Gamer Mania 2 Reviews & Previews

Tetris DS

2006-06-13T20:35:00.000-04:00

It’s time for a review of a remake of that really popular game that made the sky crap blocks on you. No, not Pokemon Dash. That game just was crap. I mean Tetris, duh! So yeah, they remade it on the Nintendo Dual Screen. I know most Tetris remakes suck King Kong’s toes, but this one doesn’t. So, you all know Tetris, and this one of course comes with the original mode, which is always fun. This one comes with a bunch of new modes though, and some of them are almost as much fun as the regular one.

The first 1 is Touch mode, and it basically gives you a bunch of Tetriminos stacked really high and you have to slide them with the stylus to get rid of all the rows. There’s also a puzzle mode with 200 different puzzles that you use the stylus with too and you have to do stuff like get rid of chains of six lines. The regular touch is way better then the puzzle, but definitely not as good as the original Tetris.

The second is just a plain Puzzle mode where they give you a bunch of Tetriminos on the top screen, and you have to use the 3 different Tetriminos you have on the bottom screen to clear the top screen. It’s pretty fun, and there are 200 just like the touch puzzle one so you won’t run out very soon.

And then there’s Mission mode, which fully sucks. You have to do stuff like get rid of 2 rows with a square Tetrimino. It gets really boring really fast, because you do the same stuff over and over. Worst of the 5 new modes.

Then you have Catch mode, which is my favorite of the new ones. You get a brick and there are Tetriminos falling down. You have to catch them and make blocks of 4x4, which explode after 10 seconds. If you take too long to make a block, then you run out of energy and lose. There are also Metroids falling which will eat a bunch of your Tetriminos if you hit one of them. This mode ROCKS BALLS! Definitely the most innovative spin on Tetris I’ve ever seen.

And last is Push mode, which is really good too. You play against an opponent and you have to force the glob of Tetriminos into either the top or the bottom of the shaft, depending on where you are. You do this by blowing up 2 or more lines of Tetriminos. Another great twist on the Tetris gameplay, and it’s really fun. One thing though, if you like monkeys, don’t play this mode. If you lose…. DONKEY KONG FALLS INTO THE FIRE!! Aww how sad. L Poor DK.

Then there’s the multiplayer stuff. And BOY is there a lot. You can play around with your friends with up to 10 people with 1 game card in regular Tetris. Or if you don’t happen to have friends because you play games like Fat Albert eats Twinkies, you can play on the Wi-Fi Connection. You can do 2 or 4 player regular, or 2 player Push mode. Really, really fun.

The only thing Tetris fans might not like about this game is the changes they made to it. Like how they added a hold piece that you can switch with the one that’s falling by pressing one of the triggers. And how you can see up to 6 blocks ahead of what’s falling. Nothing much, but some Tetris addicts might be pissed.

Finally we have to get to the graphics and sound. Well, it’s Tetris, so the graphics are basic. But they added a bunch of retro themes like in Push mode you’re falling through a Metroid level and a spinning character that spins when you get rid of lines. Really, really cool. And then to the sound, it’s just old Nintendo music, but that’s ok.

Verdict: This game rocks. It’s a great puzzle game to go alongside Meteos, and a great twist on Tetris. You need to check this game out, because it gets 4.5 Marios getting dizzy when you pwn the Tetriminos out of 5. Buy it for sure. Ton, out.

What the eff dude #9? Bobo?

X-Men 3: The Last Stand Movie Review

2006-05-28T02:48:00.000-04:00

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellan, Famke Janssen, Patrick Stewart, Kelsey Grammar, Shawn Ashmore, Ellen Page, Anna Paquin, Aaron Stanford, Ben Foster, Dania Ramirez, Daneil Cudmore, Cameron Bright, Vinne Jones, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn

SPOILER ALERT: THIS MOVIE IS FULL OF IMPORTANT SCENES THAT ARE HARD TO LEAVE OUT OF A REVIEW, SO IF YOU DON'T WANT THE MOVIE RUINED, SKIP THE PLOT SECTION OF THE REVIEW. THANK YOU.

Plot: The movie starts out 20 years ago. Charles Xavier, also called Professor X (Patrick Stewart), is with his very old friend Erik Lensherr, Magneto (Ian McKellan). They are in a small neighborhood going to the house of young Jean Grey. She is a very gifted girl. They go in to persuade her to attend Xavier's School For Gifted Children. They talk a bit and then the story goes 10 years back from the present day (10 years ago) where we join a young boy in a bathroom, hand on his back, crying. His father comes to the closed door and orders him to open it, but he won't. The boy was scraping his back which had wings on it. We then go a few years in the future from today (I know, a bit confusing, it means the near future) where Storm (Halle Berry) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) are in a virtual training course with three students, Iceman (Shawn Ashmore) who can make ice, Kitty Pride, also called ShadowCat (Ellen Page) who can walk through walls, and Colossus (Daniel Cudmore) who can turn into steel. These three are training to be X-Men. They are battling and stuff. Finally, Wolverine finishes the fight and Storm and he think the three students are ready to be X-Men. Just then we join Scott Summer, Cyclops (James Marsden) who is still grieving over Jean's death in the last film. He travels to the dam from the last movie where she died. There he hears voices and all of a sudden, Jean pops up out of the water. They kiss and hug and Cyclops discovers that Jean can now control Cyclops' eye beams. So they kiss a little more, and she opens her eyes scaringly, and next scene. Well anyway, we join the wonderful big blue guy Dr. Henry McCoy, Beast (Kelsey Grammar) who is a cabinet member to the president. The government has captured Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) and they are trying to get the location of Magneto. She kills them of course and it taken on a truck. At the school, Storm and Professor X see Beast for a nice reunion. He tells them that a pharmecutical company has developed a mutant power antibody. What this means is is that it takes your mutant powers away if you get injected. Not all mutants are for this. Some mutants have a meeting about this "cure". Mageneto then tries to recruit these mutants for an army to battle the humans over this. Him and his sidekick, Pyro (Aaron Stanford) recruit one named Callisto (Dania Ramirez) who is fast, Arclight who creates shockwaves, Psylocke with telepathic powers, and Kid Omega which had the powers to cover his body in spikes. With these, he's made. They then try to find Mystique who is still on the truck along with a few other mutants. Magneto intercepts the truck and rescues her along with Juggernaut, who's strong, and Multiple Man, who can multiply. But then the guard shoots Mystique with his gun that has needles containing the mutant "cure" and Mystique loses her powers. Magneto leaves her there, nude.

Back at the school, Professor X senses something happened to Cyclops at that lake and sends Wolverine and Storm to investigate. They find Jean lying there in rocks and take her back to the school to treat her. There, Professor X tells Wolverine that Jean has a different personality known as "Dark Phoenix". Professor X is trying to control her so she doesn't wake up as Dark Phoenix. Then later, the professor leaves and puts her under a machine, Wolverine by her side. All of a sudden, she wakes up and almost has sex with Wolverine (go Logan!) Then Wolverine stops her and asks where Cyclops is. She tells him that she accidently killed him, but it wasn't her, it was Dark Phoenix. Then she escapes. She goes back to her old house. Magneto wants to recruit her now, her being so powerful. They both travel there to get her, and Professor X and Jean end up getting into a big mind battle. Jean kills Professor X. He explodes and Wolverine is witness.

