy the faster temp for the final laps.
Visually the game is pleasant to look at. No real sense of speed as it appears the wheels never move. Not only that but a lot of the land appears 2d in nature. Making the game look a little lackluster and last generation. It runs nicely though and the character models look excellent.
So, do you rent or buy this title? It depends if you're a fan of the series or not. Fans will love it as it's more of the same they have been playing but new players may be let down as it really hasn't changed over the years and is just more of the same. I realize that doesn't make much sense but Nintendo fans don't want change and it's a shame because with a few tweaks this could have been a perfect game.
Story - N/A
Graphics - 8/10
Sound - 9/10
Control - 10/10
Game Play - 7/10
Replay Value - 7/10
Final Score - 8/10
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