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!