Gamer--freakz

Opening songs
OP 1-motto☆派手にね!(Haruka tomatsu)

Genre:Comedy,Romance,Magic

Episodes:13

Alright I know people, you are probably sick of these harem shows. If you are, too bad, thats the way of the anime industry. Out of 10 released serieses, expect at least 5 or 6 to be harem shows. Kannagi is one of them. If you are going to turn a blind eye to it, dont, I will say this, kannagi is one of the better animes out there, when comparing to other harem animes. It is by no means the best, but its quite worth the watch, Im pretty sure. If you are one of those guys that would watch anything that is funny, go ahead, this is for you.

Opening song! Motto☆派手にね! is great for an opening song tied to a show such as kannagi. Its cheerful and catchy as hell, making for one of haruka tomatsu's best songs. It used to be my favourite song from her (until I met monochrome). The opening animations are funny, and kind of cool to an extent. Definetely a great song.

Rating:7.5/10

As said earlier, if comedy is what you are looking for, you will find plenty of it in kannagi. The show doesnt really drag, since it only has 13 episodes. The characters are quirky and funky, your time with the show will surely please you. Set in a modern day japan in a quiet town, with the main character and his friends hanging out at a local high school.... its your typical harem setting. Still, if you overlook its simple surface, you will find a cast of crazy characters, funnier and more interesting than characters in most other harem animes that will make you laugh hard.




Lets see whats in this here room....wait...WHAT?!@#

Kannagi features a main character as your everyday highschool kid with a boring life, with the name of jin. Jin goes to a high school, attends an art club and has quite a passion for art...though he isnt quite good at it compared to his other friends. One day, while working on a sculpture of the local goddess, the sculpture suddenly comes to life, bringing about a young lady with huge resemblance to the goddess. The girl's name is nagi, and she tries to convince jin that she really is a goddess, and that she needs to cleanse impurities among the land. Jin is sceptical and doesnt really belive her, even after buying her a toy wand to use as her "cleansing staff". Jin however decides to help her and ends up having nagi stay at his house and even going to his school. Thus...things start getting complicated when longtime childhood friend mugi finds out and when nagi's sister zange appears and starts seducing jin. Thus, the harem starts.

Kannagi may not seem like anything special. Its not actually, but its definetely a tad better than some of the many comedy and harem shows. A second season seems like an impossibility as of now, but its really isnt needed, the show is pretty much fine as it is. Recommended to those looking for a good laugh.

Peace.

Gamespot score:7.5(Good)

my score:8.5

(+)Pros:-New battle system is pretty fun to get used to,-3 different characters with 3 different stories following up with a final episode,-great boss fights,-good visuals comparable to that of the PS2 counterparts,-arena fights are a blast.

(-)Cons:-Framerate is unstable and strutty at times,-can be repititive to revisit worlds as different characters.

Gameplay time:30-40 hours

The kingdom hearts series sure is an expansive one. Ever since the original release it has been receiving sequels and tons of spin offs.One of the more recent ones is birth by sleep, the series' very first outing on the PSP. Birth by sleep retains great visuals the series is known for, and introduces a new battle system that is different from the games before it. Also, for the 1st time ever, it introduces not one, but 3 main characters to play as. Indeed, the series has come quite a ways and birth by sleep is the developer's way of showing the fans how much they have improved. Birth by sleep is yet another spinoff, but dont let it turn you off just yet, its an interesting, comprehensive and enjoyable journey that will quench the thirst of every kingdom hearts fan out there.





The stories for kingdom hearts games have always been quite interesting. Indeed, birth by sleep is no different, but instead of a lead main character, the game features 3 this time round. We have ventus, terra and aqua leading this show, the three are close friends learning the way of the keyblade. Ventus is still a novice, but terra and aqua are powerful enough to take the art of mastery test from thier master. When the 2 take their test, things goes horribly wrong as orbs of darkness appear and attack them. Ventus joins in and with the effort of the 3 they take out all the orbs. Unfortunately, after the test, only aqua was granted the art of mastery, not terra, since he could not control the darkness within him. The 3 characters then start thinking and acting differently, all working towards thier own perspectives. Terra sets off the clense the darkness within him, ventus follows, hoping not to loose a dear friend, and aqua goes to fetch ventus back. The 3 set out into the worlds beyond, and a tale of thier friendship spins into an untraversable fate that they could never imagine.




Terra fights and hits hard. Really hard.

In birth by sleep the gameplay has changed from the previous game. Unlike before where you are given 4 action slots with attack, magic, item and a command action in them, birth by sleep plays differently. The attack is given a slot all on its own in this game, and there are a load of other slot used for skills and items. For example, you can put aero, cure, fire and blitz in 4 slots. During battle, you can shuffle through them and use them as you see fit. There is no MP in this game, so skills can be used as many times as you want. But everytime you use a skill, it goes into cooldown, and you cant use it again until it cools down. When all your slotted skills are used and none of them have cooled down, you are forced into just attacking until they cool down. Of course, battles can be won with just attacking, but with skills and magicks, you get more options.

Another new and cool feature is the style change. Depending on how you fight, the order in which you use skills, you might get powered up in a way. Using lots of fire magic in a row puts you in a command style where your attacks revolve around fire, using lots of ice magic gives you an ice based command style. If you use physical moves only, you get a more physical style, where your attacks become stronger, or simply get more reach. These are great, but are only the surface of the potential you can receive. There are 2 gauges each character has, the focus and D-link. The D-link allows you to establish links you have received from friends and use thier move list, sweet stuff. Its cool in a way because other friends you know may have different skills than you already have, and tapping into thier list to use thier skills can be helpful. The focus gauge allows you to use a deadly attack called the shotlock, where you can hit enemies in a devastating attack that hits multiple times for massive damage. Each character gets thier own shotlocks, so its different and it doesnt feel like a direct clone when you use shotlocks as other characters.




Aqua is way too awesome. So awesome that even hercules is startled.

