Category Archives: Reviews

REVIEW: Pushmo

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Right after I reviewed Pictobits, my friend Jacob suggested I get Pushmo, another game from the 3DS e-shop, so I decided to buy it when I downloaded the Rayman Origins Demo. Just like Pictobits, it’s another gem that is sure to please anyone!

Atmosphere (Music/Graphics):

While the music isn’t the best I’ve heard, it is nice, and complements the way Pushmo feels while playing – it’s definitely good background music for trying to solve a puzzle. The actual puzzles are awesome, especially the murals, which range from Mario‘s head to a Christmas tree. All of them are really creatively made, and Tetris-like look of them makes it even better!

Gameplay:

Pushmo is a puzzle game where you manipulate blocks to reach the top of the Pushmo (the puzzle), and save the child whom has been trapped inside of it. It’s a very simple concept that anyone can pick up and play with ease, but the puzzles are so cleverly designed that you’ll find yourself thinking on more than a few occasions, which I find awesome.

Manipulating blocks is really simple. You can pull out a row three times as long as there’s solid ground behind you, and you can pull a block that you’re not standing on sideways as long as there’s solid ground to the side of you. A lot of puzzles require you to push a block in to be able to pull another block sideways out or in, and then re-pull or push a block back in or out to create a series of steps that you previously couldn’t access before. There are multiple ways to solve some puzzles, and only one way to solve certain puzzles, so there’s some flexibility and creativity in the way you can solve them.

And don’t worry, if you mess up, you can turn back time by pressing the L button or press the reset switch to restart the level.

After a while, ‘gadgets’ come into play, such as manholes and switches. Switches push every block of its color out 3 rows (the maximum), and the manholes let you reach areas you couldn’t by just jumping or manipulating blocks. Once those come into play the puzzles get a lot harder, but way more fun. I found myself really enjoying the gadgets, as they allowed the puzzles to be structured much differently, and many of the puzzles still are simply pushing and pulling.

Another feature (that I have yet to try) is Pushmo creation. You can create your own puzzles using an editor and play them and share them. I want to finish the game before I try it, but it looks absolutely awesome, and I’m really excited to try it out.

Pushmo has a lot of content for a game under $10, and it’s perfect if you’re a fan of puzzle games. The puzzles look great and are really satisfying to solve, and, like Pictobits, you can pick it up, play it for a few minutes, and put it back knowing that you can play it again later and still enjoy it. I’m glad my friend recommended it, because I’m loving it!

Score:

Atmosphere: 8/10

Gameplay: 10/10

Overall: 9/10

Just sayin’.

REVIEW: Pictobits

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Every month, Club Nintendo releases a set of games that are available on the Wii Shop Channel or the 3DS e-Shop as rewards for coins. These are usually priced at 150 coins, and, like with Super Mario Kart, some of them are absolute gems. Pictobits is one of those gems.

Atmosphere (Music/Graphics):

It’s 8-bit! Who doesn’t love 8-bit? The puzzle pieces look very similar to Tetris, giving it a very nostalgic feel. The music, remixed versions of the original songs (still 8-bit!) are great! I got into it and started playing to the beat of the songs, and it was awesome to hear the originals remixed with 8-bit, keeping everything simple and themed.

I found myself replaying a few levels just because the music was that awesome!

Gameplay:

The gameplay is actually relatively simple. Colored blocks are falling from the sky, and you have three rows of various colored blocks to make a column or row of 4 or a 2×2 box minimum by manipulating them with your stylus. You can make a row stretching across the entire screen if the falling pieces present themselves that way or a 5×2 box – the combinations make up a big part of the way the game plays. If the falling pieces hit your blocks and don’t make a match, they turn into blocks themselves.

Once you make a match, time freezes, and any pieces attached the to completed piece start to fall faster after the completed piece disappears – this gives you time to set up blocks so that they fall into matches and link together. You can go up to a maximum of 9 links, and I’ll explain why in a second.

You can touch an untouched block with your stylus and have the entire block of puzzle pieces fall quickly to extend your combo if you’re quick enough, and any match you make during the time freeze will extend your combo.

So, why only a maximum of 9 before it stops counting? Because of the goal of the game. The goal of the game is to uncover the level’s hidden character(s). You do this by completing puzzle pieces. If you complete a column of 4, then 4 bits fly to the top screen and fill in 4 bits of that character. If you do a combo, you’ll get 8 bits for 2 links, 12 bits for 3 links, and so on and so forth until you can get a whopping 36 bits for link 9, and that’s only for combing with 4 bits. If you combo with larger blocks, rows, and columns you can get into the 60’s of bits!

