Gamer--freakz

Im too lazy to do any reviews today...since Im so tired from yesterday's demo fiasco. Well basically I was just playing game demos the whole day....... It was really hectic, I played like 5 demos for a long time, and slept at like 2-ish am.

Seriously, them demos are fun as heck. Here's what I have been playing that were fun....and what I probably will be getting.



Demo: Space invaders infinity gene

Ever played space invaders? I played it on the GBC loong long loooong time ago. It was an old style retro game with really unstylized graphics back then. This demo I downloaded on the PSN changed all that. The start menu and 1st stage was so retro, they wanted to make you think it was an old school game like it was so long ago, until.....a message of adapting to change appeared....then shit got real and everything totally revitalized.

Seriousy, forget everything you used to know about space invaders, get ready to experience something like never before, I can say, without a doubt, this beats those arcade space ship shooters by a ton.

Demo: Pac man champsionship DX

gamespot score:n/a

my score:7.0

(+)Pros:-Its more Djmax released in 2 different versions,-both versions are hybrids in a way that they include both portable 1 and portable 2 songs,-geared to be easier and more managable for beginners mission-wise

(-)cons:-these games were actually not needed as everything is recycled,-no new content.......,- Yes I mean it,eveything in the games are recycled from portable 1 and 2

gameplay time:10-20 hours(short)-for those who played portable 1 or 2,100 hours+( very long lasting)-for newcomers.

The gameplay in fever and hottunes is the same as always, with the fever system and all ported over from portable 2. They, strangely, also have ported over the "green note" feature from black square and trilogy. Basically, if you miss a green note that comes down during any song, the BGM will immediately stop playing, so players will do thier best not to miss it. Also a change made to both games, is the price tune down of gears, notes and characters. They figured that gold grinding in portable 2 was too much of a pain so they decided to make things cheaper, lucky them.

Nothing has really changed in the 2 games, presentation wise, graphics wise....they are all portable 2 standard. The songs too, they are different from portable 2.....but its all just a slight dellusion. The song selection in the 2 games are just weird, they took the portable 2 songs, threw some out, and threw in some portable 1 songs. The initial list of fever is different from hottunes, but all the songs found in fever and hottunes can be found in portable 1 and portable 2. Also, to make things even lazier, the portable 1 songs that were ported over retained thier insane note charts. This can obviously cause problems, but this is good for us vets, we get to experience those songs that used to crush us, with fever! So its actualy kind of a win situation, as when the newcomers get better they get to enjoy those crazy charts as well.

The cons in these games should be fairly simple......laziness. They just mashed in some songs from portable 1 along with 2 and they call them a new game....its kinda stupid. The only new song however is hip hop rescue, which is kinda weird, music wise. The MV of it was used from let go in trilogy, which is another proof of pentavision's laziness. Gears, notes and character wise too, they were all used from portable 2. Seriously, they should just call this game Djmax portable 2 PLUS or something.

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For vets like myself, I see little reason to get these games, they are seriously nothing we havent seen. If you ask me vets are better off buying portable 3 or trilogy and engulf themselves in new content, fever and hottunes are for newcomers. Anyway fever is a release meant for americans and hottunes is a release geared for the japanese , so we partially cant blame pentavision. Still, a little new content cant hurt.

Happy gaming.

Its been awhile hasnt it? I totally forgot about this( along with some of the other blog projects) due to me trying to catch up with reviews, no time for these side stuff. Blame school, I have been really busy lately. As usual, spoilers ahoy, and here are today's top 5.






5.Hei
From: Darker than black: Ryuusei no gemini

1st up ranking 5th in the list today is Hei from the 2nd season of darker than black. Many will be confused, I'll explain.

"What the fark? Isn't hei the good guy in season 1 and a good guy in season 2 too?" Well thats mainly true, but the Hei I want to focus on here is the 2nd season's Hei, more particularly episode 1 and 2's Hei, before he started to travel with suou.

Whats so memoriable is, the "good" Hei we have been seeing for the entire season 1 is doing bad stuff here. In episode 1(or 2), Hei is seen killing the father of our heroine, suou. Also, later he kills april, who is doing nothing but just acting as suou's gurdian. Right off the bat Hei kills off 2 of the main character's most treasured family members, right on! He deserves to be here just for that few moments.

4."God"

gamespot score:7.5(good)

my score:7.5

(+)pros:-Improved presentation,- same addictive dugeon crawling system,-boss fights are still fun and challenging,-lagaard has more personality etria in terms of characters,-plenty of jobs to choose from adds variety

(-)cons:-abnormal difficulty may not be suited for majority of players,-job nerfs provide much discomfort for series veterans,-like with ronins and hexers from EO 1, beasts provide retraining annoyances for EO 2

gameplay time:50 hours+(long)






Etrain odyssey 2, 2nd game in the 3 game franchise as of today. The series should be no stranger to dungeon crawling lovers with a DS. Etrain odyssey is a game oftenly avoided because of the punshing difficulty. But I say to suck it up, cause if players manage to plow through the difficulty, they are in for a hell of a satisfying experience, that is the case for all etrian odysseies, including this one, etrian odyssey 2.




Just like etrian odyssey 1, the 2nd game doenst provide much for excessive story, but has same background refrences. Instead of etria, this time the game features lagaard, a bustling city with once again, the yggdrasil labrinth towering above. Adventurers all around come to explore it for fame and fortune, and ocne again, you are one of the hopeful adventurers. You head into lagaard, make a guild, and hire adventuers to make an attempt to smoke out the labrinth. Fam and fortune awaits!( As well as a fairly deep story as you go deeper into the accursed dungeon that has taken tons of lives)




Being one of those really hardcore dungeon crawler games, etrian odyssey features a character creation system with a ton of customization. 1st off you pick a class( with a new few ones introduced in this game), choose a character portrait, and you are ready to go after you name it. Then, you are given 3 skill points to put into a babylon of skills available for each class. There are too many skills to max with just 1 playthrough with the character, so you can only add what you need. Thats alot of possibilities to go. You can bring up to 5 characters in 1 team of explorers, so think carefully what to bring along.