Tons of mutants are protesting the mutant "cure". The first mutant vaccinated is planned to be Warren Worthington III, Angel (Ben Foster) who's father invented this vaccine. Angel refuses and flies away.

Back at the school, there is a funeral for Professor X. Everyone is sad. Especially Kitty. So Bobby (Iceman) goes into her room to try to cheer her up. He sees that she has ice skates and takes her to the fountain in front of the school. Rogue is watching out the window, jealous that Kitty is skating with Bobby. So Rogue decides that she wants the mutant vaccine. She wants to touch people.

Magneto takes his mutant army, including Jean Grey, to a forest area. The army discover this area, thanks to Mystique, and they travel there. They find out that all the people that they found on their radar were just copies of Multiple Man.

Magneto and his mutant army are trying to go to Alcatrez Island where the mutant "cure" was created. Magneto moves the Golden Gate Bridge over (AWESOME SCENE) and they are intercepted by the army. The army is now equipped with plastic weapons being that they know if their weapons are metal, then Magneto can take them. Magneto is on the island to capture Jimmy, also known as the Leech (Cameron Bright) who's mutant power is that if you go near him, your mutant power doesn't work. This is how they invented the mutant "cure". But the X-Men are ready. Wolverine, Storm, Beast (to replace Rogue), Kitty (ShadowCat), Iceman, and Colossus. They get on their ship and travel to the island. There, there is an epic battle between Magneto's army, and the army and the X-Men. Kitty needs to go inside to rescue Jimmy (Leech) but is chased by Juggernaut. She finally gets to Jimmy and defeats Juggernaut. Outside, Storm, Beast, and Wolverine find some of the mutant "cure" that were used in the army's guns. They decide the only way to stop Magneto is to give him the cure. They trick him, and he is vaccinated. No more Magneto. Jean Grey then takes over by using her amazing power to destroy everything. Wolverine has no choice, he has to kill her. He does. The war is over, and everyone is safe.

At the end, Beast is promoted in the government. Everyone else is happy and the school is better than ever, Storm taking Professor X's place. Then at the end, Magneto is sitting in a park with a chessboard with metal chess pieces. After being injected with the mutant "cure" the great Magneto is a normal person. He then puts his hand in front of a chess piece, it moves a bit, then credits.

IMPORTANT: When you see X-Men 3, make sure you stay after the credits. There is a special scene that hints a possible X-Men 4. But really, it's a crutial scene.

My View: This movie was great. There's eveything you want in an X-Men movie. It has great Wolverine fight scenes, awesome special effects, more emphasis on the Storm character, and a ton of mutants and their amazing powers. It's awesome to see these powers. Definitely a great movie worth seeing over and over again. Ton and I have been waiting for this one for years, and the wait was worth it. X-Men 3: The Last Stand gets 5 mutants that join Magneto to fight again the mutant "cure", out of 5. Zam, out.

Red Bull Gives You Wings

Red Steel On Your Wii (Ouch)

2006-05-25T23:03:00.000-04:00

Nintendo has shown us plenty of games for their brand spankin' new console, the Wii, but so have some third-party companies. Such as the popular Tom Clancy licenscees Ubisoft with their brand new first person shooter/sword slashing/ fight/ a bunch of other interesting things game. This game looks interesting. We love interesting. Oooooooooh yeah.

Let me tell you a bit about this game. It is set in both the United States and Japan. Yay, overseas superslashin'. Well anyway, you use an ancient art of the katana and a modern arsenal of amazing guns. Great stuff.

Now the big thing is the controls. Of course it is going to use the wonderful Wii-Mote. You will get to swing and block with your sword and aim and shoot with your guns. You will be able to hide behind rocks and such just by a flick of your Wii-Mote. Great Controls.

The graphics are pretty cool. A ton of things in there are destructable and look great. Ubisoft is trying to put gore into the game, but doesn't know yet as it wants to stay to its T rating. Oh well, good either way.

This game looks great and we can't wait to get our hands on it. Look out for this one in November around the launch of the Wii. Zam, out.

No, Not Pokemon!!!!!! NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (YAY!)

2006-05-21T20:27:00.000-04:00

That's right, the very addictive game that keeps you glued to your seat and brings you closer to your lego sets is back, and this time it's about classic movies from the 1970s that we all love. The original Lego Star Wars was a game that took you as Star Wars characters made out of Legos through lego the three Star Wars prequels (for more info on all of this, read my review here or here.) In the game, they had an unlockable that let you play about half of Star Wars Ep. IV, but it wasn't really much. Now they have a new game that takes you on a journey through the original three movies (IV, V, & VI)! This game brings so much more to the table from is predicesor though.

First off, the different movies. As I said, this game takes place through Star Wars Ep. IV: A New Hope, Star Wars Ep. V: The Empire Strikes Back, and Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of The Jedi (or Revenge of the Jedi for you guys who are like that.) You will be traveling through every planet and play most of the characters from these movies. You now have Leia, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, and all of the characters from these movies and over 100 of them are playable.

Speaking of the characters, there is a great new feature. Lego Free Play mode. You can take lego pieces and build your own or take pieces from excisting characters and put them together making characters such as, "Leia Wan Kenobi", "Yodabaca", and many others that you can all use. You can also build tons of pretty, legoey, vehicles that you can only dream of. Your Yoda could be driving in style in his Sith Death Star Escalade, or his Millenium Falconbird. Great new features.

Well all I can say is that I really can't wait for this game. It's going to be great. I hope it is longer than the first one though. Definitely can't wait for this title, hitting the Xbox, Xbox 360, PS2, PSP, GBA, PC, GameCube, and Nintendo DS this fall. Zam, out.

My Milkshake Brings All The Droids To The Yard

Super. Smash. Bros. Brawl!

2006-05-21T20:26:00.000-04:00

I’ve got a great idea for a game…. I’ll call it Super Smash Bros…. I can see it now; you play as all these cool game characters like Solid Snake and Meta Knight and whack each other with big inflatable bats…. Yeah, that’s how it’ll work… Oh, crap, what? It’s already been done? Really? Damn I thought I had something there. Can I preview the new Wii one then? Okay, here goes.

It’s called Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and it’s looking hot. The first thing that’s cool is, it’s on the Wii, so you’ll have the motion control of the Wii-mote to control your dudes, lady dudes, and gelatinous pink balls of mush. Oh wait, what’s that? You won’t be able to? Well, Miyamoto said “don’t throw out your GC controllers yet”, then confirmed that the game will definitely use regular controls because trying to use motion sensing too much can get in the way of a game, which kind of makes this a whole lot less exciting.

But hey, you can get your Wii-mote in on the SSB action! Just go out in your back yard, get a few people, get some Wii-motes [or home-run bats…], and Smash away! And there’s SSB with a Wii-mote for you! So, now that you’ve got your Wii-mote all black and blue, let’s get back to the real game. So, after the disappointment of it not having motion sensing, Nintendo tried to bring the game back up.

