SOTS Grown-Up Gamer Review: Super Mario Galaxy
I figured it was time to actually name this feature - and this seemed appropriate. As much as I enjoy gaming, I don’t have nearly the same amount of time for it that I once had. I rarely, if ever, buy games on their release dates, and no longer can I spend an entire weekend playing through that brand new hot game that just came out. Darned relationships and jobs and responsibilities! Perhaps if I approach these reviews from that perspective, it will give my own reviews a little more of a unique appeal?
 |
| PLATFORM |
| Nintendo Wii |
| DEVELOPER |
| Nintendo EAD Tokyo |
| PUBLISHER |
| Nintendo |
| GENRE |
| Platform |
| # OF PLAYERS |
| 1 |
| Rating |
| E |
| U.S. RELEASE DATE |
| November 12th, 2007 |
| MSRP |
| $49.99 |
Super Mario Galaxy
OVERVIEW
During the centenary Star Festival, Princess Peach is kidnapped by Bowser, and taken to the center of the universe. It is up to Mario to save her!
REVIEW
Boy, it has been a long time between reviews. What happened? Super Mario Galaxy happened!
Believe it or not, it had actually gotten to the point where I thought I was getting too old for some of these games. I didn’t have nearly the attention span I used to. When once I could play a game for an entire day - even go without sleep sometimes to get through a game, these days I barely muster the interest to play for an hour, maybe two. And too often I will play about halfway through a game and just get bored of it, and move on. Portal seemed to fly in the face of that, but that was only a couple hour game, hardly a fair measure.
Then came Super Mario Galaxy. When I first started playing this game, I feared the worst. Right out of the gate the game sent you into levels that made full use of the 3-D environment. Would the entire game be running around these tiny planets, sending you through an increasingly dizzy series of levels?
Super Mario Galaxy is a spiritual sequel to the groundbreaking Super Mario 64, and like that game, it is essential that you master moving through that extra dimension if you want to be successful in this game. Essential - but the game doesn’t beat it into the ground. There are plenty of levels where you aren’t expected to go upside-down and side-ways at all. And while one or two really challenge your virtual sense of direction, as long as you have a basic grasp of the controls needed when going around and beneath the mini-planets, you will be able to get through the game.
Of course, Super Mario 64 is the giant elephant in the room, so might as well get into that now. Super Mario 64 was a revolutionary game that put the Nintendo 64 on the map, and redefined platform games for another generation, and effectively killed the sidescroller. Super Mario Galaxy has been referred to as a true sequel to that game (ignoring Sunshine completely), and the buzz was that this game would do for the Wii what SM64 did for the 64. In some ways, it succeeded.
One of the most revolutionary aspects of Super Mario 64 was the camera control. You could spin the camera all around you, deciding for yourself which angle you wanted to see a particular challenge play-out. The system was not without its faults, but it was the one thing that really made the “fish bowl” style of play possible.
Super Mario Galaxy is a lot more restrictive with the camerawork. There are many cases where you can rotate the camera around - but you eventually learn to not even bother trying. So rarely is it actually useful that you eventually stop bothering. Most of the time, you just get an error that tells you the camera can’t be moved where you are standing. Overall, this isn’t a terrible problem though - the game camera generally does just fine with the exception of swimming - the camera motion there is atrocious. If there were more swimming in the game, that would be a real drawback.
Clearly, there is a added dimension in this game, which is something very comparable to Super Mario 64. But it is far from groundbreaking - it seemed a lot more gimmicky. I can’t imaging seeing the entire genre of platform games switch to this style - it would get annoying very quickly. Sure - it is a testament to technology that they were able to pull it off as smoothly as they did, but it is far from the groundbreaking advance that Super Mario 64 was.
Of course, there is the controls. You can’t talk about a Wii game without mentioning the controls. Like most first-party Nintendo games, Super Mario Galaxy makes effective use of the control style. This one naturally requires the nunchuck - which you use for your movement and crouching, while the A button on the Wii remote itself is your jump, shaking the Wii Remote is your spin attack, and pressing the B button fires a “star bit” (of which you collect thousands of during the game) at friend and foe alike. The controls are smooth and well laid out, but hardly revolutionary. At least, not when it comes to Super Mario Galaxy. There is nothing in this game we haven’t seen done equally well in Metroid or Wii Sports.
