25 years ago, Russia introduced the world to its greatest cultural achievement, Tetris. The original falling-block puzzle game Tetris has “inspired” thousands of knock-offs and has appeared on nearly every device ever created. If it has buttons, it can play Tetris. If it can play Tetris, is has Tetris. Continue reading
And I, for one, can’t wait.
The game is called The Grinder and it looks to set the bar for online multiplayer on Nintendo’s Wii. Though I guess it would be unfair to expect anything less from High Voltage Software, developers behind The Conduit, which is likely the most highly anticipated Wii game of 2009, and rightfully so. High Voltage has built an amazing engine and is finally starting to use it to patch up some of the wholes in the system’s library. With gams like The Conduit, Gladiator A.D. and now The Grinder, High Voltage has quickly become the hardcore Wii gamer’s best friend.
Nintendo has recently announced their plans to bring all 3 entries of the critically acclaimed Metroid Prime series to the Wii on a single disc with the title of Metroid Prime: Trilogy.
Trilogy will feature completely revamped versions of Metroid Prime 1 & 2 which include slightly updated visuals and the obvious inclusion of motion controls, likely the exact same scheme we saw with Metroid Prime 3. Metroid Prime 3 will be released just as it was the first time around on the Wii in August of 2007. Continue reading
A short while ago we reported on a small piracy device called the Supercard DS(onei) that seemed to put piracy on the winning side of the war for a good long while. Nintendo, however, found a way to combat the thieves by teaming up with both eBay and Amazon to cease all sales of the Supercard, R4, AceKard or any flashcart used to pirate handheld games. Continue reading
A big thanks to SuperPhillip Central for noticing this.
Check out the back of the box for We Love Golf, a Wii exclusive from July 0f 2008.
Notice the character on the far left looks almost exactly like President Barack Obama, behind him is a female character that bares an uncanny resemblance to Sarah Palin, and the example Mii in the bubble at the bottom appears to be modeled after the political comedian Steven Colbert. He is America, after all, and so can you.
These resemblances are most likely mere coincidence, but strange and uncanny none-the-less. I still can’t get over how much that guy looks like President Obama.
If you are interested in learning more about We Love Golf, check out SuperPhillip’s review here.
Check out SuperPhillip’s original post here.
Overview:
System: Nintendo DS (Exclusive)
Developer: Q! Entertainment
Publisher: Bandai
Genre: Puzzle
There’s no shortage of puzzle games on Nintendo’s dual-screen handheld. Games like Tetris DS, Planet Puzzle League, and Puzzle Quest are leading the genre today, but there is one forgotten gem that floats in orbit just waiting to be rediscovered. This game is 2005’s Meteos, from Q! Entertainment.
Today there is no question about the DS’s two screens and touch screen interface, but back in June of 2005 the majority of people saw absolutely no reason for either innovation. Developers were looking for new ways to use the new hardware and trying to create new games that couldn’t be done elsewhere, often meeting sub-par or gimmicky results.
Enter Meteos, released 7 months after the system’s North American debut. This game shattered the puzzle game mold, strayed away from the industry norms, and managed to create a fast-paced, wildly competitive puzzle game that could be compared to nothing before it and finally brought something to the table that couldn’t have been done on any other system.
Review:
Meteos is one of the few puzzle games out there that felt the need to include a story, and what an epic one it is. The game opens with an insanely awesome CG video that chronicles the dark events that have been occurring throughout the universe.
It turns out that the evil planet Meteo is attacking the rest of the planets in the universe with an endless flow of phantasmagoric, material known as Meteos, and destroying them. After discovering a way to prevent their planets from being destroyed, the alien species that reside throughout the universe band together for a final confrontation with the evil planet, hopefully to destroy it once and for all.
This is where your adventure starts. Traveling across the universe on the Metamo Ark, slowly making your way to Meteo, you must fight off attacks on various planets before your quest to save the entire universe can be complete.
While the story is certainly a fantastic one by Puzzle Game standards, the real point of interest in Meteos is its gameplay. Sure you’ve got your standard rules. Different colored blocks fall from the top of the playing field and stack up until there is no more room for them, in which case the player loses. Mixed in with the blocks are various items that can be used to assist in surviving the merciless shower of blocks. To clear the blocks from the screen, the player must match up three or more of the same colored pieces. This is where the similarities stop.