First they announced at least 5 new characters: Solid Snake, Meta Knight, Samus without her suit, Wario, and Kid Icarus’ Pit. Wow, they put Solid Snake in. For some reason I don’t think any one saw that coming. I think the original roster is all intact too. Even cooler is the fact that they announced a definite possibility for other 3^rd party characters. That excites me. I mean, they could have Sonic, some of the X-Men, and hell, even Master Chief!

So… what else did they announce… Uhh… Nintendogs are going to be an item in the game. Yeah, you can throw puppies at your enemies. CALL THE FRICKIN’ SPCA! Now that that’s over, I guess I could talk about something else… Finally, they’re adding online to the series, along with a bigger single player. Online!! When this game comes out, I personally invite you all to get pwned by me, online. :-D That just about wraps up this Post E3 preview…. Oh, one last thing. Sadly, SSB Brawl is no longer a launch title, but a 2007 release. It doesn’t really matter though, as no one will have Wiis till ’07. All I have to say now is: Wii will, Wii will, ROCK YOU!

Ton, out.

Ice Age: The Meltdown

2006-04-28T22:52:00.000-04:00

Cast: Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Seann William Scott, Josh Peck, Queen Latifah, Will Arnett, Jay Leno
Plot: Everything's going great for Sid (Leguizamo), Manny (Romano), and Diego (Leary), until a rip-off sales man, Fast Tony (Leno) predicts that the ice walls that keep the water out of where they live are going to melt. They don't believe him, until they see for themselves that the ice really is melting. Fast Tony then tell all of the animals to travel away from their homes to find a boat that will keep them safe. They all listen to him and start migrating towards where the boat he says the boat is. After a while, Manny becomes sad because he thinks he's the only mammoth left. You get to enjoy many songs from Sid around here about mammoths going extinct, and they rock. I would buy a CD if he made one.

They next meet another mammoth named Ellie (Latifah), along with her 2 possum "brothers", Crash (Scott) and Eddie (Peck). Yeah, that's right, a mammoth that thinks she's a possum. Weird, eh? Anyway, they decide to join Sid, Manny, and Diego on their trip to the boat. Along the way, Manny shows Ellie that she's not really a possum. Not much happens after this. Manny and Ellie develop an interest in each other.... umm.... what else.... oh yeah, you get treated to a great song by The Vultures (literally) called "Food, Glorious Food". As they're about to reach the boat, Ellie and her possum brothers get seperated from the other 3, and they almost die from the melting ice, until Manny saves them. Then all the water drains out and they all live happily ever after. And Sid becomes Manny's dog's son's son's pet.

Verdict: This movie was freaking hilarious. I think it was better then the first one by quite a bit really. 4 acorn-happy squirrel-like animals named Scrat out of 5. I mean come on: Possum mammoths + Sid singing + A great song by The Vultures = awesome movie. Check it out in theaters if you can.

Yup. We're possums.

V for Vendetta

2006-04-28T20:53:00.000-04:00

"Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November, the gunpowder treason and plot.
I know of no reason the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot."

Cast: Hugo Weaving, Natalie Portman

Plot:It's some time in the future in England, a country which has become horribly corrupt.
This is the setting for a nice little movie called V for Vendetta. It starts with Evey (Portman) getting caught out after curfew by a couple of fingermen. They try to rape her, but a masked man named V (Weaving) drops in and whoops all of their asses. After a long rant with about 100 uses of the letter v, V asks Evey to join him for an "orchestra". This "orchestra" of sorts will make you love music. He brings her to a rooftop and has music play through the city and then shoots off fireworks inside the Old Bailey, blowing it up.

The next day, V gets into the BTN and broadcasts a message across all of Britain that says that he blew up the Old Bailey and asking them to join him on November 5th in a year to blow up Parliament. Just as the police are about to capture him, he escapes after Evey knocks out the man trying to capture him. She gets knocked out in the process and V brings her back to his underground hideout of sorts. He tells her she can't leave because he doesn't trust her not to tell people where his hideout is. What follows are the murders of a famous TV personality, a bishop, and a coroner, all of which are done by V.

While he's murdering the bishop, Evey escapes. She goes to one of her former co-workers houses, who lets her stay with him. While she's there, he makes a joke about the chancellor on TV. Later, he is executed in his house, and Evey bearly escapes. Only to be caught by another soldier close outside the house. She's sent to a facility where she's tortured and questioned about V, though she says nothing. While there, she finds a letter from a woman who was there before and it tells her story. The interrogator comes in one last time and asks who V is, but Evey says she will not tell him. He then says she is free to go.

As soon as she leaves, she finds that she was really in V's underground home. He tells her he wanted her to know what it was like to feel how he felt when he tortured was in the medical testing facility years ago. He allows her to leave after a while, but she promises she'll return before November 5th. V meets with many of his enemies before the 5th, which leads to the chancellor and 12 finger men waiting for V on the 5th.

Below Parliament, V has a train of explosives waiting. Evey is with him. He goes upstairs to meet the 13 men who want him dead. When they fire upon him, their magazines empty and he is still alive. He kills them before they reload. However, when he goes back downstairs, he dies, leaving Evey to conduct her own orchestra of destruction. She turns on the train and the explosives go under Parliament and blow, creating the absolute coolest explosion ever.

Verdict: This movie was awesome. It shows that government can in fact be corrupt, and that governments should fear their people. Hugo and Natalie were great in their parts. Even though V is a terrorist, you'll love him. It'll also get you to learn to love orchestras. Overall, this is the probably the best movie to come in '06 so far. Go into it knowing you'll have to think about it some though, otherwise you'll hate it. I'm gonna give it 4.5 white masks out of 5. If you can still get to it in theaters, hit it. Then buy it on DVD. Unless you're one of those guys who likes pure action movies without plots, then avoid it at all costs, as you'll probably tell people it sucks just because you aren't capable of higher levels of thinking.

That's my network.

Mario Kart DS Review

2006-04-22T21:18:00.000-04:00

Mario, Mario, Mario, how are you doing everything. He smacks question mark boxes with his head, smashes Coopas, plays Baseball and soccer, and one other thing he loves to do, race other Nintendo characters in cartoony go-carts. He loves it so much, he has many games consisting of it, and now he has a new one, Mario Kart DS. This is a brand new edition of the game that teaches kids that making you racing opponents slip on banana peels, get hit with shells or either the red, blue or green variety, throwing bombs at them, and tricking them with question mark boxes that make them flip over when hit, is back. Oh goody. Now this game is on Nintendo little advanced piece of machinary, the Nintendo DS. So we get to see Mario Kart, in double-screen vision.

Ok, the plot is that you have to race and win trophies to.......brag about it to the other Nintendo characters. Yay. Umm......that's it.

Ok, let's talk about the new editions to this new edition of Mario Kart. It's on two screens, it has some new weapons to use against your opponents, it has a ton (no not our buddy Ton, ton) of tracks, and you Zam (hey, I used Ton's name, so now I get to use mine) through these tracks at high speeds. Ok, so not extremely fast, more like dog running fast.