In short - there was nothing truly groundbreaking in Super Mario Galaxy, at least, nothing even comparable to Super Mario 64. But the thing is - it doesn’t need to be. It is a solid game that was remarkably fun to play.
The format is very similar to Super Mario 64, but with a little more story behind why you need to collect the stars. It would seem that comet that passes overhead every 100 years (the reason for the Star Festival) is in fact a star-powered mobile observatory operated by Rosalina. Bowser has stolen all of the stars from the comet, and it is no longer able to travel. In order to reach the center of the Universe and rescue Peach, Mario must quest for more and more stars, until the Comet Observatory has enough power to reach Bowser.
The striking similarities to Super Mario 64 aside, Super Mario Galaxy also includes aspects of other Mario games that have been absent. In what seems to be a superfluous addition, you now have lives, much like in previous games. You don’t die much - well, you do, but not nearly enough to make up for the easy 1Up Mushrooms you can find all over the place, but there is the occasional level where you find yourself dying, a lot. Along with that is the “death” music, that you find all the way back in the original Mario Brothers. As it was in that game, hearing that bar over and over as you struggle with a difficult section of a level is strangely motivating and flat out annoying. You dread to hear it again, and clench in frustration every time you know it is coming. It is rare, but occasionally you will have to back out of a level and get a few more lives before continuing on the difficult task.
The return of the Power Suits. This game features a Bee Suit and a Boo Suit, which are both fun to use. It also has a Springo Suit which was absolutely horrible to use - of course, it is part of the challenge of the game, but all of the other power suits were fun (even in previous games), and the Springo Suit was the first one I can recall ditching at the earliest opportunity. The Invincible Star is there as well, as well as the Fire Flower - the latter of which operating on a timer this time around like the Invincible Star. You can also pick up turtle shells once again and use them for various tasks, going back to Super Mario Brothers 2 for that one. A lot of old characters from previous games are back as well - even the Cheep-Cheep flying fish make an appearance. Overall, the inclusion of game elements from the whole range of previous Mario Games really adds a sense of completeness to Super Mario Galaxy, and makes it a much more complete game.
The graphics - well, as usual, they are simply gorgeous. Super Mario Galaxy seems to make full use of the Wii’s graphic potential, and like Metroid Prime - it will leave some gamers wishing that the Wii’s graphic capabilities were more on par with its other major competitors. There aren’t any shortcomings though - everything is well rendered and the game flows smoothly - any load time is so well hidden that you don’t even think about it. High marks all around there.
One of the best parts about this game is that it can be played in short bursts. You can play for an hour or so, gather a bunch of stars and put it away for a while, coming back later and not feeling lost at all. As someone without a lot of time on their hand, that is really refreshing. You can also beat the game with a preset number of stars, but if you are more the completist, there is a ton to do to complete everything in the game - and for a “Grown-up Gamer,” that is where the game really shines.
There are 120 stars in the standard game that you can get. Suprisingly, I was able to get them all without referring to a strategy guide once. Some are challenging to find - but they are far from impossible, and the game gives you plenty of clues as to where to find them. After you have beaten Bowser twice and collected all 120 stars, you can play through the game once again with Luigi. A few of the challenges are more difficult with Mario’s brother, but all of the stars are in the same place. The game seems a little more tricky with Luigi - he is a little clumsier than his brother (Mario stops on a dime - Luigi stumbles a bit and doesn’t recover from jumps quite as easily), a tiny added bit of difficulty that allows the game to retain a level of challenge the second time through. After gaining all 120 stars a second time, you unlock the “Grand Finale Galaxy” - which gives you access to a total of 242 Stars to collect. Even after all that, I am not sick of the game, and can imagine playing it again someday.
