Tag Archives: Just sayin’

Geek ‘Til Dawn 9 Recap

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Last Friday, DePaul‘s game club, DeFrag, hosted an event called Geek ‘Til Dawn (GtD), which is an all-night gaming event. From 8PM to 7AM, students at DePaul (and guests brought by students) can play anything from board games to video games. There’s anime viewing, group games, and even a raffle! It’s a very fun event, and this Spring’s (this was the 9th time they’ve held this event), instead of playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl all night, I went out and did more, and it was a lot of fun!

Here’s a quick recap:

– I hosted an impromptu single-elim Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament and found someone who wants to be part of the competitive scene at DePaul! That’s almost 4 people I’ve found this year who really want to improve, and that’s awesome to me. I won the tournament in style, and found out that you only get a silver trophy for winning Brawl’s in-game tournament. What a ripoff! Even though I won, I was (not so) secretly rooting for the girl playing red Link and the guy whom I chose the Marth color for (he actually faced me in the finals. LOL).

– I found someone who doesn’t think Yuzu from Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor is horrible character (but her ending does suck unless you play OverClocked)! I could write a paper on the cast of that game and I guarantee 2 pages would be dedicated to Yuzu and how she’s not a bad character.

– I finally beat my friend Pat in Snowboard Kids 2, which we’ve been talking about playing to see who’s better for the past year. He won game 1, then I won games 2 and 3. Swag hat coach with Balance Board lvl 3 da bess!

– I played 3 games of League of Legends, landing with friend who went AP Soraka. I went Support Ashe, and we won all three games. 3-0 Support Ashe/AP Soraka!! In the last game three of the five on the opponents team disconnected! LOL It was kinda sad, but at 5AM none of my team cared.

– I played Anime Name that Tune and won 1 point off of Clannad. At least I got a point off my favorite show! LOL.

– And then… AND THEN… the most hype match of Jenga I have EVER SEEN! I can’t even describe it, so here’s a video of the last six minutes of Game 3:

Jenga Game 3

And that was my GtD! Now it’s time to finish my one month left of school and begin Summer Vacation!

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’

ACen 2012 Recap

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Finally, I have time to write this! It’s a couple days late, but I had homework to do. LOL.

ACen 2012 is over, and school is back in full swing. It sounds like it sucks, but it’s May, which means (hopefully) nicer weather and a month left of school!

While it didn’t go as planned, ACen was an awesome weekend filled with jokes, jokes, and a lot of swag! A small recap of some of the more interesting things I experienced at ACen 2012:

– My friend Jerome paid $60 and got a Saturday pass, so a couple friends and myself went as his backup posses to help him claim his full-weekend pass.

– McCormick and Shmucks (the seafood restaurant, right by the Intercontinental, which we stayed at, is actually called McCormick and Shmicks, but I actually thought there was a u instead of an i).

– My friend Mike drove into a car wash thinking it was the parking lot for Potbelly.

– My friend Arthur brought a real crowbar into the con (real weapons weren’t allowed, so he made it look fake).

– Tournaments at ACen have to be single elimination. I found out the hard way when the Brawl tournament went on for more than three hours. I won’t be entering any tournaments unless they’re single elimination.

– I didn’t go to a single panel, but this turned out to be in my favor because many of the panels were rescheduled or were running late.

– Friday night, I took NyQuil to quell any cold that might try and get to me while I slept on the floor and to drown out any noises I’d hear. It didn’t work. The four kids on the beds proceeded to talk about:

  • Body Pillows
  • How chocolate is made with cow’s blood (and by extension, filling steaks with chocolate) – I don’t even know if the cow blood and chocolate thing is true.
  • Fresh Prince of Bel Air
  • BLONIC
  • Belinda Wanda
  • How they’re in the beds and talking, while the kids on the ground were actually trying to sleep
  • How I say, “swag!” all the time (and by extension, replacing smurf with swag)

We were up until at LEAST 5 AM (one of my friends had to leave the room and attempted to sleep in his car. He ended up going home to sleep).

– My friend Jerome, whom we convinced the Wednesday before ACen to go, thought he’d have nothing to do. Instead of doing nothing, our group didn’t know where he was half the time. Friday, he disappeared into the night, and after trying to call and text him with no answer, he came back at 4 AM. The next day, I encountered him and a few other friends, and I asked Jerome if he had been playing Street Fighter all night. He said he wished he had. I then had a revelation – my friend Arthur and I had been talking about going to Hentai Hell, which, unfortunately, was at 3 AM, so we decided not to go because I wanted to sleep (oh, the irony!). I knew right away what had happened, and here’s how the conversation went:

Me: You went to Hentai Hell, didn’t you, Jerome?

Jerome: No.

Friends: No!

Me: Oh my god, you guys went to Hentai Hell! You fucking went to HENTAI HELL!