Like I said, there are a lot of new (and old) tracks. This game incorporates new tracks and tracks from other Mario Kart games all onto one little DS card. Now these tracks are seperated into 8 different cups which are seperated into 4 (you start out with 3 but unlock the fourth) different CC's. 50, 100, 150, and (SPOILER ALERT, WARNING: IF YOU WANT TO PLAY MARIO KART DS AND UNLOCK ALL SECRETS ON YOUR OWN AND NOT GO, "OH NO, I'M NOT SURPRISED NOW THAT I FOUND OUT THAT UNLOCKABLE ON ZAM'S REVIEW, :-( " THEN PLEASE SKIP THE NEXT LINE. THANK YOU)..........150 Mirror Mode. Now these numbers are based on level of difficulty, if you know what CC's mean, then you should know that. But if not, let me transulate the easiness, 50 - oh man, that was so friggin easy, my grandma could finish that whiles on my grandfather with her hands tied behind her back and her bed is moving at 100 miles an hour while she is asleep blindfolded. 100 - ehh, that was a little harder, but (take all of the grandma thing but take out the hands behind the back, asleep and blindfolded part.) 150 - damn, that was pretty hard, hmm, but hey, its wasn't Ninja Gaiden hard. 150 mirror mode - awww c'mon, that was just 150 backwards; (insert 150 part here.) All the tracks are cool and cartoony. I really liked them.

There are 12, but you unlock 4 of them. They are all familiar Nintendo characters, and the final one you unlock, it one character you would never expect to find in this video game. Let me give you a hint, NES. I was extremely surprised when I unlocked this character, and you should be too. The other characters include: Mario (duh), Luigi (my favorite), Peach, Yoshi, Toad, Donkey Kong, Wario, Bowser, (SPOILER ALERT, *INSERT SAME WARNING AS BEFORE HERE*) ........Daisy (who is pretty much an orange version of Peach with redish-brown hair), Dry Bones, WaLuigi, and the last one I can't tell you about but I gave you the hint about before. Great line-up.

The carts are really cool and cartoony. There are a total of 36 karts. In the beginning, you have exclusive carts to that character, then you start having the same karts for a few characters, and then at the end, you unlock all karts. for all characters which means everyone has the same karts. They are all cool.

The weapons are really good. There are many of them and, (if you don't know already) you get them by breaking a question marked box in the track. There are different weapons such as green shells (regular, just go all over the place shells) red shells (tracking shells, hehe) and blue shells (shells that fly to the character in the lead and stop their ass.) There are banana peels, bombs, etc. There is also shrooms that make you go faster, but we don't care about those, right?
These weapons are fun to use. You'll be yelling, "Ha, Peach, biach, I just shot a shell at your ass and wooped you. Eat that, princess biach." and "Whoohooo, Yoshi, just got your booty with my banana peel, that teaches you to keep offering my girl, Peach, a ride. HA!" So, you get my point about how great the weapons are.

There is also a mode which has a game called "Star Runners" and "Balloon Battle". These have their own tracks including my favorite of all time track in almost any game, the Nintendo DS. That's right, you get to play on a Nintendo DS which is really awesome. There is also a Time Trials game and a VS game to play against your friend or computers.

Now one big thing is that this is one of the first DS games to have DS wi-fi. You can play against enemies all over the world. This is very cool for this game. Its really fun.

Graphics are really good for the DS. Really cool and cartoony. Great graphics.

The only bad is that the game does get a bit boring after a while. You play another track and go, ohh, this one again. So, it's very repetitive. And another, the bottom screen is just maps (which are sometimes really helpful) and menu screens. They could have done so much more with this.
Oh well.

Overall, this is a good game. I really enjoyed it and am sure that all Mario fans, (such as myself) will love this game. It's a great edition to the Mario Kart series. Mario Kart DS gets 4 racing Nintendo characters bashing each other with color coded shells out of 5.

-Zam

Larry The Cable Guy: Health Inspector

2006-04-22T21:13:00.000-04:00

You've probably heard of Larry one way or another, and he decided he was going to get big. Big screen. And it's ok. Here's the very short review:

Plot: There isn't much of one really. But I'll tell you what's there. A big food contest is coming up and someone's sabotaging the best restaraunts in town. It's up to the health inspector to find the sabotager [however you say that]. And guess who's the health inspector. Larry the Cable guy! He and his new assistant, Amy, who he thinks is a guy, soon get to the bottom of it and realize that a person in disquise as a cripple is behind it. It's a really weird plot.

What I Thought: Well, it was ok. All of the acting's fine and everything. I don't get why they wasted Kid Rock on a two minute dream scene though. It's hilarious too if you like the kind of comedy he does. My biggest problem was the plot. Somehow this really didn't feel like a movie, more of a long skit. Otherwise it was really good. Which is why I give it 3 Git'r'dun's out of 5.

See it/Rent it/Forget it: Well, if you're a real Larry fan, I think you should see it. But if you've never seen him, don't make this the first time you do. Forget it.

-Ton

Stay Alive

2006-04-22T21:10:00.000-04:00

Cast: Jon Foster, Samaire Armstrong, Frankie Muniz, Sophia Bush
Plot: One night, a man, Loomis (Milo Ventimiglia), dies while playing a video game, called Stay Alive, hence the name of the movie. His two friends in the house are killed as well. One of his friends, Hutch (Jon Foster), uses the stupid horror movie logic and plays the game, along with 5 of his friends. First, the one of his friends, Miller (Adam Goldberg), that wasn't actually with them when they played (he played online) is murdered. Exactly the same way as in the game.

Since both of the murders were exactly as in the game, Hutch decides to think. It takes him a while. He decides that maybe the game has something to do with it. Then, October's (Sophia Bush) brother, Phineus (Jimmi Simpson), dies exactly as he did in the game. Where've I heard that before? Uhh, twice in the past 30 minutes? Anyway, Hutch decides to think again. This time Swink (Frankie Muniz) helps. They decide that you don't get killed unless you die in the game, which might be the reason it's called Stay Alive. That means they shouldn't play any more. And they realize that the prayer they have to chant to start the game is what's causing all this death. It's awakening Elizabeth Bathory / The Blood Countress, a weird 1700's killer woman. And she's scary as hell.

Well, not playing doesn't work. The game starts playing itself. And October gets whooped up on and dies. Exactly the same as she did in the game. Ok, that's getting annoying now that I've said it 3 times. ANYWAY! Swink starts playing the game again so they don't die, while Hutch and Abagail (Samaire Armstrong) go into the Blood Countress's house and try to kill her. Well, after a while of odd things, and Swink dying, they kill her. Then Swink magically comes back to life as if he never died. And everyone lives happily ever after. That ending gets me every time :'-(.

