Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (Review)

by Brayden Small

 

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (SSB4) is the next installment of the extremely popular Nintendo fighting franchise. This is the first time the franchise has gone portable, allowing you to scratch that Super Smash Brothers itch on the go. Releasing only a few months before its Wii U brother (appropriately named Super Smash Bros. for Wii U), is the game worth the buy or should you hold out for the console version?

PRESENTATION: SSB4 does a tremendous job implementing and executing all the things that we look for in our SSB games. The SSB feel is present as soon as you pop the cartridge in your 3DS or 2DS system. From the music, to the iconic characters, to even the way the main menu is laid out before you, it all feels so familiar. Once you enter the character select screen you are treated with a big cast of characters, some old and some new, but all familiar Nintendo favourites. With so many characters from different Nintendo games, everyone should be able to find their cherished hero or villain to begin mastering. In typical SSB tradition, each of the characters have their own individual fighting style and special moves that fit right in with their original game(s). Every available stage in the game has an immense level of detail and are a huge joy to play on.

Some stages have events or even bosses that will show up while you fight, adding even more chaos to an already chaotic game. Too much chaos for you? No problem, as you can pick any stage and play it on “Omega” mode, which removes any events or bosses and keeps it to just one long, unmoving platform. Whether you’re a casual player looking to beat your friends on a wacky stage, or a pro player who just wants to fight without worrying about random chance, SSB4 has you covered.

STORY: SSB never really had a story combining events until Super Smash Brothers: Brawl. All the other iterations gave you a quick intro video of these toys coming to life and battling it out. In Brawl, we were treated to a story of some evil villain changing Nintendo characters into toys or trophies and you played the various characters to change them all back. It wasn’t anything great but it was enjoyable. In SSB4 there is no story mode to play through and there is no intro video to see. There are still collectible trophies, so maybe SSB4 goes back to toys coming to life and fighting but nothing substantial beyond that. Does the game need a story? I personally don’t think so, but it was nice to have and I am a little sad to see it gone.

GAMEPLAY: If you have played any previous SSB game, then you know what to expect from the fighting: mass chaos. SSB4 does this exceptionally well, with the return of the Smash ball and other items, as well as some new items. The Smash ball, for those who don’t know, appears randomly during fights and floats around the screen. The player who manages to get the final hit on it has the opportunity to do his “Final Smash” —a super powered and usually very deadly ultimate. As soon as that item appears prepare for some chaotic clashes, as everyone attempts to hit it or others around it. There are also tons of game modes to play, old and new. One of my favourite game modes is the new Smash Run. In this game mode you and three other players are placed onto a gigantic map with many random enemies from other Nintendo franchises. The players have five minutes to explore the battlefield, battle these enemies, and collect boosts to power themselves up. When you defeat an enemy, find a treasure chest, or complete an event you will get boosts.

These boosts allow the players to run faster, jump higher, hit harder (either physical or special), or be tougher. At the end of the five minutes, these players now must face each other with all the boosts they collected in a random final showdown. Sometimes the players will battle it out in a standard two minute brawl, other times it will be a race to see who can climb up a mountain faster. It is very enjoyable to power up your character and then fight against your friend’s other powered up characters in the many different final battles. In SSB4 you are even able to create your own fighter. Your Mii can fight in the game as a brawler, swordfighter or cannon shooter. You can give them badges that will enhance them to your play style. Badges will always increase one attribute and decrease another, to try and keep a level playing field. For instance, you can make your character dish out more damage or move faster, but they may be easier to K.O. or have a weaker defense. Then you can customize their special moves, and no, this is not just limited to your Mii. Any playable character can be customized in this way, but you have to unlock the badges and moves first by playing the various game modes. Even outfits can be unlocked to customize a fighter’s appearance (though this is Mii’s only). There is just so much to do in this game but it doesn’t feel overwhelming. Most of the items you can unlock fairly quickly and easily by just playing the game.

SOUND: I find sound to be very important for this type of game. With so many Nintendo franchises all coming together into one game, each with their own styles of music and voices, it can be a very hard thing to get right. The SSB series has not yet failed to impress me in this category and this is no exception with SSB4. Each character’s voice is perfect and the music for each stage is phenomenal. It’s hard not to get nostalgic and have a moment, when you hear the classic Mega Man 2 music playing while fighting on the stage “Wily’s Castle.” No matter how hectic the game becomes, you can easily get lost in the melodies of games past.  Hearing the classic PAC-MAN sound effects makes me smile every time. I have no criticisms for this game when it comes to the audio splendor it contains.

