The Uber Review Spree – Part One: Super Smash, Resident Evil, God of War
Welcome video game fans to what will be the first of two special columns featuring three mini reviews in each. Now, as many of you know, I love video games. However, my library isn’t as big as it once was, seeing as I ended up trading in almost 40 games in the past two years.
I do, however, still have a rather large collection featuring some games I haven’t had time to review. So, the game plan for the next two weeks is for me to be reviewing games released on the following systems: Xbox 360 / Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii and Sony PSP. Anyway, sit back, and enjoy these three mini reviews…
Nintendo Wii Super Smash Brothers Brawl
This one is for my buddy Alan (Linkshot) who is so obsessed with this game, every second weekend he carpools with some guys from Ottawa to Montreal for Brawl Tournaments. He’s also arguably the best Lucario player in Canada based on videos of his matches:
Anyway, where do I stand on Super Smash Brothers Brawl? I stand by my review and I say that the game is good but I can’t award points for potential.
If you’ve owned a Nintendo 64, you probably heard of Super Smash Brothers a game that created battles between Nintendo’s biggest stars such as Link, Mario, Donkey Kong, Star Fox, etc. The game was a hit and spawned its sequel: Super Smash Brothers Melee on the Gamecube, which became one of the most popular games for that console. But is Brawl up to Melee’s level?
Yeah, it is. But that’s mostly because not much has changed. Sure, there are new maps, a new cast of characters, new items, a story mode and online play, but all that is expected for fighting games. What’s done here that hasn’t been seen before?
It’s the same old formula of attacking your opponent enough so that they take damage which is listed as a percent. The more damage they take, the more their percent rises. When your percent goes up, the bigger the chances of you being thrown from the stage, resulting in death. It’s fun. It works. It was original back on the first Smash game.
Sure, there are two big new characters: Sonic and Solid Snake. These two non-Nintendo characters are fun, but don’t really do anything special to enhance the gameplay.
What really pisses me off is this game’s online play. It leaves me scratching my head and screaming out “what the fuck!” Super Smash is a game that needs online rankings and voice chat, tournaments and online components that are fun.
This game has none of this because of Nintendo’s family-friendly approach, which for some reason equals out to: “sorry, you need to enter a long-digit friend code before you can fight this person.” Also, the random battles annoy the hell out of me because of the fact there isn’t even a way to tell if who you’re fighting is even a human there are no usernames or voice-chat! Plus, it takes about fifteen minutes to find you an opponent! I’m not kidding.
If you loved Melee, you might like this game. You might want to take it out, get it drunk and fuck it like it’s some swimsuit model you’re never going to see again. But for the rest of us, I have to give this game what it deserves:
6.8/10
It’s just too bad the online play sucked, if it didn’t, it would have meant more to me than just being Melee with some additional features.
Xbox 360 & Playstation 3 Resident Evil 5
If you ever played a Resident Evil game, chances are it was either Resident Evil 1 or Resident Evil 4, a game which received numerous game-of-the-year awards when it was released on the Nintendo Gamecube and later ported to the Playstation 2. Well, Resident Evil 5 takes what worked in RE4 and perfects it, but is it as good as its previous incarnation?
The answer, quite simply is… somewhat. The game puts you in control of Chris Redfield, an old, yet classic, character in the franchise who is sent to Africa on a top-secret mission where he teams with Sheva Alomar, a feisty character who shows she’s on par with Chris when it comes to hunting and taking out her enemies.
Unlike other Resident Evil games, this one is set in Africa and before you say anything, I know there was some early speculation when it comes to racism in this game. Sure, you blow off the heads of infected Africans, however, would it make sense to have fifty-thousand white people running around Africa wearing typical African attire?
The game isn’t racist at all and if you don’t believe it, you’re probably the kind of person who says anyone who voted against Obama was racist. In other words, you need help.
Anyway, the graphics are very well done and look amazing. They are slick and some of the best the Xbox has to offer. The sound is also done very well and has a lot of African music to really suit the mood and feel.
The campaign is short, but luckily, there is a co-op option to keep you busy after you’ve beaten the game. Let me just say that although the campaign is short, it is still highly cinematic and when I first beat it, I had an awesome feeling due to the epicness of the final showdown which I won’t spoil for you.
Is the game worth the buy? Since it now has a low price-tag, I say go for it. However, I got this game when it first came out and ended up paying $69.99 for it. I probably wouldn’t have recommended it with that price, but since it’s now half that, I say go for it. However, the original score still stands:
8/10.
It’s not bad, just not on the same level as Resident Evil 4.
Play Station Portable God of War: Chains of Olympus
Onto my final review for this week God of War: Chains of Olympus for the PSP. And let me just say: oh my sweet Jesus, they actually managed to put God of War on the PSP – and it works, by god, it works!
If you’ve played God of War 1 and 2 for the Playstation2, then you’re probably waiting for God of War 3 for the PS3. Well, this little PSP game is a prequel to the series and really packs all the punch its big brother console games have to offer, even though it’s on a portable system.
There is blood. And for good reason, Kratos is a badass. He can fight monsters 20x his size and does so in good fashion, considering he wields weapons like they’re going out of style. The game play is fantastic.
Many people complain how the PSP’s controls are horrible, but not in this game. I found Kratos very easy to move around, making combat and solving puzzles to be a lot easier than I originally thought.
The sound and graphics are amazing. The cut-scenes look absolutely phenomenal and the in-game graphics look like they’re taken from a Playstation 2. Everything about this game is awesome… except…
It’s short. Really, really… short. You can beat this game in under six hours which is pretty much the battery lifespan of a PSP. What this means is, although you’re getting an awesome game, you’re also getting a rather short experience. However, if you’re the kind of person who will play games over again, then by all means, pick it up.
9/10
The positives out-weight the negatives by a clear-cut margin this time around. Definitely worth checking out if you have a PSP.
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