As mentioned you play as 3 characters, aqua, terra and ventus. Each charater plays differently from eaach other. Ventus attacks quickly and moves quickly. Terra hits and moves slowly, but has considerably high damage compared to the other 2. Aqua is more magic reliant, and is sort of a balanced character. After clearing the 3 stories and achieving certain achivements, you get the play the awesome final episode. Each journey is at least 10 hours long, adding up the hours you have a long and absorbing game. You visit memoriable disney worlds and meet long time disney classics as well as new ones. The cameos are pretty damn cool as usual, though the only square cameo you get to meet this time round is Zack fair, no other final fantasy character is in the game. You go through the olympus collosuem and meet hercules, the deep space and meet stitch or travel through neverland to meet peter pan.

The visuals are just great, comparable to that of the PS2 versions. For something on the PSP, thats something to brag about. Of course through the worlds you visit, they are inherited by the unversed, the new breed of enemies in birth by sleep, plus a boss almost at the end of every world. Boss fights are great, like in most of the previous kingdom hearts games, they provide a challenge to those unprepared, and require strategies to beat rather than your usual hack and slash methods you use to deal with normal unversed. Utilizing, the use of D-links, command styles and shotlocks is key, and combining these three can make you the ultimate fighter. Theres also an all new multiplayer in birth by sleep, and it takes place in a seperate world called the arena. Here, you take challenges to take on waves of unversed and fight a boss at the very end. This can be done alone or with friends. While its obviously more fun to do it with friends, the challenges are still very doable alone and still yield a great sense of achivement when you are done with them, since they are particularly pretty hard. 




D-links are a new feature that lets you fight like other characters.

Birth by sleep is probably just as great or better than some of the other kingdom hearts games, but being on the PSP, it suffers from some framerate issues. When combat gets too flashy or too many things get cluttered on screen, framerate starts to stutter, causing the game to lag a little. As expected though, its hard for the PSP to maintain such graphics. Also, since you have to play the game as 3 different characters, you will be visiting the same worlds 3 times each. Now even though visiting each world with another character is different, it gets kind of bland to see the same place three times, fighting the same unversed and in some cases, the same boss. It would be cool to see different worlds for different characters, but then again, that would take alot more UMD memory space :X.

Birth by sleep is the best spin off yet (yes, better than re:coded). It makes me happy to see that square still has it in them to make a good kingdom hearts game, and on the PSP at that! Screw the NDS, have more kingdom hearts games on the PSP. But yeah, the game is great and is definetely recommended for all KH fans. Still, I gotta say this, WHERE THE HELL IS KINGDOM HEARTS 3. Square, get your lazy ass off and make it happen, NOW!



Happy gaming!

Gamespot score:9.0(Editor's choice)


my score:8.5


(+)Pros:-Gameplay is overall faster this time round,-same great dismembering action,-increased necromorph and weapon variety,-atmosphere and environments are still creepy and add to the horror experience,-sudden enemy jumps and appearances still provide good quick scares,-multiplayer is fun and an overall different experience, -free dead space extraction!


(-)Cons:-Most of the single player is just a matter of moving from one area to the next with little advancement in the story,-no bosses!

Gameplay time:20-30 hours

 

I have little interest in shooters, be it 1st, 2nd or 3rd person.Dead space however, is one of the very few shooters out there that has captured my attention. The 1st game was great, but it wasnt perfect and could use some improvements. With dead space 2 out and my bro getting it on day 1 release, me playing the game was only a matter of time. Surely dead space 2 is great, it even has a thrown in bonus, dead space extraction, the wii game dead space game that was released quite some time before. An entire game, free, now thats just generous. I'll write another complete review for that another time, for now, lets just go through the horrors of space once more with dead space 2.

 

Dead space had a promising story, its too bad the one for dead space 2 isnt as intruiging as the 1st. Issac talks now, which is a good thing. Its good to see our silent protagonist in dead space one having to at least talk and show some emotion. In dead space 2, the story takes place immediately after the events of the 1st one, issac is found drifting in an ishimura escape pod, and is taken into custody by the people over at the sprawl. He is used as a test subject regarding things to do with the marker, since issac is already seeing things that he shouldnt, hes already "infected" in a sense. However, one fateful day, an outbreak happens on the sprawl, and people start becoming necromorphs. Issac is rescued from his confinement by a man, only to see him killed and transform straight into a necromorph right in front of his eyes. Still in a straight jacket, he runs for his life. After being freed, he is contacted by a lady named daina and learns of the disaster that happens in the sprawl. With daina being his only lead, issac tries to meet up with her..but thats only the beginning.




Dude, slow down, take a deep breath... Now, let me shoot you.


Dead space 2's core gameplay remains mostly the same as the first. You venture into the depths of sprawl, traveling through different environments, ranging from the creepy church of unitology, the residence areas to even the nurseries, blasting necromorphs with your cool ass weapons. Your aresenal consists of the old school weapons like the plasma cutter, plasma rifle, ripper, flamethrower.....every single weapon that was in the 1st game is in here, most of them receiving tweaks. Contact beam received a slower reloading time , and the force gun has a different alternate fire. There are of course, new weapons. One of which is the javelin gun, which allows you to impale your enemies and follow up by electrifying them. Theres also the detonator, which acts a gun that shoots mines, or the seeker rifle, which functions like some sort of sniper. All in all, they are welcome additions.

You also still collect power nodes, which are used to power up your weapons or armor at the bench upgrade stations, increasing health, attack damage, attack/reload speed, so on and so forth. You still use your weapons to dismember necromorphs, and boy is the process still as fun as ever. Now with faster pace in combat, you can hit, stomp and walk faster. Everything issac does is is faster in a way, even the stasis, its now so fast that you can pick up a dismembered necromorph limb and impale it straight into another target. Core dismembering is more of less the same, you dismember thier limbs, restrict thier movements, and dismember more limbs to finish them off. There are newer variety  of necromorph, which of course, means you have more stuff to kill. There are the almighty pack enemies, little baby necromorphs that come in masses. There's also the stalkers, deadly fkers that camp and attack when you look away, sneaky bastards. Once again, they add variety to the already vast amount of available necromorphs, so its all good.




