Spy Hunter: No Where to Run (multi-system)

Alrighty then, Yuuki here. So yeah I played Spy Hunter featuring the Rock. Hmm...well let's just get started.

Story: So you play a spy named Alex who is designed after and voiced by the "Rock" and you drive a crazy spy car and go around doing all those great spy things. You fight terrorism and blow up tanks and such all good but not really much of a story here. 2/5

Gameplay: The controls are moderately simple and everything is pretty easy to handle. Drive, break, shoot etc. Occassionally you'll be running around on foot which is where it becomes run, duck, shoot, beat to death with a piledriver. This is where the game should be good but its not. Your car tends to just get ripped apart and aiming and firing your gun is worthless. Its far easier to run up and maim an enemy with a fire axe of a sledge hammer. 2/5

Graphics: This is bad too sorry to say. The car looks awesome and shiney but everything else is basically at the lowest quality possible. Characters look rubbery and movement is no where near fluid or even remotely real looking. 2/5

Audio: I don't even remember the game even having music and other than going "ooo that's the Rock talking." there really isn't anything special here either. 1/5

Replay: Okay there isn't any replay value here at all. This is mean to say but the game is crap quite simply. I wouldn't waste the time to play it again. 1/5

Overall: Alright I know I may seem like I am being harsh. Seriously though this is in almost everyway a terrible game. Your super awesome spy car with all its gadgets and such is apparently made of paper as a few machine gun rounds kill you. When running around guns are basically uselss as even three shots to the head doesn't kill most baddies and it really is easier to just maim them with your fists or an axe. You'll often die and have to start the entire level over again. There just really is no goodness in the game. If you wanna play it rent it for 5 bucks don't waste anymore than that on this game. 1/5

Final Fantasy III (DS)

Reviewed by Kit

This is the only FF game that has never been officially released on this side of the world. For the release, SE improved the graphics and decided to port it to the DS system. Let's see how it rates.

Story: The world is out of balance. The forces of darkness have grown more powerful, and so four warriors of light are chosen to restore balance to the world. It's a rather generic plot. This remake attempted to add some character development, but it's nothing deep or moving. The main character is brave and friendly. His best friend is kind-hearted but cowardly. The female character is pushy but cute. And the oldest looking character, though he is the same age I believe, is noble and a little stuffy. It's not a great story, and it's not the driving force of the game. 3/5

Graphics: As with the story, the graphcis have been altered and improved for this remake. They're not outstanding, but they're cute and suit the game. You are able to zoom the camera in and out at parts, which is used to find hidden items. The opening movie is impressively beautiful. 3/5

Audio: The music is probably the greatest part of the game. As with many Final Fantasy games, it is absolutely beautiful. 5/5

Gameplay: You can use the stylus or the buttons for this game. Battles are turn based with actions planned before each turn. The key importance of this game is the job system. As you find the four elemental crystals, you'll be able to change what job your character is. Switching jobs requires you to take a stat penality for X number of battles. As you use that job, it will level up which will give you stronger attacks and magic. Unfortunately, though the game talks about how you can use so many jobs, quite often you will find that you are almsot required to be a particular job to pass through a dungeon or beat a boss. For example, the first few dungeons require you to be mini. Weapons do no damage when you're small, but magic does. Guess what job classes you will have to be to succeed. Other than that, things are simple and have no problems. 4/5

Replay: There is no real reason for replaying the game. You might try doing it as a challenge, beat the game with all white mages or something, but it's not necessary. 2/5

Overall: The game itself is entertaining and fun. It's not the greatest game out there, but it isn't bad. If you want to complete your FF collection, pick it up. If not, then I'd wait a few months for the price to go down. 3/5

Digimon World DS (NDS)

Okay boys and girls I have a treat for you today. It's called Digimon World DS. Now for those of you that don't know Digimon are little digital A.I. that live in the Digital World which makes up the free space of the computer network. Digimon live and eat and grow in their on little world and occassionally call on humans and team up to save both our world and theirs. While most people may think "Oh its just a pokemon rip off." Your wrong Digimon is much older than Pokemon and most other monster Raising games. It started as a litle key chain pet here and over in Japan it was a cell phone pet a little while earlier. So Let's Begin.