And then Jerome proceeded to tell me that it wasn’t actually hentai. It was live-action…I’m so glad I didn’t go!

– Seth Rogan and David Spade on Tai Chasers (and starring in Samurai Jack as Seth Rogan and David Spade as his sidekick Seth Rogan as Samurai Jack)

– Galick Blast!

– Spirit Blast!

– Special Beam Blast!

– The laser light show in Yu-gi-Oh!

– Fryception

– Shakeception (offered only at Steak’n’Shake)

– Driving 7 people in a 5-person car to T.G.I Friday’s, both times two different ways of fitting everyone in!

– There was a waiter who only refilled drinks of two of our group. He took my friend Propit’s water as he was drinking it, then two minutes later refilled it again after he had only had a little of it. My other friend, John, had his coke refilled, and when my friend Mike waited 10 minutes for a refill, John switched cups, the waiter refilled the cup, and then John gave it back to Mike!

– Hey, Ryan, you’re taking us to IHOP, right?

– So, we’re going to IHOP, right, Ryan?

– What, we’re going to IHOP?

– The rude waiter at Culver’s (what do you want on your burger?). Yes, the emphasis is there.

– The random people dancing to LMFAO as we blasted it on the way back from Culver’s (raise the roof!).

– The CPU Luigi in Mario Party 2 had 10 stars at the end of the game. How many did the next highest have? 2 stars.

– Mike and I duo-texting Arthur about the Soap Bubble (and him not knowing what a Devil’s Four-Way is).

– The fire alarm at the Hyatt was pulled (and the Pat jokes that followed after).

– Cosplaying as Hoopz Ketchum (Ash hat worn backwards), Slam Dunkum (Ash hat worn forwards), and Ash Barkley (Ash hat worn sideways). Next year I’m gonna go all out and bring a boom box blasting slam remixes!

– Preparing for, but not going to, the Pokémon tournament (I was so confident I would’ve won…and I don’t even know if it actually happened!)

– The obscene amount of money I spent at the Dealer’s Room and Artist’s Alley (so, so worth it. My room looks awesome right now!)

And that’s all I remember. All in all, it was a fantastic con, and I can’t wait for Youmacon this year and next year”s ACen!!

Just sayin’.

Con 101

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Anime Central (ACen) is in just five (including today) days, and since this is my 6th con, I figured I should share my own personal tools of the trade when it comes to planning for something like a con for all you who will be attending your very first con. So, without further adieu, here’s some things I think you should do to prepare for (and while at) a con!

Before the Con:

SCHEDULE!!!

Make a schedule a week or two before the con.

There are going to be some of you who say, “I’ll just do what I feel like doing.” I did that my fourth year at Youmacon and regretted it. I felt so rushed and never really could decide what I wanted to do. Even if you’re not the type to plan out things, keeping a schedule will REALLY help you. Trust me. You’ll feel much better if you’ve got some idea of what you’ll be doing throughout the day.

If you’re a gamer, this is even more crucial, because if you want to go to a tournament you can’t be late. Con tournaments may be more casual, but they’re strict because they’re usually running on a super-tight schedule, and it’s disappointing when you miss out. You may also want to schedule time to just play, so keep that in mind.

You want to schedule time to go eat, too.

And if there’s a movie or show playing you wouldn’t want to miss that!

And you might want to schedule time to sleep (more on that later).

Don’t try to go to go to everything!

There’s a lot of panels and events that are held at cons: fan panels, quizzes, games, concerts, Q&A with guests. With so much to do, it’s hard to not feel overwhelmed when you want to see everything, so what I find really useful is to make a list and write down everything you want to see. Then, begin crossing off things that you feel you could do without. If you’re going with a group, try to coordinate with them if they’d like to go to the same panels.

My second and third year I went to a LOT of panels and felt exhausted afterwards since I didn’t have a lot of downtime. Right now, I’ve got 7 panels I’d like to go see. That’s it. Just 7.

With that said, let’s talk about one kind of panel that I’ve only been to once.

Fan Panels

I still remember my very first fan panel at Youmacon – my father and I walked in, sat down, and proceeded to waste away an hour as the panelists kind of circled around and didn’t really talk about anything interesting. Since it was a Naruto fan panel, topics like Sasuke or (Name of one ninja I will find later): who was hotter?, what’s going to happen in the current chapter of the manga (this is pre-Shippuden, and people were talking endings already), and then a half hour was dedicated to some fighting game that had characters from Naruto, One Piece, Dragonball Z, etc… and watching a trailer video and talking about it instead of Naruto.

I’ve never gone to a fan panel since.

Obviously, this is one example, and a personal one, so my advice is in no way right or definitive, but I just want to warn you that fan panels can be like that, and if that sounds like your cup of tea, then do go! I’m one for more serious discussion, so any fan panel that has deep discussion about plots, subplots, and character would be awesome, so that first experience was just awful for me, and I know that there are some that might be super-awesome, but I don’t want to take that risk when I can go to a panel about Japanese culture and learn something that, to me, might be interesting and cool.