God dammit get off my face you freaking baby!

 With the increased amount of weapons and necromorphs, along with the increased gameplay speed, dead space 2 feels like a better game suited for action this time round. While some part of this is true, dont worry, the game still retains most of its horror elements. The atmosphere is pretty good, especially for some levels like the church of unitology. It feels like a necromorph will just jump the fk out of a nearby vent anytime and stab the shit out of you. And rest assured, the quick scares that are made to make you jump are still here, and they still work well. If you played the original dead space, you should know that some dead bodies lying around are still living and breathing necromorphs. Visceral games has gotten smarter, such situations are reduced, and stuff like necromorphs just appearing out of vents or just jumping out of nowhere have been increased. Prepare to receive lots of short startling moments that make you jump. Thats the single player in a nutshell, there are more chapters than the original dead space, so expect a longer experience. Dead space 2 also has multiplayer, which is obviously a great addition.

The multiplayer plays much like a "humans vs zombies" kind of game, something like left 4 dead. You either play as humans or necromorphs, and whatever maps you play the objective for both side will vary. As humans, you play much like the single player, just that the necromorphsou face are human players. Necromorphs however, are more unique and fun to play as. You get to pick from 4 different necromorph variations, the pack, the spitter,the lurker and the slasher. They play much like they do when you face them in the single player mode, just that you are using them, and you can choose which vent to spawn from. Its fun to just select a spawn spot close to the human base, camp and strike when they least expect it. Every necromorph has its uses, and working as a team is key, for both humans and necromorphs. Objectives vary each map, but most of the time its the humans that need to accomplish a certain objecttive, while necromorphs need to prevent from doing so until the time runs out. All in all, its a great experience, definetely something to look foward to after you clear the campaign.




Prepare for some stratling moments such as this.

 Dead space 2's flaws mostly lie in the single player experience. Most of the story is just moving from 1 place to another, without much progress in the story. You move a considerable distance, listen to a few lines of conversation, and move on. And by the end of the game, you feel like you just went for a long errand trip. Whats more...no bosses! What the fk!!!! The original dead space had like 3 bosses, and though that isnt much, they still proved awesome to battle, especailly the leviathan. With dead space 2 having no bosses at all..... its a shame really, the minds behind the game could have come up with something epic, but I guess they just slipped up on a great opportunity.

Dead space 2 is a complete package in more ways than one. It comes with a free dead space extraction as bonus content, and it has online play for the 1st time ever. I will review severed and extraction some other day, but for now, as a horror game, dead space 2 is great. Besides the story, the game feels improved, and will definetely last any player longer than 20 hours, since the campaign alone is over 10 hours, and online will definetely keep you occupied longer than that. Overall, dead space 2 is a great buy, an awesome addition to the series.



Happy gaming.

Okay people, big news. I'm a little late because of school, but here I am, and heres the shit. It just got announced this morning, but I think many of you guys know about it already.

Yep, thats right, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3.

Stupid, I know, but hey, board the hype train! Capcom has been known for shit like this, just look at mother fking street fighter! Anyway, heres whats going down, the game is going to be totally revamped, starting with character tweaks and balances. Theres footage of ryu's shinku hadoken bouncing off walls and spencer being able to do an air stomp. But screw all that, heres the thing, theres gonna be a total of 12 new characters, bringing the roster to a whooping amount of 50.

Everything has been redone, check out eventhubs...or any website that keeps up to date about fighting game news. There are new maps, new modes, and the health and super bars have been redone (but yeah, they look ugly). But we all know the reason for this post....is the new characters. Capcom announced 4 today, strider, firebrand, hawkeye and ghost rider. Its too bad for them though, that the other 8 totally got leaked online. Annnnd....off we goooo!


For our 1st character we have hawkeye. Heres my opinion, hes crap. He's costume is retarded, he has a cocky voice and whats more, gameplay wise, he fights like taskmaster with just the bow. He just flies around the screen shooting arrows and flinging his bow for melee, whats up with that? His lvl 1 hyper too, he just fires a gold flowing arrow that doesnt do impressive damage at all. His lvl 3 is total nonsense, he shoots out an arrow with a tiny guy on it, and when the arrow connects, the tiny guy becomes huge and does a 3 hit combo on the target. Shit, total crap. But I can see him working for a great zoning character, and his other lvl 1 hyper, full screen OTG? Good stuff. Still, I dont see myself using him, AT ALL.


Ahh, here we go, my boy strider actually made it into the game! Strider looks...GREAT. Out of the 4 revealed today, I would place him out on top. He plays much like his MVC 2 counterpart, he has crappy health, but to back him up he has sick teleports and crossups. He seems like he has even more tools than he had in MVC 2, he can call out his leopards and hawks like usual, and his lvl 1 hyper which involves a herd of animals stomping in is OTG, great stuff. His level 3 looks abit hard to connect, and is ouroborus a level 3 now? Cause if it is, it would kind of suck. Anyway, sick character, cant wait to play him.


Ohh yeah, and the goodness just keeps coming. Ghost rider is another badass fellow. He even says it himself in one of his win quotes, hell doesnt have a badass flaming skeleton riding a motorcycle...or something like that. Either way, ghost rider is kickass, both in looks and combat. He incorporates his chain and uses it as a tool to attack enemies from far away and drag them to him, in which he will then perform sick combos using his hell fire. His basic damage is good, and his hypers are great. The one where he swings his fire chain and his motorcycle one...both do great damage and dont look like they will have problems connecting. His level 3 kinda needs some work, it looks pretty plain, but still badass at the same time (they actually made use of his penance stare). Like strider, cant wait to play him.


