Mario Kart 8 Hands-On Impressions

Mario Kart; a series as consistently frustrating as it is addicting. Going strong since 1992, these games have seen action on consoles, handhelds, and even the arcades for quite some time. The Mario series is so expansive and has so many iconic and long-standing characters and locations that it’s not really a surprise to see that Nintendo’s always capable of turning them into a diverse range of playable characters and tracks, but it’s still so delightful to see these ideas captured in motion. Mario Kart 8 is, from everything I’ve seen, the strongest example of this so far in the series.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Review

I've always loved Donkey Kong Country! The Super Nintendo trilogy was packed to the brim with creative and challenging levels that were memorable and left an impression; each level had its own theme and gimmick that meant you could never mistake it for another. The revival on Wii from 2010, Donkey Kong Country Returns, was also an outstanding game in the same ways. Tropical Freeze continues to provide the same dynamic and creative levels that the series has always given us, but it's hard to not wish Retro Studios had done a little bit more.

Super Smash Bros. Retrospective! Part 1/3

Hello, friends! Today I am happy to share with you my first blog of 2014! I got several games over the holidays that I’ve meant to play through and review (like Beyond: Two Souls, The Wonderful 101, and Zelda: Link Between Worlds), but…well, I haven’t really played any of my new games extensively yet. I will at some point, but for the last month or so I’ve been investing the majority of my time playing the Super Smash Bros. Brawl mod known as Project M.

It’s been a work in progress for a long time and I’ve been playing the older builds of PM for about 2 years, and for the unfamiliar, it combines Super Smash Bros. Brawl’s huge and creative roster of characters with the fast-paced, more competitive gameplay of its predecessor, Super Smash Bros. Melee. On December 9th of last year, the newest build was released, and it completely blew me away. They finally completed every character, added multiple cool looking alternate costumes, new stages, refined menus, a whole new way to play in the form of Turbo Mode, and what personally had me the most excited, the return of Mewtwo and Roy from Melee. It’s an awesome mod with a lot of effort put into it and I’ve barely been able to put it down since downloading it about a month ago. If you’re interested in trying it out for yourself, check it out right here.

And as many of you know, the 4^th installment of the Super Smash Bros. series is set to come out…wait, this year!? Good lord, time flies. It’s already been nearly 6 years since Brawl! The new game looks impressive, to say the least, the colorful HD graphics, the super unique movesets given to the newcomers, and…hell, dude, it’s Smash Bros.  This is a series known for having an absurd amount of content that lasts for years without getting old. Between the hours I’ve poured into Project M and the excitement of knowing that later this year I’ll be playing Smash 4, it’s hard not to be reminded of the series’ history and be kind of taken aback at just how much time I’ve put into playing this game with my friends. To celebrate, I decided my next blog will be the first of a 3-part series; you guessed it, a Super Smash Bros. Retrospective!

How Playstation All-Stars Ruined My Life

On April 27th, 2012 (yes, I unfortunately remember the date...) a new game was announced! There had been some rumors circulating toward the end of the preceding year that said a combat-heavy, Smash Bros style game featuring Sony's biggest characters was in development, with many details such as specific characters and stages included with the rumor as well. These rumors were confirmed to be just about 100%

accurate when gameplay was finally shown off several months later. The game became what we know today as Playstation All-Stars: Battle Royale.

I love Nintendo and its line-up of characters and I love Smash Bros. style gameplay, but I also have a deep-rooted and long-running affection for Sony's diverse library of games. I love Sly Cooper, Jak & Daxter, Uncharted, LittleBigPlanet, Ape Escape, InFamous, and possibly my favorite of all, PaRappa the Rapper. But even beyond that, characters like Kratos from God of War, Fat Princess, and Twisted Metal's iconic Sweet Tooth were rumored to appear in the game, meaning that the roster was sure to be diverse and represent a huge assortment of games, perhaps beyond even the extent of Super Smash Bros. There are also plenty of amazing third party games heavily associated with the Playstation brand like Metal Gear Solid, Spyro the Dragon, Final Fantasy, and Crash Bandicoot! Could they be represented in the game as well? Finally, my childhood dream of a large-scale and chaotic crossover of Playstation all-stars would come to fruition!