PRESENTATION: 9

STORY: 3

GAMEPLAY: 9

SOUND: 10

TOTAL: 7.7

Overall it’s an amazing fighter, whether you are familiar with the characters or not, and a must have for any 3DS library. Super Smash Brothers For 3DS stays true to its roots but adds so much more content at the same time. I can happily say, this portable release feels right at home with its console brethren. It’s a great game, despite its unimaginative title.

Batman: Arkham City (Review)

by Brayden Small

Batman: Arkham City is the second instalment in the Rocksteady Studios Batman series. It took everything we loved about Arkham Asylum and made it bigger. With more characters, more gadgets, and more areas, does Batman: Arkham City meet all the high expectations, or will quantity fall short of quality?

PRESENTATION: Just like its predecessor, Arkham City is amazing in the quality of its design. Arkham City is a huge jailed community and it certainly looks and feels that way. All the buildings are either in terrible shape or already destroyed with only remnants of it remaining. Around the border of the city is a giant wall with cameras and barb wire fencing all the way around making you feel trapped in this insane asylum. With all the colors and designs of Arkham City it’s hard not to just fly around and take it all in.  There is so much to explore it can seem overwhelming at first but the game does a great job of taking you everywhere throughout the story, so soon you will have no problem getting form one place to another. The character models are astounding, making it really easy to distinguish between popular heroes and villains. It can be easily seen that Rocksteady worked extremely hard on the details and design of Arkham City and because of this we are able to feel a part of this vast DC universe.

STORY: Right off the bat the story starts of like a rocket shooting into the great depths of space and doesn’t stop the whole way through. As soon as you put this game into your console and press that start button you will be taken by the hand, strapped to a bullet, and shot through hundreds of different side quests and stories. It is so fast paced that at times you need to really think, “Wait, what am I doing again?” This, unfortunately, does not go well with the game. It feels as if the game has all these characters, stories, and places, and it wants to shove it down your throat all at once. Instead of going in depth with certain characters they end up feeling one-dimensional. If you are new to the Batman Universe, this game can be very daunting because it is just too much too soon. That’s not to say the story isn’t good. The premise is that a huge chunk of Gotham City has been handed over to Professor Strange who transforms it into Arkham City, throwing anyone in there that stands in his way, including Bruce Wayne. Like I said, the premise is good, but unfortunately it wasn’t executed, often leaving you to wonder “What’s going on?”

GAMEPLAY: The fighting hasn’t changed from the previous game but new moves were added, including the ability to do double takedowns and counters. There is a new upgrading and levelling system where the more bad guys you waste in a chain the more experience points you get. And once you level up you can use a point in an upgrade feature of your choice. You begin with all your old gadgets from Arkham Asylum and also get a bunch of new ones. Even with the mass amount of area you can explore the game feels very linear, even to a point where it is frustrating. I was in a museum trying to fight Penguin, and after going through many rooms clearing guys out, I find myself stuck. After much time with trial and error I found I entered the rooms in the wrong order and there were certain events that needed to be triggered before I could continue. It didn’t tell me where to go in my objective page either, so it was very frustrating. Detective Mode is back as well and it is used more than ever. While you’re flying around the city if you don’t have it on you can very easily find out you landed in the middle of three well-armed thugs just waiting to shoot holes through you. While going through specified areas, like the museum and the police department, you need it on to make sure you don’t miss anything to continue on. You end up using it so often you hardly ever turn it off. The game quickly turns from flying in Arkham City into flying through a blueprint, and from fighting off Joker’s thugs into fighting x-ray skeletons.

SOUND: The voice acting is stupendous. Mark Hamill once again reprises his role as the famous Joker villain, following with Kevin Conroy as Batman. These two alone are legends in their fields and that may have inspired the other voice actors. Every single character you run into throughout the game, from Two-Face to Mr. Freeze, was done incredibly well. Every actor managed to hit the psychotic and personal feel of the characters. The background music varies depending on where you are, within Arkham City and the sound effects are dead on. You hear the force behind Batman’s punch or kick which adds to the atmosphere. Whether you’re a Batman fan or not, the audio experience of this game will impress all.

PRESENTATION: 8

STORY: 7.5

GAMEPLAY: 7

SOUND: 7

TOTAL: 7.3

Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Review)

by Jacob Angellotti

The third Deus Ex game came out a few months ago and after the disappointment that was the second game I was excited to get my hands on it. Due to a much needed break I was able to play a great deal of it. I will admit that I had some worries considering the second game was about as good as a food you found in the back of your fridge that has been there so long you can’t remember making it, and the fact that Square Enix picked it up. From what I played though this turned out not to be the case, I really enjoyed the time I spent with the game.