Erm, red areemer? Firebrand is the last of the revealed characters today. Heres the deal, hes a normal enemy in ghosts and goblins. I dont like playing as normal enemies, and yep, based on his design, he totally looks like a normal cannon fodder demon. Gameplay wise however, he isnt bad. Hes another midget character like zero/arthur/VJ, but he looks far better to play than VJ and arthur. He's quick, can fly and drag his foes from one end of the screen to another, which will lead to a wall bounce which will allow him to keep comboing. Not bad, but his level ones can use work. His fire breath can OTG, which is good, but his other level one, where he turns silver..is still unknown to me, I have no idea what it does. His level 3 looks annoying as hell to deal with. Overall, hes alright, better than hawkeye at least.

Now onto the leaked characters, there's no footage on them now, but I can still speculate about them, these are all just opinions though.


First off we have another doctor, doctor strange. Doctor strange is an alright addition to me, he's kind of appealed to me as a character I wanna see what he can do, since I heard he is pretty OP with magicks. Waiting to see what he can do, for now Im pretty okay with him.


Franky! In my opinion, I would have prefered chuck, as a dead rising 2 player. But meh, frank is good, at least we have a dead rising rep. Plus, frank has been speculated and anticipated for almost 8 months when MVC 3 was 1st announced. Now that hes in, lets see what he can do! I hope he plays around with combo weapons and stuff, that would be way cool.


Hmm, Iron fist eh? I have heard about this guy, but never really got to see what he could do, and honestly, Im not really interested. If hes just another punchy characters with uppercuts, fancy kicks and judo flips, then I'll pass. Not really looking foward to him as of now.

Nemesis? Seriously? Dude we already have 3 RE characters, why put a forth? And a ZOMBIE at that. Sure Nemesis was a boss, was really? We would just be another big hulking character like hulk or sentinel. We dont have much of those, but I can only think of big punches from this guy. Okay, since he has an RL, I assume he has weaponary for a ranged game, but other than that, I dont expect greatness from him. Could have used this spot for another character IMO.

Okay, now I have never ever heard of nova. I have very limited knowledge about the marvel universe, but I have at least HEARD about some characters, like iron fist, scarlet witch etc. By god's name I even heard of characters named howard the duck and rocket racoon! Now, never hearing about nova's name means that this guy is FKED unpopular....at least thats what I think. I have never seen his name in forums for character requests. But other than that..design wise he looks like a capeless magneto, not something that I like. Not really looking foward to a character I havent even heard of.


Yeahh!!!! My boy phoenix finally made it! After all that DLC petition shit, MR WRIGHT IS FINALLY IN THE GAME. Get ready to objection some faggots to kingdom come! I have no freaking idea how wright is gonna play, but BOY am I hyped as hell! I have nothing against what capcom would do with him, go wild capcom! Make him as awesome as you can. But for the love of GOD, please, no floating objection speech bubbles as projectiles, that would suck terribly.


See? Look at this here idiot, rocket racoon! I have heard about this idiot, but who knew that he would look even more idiotic than his name sounded! I see no damn rockets, just a fking racoon with a pistol. What the fck? Is capcom trying to pull off another modok? Ugh, I dont even want to think about it, not looking foward to this fker at all!


Last guy on our list is probably the coolest one of the leaked characters. Vergil's art looks SICK. Here he is people, vergil in all his might and glory, he looks badass, and hes probably going to play as badass. If they give him over 40 moves like dante, dear god, things are gonna be hectic. They BETTER NOT screw vergil up, I have high hopes for him. Keep rocking vergil, we love you, now go join your brother, then we can make the ulltimate DMC team.

Thats all for now, as videos and more info get released, expect more crap from me, for now, peace out people!

Opening songs
OP 1-Loosey (The stripes)

Genre:Action, comedy, science fiction

Episodes:24

Bring out the gunz, cause its time for the review of bakuretsu tenshi a.k.a burst angel. Bakuretsu tenshi is an old show, but definetely one that I wanted to watch for a long time, and for some reason I could only bring myself to watch it recently. My 1st impression was this, 4 hot chicks, taking on crime and beating up baddies in big robots, this show gotta be some hentai shit. Well that was the mindset I had back then, 3 or 4 years ago. After watching it, meh, none of that was in it, kinda disappointed. Still, bakuretsu tenshi isnt bad, its good in its own way, and while it may not have straight out nudity, there is fanservice. Good thing they didnt make it the main focus though, bakuretsu  tenshi has substance, and its good enough to please the viewers.

Now the opening song, loosey, is kind of a mixed feeling song. If you listen to it once or twice, or just in the openings, it will suck, terribly. Of course, this is my opinion. But if you bear with it the entire season, and actually give it time, it will become something really addicting. Some crazy old dudes with old school music and crazy japanese rapping....can get addicting real quick.

Rating:7.0/10

Even with the pretty old visual style, watching the show in 2011 still proved that visuals arent everything. Comparing such an old show like bakuretsu tenshi with some modern day animes....it still holds its own. Bakuretsu tenshi speaks of a common "harem" theme anime, with a guy as the main character, surrounded by 4 young women. Even if thats the case though, bakuretsu tenshi kinda suffers in a case such that the main character doesnt get too much attention. While the anime basically states that hes the main character, he doesnt get half the attention the 4 other girls. Even in the ending, it isnt really clear what happened to him (wont spoil). Its sad, if they focused on him more, things would definetely be more interesting. Other than that, bakuretsu tenshi is just your basic all gal anime with hot chicks kicking burly dudes' asses.




Come on, don't scare the new kid.

 Bakuretsu tenshi's main character is your basic, run-of-mill high school kid named kyohei. Kyohei is your basic high school kid, just that hes learning to be a world class chef. So one day, like any other, kyohei gets hired for a job to be a cook. But little does he know that hes being hired into a group of 4 young ladies that are doing undercover dangerous stuff. Being as clueless as can be, he just accepts the job, but upon doing so, he gets captured by a bunch of suited baddies. The 4 girls are then threatened for a ransom, as the men mistake kyohei for an important friend of thiers. The 4 girls, joe, a cool headed and rash girl who is the team's main powerhouse, meg, the secondary powerhouse who always gets into trouble, amy, the computer whiz in charge of all the technology stuff and sei, the group leader who plans everything, decide to save him. They manage to do so, but meg in the end, gets captured. Since meg got caught trying to save kyohei, he is in the end dragged along in the rescue mission. Kyohei doesnt know what nonsense hes getting into.