So, just keep that in mind when you’re laying out your schedule.

Gaming

For all of you who love to game and are going to a con, this is REALLY important.

If you like anime and games, then making a schedule is really important so you can get to what you want to go to and have plenty of time to game (or enter a tournament!)

This year I’ll be spending a lot of time gaming because I’m holding a challenge in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, so being there is important for me. Obviously, I won’t be there all the time, but I have planned out significant chunks of time to go and play and meet new Smashers.

If you’re going to a con just for gaming, this isn’t really a problem, but…don’t stay in the game room for long periods of time.

This is your warning. Do not plan on staying there for long periods of time.

For whatever reason, some kids think that one day without a shower isn’t bad. Now, if you’re sitting around all day at home, then yeah, missing a day isn’t too bad. But factor in all the other kids whom may or may not have showered, all walking, talking, and sweating while playing games in one room…

Yeah, don’t stay in there for too long. Go get some fresh air – take some time to walk around the con and just explore. Make sure to add that into your schedule.

You’ll thank me later.

Rides and Rooms

If this is your first year, I don’t recommend rooming with random kids. Just my personal preference, though.

I stayed in a room with my father my first con, stayed with my ex in her house the next two years, and then stayed by myself my fourth year when I went to Youmacon. Last year, at my first ACen, I stayed at a friend’s house.

This year, I’ll be staying in a hotel room with friends.

My point is, do think about whether you want to stay at the con or stay near it, especially if money is an issue.

Now, let’s move onto the actual con!

At the con:

Don’t get disappointed when things don’t go as planned

Sticking to your schedule is a good idea, but don’t get too disappointed if you miss something because you met someone awesome while walking around/at a photo shoot/playing games/etc… and you end up missing a panel or event. Trust me, meeting new people is really rewarding, and that should be one of the reasons you go to cons – to be around people who share your interests.

Just go with whatever happens if something doesn’t go as planned. Anything can happen, but you shouldn’t let any mishaps ruin the rest of your day!

Eating

Eat.

Don’t eat two meals.

Don’t snack.

Eat three meals.

Yeah, it may be hard, but it’s worth it.

A lot of kids eat HORRIBLY during the weekend of a con, and it does take a toll when you’re doing so much in one day. If you absolutely must bring snacks, don’t make them junk food. This may seem hard, but with a little bit of effort you’ll be feeling great all con.

A funny story that concerns money issues – I didn’t have money to spend on food at the con because of how expensive everything was. So, to make sure I wasn’t eating crap, I bought a jar of peanut butter, a jar of Smucker’s strawberry jam, and a loaf of bread, and ate nothing but PB&J all weekend for the measly price of $5. LOL. That’s right, an entire weekend’s worth of food for $5, and it was AWESOME. My friends and I still laugh at it because by the time Saturday rolled around, my loaf of bread turned into a flatted mush of bread.

If you don’t have money, bring your meals. You may not want to do PB&J all weekend, but that’s better than bringing candy, chips, and soda all weekend. I brought 5 bottles of water that year, and it was worth it.

This year, I’m still debating… but I am definitely going out a couple times since I have the money.

Sleeping

This may be the most important piece of advice I’m going to give you (besides the one about personal hygiene)

SLEEP!

FOR THE LOVE OF…um…ANYTHING: SLEEP!!

Don’t stay up too late – try to go to bed by at least 2AM. That way you’re getting at least 6 hours of sleep if you wake up at 8AM, and that should be enough to keep your body happy.

You may be thinking, “Yooo… I don’t need to sleep!” Oh yes, you do. I don’t even need to explain this one. Go ahead and get as little sleep as possible. Go ahead, stay up until 4AM.

I dare you.

Get a Program Guide

This is pretty self-explanatory, but some people don’t get a program guide and then get lost. Program guides are a great way to look over everything quickly while at the con, and it has a map for you to use, which is really important, because you may get lost while looking for a specific room.

And probably the MOST IMPORTANT PIECE OF ADVICE…

Personal Hygiene

Shower Friday, shower Saturday, and shower Sunday. All three days, yo. You’re doing no one any favors by thinking that you can skip one day, because you’ll be doing a lot of moving around and being in crowds of people in just one day, and you’ll need to clean yourself. Hell, you don’t even need to shower – bathing works just as well! Just clean yourself.

I could go on, but I think you get it. Don’t even THINK of shirking off personal hygiene for even a day while at a con.

Conclusion

Cons are a great way to engage with people who share your interests and expand your horizons on anime and gaming. Just remember to keep a schedule and try and be as healthy as possible when it comes to eating and sleeping, and remember to clean yourself every day, and hopefully you’ll have a good time at any con you go to!