Story: The story starts with your character investigating the internet rumors about seeing monster on the computer. He/She ends up getting sucked into the digital world and becoming a tamer. From there you get to befriend, raise, battle, and adventure with your digimon. All while trying to figure out who is causing trouble in the digital world. 4/5

Gameplay: This the 5th game in the series and they fine tuned alot of the problems of the previous games. You start off with picking your first partner and then go off to adventure around. You get new digimon by a number of ways. You can simply run around encountering them and collecting scan data, gaining 100% allows you to go convert the data into a digimon. You can also trade with friends or breed to get eggs and then hatch them. THe gameplay is pretty easy, fight digivolve and then degenerate back to previous form and digivolve up a different path to become even stronger. There is also the Digi-farms you buy and upgrade to drop your digimon off at so they can level up while your off with your other digimon. 4/5

Graphics: Ok so the graphics are nice since if your a fan you get to see some of your favorite digimon from the shows, card game etc. Though they could have done better for the NDS. Battle animation are all kinda similar which brings the thyrill of having unique digimon come down a bit, but not enough to really warrant dismissal. 3/5

Audio: A nice thing about the game is that if you've played the previous ones you'll find it has music from some of the best areas. If you haven't then you'll still like cause digimon music is still really cool. Other than that there's not alot here for Audio no one has voices and other than your general SE nothing makes sound. 3/5

Replay: Well theres a game plus and the fact that you can play thru and choose several different digimon party combination. Add to the fact the dungeons later are confusingly fun and pretty long you can get lost in them all over again. If the new digimon combination doesn't interest you there is always the Arena. 4/5

Overall: So this is a pretty good game and for not a lot of money in has a nice amount of playtime and entertainment value. Both of which are increased by having a friend with the game to breed, trade, and battle with you. Digimon are fun little critters and I feel people should play this game if for no other reason than just to pass time cause its a good way to do that. 4/5

Magical Starsign (DS)

Reviewed by Kit

So i said I'd write somethign that talked about all teh FF references in FFXII, but when I started it Wednesday, I couldn't find a good way to say it all, so I axed the idea. That also is why there was no review Wednesday. That being said, I also am having a bad weekend right now, so I want to get this review over with quickly. So without further ado, Magical Starsign.

Story: You are students at a magical academy. One day your beloved teacher is sent to a mission to the water planet. One of your friends decides to steal one of the rockets from the school to follow after her, and you being oh so brave decide to do the same. That is how it goes, you go from planet to planet finding more classmates who have chased after you in your search for you teacher. 3/5

Audio: The music isn't bad, but it's repetitive and uninteresting at parts. 3/5

Graphics: The graphics are cute, and the backgroudns are beautifully painted. It's nothing outstanding, but it suits the cute look that the game is trying to go for. Also there are occasionally FMV which are not bad for the DS. 4/5

Gameplay: Like so many games, this is where things start to fall apart. Like much of the most recent DS games this is completely stylus. Sadly there is no logical reason for the developers to make it so. It is awkward moving around with the stylus, often you'll end up going in a different direction than you'll want, or you'll go the long way to get to the point. In battles you have to click the type of attack you'll do magic/physical (you'll use magic 90% of the time) then click the ability, then click the monster, then click confirm. It's tedious and unnecessary, a few clicks of the buttons would do the same thing. Random battles are boring, the dungeons are uninspired, and despite what you'll read in other reviews, the dialogue was not that humorous. Also, while you will get six characters in totak, they will each learn only 5 spells, so there isn't a large variety of abilities to watch. 3/5

Replay: I wouldn't, but maybe you liked the game enoguh to play it again and again. 2/5

Overall: The game isn't bad, but I think the biggest problem is the stylus. I'd be much more forgiving if there was a reason I had to use that thing. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the stylus, I just don't want to have to use it all the time, especially for games where it's not necessary. If i'm not drawing something or shaping someting (ala Cooking Mama) I don't want to have pull that thing out and drag it around the screen. Besides that, the plot is clumsy, the characters are ok but not outstanding, and the small variety of spells is lamentable. If you must pick it up, pick it up for someone of the younger generation, i.e. someone under 13. Otherwise, I'd wait for something else. 3/5

Final Fantasy XII (PS2)

Reviewed by Kit

So today we're going to review a game that probably most people have heard about in some way or another by now. That is, if you can't read the post's title, Final Fantasy XII. It is the latest installment of the Final Fantasy series that borrows a lot of things from the previous versions. I'm tempted to list these all down, but maybe in a separate post later, as there will be spoilers (maybe). Anyhow, let's get it on.