Closing up, I would just say that bakuretsu tenshi is a good show, just that it needs more focus on the main man kyohei. With the show as it is now, they should just dub either meg or joe the main character, they get the most screentime. Overall though, the show isnt bad. The charms of bakuretsu tenshi lies in its character interaction and sweet scenerios. Oh and yeah, if you like big bad robots and evil looking monsters, bakuretsu tenshi is definetely for you.

Peace. 

Gamespot score:9.0(editor's choice)

my score:8.7

(+)Pros:-Intruiging story that gets more and more interesting as the game proceeds,-interesting gameplay mechanics,-features a cast of humourous and impressive characters that are overall hard to forget,-puzzles are well made and thought out,-puzzles evolve into a whole different level later on,-visuals are beyond impressive on the DS,- music is as good as or even better than the ones provided in the AA games.

(-)Cons:-Gameplay revolves around the same strategy for more than half of the game,-probably not much to do after clearing the game.

Gameplay time:10-20 hours

Running out of games to review...gotta step up my shit and play some games! Anyway, for today, we have a game thats so special that it got a 9.0 on gamespot, now thats pretty rare for a game in this area of the department. Ghost trick is a game that was made by the geniuses behind the phoenix wright games, so one can expect nothing less. Still, the game was great, it shook the spirits of many who expected it to fail. Ghost trick is one of the most unique gameplay expriences the gaming industry has to offer, and combined with its awesome yet mysterious story, it serves to be a great game that many can enjoy.



Ghost trick has a humourous story for most of the part, yet, it still manages to keep a sense of seriousness to it, so the story doesnt really make a complete fool of itself. It starts off with our main man, sissel, showing himself dead at the start of the game. And while dead, he somehow manages to still see things, such as witnessing before his very eyes, a young lady being pointed at with a gun by another man. Presumably, the man is a hitman, and sissel, being the man that he is, cannot bear to leave a helpless, pretty girl to just be shot. A mysterious voice rings in his head, telling him that hes a spirit with powers. With the help of the spirit explaining his powers to him, sissel finds out that he can manipulate some inanimate objects. Using these powers he sets out to help the girl, but fails inevitably, as the girl still gets shot and dies.

Feeling useless and a failure, sissel states his powers are useless, but the mysterious voice (which turned out to be a lamp), tells him more about his power, that he can traverse to 4 minutes before a person's death and try to avert it. With that in mind, he traverses to 4 minutes before the lady's death, in an attempt to save her. After much effort, he saved her. But something else is amiss, sissel doesnt even know who he is, not even his name, hoping the lady would at least know something, he asked her, but to no avail. Also, he is told that at dawn he will vanish, being a ghost and all. Since its late in the evening already, sissel doesnt have much time, he sets out on an adventure to find out more about himself, and the events that are about to unfold.

Even a lamp can talk, how fking awesome is that.

Ghost trick features a gameplay mechanic like no other. As mentioned earlier, sissel can manipulate inanimate objects as a spirit and is able to travel through them. All inanimate objects that sissel can travel through have something called a core, and sissel has to connect to these cores in order to move through these objects. Its simple, to travel from a table to a chair, he just has to move from the table's core to the chair's core. Moving through objects through thier cores can only be done in the spirit world. The game's main gameplay situations usually involve sissel trying to avert the fate of those poor dead people, and to do this, he has to move to 4 minutes before thier death and do whatever it takes to avert it.

For example, if a man dies by having a pot fall on his head, sissel has to do it so the man doesnt die, be it delay the man's walking speed or not making the pot fall at all. And all this can be done through sissel's ghost tricks, and of course, they must be done at the right time. As said earlier, sissel travels through cores in the spirit world, and in the spirit world, time doesnt flow. Sissel can only avert fates of those who died if he tricks at the right time, so of course, sissel must switch between the normal and spirit world effectively. In the normal world, time flows normally, the 4 minutes before the person dies goes on as per usual. Do keep in mind you are timed, if during the 4 minutes you fail to save the person in the last few seconds, or just cant find a path, the person will still die, and you are forced to restart from the beginning or when the fate was first averted, to look for an alternate path.



Loitering around the spirit world through the navigation of cores is vital to solving puzzles in game.

Through the course of the game, you will save the lives of many, some more than once, apparently. Now to explain sissel's ghost tricks. Sissel's ghost trick is to make inanimate objects function as though someone is using them. He can make a record player suddenly play music, altough no one is using it. He can make an umbrella open on its own, make a camera snap pictures automatically etc. While some of his tricks are good individually, all of them must always be somehow connected in order to solve a certain puzzle. For example, he has to link multiple tricks together in rapid succession in right timing, such switching on fan then traversing to leaf that was blown by the fan to get somewhere previosuly unaccessable. While trial and error is the game's main basis, the game prevents itself from becoming too hard and annoying with the constant tips sissel gives, or the checkpoints that are given.

 Later on, puzzles go to a whole new level when a second spirit joins in, with a whole new power different from sissel, this gives puzzles a new level of depth. Gameplay aside , the game is filled with tons of other good stuff. Most of the characters are humourous, while others are just plain badass. The visuals are impressive as hell, the animations are incredibly solid as well. I would pretty much say this is the DS's graphics at its best. Finally, the soundtrack. I am aware the team behind the AA games did ghost trick, now Im not sure if they did the soundtrack for it too, cause its so damn good, its comparable to that of the AA games, which had great music on thier own. Seems like capcom really went all out with ghost trick.


You gotta admit, for something on the DS, visuals this standard are really impressive.

 Now no game is perfect, and ghost trick isnt without its flaws. Much of the game is played by sissel and sissel alone. Now that isnt a bad thing, but its just that with just him, we dont get that huge depth during puzzle solving as when we have our 2nd spirit. It just thins out when you compare the time spent solving puzzles that just require sissel, and time spent when solving puzzles with sissel and the other spirit. If more of those situations existed, the game could be much more badass. Also, as expected from such a game, when you finally reach the end, theres really nothing much to keep you playing again.