STORY: 16 years in the future the story focuses on and is experienced through the eyes of a walking personification of badass known as Adam Jensen. You work for a massive augmentation company as head of security. The company gets attacked, the labs wrecked, and Adam winds up in desperate need of a new set of arms…and legs…and several internal organs. Lucky for him his employers are able to help him out on this front and turn him into Robocop: The Walking Swiss Army Knife. This sets up the RPG and story elements for the rest of the game. The story then continues on with political and moral intrigue and a splash of conspiracy as Detective Shades tries to figure out what exactly is going on. You visit the landfill that is Detroit which somehow manages to look worse than it is now, Shanghai that’s so overcrowded they had to create an artificial second level for the rich people to live and look down on everyone, and a few other interesting locations.

GAMEPLAY: Overall the game takes place in a hub-type setting where you can run around and complete missions, whether it is main story missions or random side missions. A great deal of the game is taken up by talking to people and reading emails if you choose said route. The conversation system is well designed. You are offered different types of responses and when you hover over one it will give you a preview of that response. This allows players to be able to confidently choose which type of response they prefer. Being more machine than man you have several tools at your disposal. From wicked foot long blades stored in your arms to the ability to pick up and crush enemies’ skulls with dumpsters, the game gives you variety on how you want to approach most situations. Bodies seem to react appropriately when hit with a bullet or a metal fist, or even vending machines, giving you a satisfying reaction to each kill. The problem though is the enemies, including armed humans, turrets, and even robots, have unbelievable aim so you’ll probably find that taking the stealth route is optimal most of the time. Also, the boss fights are mandatory and require lethal force so if you’re aiming for a non-lethal play through you’re out of luck. The quick inventory is also flawed in that several times I would try and switch weapons and instead Adam would munch down on an energy bar, destroying the stash I had been saving for a time of need.

PRESENTATION: I was forced to play the console version unfortunately so the graphics weren’t as good as they could have been. That’s not to say they were bad they just weren’t anything special. The aesthetics on the other hand are beautiful, completely fulfilling my cyberpunk needs. All of the locations you visit seem to fit right in from the slums of Detroit to the impossibly tall skyscrapers of Shanghai.

SOUND: The cities seem to pulse and hum with energy. The soundtrack fits right in with electronic music being the main focus. The soundtrack doesn’t stand out and fits right into the background where it belongs, meeting the probable intended effect.  The voice acting is excellent on Adam and the other main and secondary characters but the people on the streets spout the same lines over and over. Adam Jensen’s voice actor in particular fits the role perfectly having a voice seemingly born out of a life and smoking cigars, drinking whisky, and eating sandpaper.

STORY: 8

GAMEPLAY: 8

PRESENTATION: 8

SOUND: 8

TOTAL: 8.0

Assassins Creed: Rearmed (Review)

by Brayden Small

Assassins Creed: Rearmed is the new mobile app only available on iPhone, iPod, or iPad that brings the fun of the Assassins Creed unique multiplayer experience to your mobile devices. Does Assassins Creed: Rearmed successfully make that mobile switch or is this game better left at home?

PRESENTATION: Obviously the mobile Assassins Creed is going to have worse graphics and design than its console counterparts but it doesn’t stand out in the mobile app world either. Throughout the entire game you are always looking at the sprites through a bird’s eye view perspective. This perspective can make it difficult to tell if you are walking on level ground or jumping onto a building, which can really ruin your disguise as a NPC. The levels you play on get boring quite quickly because of their similarities. The animations of your sprite killing another assassin are poorly executed and the blood is so bad I would have preferred it left out.

GAMEPLAY: The gameplay is quite simple but it works. You chose your sprite and then your weapons. More sprites and weapons, just like in the console versions, become available to you after levelling up. You level up by competing in their multiplayer games through Wi-Fi or 3g network. The game can host up to four players at one time and tries to match you up with people the same or close to your current level. I have found in the past that apps that try to host multiplayer don’t do it very well. Rearmed, though, performs an exceptional job with keeping everyone connected.  When you enter a game with your chosen sprite you will notice a circle around your character. When you click once outside this circle your character will move to that location. Click twice and your character runs. When you believe an enemy assassin is close by get him into your circle and tap him once to perform your execution. Simple, but it works – most of the time. At times it can be extremely hard to target the character you want because all the sprites are quite small and someone with bigger fingers will have difficulty selecting a certain one sprite. This can mean the death of your character as you think you click the guy you want only to find out your sprite killed a poor, innocent NPC. You begin to shout vulgar words of disgust as you helplessly see the target you tried to kill turn around and pick you off clean. The gameplay overall has its moments of frustration but is very enjoyable.