Top 5 Games of 2013

2013 has really been a big year for games. I played through tons of fantastic ones, but there are still a lot of amazing looking games that I haven’t even had the chance to buy yet! But of what I have played, there are several games that I think are completely outstanding and I can’t wait another second to gush all about them. I also have a couple of honorable mentions...there were a few too many games to condense this to a top 5, but not quite enough to stretch out to a top 10. Regardless, here it is, my top 5 games of 2013!

…also I haven’t beaten GTA5 or Tomb Raider yet. So…um…onto the list!

Why You Shouldn't Buy a PS4 or Xbox One

After 8 years of incredible advances in technology, amazing games, and stupid consumers buying lazy, unfulfilling products, the next generation of video game consoles is upon us! The Wii U, the PS4, and in just a few hours, the Xbox One will be out and available for purchase! While the Wii U has been out for about a year, right now all of the interest is undeniably in Microsoft and Sony's new systems. Why...well...who knows? I'm not even sure myself. This is gonna be a really dumbed down piece compared to my usual reviews and other pieces on games. I'm not targeting super-informed gamers or anything, I'm talking

to the average Joe who wants something to play the new Call of Duty on. The premise of a new console launch is always exciting and it's easy to find yourself getting caught up in the hype. After seeing Killer Instinct and Dead Rising 3, I was admittedly ready to hop on the Xbox One bandwagon and pick one up myself. But thinking about it rationally for a bit, I came to a different conclusion: blowing $500+ on this thing the year it comes out would be the stupidest thing I could possibly do.

The Last of Us Review

I’ve intentionally held off on talking about The Last of Us until a few months later because I wanted to see if the game left an impression on me the way the media said it would. The game got tons of perfect scores everywhere. Naughty Dog is well-known for setting the bar on every console they develop on; the charming platforming of Crash Bandicoot that defined the PS1 era, the expansive and imaginative world of Jak and

Daxter on PS2, and Uncharted becoming one of Sony’s flagship franchises for the PS3. The Last of Us marks the first time since joining Sony that the developers have worked on multiple series on the same platform, and it managed to slip in just several months before the launch of the PS4. Did this game define its generation of hardware the same way Crash and Jak did?

Pokemon X/Y Review

Pokemon is something everyone can relate to. …well, not everyone, but a lot of people! Pikachu is one of the most iconic fictional creatures there is, the anime has been going strong for well over a decade, and every few years we’re treated to a new batch of Pokemon to add to the mix. For the record, I think Pokemon Black and White is the series’ strongest installment to date. For the first time in many years it didn’t just feel like another expansion pack to existing Pokemon, it felt like a clean slate! Not a single Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, or Sinnoh Pokemon was to be found until after the completion of the main game. There were a total of 156 Pokemon to catch and not a single one was a familiar face. Not all of the designs were spectacular, but

plenty of them were memorable and useful, making Unova really fun to explore. But the new Pokemon were just half of it; there were all kinds of new gameplay mechanics and additions to the battle system that made Black and White feel like a huge leap from Diamond and Pearl. Hoenn and Sinnoh felt like new adventures in familiar worlds, but Unova truly made you feel like you were doing something fresh and new entirely, despite the similar gameplay mechanics to previous installments. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Pokemon X and Y.

Pikmin 3 Review

After a 9 year hiatus, the Pikmin series is back. Notable for being the first important Wii U game since it came out last November, longtime fans and first-time players alike were all looking forward to taking control of massive armies of the adorable little creatures. Given the number of delays this game suffered, expectations were certainly high. Did it deliver? For the most part, absolutely!

Sonic Adventure 2 Review

The past week or two some friends and I have been getting pretty into Sonic the Hedgehog. Not like, marathoning every game or anything, but we’ve been talking about some memories with the games, listening to the music again, etc. One thing that would come up a lot was Sonic Adventure vs. Sonic Adventure 2. The comparisons were…really strange, but we eventually came to the conclusion they both had some advantages and disadvantages over the other. I was in support of SA2 completely. While I had loved SA as a kid, SA2 I had loved even more.

