Friday, May 28, 2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
Frayhua Reviews: Zelda's Creed I
THIS IS A REVIEW OF THE LEGEND OF ZELDA : PHANTOM HOURGLASS & ASSASSIN'S CREED BECAUSE OF THEIR COMMON GOALS IN BEING GENERIC.
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
How do Zelda fair on the DS?
Style: Action/Adventure game
System: Nintendo DS
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: October 1, 2007
Story- Phantom Hourglass takes place after the events The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. While sailing in the Great Sea, Link and Tetra see a ghost ship and Tetra gets on board and disappears and while Link tries to save her, he fails and fails into the Great Sea and wakes on a island and is awakened by a fairy named Ciela. In order to rescue Tetra he must stop Bellum, Link must get the Phantom Sword, after going to find Fairy Spirits of Courage, Power and Wisdom.
Presentation
Graphics- The Wind Waker graphics are fantastic on the DS because the character models, facial expressions and effects look great on the DS.
Sound- The game has some generic music when going to islands and dungeons, but the other music is great as well as the sound effects.
Gameplay
Campaign- Your wondering on how would a Zelda game work on Nintendo's touch screen handheld? The answer is that the controls feel great even though it touch screen only. The several things you can do on the DS is amazing such as moving around, fighting enemies, going from point A to Point B while sailing, creative puzzle and moments where you can use the DS microphone. To sail you must draw your course on the sea. To change your route you must redraw your route. Using a cannon is fun and it does your bombs like in Wind Waker. Moving around is simple you drag the stylus and to roll you have to draw a circle on the edge of the touch screen. Sword combat is just as fun. To slash forward draw a line forward. To slash to the side draw a line left or right. To do jump slash you tap the enemy and Link will do a jump slash on that enemy you tapped. To do the spin attack draw the circle with the stylus. Interacting with the environments is simple you tap it with the stylus and Link will go right to it. Using your items is just as simple as the other touch based controls in this game.
Complaints- One problem with this game is that you go to a temple known as Temple of The Ocean King a lot to progress in ths game. This make you do the same things over and over again to progress. To me that was an idea to artificially extend the length of the game. This is as generic as Assassin's Creed mission structure. Another problem is on the Ghost Ship you assume that the numbers for the lever puzzle the clue to solve it right, but isn't because the number your given:24513 is actually a typo and the real code for the lever puzzle is 41523. How can you make a mistake like that Nintendo?
The multiplayer is very tacked on.
Value- This adventure has some problems, but in the end your enjoy this game once.
Overview
+ Good Presentation
+ Fantastic Controls
- Generic Temple Traveling
- Lever puzzle typo on the Ghost Ship
- Tacked on multiplayer
Assassins’s Creed Review
System: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and PC
Style: Sandbox, stealth, and action/adventure
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montral
Release Date: Xbox 360 and PS3 versions(November 14, 2007)
PC (April 8, 2008)
Story- A bartender name Desmond Miles was kidnaped by the company Abstergo Industries to become a test subject fro a machine called the Animus. The Animus lets that person recall their ancestral memories. You play as Miles' ancestor, Altair to get to a certain memory in Altair’s lifetime.
Presentation
Graphics- The graphics of Assassin’s Creed are beautiful especially when you at a viewpoint to show the scale of the city you are in. There are three cities to go to Acre, Damascus, and Jerusalem. The models and animations are great too, but since this is a sandbox game like GTA there is bound to be pop- up issues. That small blemish doesn’t ruin the join that the graphics bring.
Sound- The music, sound effects, and voice acting are well done. The music is exciting when you’re chased by Templars after assassinating your target. The sound effects for moving about and clash of steel is fun to hear.
Gameplay
Before I’ll tell you about the main gameplay, I would like to say that the control scheme is very well done. The control feels fresh and smooth when fighting Templars and moving around. After you assassinate your target you get chased and in order to end it you have to break the line of sight by hide in hay, going to a garden rooftop or blend with the people. Everything is climbable which is cool to execute great platforming. There are two types of profiles: a low profile and a high profile. Low profile allows you fight and blend in. High profile allows you to fight and sprint and perform cool counter moves. The fighting in Assassin’s Creed is fun because of good skills such as dodge and counter enemies attacks. One problem with the fighting is that all the enemies in the entire game have a very similar fighting style to each other, by having to same techniques. The gameplay revolves around Altair assassinating 9 specific targets. The mission variety isn’t great because you do the same task over and over again before you begin to assassinate your target. These missions for gathering information is Pickpocketing, Eavesdropping, Interrogation, search for the highest viewpoint and complete objectives for your fellow assassins and informers.