Meteos is played exclusively with the touch-screen, using the stylus to move blocks only in columns, no horizontal movement is allowed. This makes finding combos much more challenging, though rewarding at the same time. Each planet has its own unique gravitational traits. Some planets have light pulls, some strong, some planets are even played underwater. The game’s physics engine does a great job of creating these unique environments with their exclusive gravitational pulls.
Once three like-colored pieces are aligned in either a horizontal or vertical line, the blocks blacks into the air carrying all blocks that rest on top of them on their aerial adventure. This creates a completely standalone platform that serves as a second playing field. If your platform doesn’t reach the top of the screen and blast into orbit, you must continue trying to fight it off of your planet and back to Meteo.
This can be done several different ways. The most common method to use will be to continue lining up blocks on the floating platform to launch a 3rd platform even higher into the atmosphere. If there aren’t any possible block combinations atop the platform, you create a new one underneath it which will launch up and ram into the bottom of it, giving it the extra boost it needs to make it away from the planet’s gravitational pull. If a platform makes it extremely close to the exit of the play field but still refuses to leave you can simply throw single blocks toward the bottom of the platform to give it a slight boost that could get the floating mass of blocks out of your hair once and for all.
Keep in mind each planet has its own gravitational pull, which forces players to be extremely strategic when fighting off Meteos attacks. Some strategies for removing blocks only work on certain planets, and the player has to constantly alter his or her play style to adapt to all of the unique planets.
The graphics and audio design of this game are equally as impressive and deep as the gameplay. Just as every planet has its own gravitational pull it also has its own unique feel thanks to the visually pleasing backdrops and Meteo block art styles. The CG videos in the game are absolutely gorgeous, and every 2D planet sprite is given its own personality. Perhaps the most visually pleasing aspect of the game is the amazingly detailed and well-imagined menu system which feels like you are operating some futuristic touch-screen computer.
But the sound in Meteos is the icing on the design cake. Every planet has its own brilliantly composed songs and sound effects that give each planet and amazingly unique feeling. Even more astounding is that every song and effect can be unlocked and played in the game’s on-board media player. It’s a simple little toy, but it proves to be a feature that you’ll use often just to hear your favorite song from the game without having to battle for your specie’s lives.
The game’s main campaign is called Star Trip and features the ability to change your home planet, difficulty, or the route you’ll take through the universe. Each route other than Straight offers multiple branching paths you can take through the universe which presents a large level of replayability.
Other modes of play include Simple, Time War, and Deluge. Simple mode is where you’ll pick from the game’s huge multitude of options to create the perfectly customized experience for a single stage play.
Time War offers four different timed high-score based challenges. 2:00 and 5:00 Time Wars challenge you to survive for the designated amount of time while racking up as many points as you possibly can. 100 and 1,000 Meteo Wars task players with clearing the respective amount of blocks from the screen as quickly as possible.
Deluge Mode simply asks you to survive for as long as possible. The game also offers a Tutor to teach you how to play Meteos. I suggest you use it.
Also adding a ton to the games already massive amount of replay value is the Fusion Mode. Here you will use the Meteos you’ve collected through your play-throughs to craft new home planets and characters, items and rare metals to be used in-game, and Sounds which we’ve already discussed. This will provide incentive to keep playing after beating the campaign mode.
One gripe I have is that multiplayer is local only. Meteos would’ve made an amazing online puzzler that could possibly surpass addiction levels of Tetris DS’ online mode. At the very least online leader boards would’ve been nice. The game does offer the ability to beam a demo to your friend’s DS to ensure that any two to four players can compete with only one copy of the game, provided they all have their own system to use. And while there are no online leader boards, Meteos does offer a very intensive stat chart with tons of information.
Final Words:
For far too long Meteos has been an overlooked title. Not many people picked it up when it launched and has even to this day failed to move the vast amount of numbers it should have despite its immense critical success, a fact that is likely the sole reason the game has never received a proper sequel but instead seen only Disney-themed piles of crap that ruin the legendary name the game should have.
If you see Meteos in the used games bin at your local entertainment store, do yourself a favor and pick it up. It is one of the deepest, most satisfying and innovative puzzle games of all time. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.
Pros
Cons
Score: 9.4/10 (Amazing)
Gameplay: 9.5/10 (Addiction, pure and simple)
Graphics: 9.0/10 (Stellar presentation, beautiful CG, unique visual style)
Audio: 9.5/10 (Expertly composed soundtrack)
Entertainment Value: 9.75/10 (Seemingly endless playability is hindered only by lack of online)
It’s been an overly long wait for American Gamers to finally get their hands on the Virtual Console release of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, possibly the most under appreciated Zelda title aside from Windwaker. This gem originally hit store shelves for the Nintendo 64 way back in 2000 and was one of the last hurrah’s for the 64 cartridge king. Because it released so late in the system’s life, sadly, many gamers failed to pick up a copy, depriving themselves of one of the greatest adventures of all time.