Story: The country of Dalmasca has recently wed its Princess to the Prince of Nabudis. Shortly after their marriage, the Prince is called to war because the empire has invaded his home land. Basch, loyal warrior of Dalamsca, fights by his side, only to see an arrow kill the Prince. Sucks for Princess Ashe. Shortly thereafter, the empire invades Dalamasca, attempting to force the people to sign a peace treaty allowing the empire to control them. You, as Reks, Vaan's(main character) brother, witness basch stabbing the king and Reks. Skip to two years later where Vaan and his childhood friend Penelo are living in the capital of Dalmasca, stealing things and trying to survive. The empire has taken over the kingdom. Skip some scenes and missions, Vann meets up with a pair of sky pirates with huge bounties on their heads. Balthier and Fran, one of the few Viera(bunnygirl) you'll meet, just want to steal things and have a good time, but like Vaan they get caught up in the politcal intrigues that are happening. And there is ever so much political intrigue. It's good plot, one that keeps you entertained, but I don't think it's always one that makes you want to push forward (except to discover if the character you think will betray does). 4/5

Graphics: Yes, these are compeltely and utterly breathtaking. The environments are 3D immersive, so you can just rotate your R-stick all around and admire the fine details. The characters look beautiful in game and in FMV (OMG the FMV). Weapons and shields all have their own design, and you can see them as soon as the character equips them. 5/5

Audio: Important scenes have voice acting, and you have the option on subtitles if you want (it's fun to notice the difference in the subtitle and the spoken words). The voice acting is very very good. For the most part the actors are not well known, so you won't be spending every moment they talk attempting to pinpoint where theyr'e from. A lot of the actors are also British, and much like Dragon Quest VIII, this is a good move. The music in the game is good. It is well suited for the areas you are in. A lot of it reminds me of music from the previous games, and the load screen music is a clear tribute to the Final Fantasy Theme from FFIV. 5/5

Gameplay: I think this is where it is hit or miss, at least in terms of the gambit system. Some people like it, some people don't. After some time in the game you are introduced to this system where you are given gambits which will control the actions of your characters. Of course if you want you can turn them off and manually control your characters, but that would be a bit difficult. You'll find that at important fights you'll most likely change the gambits you have to completely new ones. Besides the gambit system, there is also the license board to be explored. This is similar to the sphere grid from FFX with much more freedom. You use License points to buy the ability to use certain equipment, abilities, or augmentations. (Though, as noted in VGCats.com, you really have to question a society where the people can't wear hats without licenses. Is the beauracracy really that powerful?) This allows for almost complete customization of your characters. You want Penelo to be a mage user with staffs and light light armor? Go for it! You want Fran to master every weapon? It's possible with enough time. Also you can learn abilities known as quickenings, which when used in battle bring up a special attack which you can chain with other party member attacks. If you do enough of these then you will bring out a finishing ability, which despite the fact looks elemental is not in any way. All monsters are on the screen, and you can avoid them if you want. There are also monsters that appear that will not aggro you, unless you do the one thing that annoys them. Some aggro if you attack any monster in their vicinity. Some if you cast magic (bewares thelementals). And some only notice you if you poke them with your tiny sword. There is no gil drops in battle, at least not normally. Instead you'll get loot from monsters which you sell for money. Often you'll find this does not give you nearly the amount of money that you need as you ahve to buy weapons, armor, items, spells, and techniques. By selling these items to the shop, you will unlock bazaar goods, which usually require certain types of loot to make. Finally there are hunts. These are bosslike monsters that you kill for a person's special request. you will receive money and items for this, as well as increase your clan rank. 4/5

Replay: While the plot will remain the same, you can customize your characters differently the next time around. It's worth looking into. 4/5

Overall: I'll admit it, I wasn't expecting much from this game when I picked it up. I was pleasantly surprised. It's a solid game with interesting characters (I am such a Balthier fan girl now) The gambit system could use a bit more tweaking, but otherwise I have few complaints. My characters are constantly broke, and I have lots of spells I still need to buy, but it's not too big a deal. I enjoy the game, I enjoy the plot, and I enjoy watching Balthier talk in the cutscenes. If you like FF this is a good one to pick up. It's probably one of the better ones in years, and it has lots of references to the older games (yeah, expect a post about that at some later point). 5/5

Godhand (PS2)

Hey its Yuuki with Godhand. The arm your going to want to chew off like a rabid dog in a trap. Okay that's mean but I feel its justified. The game really is just short and compact. No much advancement in character or story. So let's begin the suffering...I mean review.