What I thought: It sucked. Really, really, really bad. Worst movie of the year. Seriously, it's rare I don't like movies this much. I'll start explaining it. The acting sucked. The main character who was losing all his friends and was supposed to be sad never cried once. The best actress was the one who played October. She was actually pretty good. The story was really bad too. I mean, it could have been good if they worked on it, but it was way too predictable the way it was. The special effects sucked ass. The dialogue was the same lines repeated about 500 times over during the movie. I can't believe this happening! 500 TIMES! Probably most importantly is that it wasn't scary. Except for Elizabeth. Also, there were about a thousand questions unanswered:
1: Who made the game?
2: Where'd Abagail come from? She like popped up at the beginning of the movie and Hutch was immediately her best friend, and no backstory was given at all.
3: At the end of the movie, why is the game for sale at the video game store after Elizabeth was dead?
I don't know, but I do know it officially sucked. The only 3 good things I can say are that October was played by a good actress, that Elizabeth was one scary bitch, and that the Alienware notebook was great at acting. It played its role as a mirror perfectly. It's amazing how that thing can play so many roles so well. I mean, gaming computer, typewriter, mirror, chair. Actor of the year. Right there. It gets 1.5 out of 5. And that's because I'm in a good mood.

See it/Rent it/Run away from it: Don't see this movie. Don't rent it. Don't look at it. Don't TOUCH it. As a matter of fact, throw it. In front of a very fast train. Final verdict: Run away from it.

-Ton

From Russia With Love Review

2006-04-09T00:29:00.000-04:00

Gather around children, it's time for a review of a game based off an old movie from the '60s staring a man with an awesome accent. Yes, I am talking about James Bond: From Russia With Love. Ok, let's get to the point, this game is good and not what some would expect. This game is, like I said before, based off the 1963 movie with the same name, which was based off the 1957 novel with the same name by Ian Fleming. I haven't really seen the movie, so I can't tell you how close the story is to the movie, but from some other resources, they are saying it is not exact. So, on with the review.

The story is very complex and makes Russians look bad, but here it is. There is an organizations called OCTOPUS that want to kill James Bond or something like that, not a very specific story. They have an item James need to obtain with the help of a girl (secretly a spy luring him into a trap) named Tatiana Romanova. The thing is called the Luktor. There is also a man named Red Grant who protects you in the beginning but battles you a few times later.

The game is easy in the beginning but progressively gets harder and harder. Yo get to choose from three different difficulty levels, the highest being 00 Agents. Most of the levels are either escorting Tatiana, or getting something from a Russian base. You are constantly batting carbon copies of the same warrior over and over but you don't really care or notice very much. The normal warriors you battle are warriors usually equipted with weak machine guns and sometimes wear helmets. They are pretty easy to gun down, but there are sometimes a ton of them. There are a few more kinds of warriors including mine workers that look like truck drivers, some that hide behind metal sheilds, and these giant commandoes that have machines guns and take constant reloading to take down. I mean even a few blowes with a bazooka can't take down these guys, they kick ass. When they come near you, you yell, "Oh Crap!!!"

You get many guns and gadgets to help you with you missions from the Q-Copter, to the Laser Watch. The guns include a PP7 and some machine guns, a sniper rifle, bazooka, and shotgun. There is a pretty good and easy aiming system. You just press a button and it puts a big spinning circle with arrows on it around them that are color coded to how much health they have left. Green for a lot, yellow for ehh, he could take a little more gunfire, and Red for oh s**t boy you better run and hide behind a commando or I am going to blow you up, biach. With another hit of a button while aimed you can go to Bond Focus which puts circles around the weaker points of the enemy.

There are many vehicles in this game. There are special cars you drive with machine guns, there is this weird cart thingy, and a jetpack. You do do many vehicle missions and they are all fun to drive. Really good.

The graphics are great. James' facial features are great including all other characters, especially the mouth movements. The environments are realistic and you sometimes are so drawn in you forget it's a game. Really great.

You also collect skill points. I really didn't get what these did, but you collect them. They have Simple and Complex Schematics and other things that probably help you solve puzzles easier.

There are tons of unlockables from new guns, to levels. The unlockables are based on 4 things, their set ammount of guys you disarm during that level, the time they think would be a good time to finish that level, if you got the Bond Moment or not, and if the played the level in the 00 Agent level of difficulty. These are not easy to get. If you aren't the best gamer you can get about 1, 2 tops, but if you are good, you still are probably going to get about 3. They're pretty hard to get.

They pulled out a cast of most of the original actors from the movie to voice the characters in this game, including the original James Bond himself, Sean Connery. There are also two new characters not in the movie, one voiced by Natasha Bedingfield. So, it is pretty cool to see a cast like that.

There are only a few bad things about this game, the camera is a bit lose, but you get used to it, and the biggest problem, you can't skip the cutscenes. This doesn't get annoying if you play the game non-stop and finish it and don't play the level again. But if you turn off your Xbox in the middle of a level, then you have to watch the cut-scene all over, and then it gets annoying. If you play the game through in one sitting, then the cut-scenes are pretty fun to watch, especially hearing Sean Connery's accent (man, what a great accent.)

So overall, this game is great. Very fun, great graphics, awesome accent, great story, oooooh a good game. This game has been doubted by many, being a James Bond game, and some in the past have made some believe that if you played on Bond game, you've played them all. But no, this is pretty different. Again, bottom line, this game is really good. From Russia With Love gets 4 martinies, 'Shakin, not Stirred' out of 5.

Some Mini-Reviews

2006-03-21T11:02:00.000-05:00

I was in New York City just recently, and whenever I go there, one the top of my agenda is to go to the wonderful Nintendo World Store. A great 2-story store that is sure to give you Nintendo Fever. Well in there, they have these white orb chairs in front of a Gamecube on an Aquos plasma t.v. (SWEET!) Of course, I had to jump on that and play a bit. In the Gamecube is a demo-disk with a nice variety of games. So here are some reviews of the demos that I played.

First, let us begin with the good ones. Mario Kart: Double Dash is a fun guilty pleasure sure to give anyone from 2 to 99 yrs. old some enjoyment. In the demo, you get to choose from 2 courses and the characters that are already unlocked when you just begin the full-version of the game. I very much enjoyed my time playing Double Dash being a big fan of Mario. The combination of cartoony environments, and nice weapons and distractions to ruin you opponents is just really good. I give the demo-version on Mario Kart: Double Dash a 4 out of 5.

Next up to the plate is Resident Evil 4. Back when this one was first released, it got so much hype from gamers and reviewers alike, and guess what, it deserved it. This demo was fun, scary, and annoying all in one package. The demo gives you about 2 levels to play, if you can make it past the first one. There is this awesome targeting system with a little red laser dot on you awesome shotgun which can kill some zombie. You also get a knife to stab some zombie. Although the game is fun, it's hard. It took me about 10 or 15 tries just to get to the second level it offers, and just barely make it. Also, it is annoying when the zombies won't die. Although it is embarrasing yelling, "Die zombie, you *******, die!!!!" in the middle of a public store, I did, and most likely you will yell this at least 5 times when playing this game. So overall, the game is very well done from the graphics (which are phenominal) to the gameplay. The demo gets a well-deserved 5 out of 5.

Ok, that's about all the good ones I played, so now (dun dun dun) the bad games. First let's start off with a game that will not make you look at your cat the same way again. I'm talking about the dreadful Hello Kitty: Roller Rescue. I don't know why Namco published this, but, they did. This game is about Kitty on roller skates, skating around places, and probably rescuing people. I really got out of it about 35 seconds in. The controls were absolutely and utterly horrible (a little Simon Cowell for you), and the gameplay, don't even get me started. Ok, the gameplay was typical. Typically bad. I know I am being a bit harsh on this game, let's talk about what good about it. Well, um.........it has a cat. Ok, the environments are pretty attractive, however, pink. So this game demo gets a 2 out of 5.