You see, I never had any Sega consoles as a kid, so my first experience with Sonic was Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, which I looooved as a kid. I got SADX shortly afterward, and loved it as well. So in 2010 when Sonic Adventure was rereleased and got abysmal reviews, I was shocked. What had happened?! I remember that game being awesome! Was it just because it was an older game? But even then, when games like Banjo Kazooie and HD Collections of other 3D platformers from that era were released, they were praised to the moon and back and sales were terrific. How was SA any different than those other 3D platformers from the time? And when SA2 was rereleased late last year, people gave it bad reviews too. But how?!

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time Review

I’ll say it right now, I think Sly 4 is an awesome game. It gave me a feeling I honestly hadn’t had in quite some time. Most reviews have said pretty much the same thing; it’s a good game, but it doesn’t change much from it’s predecessors and feels dated at some points. Well that’s fair I guess, but here’s something interesting: I’m not a Sly Cooper fan. Let me explain: I played the first few hours of the 1st game  and it felt
really dated and weird. I wasn’t having much fun, and a friend told me to skip to the 2nd game, which I did and actually really enjoyed. Never played the 3rd one. So having played only one game in the series, what do I think of Sly 4?

Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed Review

Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing from 2010 is actually one of my favorite kart racers. The tracks were memorable, there was a fun, diverse line-up of racers and an awesome catchy soundtrack paired with super

fast-paced racing. So when they announced there was gonna be a sequel, I was pretty excited. But having put some time into it, there’s a lot of weird little things that I’m not sure about.

Games that Aren't Games

There are plenty of genres I like when it comes to games. Just looking at some of my favorites there are plenty of platformers, fighters, RPGs, and games of other genres that come to mind. Then there are a few other games I think of that…I can’t really classify. When I look them up I see a lot of genres listed for them, actually. Like nobody can really agree. One thing I see for all of them that I can think of is “adventure.”
What “adventure” means to me is that it doesn’t really fit into anything else. There’s not enough jumping to call it a platformer, not enough shooting to call it a shooter, not enough puzzle-solving to call it a puzzle game, not enough combat to call it a beat ‘em up, just a whole bunch of elements of other genres put together in a game where you progress from one area to the next exploring. That’s what an “adventure game” is to me. And I really don’t like that term, because the only games I can think of that really fit that genre are Zelda and games similar to it.

DmC (Devil May Cry) Review

Devil May Cry is a really popular Capcom franchise that first came into play in 2001 on PS2, and was considered a huge innovation in the industry. There hadn’t really been many games like this before, and it’s generally said to have had a huge part in starting the “hack ‘n slash” genre. Without this game, we may not have seen God of War, Bayonetta, or the newer Ninja Gaiden games. There was a sequel that got some pretty poor reviews, and a 3rd game that was considered a masterpiece. Then there was 4 on the 360/PS3, which was considered pretty good, but didn’t quite meet the bar set by 3. While some say the DMC series has never had a solid story as a strength, others disagree, and had been waiting several years to see their favorite characters come back and continue where they left off, killing demons and making cheesy one-liners. And when TGS 2010 came around, they got their wish! …almost!

Crash Bandicoot: Warped Review

Crash Bandicoot is a series that had the misfortune of being handed to a developer that just didn’t care. While it had a strong start on the PS1 and the character became one of Sony’s biggest mascots at the time, Naughty Dog lost the rights to the character around 2000 and he faded into obscurity not long after. He got a fun PS1 party game in the form of Crash Bash, some decent platformers in the form of Wrath of Cortex and Twinsanity, and…well, after that, it wasn’t long before he gave out and the character was more-or-less retired. The only other games he got were some mediocre kart racers and the mutant series, which received mixed reviews and wasn’t enough to pull the character out of the hole he had fallen in. Just the last year or so, a lot of interest has come back to the character. People are making lots of fan-games, he’s easily the

most requested DLC character for Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale, yet Activision seems completely ignorant of the fact that they own a beloved IP and haven’t done anything with it since 2008. So the character is pretty much dead at this point. It’s a shame, but we can still enjoy his classics! I decided recently to replay my favorite of the series, Crash Bandicoot: Warped.