Gameplay: The games contols are really simple. Walk, punch, and special. The only problem is that there really is no way to manipulate the camera other than running in a circle to get it to face the enemy that's beating you from behind. Another problem I found is that you must face normal thug types, and then they occassionally turn into demons. This is fine except the demons are insanely more difficult and unless you get really familiar with the game quite quickly they are going to have their way with you. So expect to die on the first and second stage a couple times unless you have a crazy learning curve. On the plus side I am sure fans of the genre will have no problem beating their way through. 2/5

Story: I'm tempted to just type "is it even needed". I won't but still. So the basic concept is your the godhand chasing down bad guys and this demonic council in some neo future western loooking place. You have the lovely Olivia who is pretty much sending you into dangers and is always finding inventive way of getting you to fight. This is kind of bland. The more interesting part is seeing the our hero Gene tell her he thinks the big muscular badguys are sexier than her or telling the almost naked Demonesss than he doesn't want to sleep with her cause he prefers the look of boys. It's never really clear which side he's playing for but its entertaining to see. 3/5

Graphics: your character and basically the 5 other important people look cool. Then you have 5 generic enemies and 3 area that basically they changed the color of some building and switch the map around a bit. In the end its all the same place. There is a nice hand full of specials but nothing really great they are just normal combos with a flashy light on them. 2/5

Audio: Saving grace everyone needs one. This is the voice acting cause the music was so eh, I don't even remember it. The voices were good and with the funny banter of the character only makes it better. They didn't really haul in any big names for this one but the people they got were at least commited to not sounding like a moron. 3/5

Replay:There are 3 modes easy, normal, and hard, which you unlock by beating normal. There are also some bonus mission that unlock a bit of content but to be honest once you get the hang of the game you can get all of it in 8 hours tops. That is to say losing the first and second level 10 times doesn't just make you eat the CD. 1/5

Overall:To be honest I expected more since the game is by Clover and they usually pull through. So unless your a true fan of the genre or of the crazy challenge the game presents you with unless of course your crazy good at this yourself. Then avoid this one. No reason to waste money even renting it. Why spend $6 you could use on something else more fun? 2/5

.Hack//GU (PS2)

Reviewed by Kit

Hello, again. I want to make this a quick review, but I don't think that will happen. You see, I'm distracted while writing this, but today's game deserve's a full review, so if the review's a little shaky that's my fault, not the games. Anyway, here we go.

Story: The story of .hack centers around players going into an online game. You play a young man named Haseo, who on his first day in "The World R:2" (The world from the original games was trashed and a new one made) is PKed by some people who were pretending to be his friends and show him how to play (tutorial). Eight months pass and Haseo is now the one of the most feared Player Killer Killers. (I think this would be an excellent time to talk about the .Hack series. It is a multiple media story. That is, if you want to know all of the plot, then you will have to watch the anime, read the manga, and play the game. The anime that lines up with this is .Hack//Roots, and it takes place during that 8 month gap. The one thing you should know about it is that Haseo's in game friend is PKed by a player named Tri-Edge and goes into a coma, but you would learn this in the game as well.) That said, Haseo learns where Tri-Edge is likely to show up. Deciding he's badass enough to take this PKers, Haseo goes. There Tri-edge shows up and does something never before seen (unless you've played the other games) and Haseo wakes up staring at his desktop. Everything relating to "The World" has been formatted, so none of Haseo's data besides his initial creation remains. Logging back into the world, Haseo is once again level one, so people decide he's a noob and try to teach him how to play. There is a lot more that goes on after this, but the main things to mention are Haseo's need to hunt down Tri-Edge and his recruitment into an elite group that is trying to destroy a virus that has made its way onto "The World." The story is very entertaining, and the characters are nicely done as well. 5/5

Audio: There are only a handful of music tracks in the game, and most of them aren't very noticeable. A few are very nice though, and none of them are painful. During cutscenes the is voice acting. It all seems well done, and I like how the voices match the characters. They really brought in a lot of the big name ones too. There is an opening scene with the cast list. I was astonished how many I recognized. Not that it matters, what does matter is the voices sound good. 4/5