SOUND: The sound for the game is ripped right off of the console versions, and who’s to blame them? Each of the maps you play on have a different soundtrack which is incredible, but unfortunately some of the music is too quiet for it to be noticeable. If you haven’t played the console versions and are unfamiliar with the Assassins Creed soundtrack, this game will give you a nice taste of the well made music.

PRESENTATION: 3

GAMEPLAY: 6

SOUND: 6

TOTAL: 5

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (Review)

by Brayden Small

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is the first game of a trilogy created by the Naughty Dog game studio. Released November 20, 2007, Uncharted was given high expectations with its phenomenal gameplay and astonishing graphics, making it an important exclusive for the Playstation 3. Is it worth playing after so many years or did it fall into uncharted territory?

PRESENTATION:  For a game released four years ago it is astonishing to see graphics as well done as this. Uncharted rises above the standard of many other games across all consoles. The character models are life-like and their faces spew emotion, the scenery is gorgeous and breathtaking – almost every last detail was taken into consideration.  Well, except for the splash effects, which throw off the aesthetic of the well-done water graphics. I may be nitpicking, but when a splash from the beautiful water makes it seem as if there is someone having a hissy fit below Drake even when he is walking slowly, it really takes away from the rest of the amazing design elements. It’s like having a giant, juicy red apple that’s gleaming in the sun and then you notice a single black mouldy spot. It ruins the entire apple for you. However, overall the game does a good job of emersing you in the game; it looks, sounds, and feels like you’re in the jungle…always in the jungle…constantly.

STORY:  Yes, Uncharted brings you to the jungle very early on and then leaves you there for the entirety of the game, so I hope you like seeing green – lots of green. You start on a boat, then in a jungle, then jungle, jungle, jungle, temple, jungle, jungle, and then it takes a real twist and you’re on a boat at the end of the game (it definitely caught me off guard). The story begins with Drake, your average treasure hunter, looking for a notebook inside a coffin of his dead ancestor. This notebook is to lead him to a giant gold statue. You find out that there are other, less nice, people out for that treasure too. You find this out two minutes into the game and then the game makes sure to remind you of that every two minutes by constantly throwing baddies your way. You clear out many rooms solving pretty simplistic puzzles every now and then. Eventually you get to your goal, finding that golden statue. Turns out though that there is a curse on it that makes bad stuff happen (no spoilers) and Drake must make sure it stays in the forest. How does Drake, our Indiana Jones of the exclusive Playstation 3 world, complete this daunting task? Doing what Drake does best, that’s how: killing everyone trying to take it. Seriously, this guy is as linear of a thinker as this game is.

GAMEPLAY:  The gameplay is the suffering point of this game. Like mentioned before, it has tons of one-versus-twenty gun fights. Drake fights and kills more men than Rambo and every character Arnold Schwarzenegger has played combined. How am I supposed to realistically connect with Drake who polishes off a room of twenty people, all aiming at him with snipers and bazookas, and then walks away like its nothing? The game is also very linear. It shows you where to go, what to do, how to do it, and if you try to do it any other way it will kill you for being an independent thinker. At one point in the game I managed to get Drake to jump across a huge gap and grab onto the tiniest ledge, managing it like it was nothing. This obviously led me to think one thing. Drake is a tank. Literally five minutes later I find myself dying over and over again because Drake can’t jump across a gap small enough that a toothpick could span it. It becomes very confusing which jumps you can and can’t make but there is a way to tell. If you miss a jump, die, and Drake looks like he is imitating a dinosaur on his way down, you’re not supposed to jump that way. Good news is that the loading time after dying is extremely quick, so quick it can get to a point where you just end up killing Drake for fun…or at least I did.

SOUND: The soundtrack in this game is very cliché. Now, cliché doesn’t mean its bad, don’t have to fix what’s not broken and all, but it feels all too familiar. It didn’t stand out to me and it wasn’t anything over the top. I could have played that entire game with no music at all and probably wouldn’t have noticed. The voice acting, though, was done extremely well. It made those models come to life and gave them more personality than anything else in the game. They were amazing and had a great script to read from, so overall it was incredible.

PRESENTATION: 9

STORY: 6

GAMEPLAY: 5

SOUND: 7

TOTAL: 6.7