The difficulty increases as you complete the character. In the beginning, the music is just some beats and a very small rhythm. As you complete the character, the music begins to fill itself in with the parts of the game pertaining to that character, and once you’re 3/4 of the way done, the entire song comes out and plays as you finish the character. As the music picks up, the puzzle pieces fall faster, making it harder to combo.

It’s actually pretty simple, but the game throws a few curveballs in – there are blocks that can’t be moved (marked by an ‘x’), so they must be completed to disappear. There’s also the Pow Block and coins. Completing a 2×2 or higher block gives you one coin, and any unmovable blocks give one coin when matched – but what are they for? Besides buying the Dark levels (harder versions of the original levels) and music to listen to, they’re for restoring spaces in your block holder.

At the start of any level, you can store up to 10 blocks to then put down and make matches. If, for whatever reason, you find yourself in a tight spot, you can press the Pow Block in the lower left-hand corner to erase a few lines of your stack and make the rest come crashing down to the bottom of the screen. However, it comes with a price – you lose one spot in your block holder, meaning you now can only hold 9 blocks. If you have 5 coins, however, you can buy one spot back. It’s a very balanced system, and extremely useful during the later levels when you’ll be using the Pow Block more than a few times.

There’s some replay value in Pictobits, but only in its Dark levels that need to be unlocked and in getting enough coins to unlock all the music. Or, for those who are hardcore, you can try to get the highest score, and if that’s the case the replay value is great!

And finally, the controls – in short, the stylus works wonderfully. There’s nothing more to say about it except I’m glad it used the stylus instead of the D-Pad.

Pictobits is one of those games that you pick up, beat, and then come back to when you have a few minutes to kill and want to play something you know you’ll enjoy – it’s got great music and intuitive gameplay, and it’s something I’ll be playing whenever I’m bored or want a puzzle game with fantastic music! If you’ve got 150 coins to spare on Club Nintendo or a few extra dollars, pick up Pictobits; you won’t be disappointed.

Score:

Atmosphere: 9/10

Gameplay: 9/10

Overall: 9/10

Just sayin’

REVIEW: Kid Icarus Uprising

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I remember two years ago, during the summer, I woke up, poured myself a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats, and watched Nintendo’s E3 press conference, where they unveiled something I’ve been excited for since it was announced – Kid Icarus: Uprising.

Now, weeks after its release, and I’ve finally gotten around to beating it. That means it’s time for a review!

Plot:

Let’s start with the plot. It’s been 25 years since Medusa took over Sky World and imprisoned Paulutena, the Goddess of Light. Now, she’s returned with a vengeance, and Pit must stop her once again! The actual plot is actually pretty awesome, especially once you hit Hades and Pyyhron. It’s not too serious, and the characters play off the plot really well. Actually, it’s awesome to see that the characters are what really drive the plot this time. The entire plot is set in motion through Hades, and it’s driven by Paulutena, Hades, and Viridi. It’s good, but it gets crazy and outlandish (space pirates? Really?), and while those outlandish parts can be pretty cool, it just didn’t really strike me as coherent to the world.

Characters:

This is where Uprising really shines. The characters are, in short, fantastic. They’re full of color and vibrance, both in appearance and in personalities. The way Paulutena and Pit joke around while you’re beating up enemies really gives a sense of how confident the two are. The way they grow serious during a few boss battles also gives way to show that they never mess around. It’s funny. Scratch that, it’s hilarious. Hades, Viridi, Pyyrhon (oh my god Pyyrhon), and even Medusa all make the game’s campaign so, so enjoyable. Don’t even get me started on some of the bosses!

The dialogue is flawless. The way the characters play off of each other (especially Pit and Viridi) is incredibly well-done, and the writing is nothing short of fantastic. And the best part is, despite the comedic dialogue, the characters do grow and mature. To see Pit not rely on Paulutena, to see Dark Pit accept Paulutena, to see Viridi grow to help Pit instead of oppose him (despite her denying it) all really facilitate good plot and character development, and to be able to do all that with a comedy act is really impressive. If you’ve been looking for good dialogue and character in a game, stop reading this right now and go get Uprising. It’s shortcomings will not stop this game from pleasing you.