There is a slight multiplayer element - not enough for two serious people who want to dig into the game, but if you have a friend who isn’t too “game-saavy” who might want to play (girlfriends come to mind), they can pick up another Wii Remote and help you gather Star Bits. Star Bits are all over the place - and you can use the ones you collect to fire at enemies to stun them, and also to unlock a few extra galaxies. You gather Star Bits by running over them with Mario, or simply by pointing your Wii Remote at them. Your second player can help you along by gathering Star Bits for you with their Wii Remote, and can also fire those same Bits at enemies - essentially watching your back. They can also make you jump - in case of emergencies - and if timed right, both players can execute a super high jump. The latter isn’t really useful, but it is a fun addition if you want to play around with the game a bit.
BOTTOM LINE
This game is a blast - and well worth getting. It may not “make” the Wii as a viable console in the long-term on its own, but it definitely adds another outstanding title to a growing library of great first party games. This game is highly recommended.
Rating(out of 5):
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January 26, 2008
SOTS Game Reviews - Portal (The Orange Box)
 |
| PLATFORM |
| PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3 |
| DEVELOPER |
| Valve Corperation |
| PUBLISHER |
| Valve Corperation |
| GENRE |
| First Person Puzzler |
| # OF PLAYERS |
| 1 |
| Rating |
| T (The Orange Box M) |
| U.S. RELEASE DATE |
| October 10th, 2007 PS3 December 11th, 2007 |
| MSRP |
| The Orange Box $49.99 PC $59.99 Xbox 360, PS3 Portal download $19.95 |
The Orange Box’s Portal
OVERVIEW
Following GLaDOS’s instructions, navigate through a series of tests using the new Portal gun from Aperture Science.
REVIEW
Not being a huge Half-Life fan, I was inclined to ignore The Orange Box when it was first released. As the weeks went on, I didn’t hear very much about the Half-Life game itself, but rather two games that were bundled with it in The Orange Box - Team Fortress 2 and Portal.
Admittedly, Team Fortress 2 looked find of interesting, but the last thing I needed was yet another Multiplayer First Person Shooter to play. Portal though - that one got my attention. What finally sold me on the game as a little Flash game I found posted over at Newgrounds. Not only was it one of the best Flash games I have ever encountered online, but it totally sold me on the Portals mechanic (Seriously - go play it. It is free, and you will see exactly what I mean). The game was challenging - a real brain-bender, and ultimately trained my brain to the type of thinking I would need to tackle Portal. I finally broke down and bought The Orange Box, and jumped right into the game.
As the game starts up, you find yourself waking up in a small glass chamber. There is an annoying alarm clock, a bed, and some debris that you can manipulate, but no way out. Finally, a disembodied computerized voice (Whom you later know as GLaDOS) opens a portal through you, and begins to instruct you on the parameters of the tests you are about to endure.
Each test takes place on a different level which you reach by an elevator. In each room, you face various challenges including acid floors, defense turrets, and several puzzles that you must solve before you can reach the end of the test and move on to the next level. Do accomplish this, you are given a Portal gun, a non-lethal weapon which fires two different colored portals (fired by the right and left mouse buttons on the PC). Entering the Blue Portal will allow you to emerge through the Orange one, and vice versa. In many of the levels you are given at least one Weighted Companion Cube, a large weighted cube which can be used to depress switches (among other things). In one level, GLaDOS accuses you of becoming too emotionally attached to your Companion Cube and forces you to incinerate it to move on - one of the game’s many humorous moments.
Of course, there is a twist at the end - suffice to say I am not going to spoil it in this review. This is just one of those things you are going to have to play through yourself to see.
Portal is short - really short. In fact, you can play it all the way through in a single sitting - about 2-3 hours depending on your puzzle-solving prowess. But that is ok - it isn’t written anywhere that a game has to top 20 hours to be enjoyable. Even after you beat it, there are several bonuses - you unlock harder versions of some of the rooms, and can go through a “challenge” mode, where you are asked to complete tasks using as few portals as possible, or as quickly as possible. Lots of replay value for certain.
The game’s atmosphere is really unique. The only character interaction is between Chell, the protagonist (who does not speak) and GLaDOS, a computerized test proctor voiced by Ellen McLain. Surprised I actually mentioned the voice actress? Don’t be. GLaDOS’s dialogue is one of the very best parts of the game. GLaDOS has no integrity whatsoever, and the praise, criticism, and outright torture GLaDOS inflicts on you is one of the absolute best parts of the game. Nods also have to go out to the design of the turrets - those polite killing machines who plead with you ever so nicely to stop moving, and even forgive you for deactivating them. Fantastic.