Next up are two movie games. The first is based of the movie with a lot of monkey business, Curious George. This is just one of those games. Well in the beginning of the demo, you are George trying to catch the dude that controlls you, I think his name is the man in the yellow hat or something (who is probably being kidnapped or something because he is yelling for the person who is driving him through the jungle to turn around.) You have to slide down branches, swing on vines, and climb vines to get to him, all while collecting bananas. The beginning gameplay is pretty fun when you are just starting to get into it, but then it gets very boring. And the controls, man, those controls are just bad. You don't know how many times I cursed out that monkey during the demo. Just another game that is continuing the movie game steriotype about how they are all bad. The demo gets a 1 out of 5.

Finally, the last demo/game I will be reviewing is......Chicken Little. This is another one of those games. In the demo, you get two levels, if you can stand it. For the first level, you have to get Chicken Little to school by sliding down power lines, jumping on trees, climbing poles and other stuff. You also have a whip which you will use a lot to break boxes and other things that are in your way. The graphics are.......ok, and Chicken Little comes out with a few sayings that are pretty funny which will make you smirk, but not much. The worst part though, is that you can't skip the cut scenes. Oh those annoying cut scenes, just make you want to throw the Gamecube. But seriously, this demo was, oh why. This one gets a lucky 2 out of 5. So that is all for now. Zam, out.

Balls in Space! Otherwise known as Spaceballs! Review!

2006-03-02T00:06:00.000-05:00

When you see guys wearing balls on their heads, you know you're watching Spaceballs. At least you will after this review. This is a Star Wars spinoff just so you know, but it's so different you may forget it's supposed to be Star Wars. It's based on the last trilogy, and it's dang funny. I mean, when you see midgets that look like mickey mouse dancing around the desert singing the Barney theme song, you know you're watching a funny movie. The main characters are: Lonestarr [Luke], Princess Vespa [Leia], Darth Helmet [Vader], Barf [Chewbacca], and Yogurt [Yoda]. So if you've seen the Star Wars movies you know the basic plot, but it's a little different. Basically, it's all about balls. Balls. Balls. Balls. Balls on dudes heads. Oh yeah, the Storm Troopers are called Spaceballs. It's got all the main Star Wars moments, balls style [whatever that is]. Just so you know, Helmet doesn't like his Balls. He thinks they're stupid and annoying. If I didn't say already, this movie is funny. It's also really unique. You won't see industrial-sized blow dryers, pepperoni pizza spheres called Pizza the Hut, robot maids that suck and blow, balls combing deserts, and The Schwartz in any other movie. The special effects are..ehh...but then again this is from 1987, so it doesn't really lose anything on my score for that. The cast is pretty good. Mostly unknowns, but a few stand out such as Bill Pullman. Spaceballs is definitely the best Star Wars spin-off I've ever seen. Then again, that's not saying much seeing as it's the only Star Wars spin-off I've ever seen. For the $5 it is now, you have to check this out. Spaceballs gets 3.5 [half a ball? that's just weird...] big white balls out of 5.

Oh Look, A Movie Review Of The Movie Rent

2006-03-01T22:28:00.000-05:00

Oh why did I have to watch this movie. I mean I thought the commercials were bad enough getting the song "Seasons of Love" stuck in my head and all day I end up humming the tune and occasionally saying "525,600 minutes." But then my girlfriend made me watch this musical that just blasts tons of music into your head. I mean in this movie they break into song every 2 minutes. Did you know there is only about 20 minutes of talking during the whole 2 hr 15 min. movie? Yes, ONLY 20 MINUTES!! Ok, I'm hitting too hard on this movie. Let me tell you a bit about the story. There are a big group of friends that like each other and most of them have AIDS. Then they sing and sing about some stuff that happens to them. One's named Mark, played by Anthony Rapp, who enjoys making films and he makes one throughout the film of what happens, one is Roger, played by Adam Pascal, who is Mark's HIV positive roommate who need to write a song before the year of 1989 ends, one is Tom (Collins), played by Law & Order's Jessie L. Martin (who surprisingly sings GREAT), who is HIV positive and falls in love with a transvestite named Angel, played by William Jermaine Heredia. Another one in the group is a HIV positive stripper named Mimi, played by Rosario Dawson, who tries to get with Roger. One who was not said to have AIDS or not is Maureen, played by Idina Menzel, who is a leader of a protest which is against a building that is being controlled by their landlord Benny, played by Taye Diggs. Maureen once dated Mark but dumped him for a lawyer named Joanne, played by Tracie Thoms, and they get engaged (which is soon ended by a song). They go through a bunch of stuff like a protest, to dancing and singing on tables to singing at a funeral. So overall, this movie is pretty good. I mean some of the songs you are like, "Hmm, that a pretty good one, I like the toon," but some you just lean back and go "Oh man, I can't believe they have to sing about that." I enjoyed most of this film, its good, but alert before you watch it, there are some crying parts and this movie may get you a bit depressed. You can get this movie on DVD now. But one tip when watching it, after you see it, go to the special features and check out the alternate ending, it is VERY good. Ok, I'm gonna break into song, "The movie RENT gets threeeeeeeeeheeeeeeeee singiiiiiinnnnnggggggggggg HIVeeeeeeeeeee positive friends out of fiiiiiiiiiiiveiiiiiiiiiiiihiiiiiiiiva. (If you didn't get that it's: The movie RENT gets 3 singing HIV positive friends out of 5.)