Value- This is a game with a great ideas in terms of free-roaming, but with generic missions and enemy fighting style.
Overview
+ Solid presentation
+ Intuitive controls
- Generic Missions and enemy fighting styles
- Lame Ending
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
How do Zelda fair on the DS?
Style: Action/Adventure game
System: Nintendo DS
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: October 1, 2007
Story- Phantom Hourglass takes place after the events The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. While sailing in the Great Sea, Link and Tetra see a ghost ship and Tetra gets on board and disappears and while Link tries to save her, he fails and fails into the Great Sea and wakes on a island and is awakened by a fairy named Ciela. In order to rescue Tetra he must stop Bellum, Link must get the Phantom Sword, after going to find Fairy Spirits of Courage, Power and Wisdom.
Presentation
Graphics- The Wind Waker graphics are fantastic on the DS because the character models, facial expressions and effects look great on the DS.
Sound- The game has some generic music when going to islands and dungeons, but the other music is great as well as the sound effects.
Gameplay
Campaign- Your wondering on how would a Zelda game work on Nintendo's touch screen handheld? The answer is that the controls feel great even though it touch screen only. The several things you can do on the DS is amazing such as moving around, fighting enemies, going from point A to Point B while sailing, creative puzzle and moments where you can use the DS microphone. To sail you must draw your course on the sea. To change your route you must redraw your route. Using a cannon is fun and it does your bombs like in Wind Waker. Moving around is simple you drag the stylus and to roll you have to draw a circle on the edge of the touch screen. Sword combat is just as fun. To slash forward draw a line forward. To slash to the side draw a line left or right. To do jump slash you tap the enemy and Link will do a jump slash on that enemy you tapped. To do the spin attack draw the circle with the stylus. Interacting with the environments is simple you tap it with the stylus and Link will go right to it. Using your items is just as simple as the other touch based controls in this game.
Complaints- One problem with this game is that you go to a temple known as Temple of The Ocean King a lot to progress in ths game. This make you do the same things over and over again to progress. To me that was an idea to artificially extend the length of the game. This is as generic as Assassin's Creed mission structure. Another problem is on the Ghost Ship you assume that the numbers for the lever puzzle the clue to solve it right, but isn't because the number your given:24513 is actually a typo and the real code for the lever puzzle is 41523. How can you make a mistake like that Nintendo?
The multiplayer is very tacked on.
Value- This adventure has some problems, but in the end your enjoy this game once.
Overview
+ Good Presentation
+ Fantastic Controls
- Generic Temple Traveling
- Lever puzzle typo on the Ghost Ship
- Tacked on multiplayer
Assassins’s Creed Review
System: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and PC
Style: Sandbox, stealth, and action/adventure
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montral
Release Date: Xbox 360 and PS3 versions(November 14, 2007)
PC (April 8, 2008)
Story- A bartender name Desmond Miles was kidnaped by the company Abstergo Industries to become a test subject fro a machine called the Animus. The Animus lets that person recall their ancestral memories. You play as Miles' ancestor, Altair to get to a certain memory in Altair’s lifetime.
Presentation
Graphics- The graphics of Assassin’s Creed are beautiful especially when you at a viewpoint to show the scale of the city you are in. There are three cities to go to Acre, Damascus, and Jerusalem. The models and animations are great too, but since this is a sandbox game like GTA there is bound to be pop- up issues. That small blemish doesn’t ruin the join that the graphics bring.
Sound- The music, sound effects, and voice acting are well done. The music is exciting when you’re chased by Templars after assassinating your target. The sound effects for moving about and clash of steel is fun to hear.