This legendary game finally being released to the Virtual Console also marks two truly grand events. First off, it celebrates the 300th retro release on Nintendo’s download service, making the Wii the only place to be for all of your old-school gaming needs.
Second, Majora’s Mask’s release means all applicable Zelda titles (NES, SNES, N64 entries) have been released onto the Virtual Console. To celebrate this, we are going to bring you reviews of every single entry onto the Virtual Console starting with the timeless original making our way to Majora’s Mask.
I’ve got a LOT of gaming to do.
Check it out right here on Everyview, the much anticipated Mother Marathon brought to you by the legendary Saints of Gaming themselves, TheSpeedGamers. I recommend watching it on their website instead of here so you can watch the commentator feed and participate in the chat, but if you don’t care about any of that then stay here and save their servers from exploding.
An interesting tidbit of information regarding pre-ordering the highly-anticipated upcoming Wii exclusive title, The Conduit was just announced.
Here’s a snippet from Sega of America’s statement:
For a limited time, pre-order The Conduit at GameStop and receive a Special Edition upgrade, which includes:
• Follow the Conduit from concept to creation in the 24-page “making-of” book.
• Unlock the secrets of the The Conduit with the “All-Seeing Eye” (A.S.E.), featuring custom detailing and light projection.
• Dominate your opponentes in intense multiplayer matches with the “Secret Agent” skin.
*Just a quick note, you may notice that the word “opponents” is spelled wrong in that last list item from the statement. That was Sega’s error, not mine.
Overview:
System: Xbox 360
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Genre: Action/Zombie Apocalypse
When Dead Rising was first announced, it was considered to be nothing more than “the other zombie game from Capcom,” always sitting within Resident Evil’s shadow. After the game was released, however, it quickly became something else: Every zombie fan’s wet dream.
Dead Rising isn’t your typical zombie game, and it’s about as far away from Resident Evil as you could possibly get. Instead of placing focus on eerie music, scripted scares, and cheap thrills, Dead Rising is all about squeezing as many zombies onto the play field as humanly (or otherwise) possible, and they are all there for you to beat, batter, and mutilate at your own free will. Just make sure they don’t get you first.
Review:
Dead Rising opens with a helicopter flying high above the ground, composed mainly of mountains. Inside is the game’s main protagonist, Frank West, an ambitious freelance photojournalist with a taste for adventure and a craving for the next big scoop. Pretty soon the ‘copter arrives at a small town called Willamette, Colorado. While flying over Frank notices the army has blocked off all of the roads leading into the town. Something big must be happening.
This is when the game puts the cut-scene in your hands and gives you a taste of the addictive picture-taking gameplay element, tasking you with taking pictures of various gruesome scenes occurring throughout the isolated town. Along your flight you encounter several grisly murders like a woman waving for help whilst standing atop her vehicle, desperate for rescue. You are then forced to watch as she is devoured by a horde of the living dead. Another memorable scene from that first tidbit of gameplay features a citizen fending off a zombie attack on a roof 30 feet or so above the ground. The scene ends with the character falling to his death.
In the first 5 minutes of this game, you know it’s going to be awesome.
After a brief run-in with the air guard, you are forced to jump out of your helicopter so the pilot can retreat out of the town before being shot down. Before taking off, he promises you he will return in three days. This is where the games main mode of play, 72-hour mode, begins. Over the next three days you will encounter a plethora of characters, some sane and some definitely not, in an attempt to find out what’s going on and why. There are some good twists and you never really know what is going on until the very end.
One huge complaint I have with the story mode is the fact that there is very little time allowed for unguided discovery and adventure. Right when you embark on a rescue mission you notice you are running out of time to perform a required task, which usually requires you to be at a certain place at a very specific time. If you aren’t there, you are forced to restart if you want to uncover the truth behind the infection.
Another gripe is the save system. Saving is handled either through sleeping or going to the bathroom, fairly common in the video gaming world. The problem is the endless legions of undead, walking corpses plaguing the path in between you and sanction. You’ll often times die trying to find a place to save your game or on your lengthy journey to the next story event, which is a huge pain in the ass because of the game’s lack of checkpoints. This forces you restart at every death or failed story event, which can be absolutely infuriating if you haven’t saved your game in a while.