In the dungeon, this is where shit gets real. The game's difficulty comes in here. Monsters kill you in a matter of hits, and almost everything later on inflicts diffirent kinds of status effects. You can find yourself in a difficult situation by just examining a tree, and getting ambushed by a bunch of worms that one shot you. Also, with the high random encounter rate, you will find even wandering around dangerous. There are also FOEs, which are big red orbs that are seenable on the actual screen. They are "mini bosses" that wander around as you do, and if you run into one, you will by no means get slaughtered terribly. As you take a step, they do too. While some FOEs move around in a set pattern, allowing you to bypass them, some FOEs chase you down mercilessly until they lose interest. Yeap, its that terrifying. Bosses are even worse, while the very 1st boss has FOEs backing him up( sounds unfair but its not that bad), the rest come alone and they sure pack a huge punch. But then again, strategizing to beat them is really consturctive and when you finally beat them after dieing who-knows-how-many times, you get a huge feeling of satisfaction.

Now EO2 is just as hard as its preduseccor, I might even go as far as to say its harder. Now this might eventually turn many players off, and they will leave this to rot away at a shelf and let it collect dust. Thats not good. Also, like the previous game's ronin and hexer(which are now available from the start), the beast job requires unlocking and thus, needs to be trained from scratch, where your team is already at a much higher level. Finally, the most annoying factor for me, is the nerf of certain classes. My favourite class in EO1, the alchemist has been terribly nerfed damage wise. Even with megido, they are still lacking. Also, protectors and medics got nerfed, in a bad way. Some of thier skills went to the gunner and the war magus, new jobs. This will cause discomfort, for the veterans mostly.

Happy gaming.

gamespot score:7.0(good)

my score:7.5

(+)Pros:- fun trip filled with tons of humour and personality,- most banchos have funny behaviour and will crack you up,- lots of debatable options and choice making throughout the game,- high replayability,-menji glares are hilarious and fun as heck

(-)Cons:-boring brawling,- clunky graphics,-grinding for better stats is quite a pain

gameplay time:20-30 hours(average)





Sorry for long delays within each post, I have been extremely busy as fk these few days with loads and loads of assignments and shit. Anyway, kenka bancho: badass rumble is a brawler game for the PSP. In japan however this is the 3rd kenka bancho game to be released, out of the total 4 released so far, with a 5th one in developement. Noone expected this to come to be translated, until good ol' atlus picked it up, now we get the liberation to experience this fun yet humourous game. Prepare for an extremely funny and enjoyable kyoto trip.






The story of the game is pretty simple and typical but is humourous to the max. You play as a character which you name urself, and arre basically a badass bancho known in your school for violence and fighting. Back in your hometown, you are the best there is, so like every other bancho, going to kyoto means business. Why? Because all schools around japan from all the major towns and cities are coming for this trip as well. This means banchos from every are coming to kyoto. As a bancho, you obviously want to beat them all up to claim the title as strongest fighter in japan. Bearing your fists of fury, your trip to kyoto will be a memoriable one, where you emerge as strongest fighter japan.




Kyoto is a big big place, it has many towns and sections to walk and roam around....to pick fights with those punks who tink they are so damn badass. Time to put them down! In the streets of kyoto, you are given 7 days in your trip to roam around looking for banchos, your main objective being to find and beat as many banchos as you can in this span of 7 days. Since it is a school trip, many of the 7 days have time set aside for school activities. But, being the badass bancho you are, you can choose to ditch the activities. Cool huh? But going for these activites boost your relationship with your classmates, so choose your posion.



Combat plays a bug part in kenka bancho, though sadly its one of the game's less appealing feats. Anyway, the fights start off great. You cant go around beating everyone you see on the streets, most of them are normal people who are terrified of you and will run at the slightest stare. Any one who can stand up to your almighty menji glare however, will rise up to you and challenge you. After both you and your victim have locked eyes, you will each trash talk each other down. You are given short words and phrases to contruct a badass sentence, such as "I'll break your face" or "Prepare to meet my fists". If you successfully construct a badass sentence, you get to land a good clean and free hit on the enemy, giving you an advantage in battle. If you construct wrongly, you will get something like "I eat swiss chicken, or "Time for kaboom", lame sentences, and the opposite happens, you get hit by the enemy once. After the trash talk and glare, you finally fight, which consists of slow punching,kicking and special abilities. If you win a fight against a bancho( which mostly are scripted), you will gain thier hometown specialty skill, and some others, which you can add to your arsenal.

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The game fails in certain ways. Being a brawler, it has disappointing brawling features. The combat is slow, and even the new moves dont do much to spice up the battles. Luckily the menji glare and trash talking make battles have some looking foward to. Also, even though battles are somewhat boring, you will have to do it alot, since day after day, the roaming gangsters grow stronger and stronger. Fighting to level up later on is a pain, though earlier levels its still quite tolerable. Finally, the graphics are below average, it really should have been better though I dont expect something dissidia standard.
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Overall kenka bancho is a fun and humourous experience that can be enjoyed by a huge majority of players, but the fighting may not appeal to all, it might even go as far as to annoy many others. Still, if you can past the slow and un interesting combat, you've got a game full of personality ahead of you.






Happy gaming.