Graphic-wise - well, if you know anything about me by now, the “quality” of graphics is one thing I don’t weight too heavily anymore. Not that it would get low marks there - everything is crisp and clean - but the design itself is phenomenal. The levels look sterilized, very much like a test facility would. This is highlighted even more during those times when you get out of the test rooms, and find yourself in abandoned parts of the building where everything is decaying with rust and mildew. I can’t go into too much more detail there without spoiling things, but one word of advice - look for writing on those walls on the “outside.”
BOTTOM LINE
I grappled hard with the rating, and many of you know that when it comes to reviews, I don’t give full scores lightly. When thinking of the things wrong with this game - nothing was coming to mind. The lack of multiplayer might be considered a negative - but then, the game concept doesn’t really lend itself to a multiplayer format. The length is short, sure, but since when is there a game time minimum for a great game? Besides, with so many games out there to play, if something was short and totally enjoyable, I might actually play it more than once. When I was a kid and didn’t work for a living, perhaps replay value would mean something in those 30+ hour monsters, but Portal is a game I can actually see myself playing again.
Even if you aren’t interested in Half-Life or Team Fortress, Portal is definitely worth a look. It is well worth the $20 they are asking for it online, if you aren’t especially interested in the other games in The Orange Box, but it may well be worth the full price to pick up the whole package for Portal alone.
One interesting rumor has been floating about - that Valve might consider porting Portal to the Wii. I can honestly say that this would be fantastic news. The Portal dynamic is a perfect fit for the Wii, and the game would sell like gangbusters. I do hope that comes to pass.
Final note: Best game ending. Ever.
Rating(out of 5):
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January 18, 2008
SOTS Game Review - Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
 |
| PLATFORM |
| Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii |
| DEVELOPER |
| Traveller’s Tales |
| PUBLISHER |
| LucasArts |
| GENRE |
| Action/Adventure |
| # OF PLAYERS |
| 1-2 |
| Rating |
| T |
| U.S. RELEASE DATE |
| November 6th, 2007 |
| MSRP |
| $49.99 Wii, PS3, Xbox 360 $34.99 Nintendo DS |
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
OVERVIEW
Relive the Star Wars Saga – in Lego form.
REVIEW
Lego Star Wars has been around for a while, but this game puts together all of the content of the previous installments, adds a few things, and in the end allows you to play through all six Episodes of the Star Wars Saga in cute, Lego form.
I am fairly new to the franchise - sure, I have played a level here and there of previous game installments on the PSP, but I never sat down to actually play through the game before.
This game has some obvious appeal from the start. Just about everyone likes Star Wars (well, at least the classic Trilogy), and would get a real kick out of the Lego-morph.
So you start the game out with Obi-wan and Qui-gon, and play through the beginning of the Phantom Menace. Rather quickly you are able to unlock every single episode, though, so if you want to jump right to your favorite Star Wars chapter you can.
As you progress through the levels, you have to fight through a wide array of Lego enemies, solve puzzles (many of which require you to switch characters periodically), create Lego constructs to advance, and collect studs and Gold Bricks.
The controls are pretty simple, and the game makes proper use of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk combination, without going with any overly gimmicky motion controls. You swing the Wii Remote to swing your light-saber - the rest of the controls are standard. The attacks are pretty straight-forward, which leads to some stick-waggling, but it is nothing too serious.
This is the part where the review gets a little difficult. On the whole, this is a very well-built game. The graphics are nothing special, but they are supposed to be simple, so that really fits with the theme of the game. There are occasionally camera problems, but what 3D game doesn’t have that? And the game is rich and incredibly detailed, with a ridiculously complete roster of characters and highly detailed campaigns that take you through each and every moment in the Star Wars Saga. In every way, it is the recipe for a great game.