Gameplay
Before I’ll tell you about the main gameplay, I would like to say that the control scheme is very well done. The control feels fresh and smooth when fighting Templars and moving around. After you assassinate your target you get chased and in order to end it you have to break the line of sight by hide in hay, going to a garden rooftop or blend with the people. Everything is climbable which is cool to execute great platforming. There are two types of profiles: a low profile and a high profile. Low profile allows you fight and blend in. High profile allows you to fight and sprint and perform cool counter moves. The fighting in Assassin’s Creed is fun because of good skills such as dodge and counter enemies attacks. One problem with the fighting is that all the enemies in the entire game have a very similar fighting style to each other, by having to same techniques. The gameplay revolves around Altair assassinating 9 specific targets. The mission variety isn’t great because you do the same task over and over again before you begin to assassinate your target. These missions for gathering information is Pickpocketing, Eavesdropping, Interrogation, search for the highest viewpoint and complete objectives for your fellow assassins and informers.
Value- This is a game with a great ideas in terms of free-roaming, but with generic missions and enemy fighting style.
Overview
+ Solid presentation
+ Intuitive controls
- Generic Missions and enemy fighting styles
- Lame Ending
Frayhua Reviews: Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Melee
A solid sequel to the N64 counterpart.
Style: Fighting, Action
System: Nintendo Gamecube
Developer: HAL Laboratory
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: December 3, 2001
ESRB Rating: T
Presentation
Graphics- Super Smash Bros. Melee looks amazing with all the detail in the stages and well made character models. This runs at a solid 30 fps without a single frame drop. This is really great because the game has some fast paced fun fighting action.
Sound- Nintendo has created a magnificent collection of music and sound from The Legend of Zelda series, Super Mario series, Star Fox, and more. This game also has some great original music as well and the voice acting sounds great.
Gameplay
I.) Core gameplay: The core gameplay is an old school beat-em-up turned into a solid fun fighting experience.
II.) Characters: This game featured popular Nintendo characters such as: Mario, Donkey Kong, Luigi, Link, Zelda, Samus, etc. Also this game has lesser known characters such as Marth and Roy from the Fire Emblem series. Overall, the characters are well balanced and had some of their signature moves from their Nintendo games such as Link(shooting his arrows, using bombs, boomerang, and spin attack) or Samus(using missiles, screw attack, bombs, and charge beam).
III.) Solo mode: The single player has your typical modes in fighting games such as Survival(All Star Mode), Arcade(Classic), Mission Mode(Event Matches), Practice, etc. Also Melee has Adventure mode which is generic mode and is no different depending on which character you played as.
IV.) Multiplayer- The best part of SSBM is the local multiplayer. This is a lot of fun when you have four people playing and it's also a great fun party game to play.
Value- Super Smash Bros. Melee has great value and it's better than it's dissapointing sequel for the Wii with Disk Read Error controversey and has a lot of features that don't add up due to the horrible online play.
Overall
+ Great Presentation
+ Great Gameplay
- Adventure Mode
Super Smash Bros. Brawl Review
Did this game live up to the hype?
Style: Fighting, Action
System: Nintendo Wii
Developer: Sora, Game Arts
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: March 9, 2008
ESRB Rating: T
Story- Super Smash Bros. Brawl’s story is told in the Subspace Emissary mode. The story is about how the Nintendo characters come together and fight The Subspace Emissary.
Presentation
Graphics- SSBB’s graphics are the same as Super Smash Bros. Melee, but with more detailed character models and at a solid 60 frames per second. The stages are great to look especially when theirs a lot going on. The frame rate never slows down.
Sound- SSBB has a lot of music and sound effects from a lot of Nintendo games and some from Sonic and Metal Gear Solid games. They are great to hear. The voice acting is ok.
Gameplay
I.) Core Gameplay Improvement and Changes- The core gameplay of Super Smash Bros. Brawl is the same as SSBM, but with some new features Vault (which includes features like Stage Builder, Album, Masterpieces, Chronicle, and Replays), Stickers( which include Sticker Album and Sticker Center.), Coin Launcher, My Music, multiple control settings and control customization and online play.
II.) Characters: Nintendo characters are here both old and new like Link, Mario, Samus, Donkey Kong, Captain Falcon, Ike, Wario, Zero Suit Samus and many more. What's really interesting is the is the first Smash game to feature Non-Nintendo characters like Solid Snake and Sonic the Hedgehog. They are good additions and Sonic does suck in this game like his recent games.
