Thursday, December 05, 2002

Super Mario 64 ©1996 Nintendo

There are those who say that Nintendo developed the Nintendo 64 around Super Mario 64. For short while, Super Mario 64 was the only game available for N64. Super Mario 64 is in top recognition on the Nintendo 64. Here's Why. The game has reamped Mario into 3D and placed him in a respected platformer. By now you can not see the advancements Nintendo had when they released the game. Now if you type "Super Mario 64 ROM" into Google, your going to get a couple 100 hits. To be honest, it's really one of a few playable Roms you can have through emulation on this platform. Mario in this game, like the Super Mario RPG before it, Squaresoft's last game for SNES is better then 80% of the games out there. Mario has to try to save Peach, the Mushroom Land Royalty from the evil Browser ( yeah you guessed it, Browser may not look evil to you anymore with all the different franchises he's featured in.) Anyhow, this game runs about the 4th best N64 game I played. Okay, a few features that I like about this game and makes it a good platform is that you can not die right away. The game is fairly easy to beat. Okay its more then easy, its a weekend thing if you start on Friday, you may beat it the next day or if you don't stay up the night, you can finish on Sunday. If you go to funcoland and happen to pick up a N64, this game is worth a try above all others. (posted 04/18/2002)

Gameplay A+

Graphics A-

FUN Factor B+

Difficulty for me MEDIUM HARD

Wednesday, December 04, 2002

N64 - Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time review

Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time ©1998 Nintendo

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If you could invest 14 million dollars on a project that will get revenue soon after, in a matter of weeks in fact, who would you spend it. I don’t know about the best way. But I would ask Nintendo or some huge developer to make a game if I get 20% of the cost of the game. If I did, I probably would be a billionaire. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the next installment in the Legend of Zelda franchise, the previous installment four years eariler on Super NES, Legend of Zelda III - Link to the Past. It’s not a real sequel because the Link of the Past came after Legend of Zelda 64. But this game is a multimillion sellout. One of a kind. It was popular enough for Nintendo to re-sell this game for Gamecube. Games are way more expensive now-a-days. Most games cost of good quality cost around 30 million dollars for labor. Instead of actually traveling in time, Link discovers himself and his family. Okay, so the first two prequels to Zelda III don't fall in time order. In fact I don't believe this game came after Legend of Zelda on NES. In Zelda III, Link starts out as a boy in Hyrle and in Orcania of Time, Zelda starts at the same age. Link to the Past was a really good game.

The Fun Factors

It has everything to challenging characters to really good story line to huge environments. I love that aqua babe because she's eh, naked, sort of. Zelda 64 with the help of Nintendo's lead artist, Zelda the game turned out to be a great masterpiece, perhaps the best N64 game ever made. Zelda I could of played for a whole week and weekend and never get through. It’s sometimes frustrating. Too frustrating just because you don't just die, you also lost your location. But you kept all your equipment. It was the first Zelda game that you could save your progress along the way. This got me into trouble when I went forward in time. This didn't really made the game less fun, it this made me not want to go through all The freaking trouble to get back where I started. I also liked the cinema at the end when Sheik unraveled herself as Princess Zelda. Nintendo made Zelda 64 95% flawless. It looked good on limited cartridge storage. I remember seeing the first Zelda Gamecube shoots at Electronic Entertainment Expo in 2000 when Link and Galeon fight off on the silver screen. Every one thought that the 10 second film was a cinematic cut scene in the game in development. It looked awesome and looked like it was timed right after Zelda 64 which added a lot of value to the original 3D game. The online community went berserk over that small piece Nintendo given to them. Only for about 2 weeks though. That’s because a lot of those Nintendo fans played the game and liked it enough to impatiently wait for the next game.

Conclusions

This game lives up to Nintendo's repetition. In some ways it recreated it. If you known a Nintendo 64, You should rent Ocarina of Time for a few bucks. Most people who played it including me said was a satisfying experience. (Posted 04/15/2002)

Gameplay A+

Graphics A

FUN Factor A+

Difficulty for me MEDIUM



Monday, November 18, 2002

Playstation - Chrono Cross review

Chrono Cross


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Strange, but real sequel of Chrono Trigger. While Chrono Trigger was also one of the best RPGs for Super Nintendo, I don't really know, that's what I been told. Chrono Cross didn't live up to the hipe so it became the 3rd best RPG for Playstation. Final Fantasy 9 stole all the popularity from it. This game was released on budget and on schedule in 2000.

Graphics - 11.0 - Really, Really good graphics. This is the best looking Playstation RPG. While Final Fantasy 9 would come in a close second, the pre-rendered backgrounds are very good if not exceptional.