But it is boring. The Lego recreations of Star Wars scenes is cute, but ultimately it is one of those things that works best in very small doses. You know those Saturday Night Live skits that are hilarious, but fall flat when you try to turn them into a movie? This game is like that. After twenty minutes or so, you just stop caring. Sure, there are a few moments where you chuckle a bit, especially during cut scenes, but beyond that the novelty wears off fast. The actual fighting is easy - while you do “die” often, you respawn nearly immediately with a minimal stud cost. The puzzles presented are also ridiculously easy - the game presents no challenge whatsoever. It won’t take you too long to get bored with the game, and once that happens it is all over. It is tough to press on when you are bored when faced with the sheer volume of game play needed to beat the game, let alone achieve full completion.
BOTTOM LINE
This game is well built, excellently produced, and nice to look at. And even fun - especially in co-op mode. But it isn’t challenging in the least. If you have a younger brother or sister, or any children, and want a video game you can safely play with them and enjoy yourself, this is the perfect pick. For everyone else - rent it, have a little fun, and bring it back. It isn’t worth the $50 for you.
Rating(out of 5):
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January 11, 2008
SOTS Game Review - Trauma Center: Second Opinion
It has been a while since I have done one of these - I do apologize! But as you can see, things have been busy around here! TRAUMA CENTER: SECOND OPINION OVERVIEW Dr. Derek Stiles must use his abilities to eliminate the threat of GUILT. REVIEW This one is an older one, but being that I just played it, it is new to me. So you get a review! Trauma Center: Second Opinion is basically a Wii-make of the DS game, Trauma Center: Under the Knife. It is a decent remake – you can barely tell that the game was originally on a handheld console, and they even went so far as to add some extra levels, along with a side-quest of sorts that features a different doctor. When I selected this game, I was basically expecting a souped up game of Operation. And at first, that is exactly what I got. Your first few operations train you in the control style – how to use the nunchuck to select your tool, how to use the tool using the Wii-mote, and what each tool does. The first few operations are standard stuff – removing glass fragments, resetting bones, and excising tumors. Just as you start to get the hang of using the tools and performing the different techniques, the game throws you a weird twist – Super Powers. That was the last thing I expected.
That isn’t the only surprise the game throws your way. After learning about the Healing Touch, you come face to face with the “villain” of the game – GUILT. GUILT is the name of a man-made disease created by Delphi, a terrorist organization. It comes in several different strains, each of which behave differently, and must be combated differently during surgery through the later levels. The game is fairly easy to pick up, and is pretty fun. It definitely makes good use of the Wii’s controller combination, making use of all of the controllers capabilities quite well. Switching between tools is simple and quick, the function of the different tools is fairly logical, and a great deal of your success in the game depends on how steady your hand is. Just as in real surgery. While the game is fun – the focus kind of dampened my enjoyment. Admittedly, it was due to my own ignorance – when I picked this game up I was expecting a straight surgery simulator, and the shift to the super-powered parasite fighter threw me for a loop. When you had to use your surgery tools to disarm a bomb is when it went over the top for me. While they did a decent job remaking the control style for the Wii, they could have done more with the cut scenes. The voice acting was decent, but there was no motion at all. In a small step-up from the Bleach game, the backgrounds are static, but each character will flash on the screen as you hear their lines. Occasionally, as a special treat, the character will be posed slightly differently, to reflect the emotion of a conversation. For a full-priced game, they couldn’t give us any animated cut-scenes? That is incredible.
BOTTOM LINE Overall, this is a fun game. It is a little outside the box, so your family members who aren’t hardcore gamers might enjoy it as well. It does retain some challenging elements to keep your attention though. This game would have been far better if it had stuck to simple surgery, instead of crafting a fictional viral boogeyman for you to face, and dipping into the whole super-power thing. I found myself quickly losing interest in the game after they were introduced. The gimmick took the game from a fun, cerebral, and potentially educational game and made it something of a joke. A real let-down. A fun rental at the very least – might be a buy if you can find a discount copy. At this point, this should be possible. Rating(out of 5):   |
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November 30, 2007
SOTS Game Review - Bleach: Shattered Blade
 |
| PLATFORM |
| Nintendo Wii |
| DEVELOPER |
| Polygon Magic |
| PUBLISHER |
| Sega |
| GENRE |
| Fighter |
| # OF PLAYERS |
| 1-2 |
| Rating |
| Teen |
| U.S. RELEASE DATE |
| October 9th, 2007 |
| MSRP |
| $49.99 |
BLEACH: SHATTERED BLADE
OVERVIEW
Characters from the popular Bleach Anime battle for the Sokyoku shards.