Atmosphere (Music/Graphics):

Uprising smashes this category into pieces. The music is great for every level and every boss battle. The graphics, from the Underworld to space, are incredibly done, and everything looks crisp in 3D. DId I mention how good the 3D is? It’s fantastic. Everything about the music and graphics are fantastic. Then only gripe I can see is that the menu looks almost exactly like Super Smash Bros. Brawl‘s menu, which actually makes sense given that both were made by the same team.

Gameplay:

This is Uprising’s weakest point, but even at its weakest point, it’s still good. There are a lot of plusses to Uprising, from the difficulty scale (for those who want to enjoy the story and those who want a real challenge) to weapon fusing. The difficulty scale affects items received and rewards given – the more hearts (money) you bet, the better the rewards.

Weapon Fusing allows you to fuse together two weapons to create a more powerful weapon with abilities gained from the two fused weapons. It’s an awesome feature, and while we’re at it, let’s talk about the amount of weapons: bows, blades, clubs, palms, claws, staffs, cannons, orbiters – there’s so many, and each with a different aesthetic look (including shots fired) and different individual stats that you can’t help but try to test them all out! I found myself liking the bows, clubs, orbiters, and palms the best.

And then there are abilities, which grant Pit status boosts and the ability to inflict status on others for a short amount of time. All of them are pretty useful, and they’re all fun to use.

But, there are some downfalls. Let’s talk about the controls, which by no means are bad. They’re actually pretty intuitive and make sense. Hold the L button to fire, joystick to move, and touch screen to aim. Pretty nice, yeah? Here’s the problem: holding your 3DS like that can get a bit…uncomfortable. You almost HAVE to use that stand, and even then it felt weird to me. Of course, I found a way that works for me (by setting it on my lap), but I never truly felt comfortable while playing Uprising, especially during ground battles.

And the Multiplayer…well, I haven’t really played it much because I didn’t get hooked when I played. It’s fun, but it wasn’t fun enough for me to want to continue playing it. I enjoyed the campaign much, much more.

All in all, Kid Icarus: Uprising is sure to please, I think. Whether you’re new to the series or familiar thanks to Super Smash Bros. Brawl or the original Kid Icarus, you’ll enjoy a lot of what Uprising has to offer. And unlike me, you may even find the Multiplayer more captivating the controls less uncomfortable.

I highly recommend!

Score:

Plot: 8/10

Characters: 10/10

Atmosphere: 10/10

Gameplay: 7/10

Overall: 9/10

Just sayin’.

REVIEW: Devil Survivor 2

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Ah, Spring is here, and that means my Spring Break is over. Yeah, that sucks, but I enjoy walking around Chicago during nice weather, so I can’t complain, especially since I have some new games to play and review! One such game is Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2.

I’ve always been a fan of Atlus. I love the challenge presented by their games, especially the Shin Megami Tensei series, and one particular series caught me since the first game: Devil Survivor. It is one of my favorite DS games to-date. I love the battle system, I love the characters, I love the story, and Devil Survivor 2 takes it and makes it better in more than a few ways, but it’s not without its small drawbacks.

Plot:

This is, actually, the one part I think is the worst part of this game (although it’s still a great plot). You are the 18-year-old Hero, and after signing into Nicaea, the dead-face delivery site, you view a death clip of yourself dying. As the scene plays itself out after an earthquake, a demon saves you, and you are born as a Demon Tamer. As you try to figure out what’s happening, you encounter JP’s, Japan’s supernatural special ops team designed specifically for crises such as this. You decide to help them figure out what’s going on, and as the week progresses you find a group against JP’s and that the world is being eaten by what’s called the “Void”. I won’t spoil anything, which is why the description is so vague, but compared to Devil Survivor the story is on a much grander scale, and while I enjoy the story, I liked that the setting was only Tokyo in Devil Survivor. I also liked the Heaven and Hell story more than the Void and supernatural beings that aren’t demons, but Devil Survivor 2 plays its story very well, and I still enjoyed it more than most games.

Characters:

Here Devil Survivor 2 does a fantastic job. It is definitely on par with Devil Survivor’s character, which is awesome because those characters were great. This time there are way more characters to use than in Devil Survivor, and they’re all great. I think the only characters I didn’t care too much for were Hinako and Keita, and that’s because they didn’t interest me more than the other characters.

There’s Io, too soft spoken and avoiding of conflict, Daichi, who is too immature and scared to really come to grips with reality, Makoto, the JP’s member who is too loyal to her group to think for herself, Jungo, the chef who dislikes fighting, and many, many more! They all have their own stories to tell, and some of them are really touching (especially Jungo’s. I almost shed a tear for his).