Control - 9.0 - Control is alright. Some people thought the control was extremely good. I'm just ok on it. Most part of the d-pad is only for selecting menus onscreen to attempt your next attack.

Sound - 9.0 - very good soundtrack.

Fun Factor - 9.3 - Chrono Cross surpasses Density's Tale and Secret of Mana. But it's protental can only go so far. It can't beat classics like Final Fantasy 7 or 9 in my opinion. The game is very long. That's always a good thing. I played half way through Chrono Cross and felt that the game was really frustrating. First you can't heal in the middle of the game then the enemy stuns you and then you die. Pretty sure it's not 100% fair. I don't even know if the game mechanics are 50% fair. I think the battle system is good but the lack of damage takes away from this game. It could have been perfect and one of the finest games ever created. ( posted February 28, 2003)

Monday, November 11, 2002

Playstation - Final FAntasy VIII review

Final Fantasy VIII

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Graphics - 9.5 - In short, Final Fantasy 8 is noticably better looking then the presquel, Final Fantasy 7. This allowed Final Fantasy 8 to take "Best RPG of 1999" by Playstation Magazine and Gamespot. This game, in town, looks high definition because of his pre-rendered backgrounds. I like the still camera angle for prospective. Although the traveling aspect outside looks in low resolution, they can't much improve on Playstation. It's about as good as it got for PSX fans. The cut scenes, although not DVD quality, are in high resolution. As you can tell, Final Fantasy III, VIII, and X are the only Final Fantasy games that exsist in a high tech civilization. There are many enemies in this game and they all have different characteristics. Athough I can't explain why I like some of the characters, I can tell you that these characters are orginal,. Squaresoft has people hired to draw new designs 24/7, and these are some of their creations. Some of them dinosaurs, some of them plant creatures, some of them rapid animals, some of them high tech machines made to look like bosses. In total, there are 4 discs. The first disc is the longest of the four. You start out as an average fighter until Qualist asks you to become a SeeD member. This is where you work as missionaries and do jobs for various people. The first mission was a test. You must fight against a giant robot. The game continues when Squall hooks up with the Princess of Timber, Rinoa. She asks Squall and his team to get the President who turns out to be a boss in decise.

Control - 8.0 Excellent control. Move anywhere in the game and your character goes there too. Squaresoft has used their latest version of the dpad when traveling first used in Final Fantasy 7 and improved it in games like FF8, Chrono Cross, Xegogears and Legend of Mana, to name a few. The battle system, doesn't allow you to run away or retreat, which I don't like in Final Fantasy 8. You can't defend yourself in this game unless a party member knows magic sheilding, which is essential in beating this game.

Sound - 8.0 - above average soundtracks. The game repeats battle scene music over and over a lot. I really don't mind it at all. I think I also happened Chrono Cross too. Athough I particular like the music in the academy. The voice overs in the Full Motion Video are very good. Japanese port I heard was much better. Err, Japanese actors sounded much better in their language then we did in ours.

Fun Factor - 8.5 - Good game. I knew it was a good game, that's why. The games not easy.

Closing Comments - Final Fantasy 8 splits off of the Final Fantasy franchise even more then Final Fantasy 3 did. I hear that you either really not liked Final Fantasy 8 or liked it a lot. One reason that many people did not like Final Fantasy 8 was that it had a simpified battle system. Another could be that it was in a high tech world, not what most Squaresoft fans are use too. While it was great for novice RPG games, like me, it is very boring to the stradegist. This game did not disappoint, it was clear that it sold over a million copies in United States, and over 3 million in Japan. It is true that in some ways Squaresoft out did themselves again and have been doing that for over a decade. We don't notice anymore. One plus Squaresoft did was releasing this game for the PC. Although in many ways, you get what you pay for in the Playstation game, the PC version does allow the game to run in high resolution, which I think is kinda cool. I don't think that the PC version has as much precision like the Playstation version. (posed April 04, 2003)

Thursday, November 07, 2002

Playstation - Gran Turismo 2

Gran Turismo 2

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Graphics - 10.0 - good graphics. Although dated now, they were good in 1999. The level design is also good. Tracks are pretty long. Sun shines of cars. Good car selection.

Control - 8.0 - Great solid, tight control for driving. But, I believe the game is more for the hardcore gamer. It'll take me a while to drive like the pros. Not much likeDreamcast's F355 Challege. I have to say that that game rocks more then this one.

Sound - 9.0 - above average soundtracks.

Fun Factor - 8.5 - Good game. I knew it was a good game, that's why I bought it used. ( posted February 28, 2003)