The Willamette mall is astonishingly huge, especially for being in a town who’s major distinguishing features, as described the pilot at the beginning of the game, “Jack shit.” And when I say it’s huge, I mean it is huuuuge! And it has just about everything imaginable in it, too. It’s no wonder there’s nothing else in the town. You’ll find a plethora of entertainment stores, guitar stores, camera stores, clothes stores, kids’ stores, restaurants, and accessory stores strewn about multiple levels and separated by a huge contained park in the middle of the mall.
And the really amazing thing is that you can fully interact with every store in the gargantuan mall. Find hats to wear, sport some slick shades, grab a bite to eat. Hell, you can even dress Frank up entirely in a MegaMan suit if you can find it.
The stores you’ll really want to find and mark on your map, though, are the hardware stores and the gun store, the latter of which is possibly the best department to know the location of and both are ample sources for some of the most powerful weapons in the Willamette metropolis.
When roaming the mall you’ll have to use anything and everything you can find in any of these aforementioned stores to to fend off zombie attacks, which will be plentiful. There can be hundreds upon hundreds of zombies on-screen at any single moment, and the halls and corridors of the Willamette Shopping Center are always filled to the brim with legions of undead corpses looking for some hot flesh to devour.
Zombies aren't the only things you are gonna have to worry about.
And when I say “anything and everything” will need to be used in your struggle to stay alive, I mean “anything and everything.” Capcom managed to create an absolutely marvelous amount of items in the game that players will need to improvise and turn into weapons. From buckets and chainsaws to mannequins and plastic lightsabers, you can pick up just about anything and use it to bash the brains out of the living dead.
Aside from mutilating zombies, Dead Rising provides gamers with an interesting photography element which requires you to get the best pictures of various scenes to get the most PP you possibly can. PP, or Prestige Points, are awarded for every action performed, and once you gain enough of them you’ll level-up and gain more health, inventory space, or a new ability which will make conquering the zombie-infested shopping paradise that much easier.
After the 72 Hour mode is completed, which only takes about 8 or 9 real hours, players will unlock Overtime Mode, which can be conquered in around 2. After the story is completely finished, players will then gain access to Infinite Mode, which challenges you to survive for as long as possible before finally biting the dust.
There are LOTS of Zombies in Dead Rising
In terms of graphics, Dead Rising is a true technical masterpiece. It may not be the most gorgeous game of all time, but just wait until you find your way into the underground parking garage, where countless numbers of zombies roam. You’ll be absolutely blown away at the sheer amount of characters Capcom managed to squeeze on-screen at once.
It also possesses a solid audio design, and the smashing of a sledgehammer into the soft skull of a zombie has never sounded so good. The voice over, however, is pretty inconsistent throughout the game. It ranges between excellent and B-Grade. The greatest moments of voice acting are achieved, of course, during the main story’s cut scenes while the bad acting comes from all of the extra characters you save in the game.
All in all, Dead Rising has an amazing amount of entertainment value. Though the mere 10 hours of story may seem underwhelming by most standards, it’s the Infinite Mode that gives players the ultimate zombie-slaying experience. It’s this mode that finally allows you to explore the Willamette mall without running out of time and being forced to to participate in the story events scheduled throughout the main mode. This provides unlimited time for discovery and adventure throughout the zombie-ridden mall.
A final note worth mentioning is that every achievement, no matter how easy or difficult to acquire, is worth 20 G. This provides little inspiration to continuously play the game in an attempt to unlock the hardest achievements.
Final Words:
Dead Rising sure came a long way since being labeled as a cheap, repetitive beat-em-up knockoff of Capcom’s real zombie game, Resident Evil. It succeeds in being an entirely different, unique, and refreshing experience which proves to be extremely addictive. Despite a few flaws and cheap achievements, Dead Rising is an absolutely astonishing title and one that will keep you coming back time and time again.
Pros
Cons
Score: 9.2/10 (Amazing)
Gameplay: 9.5/10 (Kill legions of undead with anything you find in a shopping metropolis)
Graphics: 9.25/10 (While it may not blow your mind on the surface, wait until you see how many enemies it is capable of rendering at once)
Audio: 8.25/10 (Great effects, voice acting ranges from expertly done to pathetically amateur)
Entertainment Value: 9.75/10 (Nearly endless entertainment comes with the nearly endless hordes of undead cannibals)