Graphics: The graphics are nice. The style is not one that is commonly used. While the in game graphic design are somewhat realistic looking, the FMV scenes have a cell-shaded look to them. They also seem to have an aura about the characters. The dungeons are very attractive. They scrapped the large world map then dungeon from the original series and now either have dungeons or small outdoor maps. There aren't a lot of different types of maps, but what they have look very impressive. The graphics aren't drop dead gorgeous, but they are very nice and suit the ambience well. 4/5

Gameplay: The idea of .Hack//GU is that you're in an online game, and it does it very well. Even better than the originals. When you're not in the game you can look at internet forums (you are able to post in some of them), write emails (or send greeting cards), and customize your desktop (change the music and wallpaper, and some wallpapers can now be downloaded off the forums). When you log into "The World" you can access game forums as well as the main site that tells the back story of "The World." Inside the game proper, you interact with other players and can trade with them for new items. The game consists of running around the server town or going into dungeons. You can call people on your friend list to join your party, which holds up to three. You can give them commands for what strategies to use in battle, but mostly they're on their own mindset (like real online players). Also you can give them gear to equip. If it's better than what they have, they'll wear it. If it's not then they'll leave it in their inventory. When you see a monster, you can approach it from behind to get a critical bonus hit before the battle. Battles occur in shielded areas, so neither you nor the monster can leave (unless you use a smoke bomb). Sometimes you'll see battle areas as you explore the dungeons, and these are other players in a battle. You can enter the area to help them, and if you succeed then you will be awarded some small prize. Each dungeon has a different goal, either it's reach the beast statue, or defeat the boss monster. Depending on your weapon, you can press the X button for more damage. If you do enough damage on an enemy they will be circled by purple rings, this means special attacks will do more damage, and you get bonuses for using a special attack on the monster at that time. Also there is a morale bar, which fills by doing certain things. When that is filled you can either have boosted strength and speed until is wears off or unlimited magic until it wears off, depending on what you set in your menu. The gameplay is well done, and despite the fact they are completely AI, other characters are actually very helpful. 5/5

Replay: There is no real reason for replay besides love of the game. Nothing is particularly customizable, so you would only be playing through the same things again. 2/5

Overall: The game is a great one. It's entertaining, it's easy to pick up, but not too easy as to become boring. The characters are well-developed, and the setting is interesting. If you liked the first series, you'll love this. It takes everything good about the first ones and makes it better. 5/5

Family Guy - Video Game! (PS2, PSP, X-Box)

Reviewed by Kit

Today's midweek review is about a game based off a television series. Most games that are based off of movies and tv shows fail miserably, but let's see how Family Guy - Video Game! did.

Story: There are different stories that you play through depending on what chapter you are on. Characters are given missions to fulfill for each stage. For instance, Stewie must stop Bertrum from stealing a satellite and Brian needs to find out who impregnated Sea Breeze while escaping from jail. Overall, it's nothing great. It's more of just a necessity to laugh and move on to the next character's zany antics. 3/5

Graphics: The game has that Family Guy cartoon look to it, but it also seems to be less refined than the cartoon. It looks like someone tried to draw the Family Guy cast but lacked the ability to do it properly. The colors all around are bright and colorful, and besides the somewhat off look to the art, it all seems like a Family Guy episode. 3/5

Audio: The cast came in to do the vocals for this game. However, as you wander around they'll will randomly throw in quotes from the show that barely have something to do with what you're attempting. In the background you can normally hear humorous lines that are there for no other reason than to entertain, such as "There's a man in a red and yellow shirt in the nurses' shower." As far as sound goes, this is very well done, even with the repetitions. 4/5

Gameplay: And here is where it all falls apart. The missions are by no means difficult, but they are extremely tedious. During the first stage, I found myself repeating rooms so many times because I couldn't do it right. Either I couldn't get the jump angle properly or I couldn't angle my raygun shots off the hospital walls just right. What starts off as amusing and cute quickly turns to "oh my god, just let me make this jump and I'll never ask for help again." Besides the annoyance of the levels, characters all have unique abilities that help them through the stages. 2/5

Replay: Oh gods no! I could barely play it the first time through, please don't make me do it again. 1/5

Overall: It had potential, like so many games out there. The failing is that it made missiosn so horrible that you'd never want to play anymore. If you want to play a game based off a show, I'd highly recommend Simpsons: Hit & Run. If you want to pick this up, I highly recommend a lobotomy. 2/5