III.) Controls and Final Smashes- Their are four control types: The Gamecube Controller, The Classic Controller, The Wiimote and Nunchuk, and Wiimote on it's side. All control settings are great except the Wiimote on it's side. To further add to good controls, players can customize each control setting. Final Smashes are super special attacks when a Smash Ball is busted and the player press the B Button. The Smash Ball appears frequently even when set to Low.
IV.) Solo mode:
- Subspace Emissary is a beat-em-up type campaign where players go from Point A and Point B like old school beat-em-ups to progress with the story. This can be tackled via single player or two player Co-op(Note: the co-op is done locally only).
- Classic Mode(Arcade Mode)
-Event Match(Mission Mode) Some match can be done via Co-op.
- All Star Mode(Survival Mode)
- Training
V.A.) Stadium Mode:
Target Smash
Home Run Contest
Multi Man Brawl( Survival Modes fighting Alloy)
Boss Battle Mode(Survival Mode with bosses from the Subspace Emissary)
V.B.) Vault:
Stage Builder
Album(All Screen Shots taken)
Challenges(What conditions must be go to get something like stages, trophies, soundtracks, etc)
Masterpieces(Play short demos of classic Nintendo games)
Chronicle(List of games Nintendo did up December 2007)
Replays(Show replays of past matches up to 3 minutes, you can pause to take screen shots)
V.C.) Trophies and Stickers
Trophy Gallery(See Trophies with there on little info)
Trophy Hoard
Coin Launcher(Use coins to earn trophies and stickers)
Sticker Album(Check Stickers you’ve collected)
Sticker Center(sticker Arrangement and you can take snapshots)
VI.) My Music(Select how often a track will play for that stage)
VII.) Sound Test(Listen to sound effects, character voices, and tracks you’ve collected)
VIII.) Multi-player:
Group(Local Multiplayer)
This is where Brawl shines and is the games selling point. The local multiplayer is just as awesome as it’s predecessor.
Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection(Online)
This game has temperary DLC for a day called the Smash Service. Through the Smash Service you'll recieve a cool creative photo, a good speed run off Home Run Contest and Target Smash, and a custom built stage. The online is not as fun as the local multiplayer. First the good, Spectacular Mode is when you can watch a match on your Wii and can bet on who is likely to win. Now for the bad, the matchmaking isn't great because you can brawl with anyone, but it's not divided to simple sections such as Friends, Regional, and Worldwide. For fighting anyone, 2 Minute K.O. fest is only available and the only thing customizable are items. Brawling with friends require friend codes and has more options than brawling with anyone. When connecting to a match you'll be kicked off for no reason. The control is delayed a bit due to lag. Speaking of lag, the online is a broken mixed bag ,their is rarely a decent match and other times when playing a match the game will be extremely laggy and become unplayable. It really does matter what connection speed you got. The same thing happens regardless. My way of online is the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connector and I have max connection because it's near my Wii. Also it only 30 ft away and I don't understand how I'm getting lag when I'm this close.
Complaints- The load times are insanely long times for no reason at all sometimes and last for for 30 seconds even when exiting the masterpieces section and in one part of the Subspace Emissary. A month before Brawl's U.S. release, the Japanese version of the game had some problems playing on the Wii. Super Smash Bros. Brawl uses a dual-layer disc due to the size of the game data. Nintendo quickly said that smoke caused this problem. So, naturally I assumed that Nintendo would fix this issue in the U.S. release. The U.S. version was released on March 9, 2008. I wanted to watch brawl videos on Youtube and I saw that that Disk Read Error was present in this version as well. What's really bad about this problem is that somehow I had gotten the error and none of my Gamecube and Wii games didn't work. Later Nintendo admitted that the game may have difficulty reading the high-density software due to a contaminated laser lens. Nintendo offered a free repair for owners who experienced this issue. After that was dealt with Nintendo released The Wii Lens Cleaner.
Entertainment- Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a game that retains what make SSBM great plus added some new interesting features, but the online and controversy is very disappointing. Still this a good game to have fun with friends, locally that is.
+ Solid Presentation
+ Made Good Improvements
+ Fun
- Online
- Can't switch English voices to Japanese voices.
- DRE issues that caused even more problems in the U.S. version.
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