Ghost trick: Phantom detective is an incredibly well thought out game that  seriously owns. The visuals are awesome, the story is interesting, the music is great, the characters are over the top and unforgetable. The most important part is that the gameplay kicks ass, its unique and it works well. There may very well be nothing much to do once you clear the game, but I assure you, before that happens, you will have a hell of a good time. I recommend ghost trick to any DS owner out there, it pretty much suits anyone.


Happy gaming!

Boss health

 Maneater
HP:2790
Skills:Fist pound, double fist pound, sonic boom, pounce*, air strike*, homing soul arrow, power boost*

Maneater
HP:2790
Skills:Fist pound, double fist pound, sonic boom, pounce*, air strike*, homing soul arrow, power boost*


Difficulty:4/5
Times died on 1st playthrough:10+

Welcome back to demons's souls boss profiles, where bosses from demon's souls get starred in thier very own profile stating that of what makes them so fearful (or in some cases, not so fearful). For today, we go through the next boss on my list. After the storm king, with the shrine of storms out of the picture, there isnt much left for me to do, so I just advanced foward to the tower of latria. After a dreaded 2nd stage, I found myself against a boss so fearful that it killed me over 10 times on my 1st playthrough. Meet the maneaters, the dreaded bosses of 3-2, fool's idol's archstone.




The maneater, looking as intimidating as possible.

 The maneater is one of the hardest bosses in the game. With the appearance of what many perceive as a chimera or manticore, he sure looks intimidating. To make things worse, he has a pal with him, which appears after you whoop him to a certain HP amount or if you drag the battle too long. While fighting 1 maneater is alright, fighting 2 is just total blasphemy. They dont hit particularly hard if you have good armor or cast warding on yourself, but heres the thing, you are fighting in a very narrow arena. The manteaters' attacks have good knockback, so you will find yourself doing a ton of free falling. Together, the maneaters are a menace to deal with, and all in all, beating them will be a huge pain in the ass.

Fist pound- The maneater winds up his fist and pounds down. If you get caught slightly, you will just receive a slight stagger and take a small amount of damage. If you get hit directly, expect to be smacked right down and take a load of damage. Just roll away to dodge, but be careful not to roll off to the depths below.

Double fist pound- The same as fist pound, but instead, the maneater winds up both fists, giving the attack abit more AOE. Like above, just roll away, but be careful of where you roll.

Sonic boom- The maneater lets out a roar and sends a flying beam that explodes into a spherical radious. It doesnt hit for alot of damage, and can be blocked too. Just block or roll away, its a pretty straightfoward attack. Beware of falling if you get hit by this, since it has considerable knockback. Can also be used in the air.

Pounce*- The maneater goes on fours and pounces foward. The damage isnt that bad, but the knockback is tremendous. 60% of the time if you get hit by this, you will fall into oblivion. Take note for this and roll away, blocking doesnt help much.

 Air strike*- The maneater hits you from above with a double fist pound. Its hard as hell to see this coming, since you never know where he is when hes in the air. As usual, just roll away.

Homing soul arrow- The maneater fires off a few soul arrows that home on you when hes in the air. This is pretty stupid and can easily be blocked or dodged. Can be disabled by chopping off its tail.

Power boost*- The snake tail bites the maneater, feeding it power. After awhile, it will be powered up, and will gain considerable boosts. Its attacks will get stronger and he will move faster. If this happens you are most likely screwed. When the snake bites the maneater, just hit it to interupt the process. This can be disabled by chopping off its tail.


The moment you enter the fog, you will see a lone maneater standing there. He will slowly walk towards you, commencing its assualt. You start the fight off in a narrow walkway, and fighting there is to your disadvantage. Dodging and getting hit may cause you to be knocked down into the abyss below.Immediately manuver swiftly past the maneater and into the center porch with the huge fire in the center. Thats where you should fight the maneater.

On the center porch, the fight becomes easier. You have more freedom to move around and dodge, and you can circle the fire while locking onto the man eater. If you are lucky, most of the man eater's attacks get interupted by the fire in the center. This mostly only applies to the pounce, homing soul arrows and sonic booms, you will still have to roll manually when he uses his other attacks, so pay close attention, since theres still a good chance of you rolling to your death. Like most bosses, just dodge and wack, you have seen much worser attacks than his fist pounds. When enough time has passed or when you knock his HP to a certain amount, a 2nd maneater arrives.



Alright I got this - wait WHAT? ONE MORE?

 When the 2nd maneater arrives, this is where shit gets real. Its highly recommended that before the 2nd maneater arrives, you deal as much damage as you can to the 1st maneater, its for your own good. Try not to loose the 1st maneater and keep hitting it until it falls so you can attack the final maneater 1 on 1. Its never cool to hit the 2nd mantear when you can hit the 1st, fighting 2 maneaters at once is just terrifying, even on the central porch, theres no way you can cirlce around 2 maneaters, the other will just hit you from the another side.

This is where you have to start worrying, if you dodge one attack, it doesnt mean you are safe, you may be rolling right into another attack. The maneaters have scheming AIs, many a time when you are locking onto one maneater, the other is flying around somewhere. When you dodge an attack, the flying maneater will just hover over to you and give you a good pounding. Things get even worse when both maneaters take to the air. When that happens, even thier homing soul arrows become deadly. Its highly recommended to bring a bow or a ranged attack of some sort, so that you can hit them while they are in the air.

While both maneaters are on the ground, focus on the 1st maneater, kill him off 1st, then deal with the 2nd one. While both maneaters are on the ground, take your fight anywhere, the central porch doesnt work anymore. This is where you gotta be extra careful, you will find yourself fighting at the narrow walkway many times, make sure not to roll to your death. This is easier said than done, since you have 2 suckers lunging themselves at you, get hit by something and you will probably be knocked down to your death anyway.