Super Mario World Review

2006-01-11T21:57:00.000-05:00

Now it is time for a review with probably the most popular and loved video game character of all time. Yes, I amcourse talking about Master Chief. Ha ha, did I fool you? No I really meant Mario. Yes, Mario, Mario, Mario. If you ask any adult with no video game experience at all who is a video game character, they are going to of course answer the Shigeru Miyamoto's short princess saving plumber. Well in this review, I am going to review Super Mario World for the SNES and the GBA (which is pretty much the same game.) Now, let's start with the story. Apparently, while air baloon riding with Mario & Luigi, Princess Peach is captured by the big spiked turtle dude, Bowser and is taken to his castle. After finding out about this, the plumber bros. have to go and save her in a weird world. Now that you have some background let's get on with the juicy stuff, the actual criticizing and the compliments. First, I will start off with the good. The game play is SO fun that you just don't want to put it down. You beat it so many times and just want more. Such as me, now I grew up with this game and I have beaten it about 125 times and still want more. The reason for this is that I don't think I found everything yet. There are so many secret levels and so many hidden shortcuts and various things of that nature it's just so hard to stop playing. One rule in the world of gaming, if you think you have beaten the game, YOU DIDN'T! This means of course (well, in most games) that you haven't found everything you could have done in this game yet. There got to be a shortcut you haven't found or a small important item you haven't gotten yet. That applies to this game to a high extent. Just the other day when I was beating it for say the 110th time I found a whole new level I have never even seen before. It is incredible the hidden things in this game. Ok, I know you don't want to hear me jabbering about hidden things in games all day, so here is the rest of the good things. There are so many levels. There are a ton of levels you can play through smashing the coopas. Oh, I would say maybe from 50-75 levels, but take note, that is an estimate. They are all extremely fun, unique, and very satisfying. Next, the colorful, 2-D environments are very beautiful. It is really eye catching. Very beautiful. There are a lot of enemies with good AI, but not the best. But hey, it's a 90s game, what do you expect. It is pretty good though. They do follow you. The only problem I have with that is that a lot of times when you hit the coopas and hit them into their shell and you are about to hit the shell to shoot at a enemy, IT COMES OUT AND KILLS YOU. Ehh, it's annoying. Um, there are a lot of other things that are good. Ok (dun-dun-dun) it's now time for the bad. Oh, not the dreaded bad. Well, luckily in this one, THERE'S NOTHING. The only thing is the one thing I listed before about the AI and coopa coming out of the shell and killing you. Overall, the game is really good. This is actually one of my favorite games (and no, this verdict is not going to be biased.) So this game is so incredibly simple and very fun. You need to go and pick this one up. Super Mario World gets 5 coopa smashing, pipe traveling, princess saving plumbers, out of 5.

Black Preview

2005-12-10T14:01:00.000-05:00

I absolutely had to do a preview of this game (for PS2 and XBOX) when I saw that it was being made by Burnout developer Criterion. However this time Criterion isn't out for takedowns, they're out with guns. They aren't trying to make an ordinary FPS game either. They want to make the best shooter the Playstation 2 or XBOX has ever seen, at the expense of a story. This is definitely risky, but if they can take gameplay to the next level like they did with Burnout, I think it will be a hit. Ok, now the actual gameplay. There will be 13 guns in Black. Criterion's designers are paying a lot of attention to details like loading the guns and their rate of fire. One kind of sad thing is no dual wielding. So, the guns are going to be great.......great. Where Black really gets interesting is the environment, the graphics, and the sound. Black is destructive. You'll be able to blow the environment to shreds. Doing things like blowing doors off their hinges with shotguns, blasting letters off buildings and making them fall on enemies, and doing the same with signs. That's only where Black begins to break away from average FPS games. In most shooters, if someone were hiding behind a car, you'd have to walk around and kill them. Black doesn't want you to have to do that much work. They want you to have fun. They want you to be creative. So, in Black, if you are faced with the scenario of killing enemies behind a car, you have a few choices. Blow out the tires so the car lowers enough to get headshots on the enemies. Fill the car so full of bullets that it explodes, destroying everything relatively near, including your targets behind the car. Blow the doors right off the car and shoot straight through. That's probably only half of what you could do. Adding to the creativity of executing kills, you can do things like ricochet bullets off of things and still have them kill enemies. The graphics are....well......next-gen...on Playstation 2 and XBOX. Seriously, some of these screenshots make me wonder how a PS2 could possibly run this. Then again, that's what I said about Burnout Revenge, and Criterion made that work. But how are they going to manage when there is going to be such an onslaught of dust and debris coming from every single explosion (and this game is full of those)? Once again, it's Criterion. The sound that will accompany Black should be just as spectacular, with every shot sounding crystal clear. So, Ton, you said Black wouldn't have a story, right? Well, that's not totally right. This game is based on the extreme missions that you won't see on CNN. You are playing the role of Jack Kelar, a member of the elite military force named Black, which only takes the best soldiers. You're in Eastern Europe, trying to kill America's biggest threat, who's a traitor to his own country. In Criterion's quest to create a kick-ass shooter for these consoles, they have dropped the multiplayer features. This may sound like a bad thing, but it means that they will be focusing all of their time on the single player, which should prove great. My one issue with this game as of now is the fact there are only going to be 9 levels. However, if you think about it, it would be worth playing them over to see what kinds of kills you could do. I can't wait to get my paws on this game. As a matter of fact, this it the first non-team based FPS game I have been truly excited about in a LONG time. Sadly, we have to wait till February to check this game out.

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories Review

2005-11-06T17:38:00.000-05:00

There are many popular video game series that stand out in the crowd above everyone else. Grand Theft Auto is definitely one of those. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is the newest addition to the series, but the first on the PSP. Now I know what you are thinking, its on the PSP, it has to be a port. Ok, I can't say you are wrong, because it is pretty much a port. You still do the same things, steal cars, kill hookers (the best thing of the game, oh yeah), shoot guns, do missions, etc. The story of the game is pretty much the same as all others. Tommy Vercetti is back with a brand new voice that sounds very whinney. Its gets annoying. Now when you see the title, stories you probably think it takes place before all the other games, but no. It takes place in the late 90s. You do missions and everything you do in the others. Nothing new. Now let's start off with the good. The graphics are phenominal. When you look into the PSP, you can't believe what you see. It looks more like you are looking through a small, portable window in your hands. It is really cool. You can see the facial features of Tommy very well. He looks really good in this game. There are unlockables, such as wardrobe. There is one where you can make Tommy where nothing but his underwear (perfect for some fun with the hookers, ok that was bad.) You have all your vehicles. They are all still fun to crash and hit civilians with. The missions are really good.Some rissions. Such as firetruck, police, taxi, etc. Ok, now the bad. The framerate SUCKS. It freezes up a ton which really takes away from the gameplay. But, what do you expect with graphics like these. Also, a very ironic thing is, it always freezes up right when you fly from your bike/motorcycle, which makes the crash look really cool. Either the developers meant for this to happen, or it just does. Another bad is the controls. Yes, the controlles. They are so bad!!! Its starts off with you using the nubby (analog stick) as the movement. This gets really hard because you can't get a good grip to control you nubby. This is hard because you nubby doesn't stick out to get a good grip (oh man that was wrong.) You also move you car with your nubby (wow, very wrong.) You can go to the start menu and change the controls to the D-pad, but let me explain why that is bad. When you begin with the nubby, you are like, "Hmm, this would be much easier with the D-pad." So you go to the menu and go to controls and change it to the D-pad. Ok, this is a worse idea then looking at porn in a church. When you move with the D-pad, Tommy stops every 2 seconds!! This is so frustrating. You try to switch directions, but he just stops and get hit by a car flying by you. Then, you just end up switching back and trying to get used to the nubby. Ok, next. I couldn't find any multiplayer, although it says there is. I will keep searching for that and get back to you. Next, after a few years, Tommy still hasn't taken swim classes. Everytime you hit the water he just falls in and dies. When you played San Andreas, you missed Tommy, but ironically, when you play this, you miss CJ. That is bad. Another bad thing is the loading times. Way too long. Hmm..... that is pretty much it.Even though those bad things really effect it, people are still going to buy it just because it is GTA. And I mean, it is pretty good, it makes you feel dangerous. Even women like killing hookers and stealing motorcycles. My friend's girlfriend really gets a kick out of it, and she doesn't game for anything. So this game is pretty good. The graphics are the best part though, it pretty much makes up for everything in it. I really wanted to give this game a 5, but Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories gets 4 hijacked Banshees with dead hookers on it, out of 5. Now excuse me while I steal this cheetah from this grandma, oh crap, she had a gun, run...........Wasted.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