Atmosphere (Music/Graphics):

The graphics aren’t really anything new, although some of the cutscenes are very well done and surpass Devil Survivor’s. The music, however, has upgraded substantially for me. The battle music was good, but the theme for the Anguished One, the boss battles, and the mood music were great. All of it really captured most of the emotions of the scenes. Loved all of it! And the opening and ending themes were pretty awesome, too.

Gameplay:

Here it is, the big guy. Devil Survivor’s gameplay was fantastic. It brought a whole new way to summon demons through your cell phone with apps, and that gameplay is still here, and still great. In fact, some of the new skills (Like multi-hit/multi-strike), are really cool and give some characters (*coughDaichicough) a chance to shine where they normally wouldn’t. However, there are some little things I’d like to point out:

First is the fate system. When I first got this system, I said to myself, “Wow, really? This is dumb.”

Then amazing happened.

People had non-skill resistances, JOINT SKILL CRACKING, and SDTP. Resistances are self-explanatory. Skill cracking is how you gain new skills, and in Devil Survivor, many of the boss battles required you to really plan how you would tackle those skills because only the one who is set to crack a skill can crack it. Not this time. Now, if you get someone’s fate high enough, you’re allowed to have either of the two crack the skill. This makes cracking two skills on on character possible, where it wasn’t in Devil Survivor. This. Is. AWESOME.

I was able to crack 3 skills off one guy because I had two others with a high enough fate level. It’s incredible. INCREDIBLE!

SDTP is the ability to instantly send a demon to the Hero (and vice-versa). It’s not really that useful, but it saved me in a couple boss battles. It’s not as good as summoning a new demon, but it’s useful when you know it will be.

Next are some of the skills. Pierce and Assassinate are dumb. When you’ve got a nicely built team and you die because someone uses Assassinate and instantly kills you, it’s a little frustrating, especially when they go first because of the initiative bonus. Yeah, it’s great when you have it, but I still think it’s a dumb skill.

Pierce is next. Let me preface this by saying that there is absolutely no way around Null/Reflect/Drain Fire, Ice, Electric, Force, Curse. Yet, yet, there is something that completely dominates Null/Reflect/Drain Phys, and that would be Pierce. Now, this only applies to whoever holds the skill, but the very idea of being able to negate any Null/Reflect/Drain is ridiculous, especially when you can’t negate any of the magic resist skills. I used Pierce to completely wipe the floor with Daichi, and it required no strategic thinking or planning for demons because he literally went in with Multi-Strike/Pierce and killed everything that wasn’t a boss. It took away from some of the late-game planning because of that.

Those are but two skills, though. The rest of it is great. Auctioning, fusing, and the Demon Compendium are all still there, and they’re all still awesome. One new thing about fusing are add-ons, which are little boosts you can add to a fused demon. They vary from some of them give the demon access to all of your cracked skills of a certain element to increasing stats.

And that’s that. Overall, Devil Survivor 2 outclasses Devil Survivor, and I highly recommend it to any fan of the Shin Megami Tensei series!

Score:

Plot: 8/10

Characters: 10/10

Atmosphere: 7/10

Gameplay: 8/10

Overall: 8/10

Just sayin’.

REVIEW: Howl’s Moving Castle

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This movie is good for ONE REASON ONLY:

Christian Bale Bird Man!

Bird Man - played by Christian Bale

Oh yes, Christian Bale becoming bird man. It’s the only explanation!

I lied, there’s two reasons:

BA scarescrow

The most bad ass scarecrow to have ever existed...

But, seriously – continuing the Miyazaki trend, I recently watched Howl’s Moving Castle. Did you know that Miyazaki throws in sub-themes as casually as strolling into a party where jeans and a t-shirt at a business casual event? Neither did I, and because Arrietty was my first of Miyazaki’s films, I was under the impression his other works would be a little more sensible.

Now, I can take chaos. The movie’s premise of a girl who feels old, ugly, and incompetent and being cursed to reflect her mood is an enchanting premise, and I was really enjoying the movie for a while as we explored Howl’s gigantic moving ‘castle’ and its ability to warp doorways was awesome.

Then came war.

Now, a funny little note here is every single time (and I mean every. Single. Time.) the characters talked about war or we saw war happening, my friend would turn to me and say, “Hey, Kappy, did you know this movie’s about war?”

As annoying as that may seem, it was funny to me because it felt like the concept of war was literally shoved into the movie as a skeleton to the plot being driven by Sophie (I think that’s the spelling) and Howl. Was war really what the movie was about? It shouldn’t have been, but in the end it was.