When the maneaters are together, watch out for anything, especially pounces, when they pounce at you together, you have to roll twice, and that can be tricky stuff. Same to sonic booms, you can get knocked off the walkway easily. Try as much as you can to stick to the center of the walkway and stray away from the sides. Also, if you dont want things to get evev WORSE, DO NOT let them power boost themselves. When you hear a loud roar and see a maneater getting bitten by its snake, HIT IT. If you let a maneater get boosted, its speed and power increase dramatically, and you definetely do not want that.

Also, when attacking the maneaters, try the best as you can to aim for the tails. They still take damage when you hit them there, but the point is this. If you hit the tails enough, they will come off, and this will disable thier homing soul arrow and power boost, sweetness!

When you finally down 1 maneater, the other one should be cake, head back to the central porch and give him a proper one on one, you should come out victorious. After all, if you can fight 2 maneaters at once, one shouldnt be a problem. Once you down them both, you get the mixed demon soul. Rejoice! You have just beaten one of the hardest bosses in the game!

Peace.

Gamespot score:8.0(great)

my score:8.8

(+)Pros:-Over the top action is more than satisfying,-able to play as 2 characters (both of which fight very differently from each other),-crazy good graphics,-great boss fights paired with excellent demon design,-voice acting is good,-great soundtrack,-bloody palace tests even the mightiest of players.

(-)Cons:-Controls kinda stink for the PC on the keyboard,-boss fights get repeated WAYYY to many times.

gameplay time:10-20 hours

DMC time! Previously on the PC reviews, I did the review on DMC 3:SE. I wanted to do DMC 4 along with it..but meh, was too lazy back then. So here we are today, with the whole review of DMC 4 mapped out. When DMC 4 came out, I guess people were pissed out, since dante was no longer the main lead. I was too...kind of. Well, for those people who marked this game as bad just because dante isn't the lead, it sucks to be them, because devil may cry 4, no matter how you look at it, is one hell of a solid action game. The action is over the top, the visuals are amazing, combine that with so many other great factors such as the voice acting and soundtrack...you get one really awesome game. I would have so gotten this game on consoles if I had already known how awesome of a game this would be.....


Devil may cry 4 follows the game in the perspective of our new protagonist, nero. The game's story goes as nero goes around beating demons up after they showed up and attacked citizens. The cause is known, someone has been tempering with the demon gates, but no one knows who. Well, as a member of the order, nero is supposed to clean up the demons and rendevous with the credo, his leader. Credo is also kyrie's brother....and it so happens that nero is somewhat in love with kyrie, he just doesnt show it. Before the appearance of the demons, the church was stormed by dante, and he killed the sanctus, thus the order suspects dante now, and nero is just investigating the cause. But little does he know about the little scheme that the order is brewing up, and the events that are to come. 




Beat up your enemies as the new protagonist, nero.

Devil may cry 4 is an action game, playing very much like its predeccesors. There are 20 levels in game, and each level is packed with insane, over the top action. Levels are packed with hordes of demons standing in your way, and its your job to slay them all. You do say as either nero or dante, 2 of the game's playable characters. You start off as nero, and as nero, slaying your enemies are done with more simple, effective and brutal methods. Our new protagonist, nero, is born with a devil arm, and that arm alone posseses incredible strenght. Combined with his motor equipped blade red queen and his revolver blue rose, he is ready to kick ass. As nero, your attacks are rather simple and you will be doing attacks with the red queen all the time. Luckily though, the red queen comes with a charge feature, which affects your damage and combo rating the more you charge it and combine it with your other attacks. The blue rose is your everyday revolver, and you shoot it at your enemies to just deal puny damage or extend combos. 

But the real trick to nero is his devil arm. With the devil arm, you are able to go up to the enemy, grab them in the face, and do a cool grab move that usually results in trashing them around or smashing them head first into the ground, doing crazy damage. Its a good way to end combos, or just to spam and deal insane damage. The devil arm also has the ability to grab a sizable enemy from afar and pull it towards nero, letting him hit the enemy up close or just to extend his onslaught after his enemy has dropped. Nero also comes equipped with a "devil trigger" ability, in which he summons the spirit of the yamato (retrieved at a later stage). As you can see, nero is cool stuff, altough nothing compared to dante, nero is still a blast to play, and is obviously a great addition to the already great cast of characters.



Dont worry, dante is still sticking around to kill enemies with style!


When all is said and done, thats all only about nero. Dante, however, is a total beast. The dante fans know and love still stays, personality wise, and of course, gameplay wise too. Of course he gets a whole new slew of weapons, but thats beside the point. He still has his core styles, swordmaster, trickster, royal guard and gunslinger, and whats new is that he can now switch between the styles in battle! Sweet! Both nero and dante can upgrade themselves like in the previous games. By defeating enemies and collecting red orbs as currency, you can purchase items and upgrades. Also, you will be visiting a variety of places, including the town, an underground mine, a snowy mountain, a forest, and a couple of castles. The graphics in this game are jaw dropping good, even for a game released 3-4 years ago, it still looks great when I played the game last year. Also, during battle, you get to battle demons of many cool variations, be it lizards, scarecrows, or floating ghosts. Another plus is the great heavy metal based soundtrack during battle.

This, I believe, is what DMC is known for in its music. The heavy metal music is extremely fitting especially for defeating demons of such badasstitude with such badasstitude of your own! The boss fights are on an entirely different level. You get to fight big bad bosses each with thier own special way of fighting. The bosses are powerful and require different strategies to beat, and though you probably wont beat them on 1st try, its always good to peservere and fight these bosses until you finally beat them with your own power. There are more than a few ways to tackle the bosses, especially with dante, and using these different techniques to beat them is whats satisfying.



Fire guy with four legs, 2 horns, a molten sword and a pair of wanabe wings, how cool is that?