2005-11-05T22:33:00.000-05:00

Oh how the DS needs a good RPG. What a coincidence! Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is a good RPG on the DS! For some odd reason, it made me reminisce of Metroid Zero Mission. Anyway, the main adventure is based in 2035, a year after Soma (the main character) supposedly defeated Dracula. He thinks his troubles are over, but there is a cult trying to kill him or something like that. So much for no more troubles. The point of the main story mode is to defeat the cult obviously. You do this by poking stuff with your weapon. If you poke them hard enough, you might get a soul which gives you a special ability! You can equip 3 souls: an enchant, a guardian, and a bullet. Every monster has a different soul, and trust me, there are a lot of monsters. So you can use the souls for special abilities, but wait, that's not all! You can a soul with a weapon to make it better! Each weapon has a certain soul that will upgrade it to the next level. This is the best way to make money in the game. Speaking of weapons, there is a weapon for whatever your attack style is. The controls a little while to learn, but you'll get them after a while. There are bosses once in a while, the first few are easy, but the later ones get rather hard. Once you get the boss's HP to 0, you have to draw a "Magic Seal" that you found earlier to kill it. If you screw up, the boss will get some more HP and you have to bring down the boss again, and draw the symbol. So if you draw like a drunk penguin, you will be fighting for hours and hours. Then, there is enemy set mode. If you have the soul of a monster, you can put it in the rooms, for the cost of a number of points. After you set them, you can run through the rooms and kill all the monsters. You can also use the wifi and go through the other person's track and they can go through yours, the first one through wins. That is the only wifi mode apart from soul trade, which makes multiplayer the weakness of DoS. Also, there is a Boss something mode that you can get to if you beat the game. In it you have to kill all of the bosses in a row. If you win in under 5 minutes (how?!?!?), you get a rocket launcher (w00t). The graphics in this game are rather good for a 2d game. The enviroments are awesome, for example, if you jump on a snow-covered car, it will tilt to whatever side you are standing on and snow will fall off. The sound is pretty good, good for halloween. There isn't much bad about this game. The few bad things are that it can get talkative, but you can skip that. Also, if you change your armor, you look the same. The last thing is the use of the touch screen. All you need it for is breaking ice blocks and drawing symbols, but hey, it's something. This game is a GM2 first, it gets 4.5 big swords out of 5.

2005-10-19T21:36:00.000-04:00

Oh Mario. Mario Mario Mario. As you may have guessed, I am reviewing a Mario game, Super Mario 64 for the N6......I mean DS. How horrible your first DS game is, I never would have guessed. Nor would I have ever bought it, that's why I didn't, I got it free (and was FORCED to play it because I didn't have any other DS game right away). Well..It's a good game....but it is the exact same as the N64 version. Oh wait it is a little different, you start as Yoshi not Mario (Only difference I notice is one is red and one is green and together they make a christmas tree), but still if you've played the N64 version don't even bother touching this. Speaking of touching, there's nothing to touch (or poke, rub, or slide) in this game, it uses the touch screen little to none. The only thing it uses it for is menus and mini-games, which by the way are the best part of the whole thing (I am talking about the menus not the mini games). The minigames are actually very fun and make good use of the touch screen. Oh yeah and in the actual game you can play as 4 characters, a red plumber, a green plumber, a fat dude, and a green rolly thingy. The graphics are good for the DS though. Mario's hat has never been redder or rounder. The sound, well, it's Mario, and Mario music is madly annoying after a while at least to me. Let's see, there's multiplayer. Yay... I am really very happy and I am just not showing it (not really). Lastly, this game gets old fast. VEERY FAST. I think it got old after 5 minutes but most people say it's more like 2 weeks so I guess I listen to them.There's not much else to this game. It is not really worth $30 for an old game remade with new mini games, also it really doesn't use the touch screen to it's full ability. This would have been better remade for the 'Cube instead of the DS. For non-originality, not using the DS to it's full potential, it just being a plain remake, I give Super Mario 64 DS 2 Mama Mias out of 5. If it was on Gamecube it would be 4 out of 5 but it isn't so, go read a good book, which is just as portable as a DS by the way.

-Ton

Wipeout Pure Review

2005-10-13T21:57:00.000-04:00

Here is a review Wipeout Pure for the PSP. I have been playing Wipeout Pure lately and it is a really good game. Not very much of a "putter downer" and a very miss if you do put it down. First the good stuff. The graphics are incredible for a handheld game, (which everyone has already heard at least 12 times.) The futuristic cars look really good and the game is pretty smooth. When things explode from weapons, it looks cool. Speaking of the weapons, there are a lot in this game. You have the bomb, the spike, the tracker, the blaster thingy, the missiles, etc.. You also have some tools such as the autodrive where the computer controls your ship and put in the correct direction, as well as defense systems to help you, of course, defend yourself. With these weapons, you can pwn!!! But after you shoot down those bitches, then you have to get at least 3rd to get to a next race. The race tracks are challenging and nice and long. Also it has it has pretty good audio. Ok, now the bad. First of it is (like every racing game) SO repetitive. It has very hard and boring mini-games like one where you try to make turns without getting hit. Also, the online is only you going on the Wipeout Pure website to download content, no online races. Well overall it is a good game and gets a 4 out of 5.

-Zam

Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix review

2005-10-11T22:41:00.000-04:00

Ok, I am not a skateboarder and will never be a skateboarder. But i can still experience to injuries, the tricks, the wipeouts. "How?" you ask. Well, Tony Hawk's Underground 2 remix for the PSP. Now I know what you are saying, "Oh god, not another Tony Hawk game." Well this is another Tony Hawk game, but it is on the PSP. The story is that you are in a team trying to beat another team in a World Destruction Tour. Now you go to many different places to do this. Now lets get to the good stuff. The graphics are great. They look exactly like the PS2 version. It is fun. A bunch to do. And a lot of tricks. Now the bad. Very repetitive. It is just you skating on ramps and grinding rails. Too many missions on the list. You have to do so many things in order to get to the next level that that level gets so boaring, you give up. The controls get really frustrating. You really want to do a move and it makes you wipeout. Also, the steering is so, so hard to control. Very hard to balance on a grind, which gives it a bit of a realistic touch, but gets a bit annoying. The music is from bands you never heard of. Except for one good thing, the finally added Frank Sinatra and Johnny Cash which are perfect for this game. Overall, the game gets really, really annoying. Just a few words to Activision, FIX THE CONTROLS. A 3 out of 5.

-Zam

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Review

Hey, welcome to our Reviews & Previews blog. We did this so on our other blog you won't have to keep fishing through the archives to find you favorite reviews and previews. We will put all of them here after we put them on GM2. So if we put a new review on GM2, then we will put it on here a day after, same with previews. So enjoy the neverending reviews and preview on Gamer Mania 2: Reviews & Previews! Oh and by the way, if you find this blog on Weblogs.com and not our main one, here is a link to Gamer Mania 2.