REVIEW
Off the bat, I have to say that this game is pretty difficult to review. Not that the game itself is that complicated, there just seems to be a lot that is both awesome and terrible about the game. The Gamespot Review Page is particularly telling. At the time this review was written, Gamespot gave the game a 3.5, the average critic gave it a 6.5, and the users had ranked it an 8.3 (all scores out of 10). In light of the critical reviews, the fact that 39 out of 45 users ranked the game “Good” or better makes this difference worth examining.
So what is it about this game that makes the reviewers cringe, and the players cheer? Well, the answer is simple - while the reviewers seem to focus on specific aspects of the game, graphics and what not, the players only care about one thing: Is it fun?
Well, one of the things I have prided myself in with these reviews is my ability to look past what the usual critic sees when he plays a game, instead focusing on whether or not the game is fun. I am gratified to see that I still have managed to retain that.
On to the game.
Bleach: Shattered Blade is a fighting game, set shortly after Rukia Kuchiki’s rescue from execution (as such, there may be spoilers here for US viewers, so keep that in mind).
The plot is actually a good one as far as fighting games go. The game has an episode mode, in which you take one character through the game’s story. Naturally you will start with Ichigo. In his version, Ichigo finds out that the gateway to the human world is about to be sealed for 100 years, in response to Aizen’s rebellion. In order to reopen the gate and return home, he is told to gather all of the shards of the shattered Sokyoku, which will give him the needed power. Of course, he quickly finds that others have their own designs on the shards, and they are willing to fight for them.
There are 8 episodes, one for Ichigo, Renji Abarai, Toshiro Hitugaya, Kenpachi Zaraki, Bykuya Kuchiki, Hanataro Yamada, Yoruichi Shihoin, and Arturo Plateado (the game’s villain). The basic story path is the same for each - the main character is tricked into thinking they need to collect the shards for various reasons. Once they fight through everyone who has one and gather them all, the combined power of the shards allows the long-imprisoned arrancar Arturo Plateado, who emerges to take his revenge and exterminate the Soul Society. The chapters follow the same basic pattern, except for Hanataro, who stumbled on a shard by accident and is just trying to escape, and Yoruichi, who sees through the ruse all along and gathers the shards just to put a stop to Arturo once and for all. Arturo’s chapter takes place after his successful emergence, and you control him as he rampages through the Soul Society killing all in his path, eventually leading to a confrontation with Head Captain Yamamoto.
Anyone familiar with the show will instantly point out that there is no way in the world that someone like Hanataro or even Orihime would ever stand a chance against most of these fighters, let alone a powerful Captain like Kuchiki. But hey - it’s a fighting game, it isn’t like that isn’t common. This game at least makes some effort to explain the problem by saying that the shards make the wielder more powerful. A weak rationale, but it is good enough.
Fans of the show will really love the fighting styles of the characters. The moves are all accurate, so much so that you will find greater success when you fight as the characters would. Captain Kuchiki is best used by a patient player who is willing to stand in once place until the perfect moment to strike arises. Ichigo is a charge and slash player, while Orihime actually is better if you do minimal damage, and spend the rest of the time running, defending, and healing yourself. Hanataro is a difficult and fun player, as his sword attacks actually heal his opponent. To win with him, you actually have to stumble your way to victory, tripping and falling and using everything but your sword to attack. My personal favorite to use was Ikkaku, fast and powerful, just how I like it.
The graphics in the battles are actually pretty decent. I can’t imagine that they would tax the Wii’s processing power in any way, but they are almost perfect 3D renderings of the show’s animation. I even found the 3D environment easy to navigate, much more so than other 3D fighters I have played in the past.