 Devil may cry 4 would have been 9.0 for me, but just because on the PC, the controls arent very solid or consistent, I would have to drop the score. Without a gamepad, the game is harder to play, since on the keyboard, the controls are harder to press and time. Other than that, I generally have no issues with the game...other than the fact the bosses are recycled like hell. The cycle goes like this, you fight the bosses with nero, fight them again with dante, and in the final stage, you fight them all again as nero (typical megaman type final stage). Fighting a boss 3 times in a single story play gets derative, plus, you fight them again in bloody palace. Talk about mass recycling, thats what the game is when it come to bosses.

DMC 4 is definetely one of the most awesome action games out there, and the DMC series is the only one that can compare to GOW now to me. Theres nothing for me to say, DMC 4 is an excellent action game that any action game lover would enjoy. Whats more, if you are a fan of the series, you would want to get this game no doubt.



Happy gaming!

Gamespot score:n/a

my score:7.0

(+)Pros:-Solid team based combat,-provides story scenerios for more than just touma,-characters have interesting battle styles,-great voice acting,-good anime styled visuals,-great soundtrack during battle.

(-)Cons:-Limited characters,-many characters focus too much on being "punchy",- not much in game content.

Gameplay time:10 hours+

Been awhile since I did an anime game review, but heres one in a long time. To aru no majutsu has been one of my favourite animes, and Im stoked that theres a game for me to play an review. Anime game tie-ins arent usually very good, a good example are some of the bleach, naruto, hitman reborn and one piece games. Anime games that are classified under the fighting or action genre usually do not end up being very good. Luckily, to aru no majutsu no index takes on a different style of fighting than most of the other anime fighting games, and taking that fact into consideration, you get a pretty good fighting game. It may not have alot of depth like some of the more "in" games like street fighter or blazblue, but  all that matters in the end is that is a unique brawler that provides some good fun.



Anime tie-ins always follow a rule, and that rule is that the story in game usually matches with that of the anime. Index is no different, the game follows through the story of season one and two, all in touma's perspective. Luckily, to prevent the game from being only focused on touma, we get stories with other characters as protoganists as well, such as accelerator, kanzaki or that rank 4 level 5 esper. Of course, these characters have different stories of thier own, different from that of touma. It doesnt take long to finish these stories, I would say about 20 mins-30 mins per story, provided you don't skip the conversations and cutscenes, while touma's story would be about twice as long.

Misaka and touma duking it out...something that happens quite oftenly in the anime.

To aru majutsu no index, as mentioned earlier, is a 1v1 fighting game. While the combat is 1v1, you can select another character as an assist to call out in combat. Combat is a simple 1v1 brawl. You pick a character, choose an assist, and you're ready to go. In battle, controls are pretty simple. There are 2 attack buttons, one button for dodging/blocking, one button for calling assists and of course one button for an overdrive super. As you can see, theres not much going on, but even with the simple controls combat is still a blast. Even against the AI, you are constatly kept on your toes. Before each battle starts, theres a standoff where you pick to either, light attack, heavy attack or block. Its acts as a simple rock, paper, scissors game, and decides who get first strike. AI will obviously get the upper hand, but its always fun to just guess, and if you get it right, just start off a combo.

As mentioned, the AI's abilities in combat are not to be overlooked. Most of the time, whatever character they use, they will have good chances of being able to beat you, provided you set them to a decent difficulty. If you friends, all the better, its good to have a face off between friends and show off what you have in store for them. While most of the game can be better off played by just doging/ blocking, then followed by a flurry of heavy and light attacks, assists can play a big part of battle, such as opening opportunities for combos, shaking the opponent off you, or giving you chances to extend your combos. All in all, the system is pretty in depth to have good fun, though it only features 2 attack buttons, mixups and assists add much to the depth.

Anyone would know how awesome of a matchup this would be.

Now lets talk about some of the characters. Index has a good cast of characters, though there should be more, some of the characters that could fit into a fighting game are not here. Agnese and crew, sherry cromwell and lazard too, these could make good fighters, but they didnt make it into the roster. Not that Im complaining, the roster is already not bad as it is. We have some of the obvious game characters to add, like touma, misaka and accelerator. We also have other characters, such as stiyl, kanzaki, tsuchimikado, kuroko and others. There are even some of the more unknown characters, those not known to the anime yet. That ranked 4 esper (dont know her name), the sage arqua and a kazakiri that fights.

While the characters are kind of limited, they have interesting fight styles that at least help differentiate between them abit. Stiyl fights by placing runes all around the area, kanzaki draws her enemies in for deadly melee attacks, misaka attacks her enemies from afar, while touma just goes blitzkreig right at the start. There are also assist only characters, like index and last order, they dont fight at all, and can only be chosen as assists. There should be more of these characters, I can think of at least 10 more assist tier characters. Come on, how awesome would it be to have komoe sensei as an assist eh?



Damn touma just wants to keep punching people.

As in anime tie-in game, to aru majutsu no index is fated to have flaws. For one, theres too little characters. As mentioned earlier, theres alot more characters that fit into this game, but didnt make it. If they wanted to, the game could easily have 20 playable characters, and about 10 assist ones. But well....thier choice, maybe they couldnt find the voice actors, since the voice acting for this game is particularly pretty good, they used the original voice actor for each character. Also, many of the characters ended up being too punchy. There are many characters with weapons, which is cool and all, but characters like touma, tsuchimikado and oriana thompson end up being too punchy, many of thier attacks are based on punches and kicks, lol. Im okay with touma doing that, but they should totally give tsuchimikado something diffrerent from touma. Lastly, the game is short on content. You will play through story once, then spend all your time on Vs cpu, which can last you a long time if you like experimenting, but other than that, the game is rather dry.

To aru majutsu no index, as an anime tie-in, manages to do pretty ok. Compared to a game like bleach heat the soul, I would pretty much prefer index. While the game could use more content, the fighting is pretty good, and we have some good character choices. If they were to make another game like this, putting in more characters and throwing in more content would really make the game more enjoyable, and definetely more lasting. Overall, a good game, to aru majutsu no index is a game suited for any fan of the anime series.



Happy gaming.