I applaud Miyazaki for trying to weave a story of two who belittle themselves and are cowardly and, in the end, confront their problems head-on with war being the wrong solution to problems, but was that supposed to be a metaphor for how we as people need to confront our problems head-on with discussion instead of duking it out? Maybe, but if so, it was executed poorly.

We would go from a scene with Sophie to towns and villages being destroyed and Howl just flying around destroying battleships. Um, OK, great. Why? Why was the war even there? How did it start? Why was Howl summoned by both sides?

Let’s move onto something a little more positive: the voice acting and characters. Here’s where this movie really shines. Disregarding any lines about war, the characters develop wonderfully. Being able to actually see Sophie come to terms with her feeling old and weak was incredibly powerful. The supporting cast really helps move things along, and that living scarecrow is easily the greatest character in film history. There, I said it. I loved that scarecrow. It was funny, but really helped Sophie grow, and I thought that was awesome.

Talking of characters, let’s talk about the voice acting. Since I watched it on Netflix, I listened to the english dub, and I was once again impressed by it. Especially Howl, who was voiced by none other than Christian-fucking-Bale. That’s right, Christian Bale voiced Howl in this movie, and damn does he sound good when not talking like Batman!

And how can I forget the gorgeous visuals? The animation and art were, simply put, stunning. Panning across the sky or an open lake was 10-12 seconds of delicious eye candy, and a few of the scenes (specifically when they ‘moved’) were animated really nicely.

All in all, this movie was good. There were some things I think it could have done much better concerning execution and the development of their sub-themes, but other than that, everything was great. I’m excited to watch more of Miyazaki’s work!

Rating: 7 out of 10

Also the concept of Christian Bale turning into a bird man is hilarious.

And credit to the photoshopped photo of Christian Bale goes to my friend Jacob (Xyless)!

Just sayin’.

REVIEW: The Secret World of Arrietty

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It’s rare that I come across a movie that I find absolutely fantastic, but I found one last Thursday when my friends and I went to go see The Secret World of Arrietty, a Disney-translated and dubbed Kari-guarashi no Arietti. 

Based off the award-winning book, The Borrowers, The Secret World of Arrietty starts us off going from the city of Tokyo to the countryside, where a boy named Shawn (Sho) is staying to rest before a heart operation the following week. As he arrives, he notices Arrietty (Arietti), a 14-yeard-old Borrower. In highly stylized fashion, we watch Arrietty nimbly dodge the pet cat, Nina, and escape through a grate into an area underneath the house Shawn is staying. Indeed, the art style and animation are truly marvelous eye-candy, and I found myself enjoying the animation throughout the film. Seeing the world through Arrietty’s eyes makes something as simple as a house an entire world to explore, and explore we do as Pod (Poddo), Arrietty’s father, takes her through a few of the rooms of the house to ‘borrow’ a cube of sugar and tissue paper.

I usually take Japanese animated films and shows subbed. Rarely do I find a dub worth mentioning, and this one is definitely worth mentioning. You can tell Disney took time to make sure they had a good voice acting cast, and did they deliver. What really stood out to me during the opening credits was Will Arnett, whom I know from Arrested Development. All of the cast was great, and I felt each voice fit each character nicely, and they really play off of each other.

The movie moves along a little slow; it takes a long time for Arrietty and Shawn to speak, let alone Arrietty letting Shawn see her. Yet, despite this slow pace, I found myself enjoying it. Many movies today are action-packed and full of quick, high-intensity situations, so it was nice to watch a simple movie that had characters that really grew. You can feel Arrietty’s conflicting emotions as she walks down the nail staircase from Shawn’s room after he saves her, and even tries to convince her father that not all beans (a Borrower mispronunciation of ‘being’) are bad.

The music plays off of this quiet, slow style well. The music, all written and composed by French artist Cecil Corbel, really fits each scene well, and I love a movie with excellent music. I especially love Arrietty’s Song. None of the music is fast or intrusive. It just gently ebbs and flows with each scene, even the more spurring pieces able to stay soft whilst letting you know that the characters are pushing themselves.

The ending is a little abrupt, but understandable. I was wishing it had been a little different, but it didn’t really jar me. It was a good ending to a wonderful film.

All in all, The Secret World of Arrietty is, at its core, a children’s film of friendship, but told in such a way that anyone of any age (or those who love animation) can enjoy. I highly recommend you see this.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Oh, and Hayao Miyazaki co-wrote the screenplay.

Just sayin’.