The controls are unique. As this is probably the first real fighter on the Wii, of course the first question most people would think to ask is how the Wii Remote/Nunchuck combo will work for a fighter game. It actually worked pretty well. It does make use of the motion sensor, but it took me some time to realize to what extent.
After the tutorial (which was pretty good, it could have been a little more comprehensive, but it did its job quickly and efficiently), I came away with the idea that there were three kinds of attacks - swinging the Wii Remote, and doing so either holding the A button or B button. I started to get bored with just three attacks, until I noticed that I would accidentally perform other attacks. Finally I found out that my laziness won the day, and that I totally missed that Beach makes even better use of the motion controls than I initially thought.
The way you swing the Wii Remote matters. You can swing it left to right, Up and down, or with a stabbing motion, making a total of nine basic moves that you can perform. Nine! Can you imagine playing a fighting game on a traditional controller with nine buttons? And the interface is so easy, the minute I realized what I had at my disposal, I was effortlessly performing each of the moves.
There is a weird “Paper-rock-scissors” type exchange when both players clash together with the same move – you play a quick best-of-five mini-game to see who will come out on top in an exchange. It is really fast, and not a big distraction. I can see why some people might not like this, and it wouldn’t be missed if it was taken out of the game, but it doesn’t hurt the gameplay at all.
You can also power-up. By shaking the Nunchuck, you charge your Bankai meter. Now this is usually a bad idea, since it leaves you wide open to attack, and your meter charges anyway as you take hits. Once it is full, you shake your nunchuck again to enter Banai mode (or just power up to their highest level if they don’t have a Bankai - for example, Captain Zaraki just removes his eye patch). In Bankai mode, your Special moves become much more powerful.
Interface is great - unfortunately the AI is idiotic. I turned the game up to its highest level the first time I played, and I was blowing through Episode modes before I even learned how to control it properly. It is still fun - it just isn’t very challenging unless you have a human opponent. The lack of the online multiplayer is felt keenly - the low difficulty level really keeps this game from greatness, and the ability to play online would mitigate a lot of that.
While the graphics during the game are decent, the cut-scenes are woefully disappointing. Often, instead of any animation at all, you are treated to a single image, over which several minutes of dialogue are played. This was baffling - why the couldn’t animate these scenes, or at the very least have the playable models perform the scenes is beyond me. It makes sitting through the story difficult and dull. This was an extremely poor decision on the developers part.
The load time is long but not brutally so. It seems more annoying, thanks again to the cut-scenes. There are really only one or two different ones, and after sitting through them over and over again, the load time between matches becomes insufferable.
There are a lot of playable characters in the game - 32, and well over half need to be unlocked. This adds a lot of replay value to the game, especially for fans of the show who are familiar with the characters they are unlocking. It might not seem worth the effort for those who don’t know the characters, but it is definitely a fan perk.
BOTTOM LINE
The critics of this game have many valid points. The utter laziness when creating the cut-scenes is inexcusable. Staring at a picture for 5 minutes while someone talks to you is never fun, and this isn’t exactly a new innovation. If they weren’t going to animate them at all, it would have been better to leave the cut-scenes out all together. The low difficulty level is also troubling, and a potential turn-off to anyone who isn’t a real fan of the series.
On the other hand, they totally miss one huge factor - the game is fun to play, Plain and simple! The graphics aren’t top-notch, but the game engine is. The look will satisfy fans of the show, and the controls are intuitive and fun. Button-mashing is replaced with stick waving, but as with any fighting game, any skilled player can easily put down a button masher. The same holds true here.
There are two people this game is meant for - Bleach fans, and hardcore fighting game fans who have been dying for one on the Wii. The control style is unique enough to warrant trying out for most players. Unless you fall into one of those two categories, I recommend renting this one, or picking it up used.
At the end of the day - the critics are wrong about this one. This game really shows that there is too much focus on the graphics and the “extras” of a game these days, especially among critics. At its core, this game is fun. And that should be the most important factor in any review. Anyone ranking this game under a 5 (on a scale of ten), especially a reviewer who doesn’t know the difference between “dye” and “die,” shouldn’t be reviewing or playing games anymore. There is no joy in their hearts.
Rating(out of 5):
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