P.S. If you want to find me at ACen this weekend, I’ll be wearing an old-school Ash Hat (from the first generation of the Pokémon anime) with plaid. I’m always happy to meet new people!

Just sayin’.

The Patriarchal Double-Standard (in geek culture)

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Anime Central (ACen) is around the corner, and so I’ve begun browsing the forums to start planning out my weekend. As I did so, a topic caught my eye entitled, “Nerds and Male Privilege.” It linked to an article on Kotaku entitled the name of the thread, and so I gave it a read. It was an interesting read, and I agree with a lot of the points the author made, but I wanted to chime in with my own opinions since they address what I think permeates a lot of the comments on both the ACen thread and the article on Kotaku, and it’s this strange assumption that men don’t really suffer from hyper-sexualization of their gender.

I thought that we’ve made progress as a society towards gender equality, but it looks like I’m wrong. I understand that the geek community is but a facet of society, but as it grows, it’s hard not to see where this generation is headed – hyper-sexualization of both men and women.

I’m not trying to downplay the hyper-sexualization of women, whom have it far worse than men do currently. I just want to expose that while women are on the short end of the stick, they’re also facilitating the very society that oppress them, and that men need to be treated differently, too.

I want to be clear, here: I am NOT downplaying the oppression of women and the disgusting superiority of men.

I guess my main point is that men and women need to reevaluate how they perceive each other, especially in the gaming world. A little more simply put: the hyper-sexualization of men facilitates the hyper-sexualization of women.

Let’s start with a quick example when it comes to hyper-sexualization. The article on Kotaku talks about Batman: Arkham City, and quickly shows three prominent male characters, then shows three female characters. Obviously, the females are hyper-sexualized in their costumes, but let’s take a moment to look at the men, specifically Batman, the protagonist. Look at how good he looks. Look at how badass he looks. Your typical argument against that is, “That’s not nearly as hyper-sexualized as women. It’s seen as positive hyper-sexualization.”

Is it, though? If women are saying that this isn’t bad, they’re essentially saying that there’s no standard for good looking men. But there are. Men are becoming just as conscious about themselves as women are when it comes to looking good. Batman is hyper-sexualized in the sense that it portrays men with power and muscle. They can’t be looking goofy and fun – they need to look serious and dedicated to what they do.

Have you ever seen a really badass male that isn’t smiling and fun-loving most of the time? Obviously, there are those gems, just like there are gems containing non-hyper-sexualized women. This is one of the points that I think the author of the Kotaku article really falls short. He catches these kinds of reactions, completely excluding some really valid points it has – for example, how this hyper-sexualization might make homosexual males feel uncomfortable because of how homosexuals are portrayed in a sarcastic and goofy light most of the time, but soon grow to be more serious because that’s what men should rise to be.

If that doesn’t make sense, think about it this way – in high school (even college), you’ve got a lot of guys who rise to fit what society deems to be a good teen male (muscular, likes to party, confrontational), and you’ve got the girls who are attracted to them and not the ‘nerds’ because they’re not the norm. Mothers tell their sons that they can’t show weakness, and in the business world money (power) is heard more than a logical voice.

There was a comment made by a guy saying it disturbs him when people complain about sexist comments, and the retort made by a female said that she can’t enjoy playing games (like he does) because of the sexist comments. He said to ignore them, and she said ignoring them isn’t the right option, and that he isn’t the one receiving those comments. There’s a kernel of truth in there – don’t ignore issues that need to be brought up, but saying that he isn’t receiving any kind of abuse, I think, is wrong. It’s very true that women are receiving a lot of shit, and that when they think they’re being hyper-sexualized that their opinion is turned down, but here’s what’s false – men aren’t completely benefiting from hyper-sexualization.

In fact, men complaining is a sign of weakness. They should, “man up,” and just take it according to our patriarchal society. So why would they complain when they think men are being portrayed wrong? When something comes up, they’re supposed to ignore it, just like that commenter said as a response, and force themselves to think they’re being portrayed positively.

Do you see the problem?

Men are portrayed positively, but it has a negative impact on them, and this facilitates the negative treatment of women.

Patriarchy has changed into a lethal double-edged sword that cuts men deep, women more deeply, but it takes a cold, hard stab at gender equality, giving men an impression of power and privileges that they’re afraid of losing because they won’t be the standard man. It emotionally cripples men, and strips women of power. Obviously, women are still getting the short end of the stick, but the point here is that men are suffering, too, but they’re not taught that they’re suffering and so internalize a false state of mind where they think they’re fine, but they’re not.

I want more clothes on women, too, but before that happens, we need to take the muscle out of men and grant them their emotions. Once we end the hyper-sexualization of men, we can tackle the hyper-sexualization of women, and maybe, just maybe, achieve gender equality.

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’.