Darkstalkers Resurrection Review

I’m a pretty big fighting game fan. From my obnoxious Street Fighter phase in 2010 to my addiction to Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale the last few months, there’s no genre I find myself coming back to again and again like the fighter. One thing I noticed though is that I generally tend to gravitate toward the newer
ones. If a fighter feels dated I usually don’t really enjoy it, at least the way I do newer fighters like Street Fighter 4 or Marvel vs. Capcom 3. I can have fun with it, but there’s usually a lack of modes, a smaller roster, and the fact that everyone else has been playing 10 years longer than I have so there’s no point in getting better. With Darkstalkers Resurrection, this isn’t the case.

Starhawk Review

Starhawk is a game that got really overlooked I think. Despite being less than a year old it’s now available for $20 new, the studio shut down after the release of the game, and there aren’t many people left offline. And that…well, that kinda sucks. This is the spiritual successor to the game Warhawk, which was released early in the PS3′s existence and got critical praise for it’s awesome multiplayer combining dogfights and third-person shooting for a really cool experience. In 2012 this concept was revisited as Starhawk. There were a lot of changes made to the game, between actually adding a single-player mode and giving the game a space setting and sci-fi themes. Neat! But does it work?

Project X Zone Review

Namco, Sega, and Capcom are undeniably 3 of the biggest names in gaming. They own some of the most beloved IPs of all time; Pac-Man, Mega Man, and Sonic the Hedgehog are 3 of the most popular and recognizable video game characters there are. In Project X Zone however, only one of these characters appears. Yes,  several of these companies’ most recognizable characters are absent. This game was definitely made with the Japanese audience in mind; outside of the Capcom side, very few members of the cast are from genres besides RPGs. In a fighting game or something the character choice isn’t as important, but this game is a tactical RPG. Story and characters are a huge part of this genre and this is a category that Project X Zone simply fails to deliver in.

Why Playstation All-Stars: Battle Royale Failed

This was one of the only games last year I was excited for. After 2011 pumped out game after game after game after game, 2012 was lackluster to say the least. The Wii U and the Vita came out, but there weren’t many games to get me pumped. There were some cool little games like Twisted Metal, Asura’s Wrath, etc., but I just wasn’t feeling it. The only exception was PSAS. Honestly, I think Nintendo is stupid for not exploiting Smash’s success. It’s one of the biggest sellers gaming has to offer, it’s one of the first things to come to your mind upon hearing “crossover”, competitive players like it, casual players like it, Smash is an amazing series. Then why do we only get one game per console? I understand that they put TREMENDOUS effort into these games and that they take forever to come out, and that they want each game to have time to be appreciated for what it is without being immediately overshadowed by a sequel, but Smash could be so much more than that. Pumping them out yearly like COD or something wouldn’t be the answer, but just imagine if Brawl had been treated to the DLC and balance patches that other modern fighting games have received, or if it had at least had decent netcode.

Unfortunately Nintendo and DLC almost never work out, or haven’t until recently at least, so Brawl didn’t reach the potential it could’ve. It still sold, there are SOME people who still play it, but it could’ve been much more. That’s why I wish more people would imitate the Smash formula! If Nintendo won’t embrace a lot of the features that make modern gaming what it is, someone else should. But every time there’s a Smash styled game, it’s something random given to a garbage developer with no idea what they’re doing. Cartoon Network! Ninja Turtles! Ninja Turtles and Rabbids!  This is why Playstation All-Staras had me SO excited. Unlike other games that have tried to compete with SSB, Playstation is actually relevant, but also has a strong history! It has a huge and diverse lineup of characters to choose from, and a team has been assembled consisting largely of competitive fighting game players like Clockw0rk! It’s looking to blend elements of more competitive fighters while also being accessible to more casual players. How could this game not succeed?!

Hey everyone! It's me, Jacob Collins

I made a Blogspot so I can post all my awesome game reviews! Maybe someone will even read some of them! Play it loud in stereo DUDE!